Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: GroupWise, Security, People, and the Demise of SiCortex

Monument Valley, Utah



Summary: The past week's news about Novell, excepting SUSE

ANOTHER analysis of Novell's financial results is very near. A major component of it is proprietary software, so this post looks mostly at this lesser-explored part.



Older Products



There is almost no coverage of Netware, but there are few exceptions such as this book chapter which provides an historical point-of-view. It has just been released.

In 1997, Microsoft adopted a BackOffice Products suite family name, which was established and better known for a three-server license suite called BackOffice Server 4.0. The family name designated an aggressively priced product bundle combining Enterprise class server applications as a "solution" built on top of Windows NT Server 4.0. Whereas "full" BackOffice (as the three-server suite was known then) was a modestly integrated bundle of CDs, SBS 4.0 was a very ambitious product concept that fully integrated the same diverse suite of products all into one server. By combining Windows NT, Exchange Server 5.0, SQL Server 6.5, Proxy Server 1.0, and Internet Information Server 3.0 onto a single box, Microsoft hoped to challenge Novell for an entry-level server marketplace that, perhaps, had not yet even been born. Shared modem and fax services and a POP3 connector for Exchange were introduced with the product as well, a signal that small business customers needed familiar problems solved as part of the solution suite.


Novell's old operating system seems to be mentioned here as well:

Interxion’s SDS is designed to ensure that the back-up is instantly off site. The SDS service can back-up standard file systems such as Microsoft, Novell, Unix, AS400 and Mac as well as live Oracle, SQL, Exchange, Notes and other hot back-up databases. It can also complete file-level restores of individual mailboxes or emails.


Virtualisation



On the virtualisation front, there were no articles at all about Novell, but we managed to find 3 articles that merely mention Novell as an existing option:

i. Virtualization users remain true-blue VMware adherents

"Hyper-V would be nice if their integration components worked on stuff besides [Novell] SUSE. Red Hat [support] is coming, but what about free distros [i.e., distributions] like CentOS and Ubuntu?" one virtualization user wrote in response to a question posed about VMware, Hyper-V and XenServer preferences. "My perception is XenServer doesn't have a long future. It seems, like with everything else, there is a No. 1, a No. 2, and everybody else."


ii. Oracle Virtualization 'Tax' Squeezes Customers

"You compare that to a company like Novell—which redefined its OS licensing to let you get a subscription for a physical server and apply it to an unlimited number of virtual machines on that server," Wolf says. "Novell had close to a double-digit market-share gain in OS revenues last year because of that. They did very well by aggressively structuring licensing to take advantage of virtualization."


iii. Fears of a VMware-only VMworld event

Fast forward to 2009 and virtualization is no longer a mystery wrapped up in an enigma. VMware is no longer the lone player. Competition continues to heat up from larger software companies such as Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Red Hat, Novell, and others.


Mail



It's all about GroupWise, as usual. Some products that support GroupWise merely have it mentioned and Ross Chevalier takes the time to rave about it. Latest examples:

i. Esnatech Receives 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award

It is a pure application that interfaces to any enterprise phone system as well as all-major Groupware platforms and core business applications such asSalesforce.com, GoogleTM Apps, Microsoft Exchange TM 20003/2007, IBM Domino TM, and Novell GroupWise TM


ii. Deathmatch: BlackBerry versus iPhone

It's key to note that BES supports Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes, while both of those servers support the iPhone only through Web clients, limiting their integration with other iPhone apps such as Contacts and Calendar. Thus, BlackBerry supports more e-mail systems, even though you have to add a dedicated server to get that support (and upgrade to the latest version to support app management).


iii. Active Voice Repartini from NECII Targets Smaller Businesses

An entry-level version of the company’s Linux-based Repartee unified messaging system (to 64 ports), Repartini offers scalability for smaller businesses (four ports, 1,000 mailboxes, and 250 storage hours) and a range of popular voice mail features, but also lets users access voice, fax and e-mail and video messages from an e-mail inbox (Microsoft Outlook,Novell ( News - Alert) GroupWise or Lotus Domino).


iv. Sesame Workshop Looks to Eos

Sesame Workshop had identified the need to have Microsoft Exchange 2007 and Novell’s GroupWise 8 analyzed for the purpose of possibly replacing or upgrading their current system.

Sesame Workshop had Novell GroupWise 8 installed in a test environment. It was being evaluated by the Sesame Workshop staff as the upgrade path for GroupWise 7.


Here is an article about the joining or possible intersection between Evolution and GroupWise. It's just a small portion of a much larger piece.

Perhaps the second most used computer program is the e-mail client — the software that allows you to download, read and send e-mail. For many users, web browsing and e-mail are the Internet. If you use Microsoft Office, you know about Outlook and Outlook Express as e-mail clients, but there's still hope for those who wish to use something different. You have choices. Evolution (Windows version-Linux ships with Evolution by default), now maintained by Novell, is an e-mail client compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server, Novell's GroupWise and all standard Internet e-mail formats (i.e., SMTP, IMAP and POP3). Evolution provides Microsoft Outlook users with a comfortable replacement for the heavier and more accident-prone Outlook.


Security



Novell is mentioned in an ECT articles on data security and there are security issues in GroupWise. How timely.

Novell has released updates for GroupWise 7.x and 8.x to fix six security vulnerabilities. Two of the vulnerabilities relate to buffer overflows in the GroupWise Internet Agent (GWIA) when reading e-mails via SMTP and when processing certain SMTP requests. Attackers are reportedly able to exploit the bugs remotely without authentication to inject and execute code with SYSTEM privileges.


Grant Ho, who appeared in all those promotion videos of SLED 11, is quoted in ECT on the subject of mobile security.

"This shows that the cost of purchasing and implementing a solution to prevent breaches is a fraction of the cost associated with the breach," Novell's (Nasdaq: NOVL) Grant Ho, senior product manager for end point management, told the E-Commerce Times. "Today's security threats are more focused on data theft and intended for profit. As people find that hacking can be profitable, the price tag for stolen data is rising."


There's also this messy press release about data recovery. It appeared in a couple of places and it mentions Novell.

Now datarecoveryprograms.net is launching best range of data recovery software and tools for linux, novell, mac, and windows operating system.


People



Here is an off-beat or off-topic article about a lady who works for Novell.

O’Keefe is the senior vice president of services, TeleWeb and Operations, at Novell, a global technical support group that provides on-site and remote support services as well as outsourced IT management services, technical training and consulting services to customers.


Stafford Masie's departure from Novell has left Novell South Africa in bad shape. Now he's doing the same to Google, which he moved to from Novell.

Google SA still headless



[...]

Google established a country office in South Africa in mid-2007, appointing ex-Novell SA head Stafford Masie as the first Google SA country manager. The decision from Google to enter the South African market was welcomed by the local online industry, but the honeymoon period did not last long as Google SA was later dogged by allegations of anti-competitive behaviour and failing to serve the needs of South Africans.


More Novellers make their move:

Ms. Terry is a director for Leadership Development, Americas Learning and Global Learning at Novell, a software company that provides management solutions. She's based in Las Vegas.

She previously held the position of worldwide channel marketing manager at Novell. She attended Louisiana State University.


And another move to keep an eye on:

Prior to Citrix, he held a number of positions at Novell, including the Director of Product Management for the ZENWorks product line. Before Novell he was the founder and CEO of Netoria, Inc, a directory services software company, acquired by Novell in 1999.


Partners



SiCortex, which Novell worked with, is closing down. Its CEO, who came from Novell, has his role described thusly:

Earlier this year, SiCortex officials said they had 84 employees. That includes CEO Chris Stone, a former Novell executive responsible for engineering and product management from 2002 to 2004; and co-founder and chief architect Jud Leonard, who designed the architecture behind SiCortex's systems, which are positioned as an alternative to Intel-based clusters.


Another noteworthy partnership with Novell:

Training Associates inks partnership with Novell The Training Associates (TTA), a Westborough-based provider of trainer consultants and solutions, this week announced that Novell Inc. has granted a special designation to TTA as an "Authorized Novell Instructor Solutions Partner" to help meet Novell’s trainer delivery requirements. With U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Novell is a global software corporation.


Novell was also listed as a partner in this press release.

Versalign maintains expertise in Microsoft, Novell, Citrix, SonicWall, Packeteer, Fortinet, Cisco, Checkpoint, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Unitrends, Symantec and Dell Products. Although recent years have been strenuous for technology related businesses, Mr. Greenberg was able to produce a profit of $44,271 in 2008*.


All in all, there was nothing major. One has to dig quite deep in order to identify news of substance about Novell. Still, there's almost none.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Car Companies Fail Because They Don't Manufacture What Costumers Actually Want
They try to impose their dumb vision on purchasers
Links 24/07/2026: Mass Layoffs at Patreon, Netflix Deemed Bad for People's Brains
Links for the day
Google Spreads Misinformation, Google's Slop Makes Stuff Up and Calls That "Intelligence"
Google very well understands (and even publicly admits so, albeit only for legal reasons) that the slop does not work
US is Insolvent, GAFAM is Buying Time by Hiding (Not Disclosing) Its True Debt Which Explains Never-ending Layoffs (Unrelated to Slop or "Efficiency Drives")
Five Tech Giants are Hiding $1.65tn in AI Debt, Using the Trick that Toppled Enron
PIP Apocalypse (PIPocalypse) at IBM, CEO Promotes Vapouware (Lying to Shareholders)
Companies get to shrink while lying about it to the public, even to shareholders
 
Gemini Links 24/07/2026: Animal Friendship, Squirrels, and Lagrange
Links for the day
Links 24/07/2026: IOC Drops Russia Ban, New Internationalist Raises Money
Links for the day
Poor Piece From Valnet: Microsoft Keeps Sabotaging GNU/Linux, So You Should Quit Using GNU/Linux
Really awful take
We Need More Encryption, Not Less of It
Use Free software and use encryption to ensure sources are fully protected
At 3PM on a Friday The Register MS Collects Some 'Pyramid Scheme' Money From Communist China (ZTE)
This won't age well for The Register MS
What Freedom Does Not Mean
Tell Warren Buffett to go skiing; he'll soon understand how much freedom he truly has
Linuxiac is Plagiarism
We won't link to it, we're done [...] If you wish to support journalism about GNU/Linux, do not visit or link to slop
Verizon is Over 200 Billion Dollars in Debt (US Telecoms Collapsing, Wrapping Up the Failure in "Hey Hi" Clothing)
They will tell us this is "innovation", not a failure, and that only "Luddites" would oppose this
You've Been Conned If You Ever Believed That MElon (MUSK, Elon) Was a Trillionaire
Connected to corrupt officials
The People Who Tried to 'Cancel' (or Deplatform/Censor) Daniel Pocock Are Annoyed That He's Mentioned in Dozens of Press Articles
If Pocock's words did not matter, there would not be such a huge effort to silence him
Cybershow Explains Why Only Sociopaths Gravitate Towards Leadership Position in 'Tech'
The general thesis is a familiar one
Give Me Your "Dumbest" (Devices)
Why can't people accept that a "modern "smart" "phone" isn't necessary to check the time (overkill) and playing social control media "on the go" is far from necessary?
Speeding Up 'Down Under': Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania...
As things stand, the best we can do is let people retrieve pages within less than 0.1 seconds since a request is received
Google's Debt Trebled in Only 9 Months and It's Not Even the Full Picture (There's Secret Debt, Too)
No wonder there are so many layoffs and workers try to unionise
Microsoft Layoffs in India
it's about cost-cutting
Deregulation is Blowing Up the Economy, Which Has Become a Multi-Level Scheme or Pyramid Scheme
Why did only Japanese media call out the BS; is that so hard to figure out and properly report on?
Daniel Pocock Proves Wikipedia is for Rich People or People Who Work for Very Rich People (the True Owners of Wikipedia)
It's for billionaires and their faithful boot lickers
GNOME: Your Personal Opinions Must Overlap GAFAM's (Otherwise Those Opinions Are Impermissible)
Get well soon, GNOME
Making Excuses for Stressful, Unrewarding, and Immoral Jobs
excuses for difficult and/or barely-rewarding jobs. [...] People in tech must not be evaluated (or have their "worth" assessed) based on remuneration
Almost 5 Years Without Social Control Media ('Mind Prison')
Life is too short to be stuck inside a skinnerbox
Linux Must be About People (Humans), Not Bribery From Slop Companies Trillions of Dollars in Debt and in Pursuit of Positive Press
We've lost Williams
John Dvorak Understood That "MSM" Was a Vehicle of Censorship
Independent publishing, which obviates the need to censor (influenced by existing advertisers or lookout for prospective advertisers), is the only credibly thing out there
To Understand Why Linus Torvalds Became a Boot-Licking Booster of Slop Look at Another Operative of 'Linux' Foundation, the "Mentor" of Clickfraud SPAMnil (According to SPAMnil Himself)
it seems like SJVN does not give a full disclosure
Blaming "Computers" Instead of Blaming Microsoft
Blaming Microsoft is "hate"
"Online We Are All Refugees" and Slop Pushers Are the Oppressors
They basically resort to nationalism and racism to distract from their commercial failure and fraud (pyramid scheme)
GNU/Linux Soaring in Antigua And Barbuda
GNU/Linux is internationally approaching 8%
Calling Out the Worst Culprits in "Linux" Slop (Slopfarms That Manipulate Information and Engage in Plagiarism)
Once they're gone (offline), the slopfarms cannot carry on for much longer
Defying Discrimination
Rianne's birthday is exactly a month away
Dan Williams Represented Real Diversity in Linux
Williams probably understood based on personal experience what it was like to be marginalised and discriminated against
The First Point About Software Freedom is, You Must Understand What It Really Means (Not "Open Source")
Forty Three Years of Commitment to Software Freedom [...] Educating people about what Software Freedom actually means
Gemini Links 24/07/2026: Recovering From Broken Shoulders, Loss of Passion, and "True Hacker Versus Growth Hacker"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 23, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, July 23, 2026
Gemini Links 23/07/2026: Databases, TLGS, and RSS Feeds
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2026: Science, Censorship, and Territorial Overreach by China
Links for the day
The State of Google Security: Blocking competition
GMail is the best!
What Happens When Windows Becomes as 'Niche' as GNU/Linux on Desktops and Laptops
Android enjoys a near-monopoly and GNU/Linux isn't far behind Windows.
IBM Cash "Down $6.3 Billion From Year-end 2025." Total Debt/Equity 188.97%. (Debt Can Exceed the Company's Real Value)
the CEO alone can make well over $0.7 billion in 5 years of salaries and bonuses
Wave of PIPs Allegedly Coming to Microsoft, Managers Trained to Terminate Employees Without Paying Severance (and Without Calling it Layoffs)
They count and cut the losses
This Looks Like the End of XBox, the Console
Sharma has become the "fall man" of Microsoft
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: A Consummate Master of the "Rigged Game"
"single-candidate shortlist"
Attempts to Change Focus and Change the Subject as IBM Shares Dwindle. Buying Revenue to Mask the Rapid Decline One More Time.
IBM used to be good at engineering, not financial engineering
Down 848% Year-on-year, Negative Cash Flow, Growing Debt (Richest Man on the Planet or Shrewd Scammer?)
The latest for Tesla is more of the same
IBM Falls Below $200, Expect $199 or Less Today (Panic Threshold)
Will this be enough to topple the managers?
Gemini Links 23/07/2026: SharePoint Rants and “Junk DNA” in Commented-Out Code
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2026: RIP John C. Dvorak, Organisation Weaponised Against J.K. Rowling
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 22, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 22, 2026
Freexian & Debian: antitrust, unfair competition against joint authors and volunteers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
IBM in the Red After Bad Results (Shares Down in After Hours)
Will the CEO step down, retire, of what else?
Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Fault Lines, the Dark Web and Beyond, and Why Substack is Awful
Links for the day
Insult and Injury: Getting Banned, Not Just Sacked, by Microsoft
A former insider spoke about this in public 5 hours ago
Links 22/07/2026: "Dumb Phones" Not Enough to Tackle Harmful Addition, "MPEG-4 Visual's Road to Being [Software] Patent-Free"
Links for the day
IBM's Press Release About Results Mentions "AI" 10 Times, "Quantum" 4 Times
Blah blah blah AI"
Top secret: Cults inquiry submission concealed from public
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
An Hour Ahead of Alleged 'Results' (Amid Investigation Into Fraud) IBM Falls Back to New Lows
Only cents away from a 52-week low
IBM Headed for Lowest "Value" in 2 Years
In a nutshell, Krishna "can't keep it up" and IBM is now investigated for fraud
Investigation Progressing
There is nothing "funny" about receiving mortal threats for merely reporting information in a civilised country
Things We Could Do More Than Half a Century Ago But Can No Longer Accomplish
Newer is not always better
Anupa Ann Joseph & Debian defamation gang
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
State of the Invidious Project
Never forget how hostile Google can be towards freedom
Prioritising the Safety of Women is the Best Approach to Foster Diversity in Technical Communities
Debian was never "normative", but that does not mean Debian should have such low standards
IBM Will Report 'Results' Tonight (CET), It's Already Investigated for Securities Fraud
"Five of the biggest US tech giants are carrying $1.65 trillion in debt that does not show up on their balance sheets"
Hardware Has Gotten a Lot Worse, Not Just Far More Expensive
prices go up fast
Amid Claims of Microsoft Bing Layoffs It Seems Like Bing Cannot Even Hold on to Second Place
Yandex is sometimes bigger than Bing
Wikileaks Does Not Publish New Material Anymore, But Wikileaks Still Changes the World
Wikileaks has a legacy that will soon turn 20
Links 22/07/2026: Postal IRCs, PlayStation Kills Discs, Union Action Against Microsoft, "Judge Considers Tossing Databricks Patent Suit Under California anti-SLAPP Law"
Links for the day
Same 'Journalists' Who Published Fake News for IBM (Pump and Dump) Now Write Puff Pieces About the Stock Falling
the media is so compromised
They Called It "Social" and "Media", But It Turned Out to be Slop and Child Porn
Why do any sane people still use social control media?
Age of consent: DebConf26 registered sex offender in Argentina?
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: In the Pole Position Despite a Dismal Track Record
António Campinos is an old hand when it comes to such high-level institutional intrigue
Site a Bit Slower Due to Visitors' Load
We'll try to work out better speeds
Gemini Links 22/07/2026: Emacs, Astrology Clock, Arduino, and Rogallo v1.0.0
Links for the day
After Involvement by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) LibreTech and Quibble Gain More Participants
RMS expressed gratitude for people who worked on Quibble and improved LibreJS after many years of inactivity
The Lessons From the Assange Saga
This will not end well
Linux Foundation an Enemy of the Planet, Proponent of Pollution and Global Heating
"could the "polluters pay" model be extended to the computing environment and used to take on Microsoft and Microsofters?"
Apple Will Increase Surveillance of Customers, Record Verbal Communications Under the Guise of "Hey Hi"
Apple now drinks that same Kool-Aid
Dave Winer, Blogging Pioneer, Sells Out, Spews Out LLM Slop to Readers
Another one bites the dust [...] Now it's a slopfarm of sorts
Not Everything Can be Automated
not a new thing
GNU/Linux OS in ComorOS
Now, as in recent years or the last year, the GNU/Linux "signal" is growing significantly
Microsoft Redefines "Layoffs" to Give Smaller Tallies
It's not just calling them "buyouts" or saying people are merely "leaving" or "retiring"
IBM is Not Done Destroying Red Hat, Wait Till October 1st 2026 (More Layoffs and Bluewashing)
It's not bluewashing 'til it's 100% done
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 21, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 21, 2026
"LF Sex", Nothing to Do With Linux
a lot of explaining to do this week