Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: SCO, GroupWise, Videos, and Utah

Winter morning - Monument Valley



Summary: The remainder of Novell's news from the past week

THOSE who expect interesting news from Novell should probably skip this post. There is almost no output from Novell and mentions in the press are therefore of little value.



SCO



SCO's liquidation may be imminent, but SCO is fighting against this. For those who have not been following the saga, Novell and IBM are pushing for liquidation. Groklaw covered all this in the following new articles:

i. SCO Files Response to Motions to Dismiss/Convert & Files Objections to Claims - Updated: Response as text

SCO has filed its Response to Motions to Dismiss or Convert, the motions filed by the U.S. Trustee, Novell, and IBM. It has also filed Objections to the claims of Novell, IBM, SUSE, and Red Hat.


ii. Groklaw's Annotated Version of SCO's Response to Motions to Convert/Dismiss

I thought it would be fun to carefully respond to each inaccurate or misleading statement we see in SCO's Response [PDF] to the motions to convert or dismiss The US Trustee's Office, Novell and SUSE, and IBM all filed such motions in the SCO Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and there will be a hearing on the motions on June 15th. I hope some of you plan to attend.


iii. Herb Jackson Files Objection to Motions to Convert/Dismiss

iv. SCO Files Motion to Seal Appendix to its Response and Motion to Shorten Notice

v. IBM Replies to SCO's Opposition to Motion to Convert

vi. Novell Replies to SCO's Opposition to Novell's Motion to Convert

Finance



Here is Novell's 10-Q for this quarter.

A former Novell employee put some positive spin on Novell's financial results a couple of times over the past week, namely:

i. As chip sales plummet, which software vendors will survive?

Recent earnings reports from Novell and from Red Hat suggest that Linux and open-source vendors may clean up even as spending gets chopped.


ii.Red Hat: Go big or play it safe?

Yes, SAP, Oracle, IBM, HP, and others benefit from having Red Hat serve as a strong standard-bearer for Linux. But only if Red Hat never gets too powerful. That's why IBM has invested in Novell to shore it up against Red Hat, and it's why few are probably crying that Novell's partnership with Microsoft appears to be paying handsome dividends.


Here are some remarks on Novell's position in Moblin. It's no longer unique in that regard and SUSE sales were not impressive.

I did see a number of machines running other flavors of Linux in booths from the various Linux makers, notably Linpus and Novell. Intel was the big place to see non-Windows machines. The company was promoting its Moblin version of Linux on a number of netbooks and nettops, and I was particularly surprised by the number of all-in-one designs.

Moblin has its own user interface, but the company also showed off other versions of Linux running on top of it, including Ubuntu, Novell Suse, and Linpus.


Mail



Novell's PR blog has been quite active over the past week and it wrote about GroupWise a couple of times.

Check out this recently published eContent case study to see how Whitelaw Twining is using GroupWise to simplify filing, streamline its legal practice, and get control of the data being stored on it servers.


Here is a little new profile Novell is referring to.

Vendor of Choice: Novell GroupWise Headquartered in Waltham, Mass., Novell first started touting the need for secure corporate networks in the 1980s. It now focuses on providing collaboration tools, security, identity management, resource management, data center applications, and open source operating systems. Novell has more than 50,000 customers in 43 countries. GroupWise 8 provides a collaborative workspace that combines email, calendars, tasks, and content management. It connects to Web 2.0 innovations in a customizable productivity dashboard for each end user.


When it comes to phones, GroupWise was mentioned in relation to Apple's iPhone.

Neither IBM’s Lotus division nor Novell have iPhone clients, so their e-mail access is handled through the Web. That means there’s no local data stored on the iPhone to be stolen, but it also means that there is no mechamism for remote management, such as to kill a device that has access privileges to network-based e-mail, contacts, and calendar information. IBM has announced it will provide Notes synchronization to the iPhone via Microsoft's ActiveSync technology in a forthcomig version of Lotus Notes Traveler, but the security and management implications remain unclear.


GroupWise was also mentioned in relation to BlackBerry.

The smartphones, which support cellular and Wi-Fi networks, work in conjunction with the BlackBerry Entreprise Server software to enable users to access their corporate networks and e-mail (IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange or Novell Group Wise) and access the internet.


According to this press release, Palm Pre will support GroupWise.

ompanionLink€® Software, a leader in synchronization solutions, announced record breaking sales of their CompanionLink for Google product, which supports PC desktop synchronization to Palm€® Pre(TM) through Google(TM). Thousands of Palm Pre users installed the software to synchronize contacts, calendar, and tasks between Microsoft Outlook, Palm Desktop, Lotus Notes, Novell GroupWise, ACT!, GoldMine, Time & Chaos, and other PC desktop data sources.


Support for GroupWise in Pre is also mentioned here.

"We look forward to Palm announcing a Synergy SDK to allow CompanionLink to synchronize Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT! by Sage, Outlook Business Contact Manager, and Novell GroupWise data directly to the Palm Pre. Until that time, our currently available products will support the early adopters of the Palm Pre. As we improve our products, Palm Pre users will be able to upgrade without charge by downloading from our website," says Wayland Bruns, CEO of CompanionLink Software.


Webmail poses a threat to GroupWise, as the following article explains:

Google has been asiduously courting partners like LTech and has given his company much more support than he received from Microsoft, Oracle or IBM, Laczynski said. “Google does a lot with helping us develop a viable business,” he added. That’s exactly how Microsoft built its application server business in the 1990s, by doing a better job of supporting its channels than competitors like Novell.


More on Google versus Novell:

Given that fact, many of Google's competitors long ago saw fit to support Outlook as a client in their battle-against-Exchange strategies, including IBM and Novell, and lesser known alternatives such as Alt-N Technologies, CommuniGate, Gordano, Kerio, Mailsite Fusion, Open-Xchange, Scalix and Zimbra.


People



Not much to see here except the mentioning of Eric Schmidt's roots in Novell.

We sympathize: The criticism of Bartz's background seems more like thinly-veiled swiping at her age and gender than at anything substantive. Eric Schmidt escaped such second-guessing when he moved from PC software company Novell to running Google.


Security



An article about security happened to mention Novell in a much broader list of companies.

Microsoft has built a selector program, CardSpace, into its Vista operating system. Stand-alone selectors are available from two other companies, Novell and Azigo. Google, Oracle and PayPal have joined the industry foundation and there are a few working sample cards available, but no major retailer or financial institution has implemented the system yet.


Partners



Novatium's relationship with Novell [1, 2, 3, 4] was mentioned very briefly in a new press release from Novatium, so coverage inspired by it echoed the same bits.

With enhanced features such as 3G connectivity, printer support, Navigator 2.0 reduces boot up time to fastest of 5 seconds, and includes improved service-category panes on the desktop, display-effect of network on applications, configurable online radio, Task Manager utility, Zoho applications and Clipboard support for Openoffice applications. The company has partnered with technology companies such as HP and Novell.


This can also be found in other sources like CIOL and The Indian Express.

Novell was mentioned in the following press releases in the footer (for affiliation):



Videos



"How to make your own profile on Novell" is the title of this video which landed on YouTube a few days ago.



NovellServices, a YouTube account which promotes the company's products, has added the following:



Utah



Greg Butterfield was mentioned here before as he moved between companies in the region [1, 2]. He has roots in Novell and he is now being recognised.

Greg Butterfield, Managing Partner of SageCreek Partners, Named to Utah Technology Council 2009 Hall of Fame



[...]

Prior to joining Altiris, he served as executive vice president of worldwide sales at Vinca Corporation where he increased revenue from $1.7 million to $24 million in less than three years and positioned the company to be sold to Legato Systems for $92 million in 1999. He also held executive level positions at Legato, Novell and WordPerfect Corporation. Butterfield received a bachelor's of science in business administration, finance from Brigham Young University.


This is also covered here (almost identical):

Prior to joining Altiris, he served as Executive Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Vinca Corporation, where he increased revenue from $1.7 million to $24 million in less than three years and positioned the company to be sold to Legato Systems for $92 million in 1999. He also held executive level positions at Legato, Novell and WordPerfect Corporation.


Also in the local news:

Butterfield is managing partner of SageCreek Partners, a consulting company that provides mentoring, strategy and coaching to technology companies. He also held executive-level positions at numerous companies, including Altiris, Legato, Novell and WordPerfect Corp. He was winner of the 2002 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and served as the chairman of the board of the Utah Information Technology Association (now Utah Technology Council) from 2003 to 2005.


A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Novell offshoring Utah-based staff. The local press has just written about it.

Novell Inc.'s Provo office will become a showcase for a new deal between the business software developer and giant Affiliated Computer Services that both companies see as a key strategic alliance.

As part of the deal, ACS will take over Novell's computer operations based in its Provo office. That means about 100 Novell employees in Provo will go to work for ACS.


More information can be found here.

In May, Affiliated Computer Services (News - Alert), Inc. and Novell, Inc. announced a strategic partnership to expand their core technical capabilities and suite of services.

As part of the partnership, Novell will outsource part of its internal IT operations to ACS, which will also provide SAP (News - Alert) consulting and applications development and maintenance system integration services as part of a $135 million, five-year contract.

ACS will also partner with Novell (News - Alert) to enhance its global data center operations and will purchase at least $30 million in Novell products during the first three years of the partnership.


Novell insists that no job losses are involved in this peculiar move.

Leftovers



Novell was mentioned very briefly in the following articles too:

i. Practical Analysis: It's Not Disruptive If It's Not Cheaper

Software vendors had better be ready to sharpen their pencils, because this is the sort of game that Microsoft plays very well. There's no doubt that it's still playing catch-up against VMware, and others will offer management software with more features, but you can bet that Microsoft will set the bar for midmarket data center automation pricing and functionality. Its close partnership with Citrix has resulted in a good management product in System Center, and a great add-on with Citrix Essentials. Just as Microsoft marginalized Novell with its file sharing, Active Directory, and adequate management tools for each, it can do the same to automation vendors.


ii. WWDC Preview: iPhone 3.0 hopes from an IT pro

LDAP is support is important for anyone in an LDAP environment, (Apple’s Open Directory, Microsoft’s Active Directory, OpenLDAP, Novell’s eDirectory, etc.), as it allows iPhone users to access contact info that is stored in the company directory, rather than relying on their own contacts. This would allow iPhone users to not have to use third party software, (like LDAPeople) or have to copy a company’s global address list to their iPhone to have things like email addresses and phone numbers for coworkers on the device.


iii. Preview: IPhone 3.0 Hopes From an IT Pro

Nothing of significance to see here overall.

Recent Techrights' Posts

An American War on GNU/Linux, Software Freedom, and British Investigative, Science-Based Reporting - Part I - A Matter of National Security
Those people are Americans who try to advance the interests of American corporations by weaponising courts abroad
The Register MS, Sponsored by Communist Party of China (CPC)
What will happen when the bubble crashes the economy?
 
Gemini Links 07/03/2026: Buying Woodland, Indra 1.3.0 Available, and LLM Exhaustion
Links for the day
The Harder They Attempt to Take Down This Site (and Take Away Liberties), the More People Will See This Site
We'll carry on as usual, as from sunlight comes justice
Why They Always Try to Shoot the Messenger (When the Message Harms Profits)
A matter of economics
Coinbase - Like Block - is in Huge Trouble, Its Debt Nearly Doubled in Half a Year
The real reason Block is collapsing is its debt
Starting Another New Series This Evening, It's About American Folly
today commences a series long in the making (years)
Nations Stand to Benefit From Gender Equality and Increased Participation by Women
International Women's Rights Day starts in about 6 hours in the UK
Microsoft is Losing It, Now It's Censoring Its Critics and Sceptics
Whether the measurements made by statCounter are accurate or not, the trends (long-term) typically make sense
WIRED (Conde Nast) Reviews Are Paid-for Marketing Spam, They Change Dates on Old 'Articles' to Make Them Look Relevant and New
The Web is fast becoming a burial ground for ads, trash, spam, and slop
Gemini Links 07/03/2026: Humour, Chilling, and Oversized 'Phones'
Links for the day
Cyber|Show by Andy and Helen Recommended by Techrights and Tux Machines
If your time is limited and you look for informative essays and shows (audio)
Links 07/03/2026: CJEU to Finally Examine Behaviour of the Illegal and Unconstitutional Unified Patent Kangaroo Court, Creative Commons (CC) Hosts Open Heritage Statement Event in Amsterdam
Links for the day
Microsoft's Thailand Problem
It's definitely not Windows
New Lows for Microsoft in Micronesia
GNU/Linux has shown some growth there too
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 5 Out of 200: Clearly Not a Security Professional/Expert, Only Ever Pretending to be One
"The Claimant says he is “a computer security expert”, but his background and his track record in the education sense (genetics) does not support this assertion."
Links 07/03/2026: Fuel Already Running Low and "Economic Crisis of the Iran War"
Links for the day
The Corporate Media Repeated the Lies Told by Jack Dorsey ("AI" Hype), Now It Does the Same for Larry Ellison
Disregard the hundreds of headlines that say mass layoffs at Oracle are due to "AI" something
The Free Software Community is Gaining Momentum as Its Importance is More Broadly Realised
As long as "trendy" technology goes in a negative direction there will be a growing portion in society looking for alternatives
Spooking or Chasing Away Women (From Computer Science)
The status quo discourages women from even trying to study Computer Science and related disciplines
"IBM Has Changed So Much in the Last Decade to the Point It's Completely Unrecognizable."
IBM is a dying, rotting company with a morbid culture
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 06, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, March 06, 2026
Gemini Links 07/03/2026: Coffee Problem, Marchintosh, Learning, and "Selectively Disabling HTTP"
Links for the day
Under IBM, Some Fedora Blog Posts Have Become LLM Slop! (Red Hat is Doomed by Slop Fanaticism)
Who would even bother reading such trash?
Lots of People Leaving IBM Today
IBM cannot be trusted
Dances With Wolves, Wakes Up With Fleas
Small minds say "td;dr" whereas the rest say, "give me information, give me time to study it"...
LLM Slop Rare and Scarce This Friday
We still hope that by the end of this year slop will become nearly extinct
Defending British Democracy From American Predators
We stand united and strong in the face of predators
Links 06/03/2026: LLM Prompt-injection Vulnerability in Microsoft's Proprietary GitHub, "260,000 Federal Jobs Lost"
Links for the day
It's Friday and Many People Publicly Announce Leaving IBM (Which is Engineering 'Willful' Departures to Mask RAs' Scale)
We understand from whistleblowers that IBM already destroyed Red Hat's culture
Dr. Richard Stallman (RMS), the Man Whose Mind Scares GAFAM et al, Began Speaking in Switzerland
His ideas and ideals are not obscene
Gemini Links 06/03/2026: "Setting up the Feed" and Using Molly Brown
Links for the day
Links 06/03/2026: Can't Copyright Slop in US, Microsoft Became Slop Provider for Militarism
Links for the day
Garrett Does Not Just Try to Cover Up for Himself, He's Clearly Covering Up for His Mates From Microsoft (and Admits Third Parties Fund His Litigation, With Their Legal Bills Estimates Already Approaching $1,000,000)
They have already sent us about 75 KG of legal papers. How is any judge supposed to keep up?
Richard Stallman in the United States - Part IV - Back to Switzerland
The "cancel mob" tried to "finish off" RMS 5 years ago
Dr. Richard Stallman in Ada Lovelace Lecture Series 20 Hours From Now in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Rotkreuz)
Well-connected and affluent corporations want everything to be controlled by them, ranging from culture to words and news
Threats Issued to Daniel Pocock Having Launched the JuristGate Web Site Which Covers Financial Fraud in "Legal Insurance" Clothing
Is our world governed by laws or by rich corporations (or nations/superpowers) with well-connected lawyers/politicians?
International Women's Day: At the EPO, for Women to Become Managers They Need to Sleep With Well-connected Men and Mingle With Corrupt Men
Sunday is International Women's Day
Dr. Richard Stallman Starts His Talks in Switzerland in 8 Hours
They try to assess how many people plan to attend to ensure everyone gets a seat (without compromising the privacy/identity of those attending)
IBM Red Hat Layoffs: It's Not About "AI"
"Automation" is not "AI", it's just a generic term which can describe jobs left for machines to do, sometimes computers
Microsoft Windows Used to be Identified on Over 99% of Web Requests From Benin. Now It's Around 50%.
Or a lot less
Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Has Severe Financial Problems, Version Inflation ("GPT-5.4") is Mindless Hype and a Misleading Distraction
In practice, both users and sponsors of ChaffGPT are fleeing
The Techrights Static Site Generator (SSG) Turns 5 Next Year
It's still under active development in our Git servers
New XBox Boss (Sharma) Implicitly Confirmed XBox (the Console) is Now Dead
Vista 11 is now also known as "XBox"
Murder as a 'Joke' to GAFAM People (Sociopathy)
When it comes to Microsoft and Salesforce, they profit from this mentality
GNU/Linux Seen as Rising to 20% in Eritrea, But That's statCounter Identifying "Unknown" as GNU/Linux
What if statCounter managed to figure out what all those "unknowns" are?
Microsoft ‘Project Helix’ is Just a Tweet in MElon's "X"
Some "tweet" is easy, as words are cheap
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 4 Out of 200: Rianne’s Version of Events and Narrative
today we tell Rianne's experience
EPO Staff to 'Meet' This Coming Tuesday to Plan Industrial Actions Including Upcoming Strikes
using Microsoft spyware to organise this can be an own goal because Microsoft serves the dictators, not the union that tries to topple them
Thousands of EPO Workers Rally Against EPO Management
The staff is furious to see what became of the EPC and the EPO. This is not sustainable.
In Argentina Firefox is Measured at Only 1%, Google Chrome (Proprietary) at About 90%
And it has long been that way
IBM's March 2026 Layoffs Already Happening (to Accelerate Soon in Europe and America)
We're probably seeing some of the last years of IBM and it's anything but certain that IBM can survive the coming decade
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 05, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, March 05, 2026
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Industrial Panettone, Cancel, and LLMs
Links for the day
It's Not "AI", IBM is Collapsing Due to Financial Difficulties, "All Small Country Offices Will Close"
IBM is in trouble. Insiders know it.
"AI Companies" Running Out of Money, GAFAM Layoffs Are Signs of Weakness, Not "AI Efficiency" or Novelty
In the past, this term ("AI") had another meaning and connotation
Libel/Defamation Law Does Not Exist to Cover up Crimes
The projection tactics are nothing new
Myanmar/Burma: Growing Acceptance of GNU/Linux, Big Losses for Windows
GNU/Linux has come close to 5% there
Without IBM, Microsoft Would Not Have Taken Off. Both Companies Need to be 'Taken Down'.
Maybe it's time to boycott IBM as well
'Former' Red Hat Staff Upset That Techrights Covers IBM Accounting Problems
Are we touching a sensitive subject at IBM?
Ubuntu is Controlled by a Youngster From the British Army (Background in Mass Surveillance), So One Can Expect Ubuntu to Not Respect Privacy
"Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel"
IBM Hates Computer Freedom. This Means Red Hat Too is an Enemy of Software Freedom.
A summary of Fedora's position when it comes to "attestation"
IBM Union Says Many IBM Layoffs in Europe, With Netherlands and Belgium Confirmed, Allegedly Italy Soon (200 Layoffs)
IBM's demise will harm Red Hat and already harms Red Hat, according to whistleblowers
Microsoft and Microsoft's 'Open' 'AI' Seeking Bailout From the Pentagon Means Brand Erosion
Microsoft and its offshoots growing more and more dependent on military ("defence"; "Department of War") budget
Another EPO Strike a Fortnight From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Shares 127-Page Document Explaining How Policies Impact EPO Staff
The Office is circling down the drain
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 3 Out of 200: A More In-Depth Breakdown
presents the narrative in a less chronological and more logically coherent fashion
2026 Seems Like (Potentially) the Last Year of Slop Drowning News Sites
Sites that do so perish [...] It's getting hard to find slop in news sites which cover "Linux" because many gave up
Links 05/03/2026: New LexisNexis Data Breach Confirmed, "Goldman Sachs Head During Financial Crisis Says He “Smells” a Similar Crash Coming"
Links for the day
"Silent Layoffs" or "Forever Layoffs" at IBM and Red Hat (After Bluewashing)
Like every day (all day long) we can see people who leave IBM and say something that's based on a 'script'
Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Others Promoting String of RMS Talks, Starting Tomorrow in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology
Well done, FSF!
Links 05/03/2026: A Bet Against Substack, American Government Openly Hostile Towards Environment
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Greed and Sentiments Shifting Against Slop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 04, 2026