Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: Novell Wants BrainShare Renaissance

An E-mail



Summary: BrainShare 2010 hype, some news about GroupWise, Novell Teaming 2, and little more of the rest

SO, the biggest item this week comes from John Dragoon, who exclaims that "BrainShare Returns!"



Last December we took the difficult but correct decision to cancel Novell’s premier user and technical training conference – BrainShare. While most of our customers, partners and employees understood and supported the decision, there was a clear demand and passion for the event to return in 2010.


BrainShare 2009 was cancelled after Novell had planned it and began accepting registrations, only later to cancel it due to poor demand/expected attendance. Will it be any different this year? And if so, why? Novell's revenue only declined further since last year. Novell's industry clout is fading and impact rapidly declining.

In spirit of his personal relationship with John Dragoon, the Var Guy gives it some more coverage and Lisa Hoover then repeats him.

It is possible that BrainShare 2010 too will be cancelled if not radically downsized. It is too early to tell, but Dragoon must show enthusiasm to instill confidence and then market it to people. He is, after all, in marketing.

SCO



Almost nothing has happened in the past week, but as Groklaw puts it, "SCO [is] Ordered to Reply to Novell's Petition for Rehearing."

So Novell's chances were never statistically determined. It is on the merits that such matters are decided, and at a minimum, it's now clear that the appeals court believes Novell's points require SCO to answer.


Finance



Apart from some noise, there is some little signal out there as well. Novell gets listed as a Check Point rival.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. has an average analyst recommendation score of 2.0 and competes for investment dollars with Novell Inc. (NOVL) [Chart - News - Analysis] and McAfee, Inc. (MFE) [Chart - News - Analysis]---two other stocks in the Security Software & Services industry that have average analyst recommendation scores of 2.3 and 1.9 respectively.


Virtualisation



Dell's role in selling PlateSpin is again being mentioned, this week in:

i. Novell: PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management Solutions from Novell Selected by Dell to Manage Customer Workloads and Data Centers

Novell today announced Dell ProConsult Services are managing workloads in customer*s data centers with PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management solutions. Dell ProConsult Services help companies quickly and cost-effectively adopt and utilize virtualization technologies to optimize data center operations.


ii. Dell ProConsult using Novell PlateSpin Virtualisation and Workload management solutions

Novell (Nasdaq:NOVL) yesterday announced that Dell ProConsult Services are using Novell's PlateSpin Virtualisation and Workload Management solutions to manage customers' data centres.


iii. PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management Solutions from Novell Selected by Dell to Manage Customer Workloads and Data Centers

Novell today announced Dell ProConsult Services are managing workloads in customer’s data centers with PlateSpin Virtualization and Workload Management solutions. Dell ProConsult Services help companies quickly and cost-effectively adopt and utilize virtualization technologies to optimize data center operations.


This is not exactly news.

Mail and Collaboration



While Dayton University goes with Sentinel, Los Angeles is about to go ahead and dump GroupWise, as planned.

In wake of the US $7.25 million plan by the City of Los Angeles to replace scrap its current Novell and Microsoft-based productivity tools in exchange for Google Apps, a new survey lists security as the biggest concern for other government bodies to make a similar switch to the cloud.


A product that's integrated into GroupWise gets mentioned by SKyPRO

SKyPRO USA has teamed with Gracon Services Inc, a leading technology solutions provider based in Michigan, servicing the Midwest to support the demand for the SKyPRO FaxGwise and SKyCOM 4GW, the FAX SW and VoIP softphone client, integrated into Novell GroupWise.


SKyPRO was previously mentioned in [1, 2]. GroupWise support is also mentioned in relation to BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

It will offer BlackBerry Enterprise Server to corporate customers that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software integrates with popular email clients like IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise and provides advanced security and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.


The press release about Novell Teaming 2 (also here and here) got covered in a couple of articles, namely:

i. Novell Raises Curtain on Novel Teaming 2

Novell has announced the availability of Novell Teaming 2, the capstone to the company's suite of collaboration software aimed at increasing productivity. Utilizing the Novell Teaming search engine and Web 2.0-based communication tools, such as wikis and blogs, Novell Teaming allows users to tap into an organization's expertise and knowledge resources in real time. Users can co-author documents, build workflows to streamline group input, and organize their individual work and team activity in a personal workspace that provides a consolidated dashboard to track and manage all projects and enables them to quickly launch into any of those spaces with a single click.


ii. Novell launches Novell Teaming 2 collaboration platform

Novell announced a new release of their Teaming collaboration platform this week called Teaming 2. The latest version focuses on customization, information access and workflow.


People



Ross Chevalier from Novell is to speak at an event organised by SCO ally and serial abuser/spammer Sys-Con (now suffering a ban). Also from his home country of Canada comes this reference to a different Novell employee:

This 31-year-old software engineer has been working with and coaching remote teams at companies like JP Morgan, 3M, Nortel and Hewlett-Packard since 2001. He's currently a consulting engineer working for Novell (remotely from Cambridge, Mass.) and looking for a publisher for his book, The One Minute Commute. (Learn more at www.zackgrossbart.com.)


Symphony appoints as its Marketing Vice President an ex-Noveller, but it goes a long way back:

Hitchcock brings over 20 years of experience in marketing, sales, and business development for software and technology services companies to Symphony Services. Prior to this, he held marketing leadership roles at GlobalLogic and ClearCube Technology. Hitchcock has also held senior roles at Novell and General Electric.


Novell UK's new channel player, Avnet, elevates a person internally.

Gratton’s role will encompass fixed and mobile telephony, video conferencing, email, IM and voice messaging. Barat will now oversee Avnet’s partnerships with the likes of Oracle, Novell, Plate Spin, Virtual Iron and Lanamark across the continent.


Novell and "Plate Spin" are now the same.

Partners



Eloqua is shown to be connected to Novell, but there is almost nothing else to see here. An article from the local press at Utah uses WordPerfect as a reference in some banal comparison. It's nothing substantial, but then again, nothing truly substantial has happened over the past week.

Adobe Systems Inc.'s planned $1.8 billion acquisition of Utah's home-grown Omniture Inc. would be the largest high-tech deal in the state's history, eclipsing the $1.4 billion acquisition of WordPerfect by Novell Inc. in 1994.

Yet just as important as the money is what such a deal, if completed, says about the state of Utah's high-tech industry and what could happen afterward.


If Novell fails to deliver exciting new products, what might it have to show at BrainShare 2010?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Why We Support Richard Stallman and You Probably Should Too
It's not about being "Richard Stallman fan", it is about maintaining the right to hold positions (on technology) like his
Some Large German Media Covers Richard Stallman's Talks in Germany Earlier This Week
LLM-based chatbots are just "bullshit generators" (as he has long called them)
Trouble in Red Hat/IBM and a Retreat to Ponzi Economics in Search of Wall Street Market Heist
Would you invest your life savings in this kind of crap?
Who Asked Software in the Public Interest (SPI) for a Refund? ($100,000, Resulting in Losses of $267,201 in 12 Months, Highest-Ever Losses)
The IRS does not reveal who or what's tied to this refund (or the cause/reason)
 
Slopwatch: Google News and Slopfarms That Relay Nonsense From LLMs
Google News, which once prioritised or used to care about provenance and quality, is feeding slopfarms
Links 23/10/2025: More Health Concerns Over Dumb Chatbots (LLMs) and "Talking Cars" as Latest Buzz
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Daylight Savings Time and Duration Shorthand
Links for the day
Links 23/10/2025: LLM 'Hallucinations' (Defects) in Practical Code 'Generation', China Becomes More Economically and Technologically Independent
Links for the day
Linux Foundation Uses LLM Slop to Promote Microsoft in Linux.com (Again), Rendering It a Linux-Hostile Slopfarm
Openwashing with slop by "Linux.com Editorial Staff", which basically seems to be a bot
Links 23/10/2025: Windows TCO Galore and "The Internet Is Going to Break Again"
Links for the day
Social engineering attack: Debian voted to trick you on binary blobs
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Techrights Will Always Stand for Women's Rights
We even invest money - personal savings that it - in our principles
Certified Lawyers Should Know Better (Than to Intimidate Us With Man Who Drives on Motorcycle Through a Really Bad Storm Between Distant Cities, Then Collects Photos of Our Home)
Mentioning someone was in prison for bad things isn't a crime, it's a public service
The "AI" (Slop) Bubble is Already Imploding
"ChatGPT Usage Has Peaked and Is Now Declining, New Data Finds"
The So-called "Sexy" Buckets (AI, Quantum) Cannot Save IBM From Reality, Shares Tank
"No matter how much financial hocus-pocus they use to reclassify revenues to land in the "sexy" buckets (AI, Quantum), it still smells old and musty - just like this company."
Paul Krugman is Wrong About the Scope of Mass Layoffs in the United States
A few years ago society was accelerating its journey towards feudalism, boosted by COVID-19
Links 23/10/2025: Proprietary Blunders and CISA's Latest Disclosure of Holes
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/10/2025: Fast Past (F1), 99.9% Uptime
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 22, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 22, 2025
Slopwatch: Google News is Promoting Fake 'Articles' About Fake Xubuntu, Fake Articles About Replacing Windows With GNU/Linux
The quality of the Web deteriorates and unless someone cleans up the mess, real sites will lose an incentive to produce anything
When "AI Layoffs" Mean Layoffs Due to the "AI" Bubble Popping
many people that are laid off by Microsoft claim to be specialists in "AI"
Mysterious grant forfeited, $100,000 from Software in the Public Interest accounts 2023
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Evidence: bullying, student union behaviour: Armijn Hemel's FSFE resignation
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Evidence: psychological abuse, stalking, Galia Mancheva, Susanne Eiswirt ignored by FSFE judgment for Matthias Kirschner
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Helping FSFE scam victims and conference organisers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Nigerian fraud in FSFE constitution
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Worrying and Amusing Stories of "Clown Computing" Gone Awry
Many of these disasters could be avoided
Links 22/10/2025: Amazon Plans to Replace Workers With Robotics, AWS and Clown Computing in General Ridiculed
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/10/2025: Niri Completely Changes Multitasking and Overview of Diff-ers
Links for the day
Links 22/10/2025: Study on Misinformation by Slop and Heavily Debt-Sabbled Microsoft OpenAI (ClosedSlop) Uses "Browser" as Gimmick/Distraction
Links for the day
They've Already Spent Close to a Million Dollars on Lawyers and Sent Us About 50 KG of Legal Papers (Sponsored by Mysterious Third Party) to Try to Censor Techrights, Without Success
They try to overcompensate with sheer volume for a lack of solid, clear arguments (we are the victims here)
12 Months Ago the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' Officially Went 'Tag-Team'
We're actually sort of flattered or proud that such despicable people are so desperate to censor us
"Cloud Computing" Was Always a Joke, But This Week Was the Punchline
Maybe stop following tech trends and fashions
"Cloud Computing" Does Not Mean Safety
Fault tolerance is related to the notion of software freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 21, 2025
The Fall of Windows: From Something to Nothing
Of course Microsoft will pretend everything is fine and "just trust the hey hi" (AI)
Sounds Like Fedora is Ready to Become Less of a Slave of Microsoft (GitHub)
This seems like a belated move in a positive direction
XBox is a Dead Microsoft Product in a Dying Industry
It's probable that another wave of XBox layoffs is just over the horizon (maybe even before month's end)
Progress on Techrights Site Search
Fun times
IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Means the Layoffs Are Silent, Barely Reported
Don't wait to hear about "Red Hat layoffs"
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Happy Disconnection, AWS Falling Apart, Closing of Gemlog Blue
Links for the day
Full Audio of Today's Richard Stallman Talk in the Technical University of Munich
Free/Libre software and freedom in the digital society
Microsoft XBox is Just Vapourware (Promises of Hardware That Doesn't Exist), Real Products Perish
just as developers lose interest in developing for XBox Microsoft is increasing the costs imposed upon them
Slopwatch: Fake Articles (Slop) in "Linux" Clothing in Google News (Noise)
all about what Google does
Links 21/10/2025: Even "Inventor of Vibe Coding" Rejects Vibe Coding, USPTO Experiments With Slop in Examination
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Talk Now Available for Viewing (Archived Copy, Not Live-streamed)
This recording is over 2 hours old
Links 21/10/2025: AWS-Induced Chaos and Social Control Media Curbs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Programming, StarGrid, Brand-New Palm OS Strategy Game in 2025, and Chatbot as Addiction Mechanisms
Links for the day
The African Lion and the American Cowards
Safaris exist for people to watch and enjoy animals
Amazon Web Shenanigans Perfectly Timed for Today's Talk by Richard Stallman
Maybe listen to him instead of looking for excuses to ridicule the messenger
Mission:Libre Has Taken Off (Project by Carmen Maris)
there will be a lot more to report on next month (after the event)
Techrights to Publish More EPO Leaks Next Week
We're meanwhile also doing lots of work on search, whose interface now looks better
Links 21/10/2025: 'The Lost Art' of Neon Signs and Twitter (X) to Enable Identity Theft (or Handle Theft) as a Service
Links for the day
Plagiarism With LLM Slop: Hindustan Times (HT Digital Streams Limited) Has Become a Slop Factory/Hub
What a disgrace
A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe, by Richard Stallman
"The surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet Union. We need laws to stop this data being collected in the first place"
Next Week We Launch Search at Techrights
We're planning to launch it some time next week. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday.
Talk by Richard Stallman Will be Live-streamed in Less Than 10 Hours
Happy hacking
"No Kings" in the Software World (GAFAM Should Not Exist, Either)
"No Kings" is a good slogan. Let's start by ridding ourselves of masters, not only those who reside in DC or visit DC
Every Morning
Bugs/edge cases combined with automation can spell disaster
Insane, Deliberately Dishonest, or Just Another Bigot?
very intellectually-dishonest human being
A Lot of Techrights is Built on Perl
Perl also runs the sister site
The Register MS Selling Slop for Microsoft (Vapourware, Ponzi Scheme, False Claims)
What will be left of The Register MS if it keeps repeating falsehoods and looking to profit from Ponzi schemes?
analytics.usa.gov Says Less Than 14% of Web Requests (to Government Sites) Come From Vista 11
Vista 11 was released more than 4 years ago!
People Who Attempt to Take Down Correct Information Need a Doctor a Day
“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 20, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 20, 2025
Vista 11 is Sinking While Microsoft is PIPing (Mass Layoffs But Silent Layoffs)
We're witnessing a shift in platform dominance
Richard Stallman is Having a Good Week Already (Stallman Was Right About 'Clown Computing')
That alone is worth bringing up in his talk
An Update About Soylent News, With Jan Rinok "Back in the Saddle"
Burnout or "near burnout" a possibility when having to curate abuse
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week