Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: Pulse, SCO, Los Angeles and More

Zion landscape



Summary: Plenty of news dominated by Novell's announcement of Pulse

THERE are many items today, but the only one of real significance is Pulse, so we shall begin with that.



Pulse



The following new product can seen as a sign that Novell is running out of ideas. Here is some initial coverage:



Here is the corresponding press release from Novell (something similar here) and announcement from Ian Bruce at Novell's PR blog.

To quote some more coverage:

When Google Wave was first released, it impressed a lot of people from a technical standpoint. The trouble was, no one could figure out a practical use for it. Now, Novell has decided to take a shot, announcing a service known as Pulse.


From IDG:

Novell has unveiled an enterprise social networking suite that is integrated with Google's new Wave application and lets co-workers collaborate on documents.


GWAVA adds some weight to it while GWAVACon is forming up.

GWAVA, a Novell Collaboration Partner, today revealed intended support for Novell Pulse, the recently announced real-time collaboration initiative that supports Google Wave protocols. GWAVA's focus on collaboration data security and its long history of expertise with Novell technology means that communication security and data management will be available when Novell Pulse ships in 2010.


It is all rather interesting because Novell collaborates here on Wave, right after publicly insulting Google's products [1, 2, 3, 4].

Mail



GroupWise support is offered by a variety of new applications and devices that appear in the past week's news, e.g. [1, 2, 3, 4]. That last one is Android (Droid to be precise), which perhaps makes the Google-Novell relationship a little more reciprocal (see Wave/Pulse above).

There are other examples of Novell support, such as this new video from YouTube which is summarised as follows: "Demo of PortaMailLive Windows Mobile to Novell GroupWise wireless synchronization."

So anyway, Google/Android phones are supporting GroupWise while replacing it too at another level. From the news at ECT:

A pilot project will begin in June, and a five-year deal with Computer Services Corporation will reportedly save LA $5.5 million dollars over the city's existing vendor, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL). CSC will serve as the systems integrator.


More information can be found here and in another ECT article:

Google And Cloud Computing Scores Win In Los Angeles



[...]

The main loser there was the city's previous vendor, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL), but it may have also been a big eye-opener for Microsoft: Large operations are taking Google seriously, and its prices are more attractive.


From The Examiner:

Google in Los Angeles? No the Mountain View, California, Googleplex is not relocating to sunny LA - the company already has an office in nearby Irvine. Rather, the City of Los Angeles is welcoming the company's products into its system, replacing the Novell GroupWise e-mail servers and other programs the city currently uses.


Google forces Microsoft and Novell to lower prices and make special offers (Novell did mention something along these lines, not just Microsoft). Microsoft is clearly afraid of Google Apps. From the news:

Microsoft questions Google Apps' momentum, touts 1M online business suite customers



[...]

Chris Capossela, senior vice-president of the information worker product management group at Microsoft, told Computerworld on Monday that 70% of those users "are coming from IBM Lotus Notes or Novell GroupWise."


How does Microsoft know? Did IDG check to see evidence?

More coverage here:

The widely cited switch that the city of Los Angeles will be making, from Novell GroupWise, will place Gmail alongside Microsoft desktop apps, a situation that Burton Group analyst Guy Creese tells PCWorld is increasingly common among larger companies.


People



Still on the subject of Google, here is a Wall Street Journal article that reminds people of the Novell-Google intersection:

Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt has snapped up Bay Area talent for years, first as an executive at Sun Microsystems Inc., then as CEO of computer maker Novell Inc. and now as the 54-year-old boss at Google.


More at CNET (also published in CNN):

Schmidt knows a thing or two about traditional enterprise customer service: he ran corporate software maker Novell before joining Google. And before Novell, he was an executive at Sun Microsystems.


Other than Schmidt, we were able to find Novell's Mike Robinson quoted in Processor.com:

Start with the release notes to get a handle on known compatibility issues. You may find that you need to do some work before you start migration. “You may have to upgrade or patch the OS or other applications first in order to ensure a smooth upgrade,” says Mike Robinson, senior product marketing manager for Novell (www.novell.com). Those refinements may resolve some of the driver or other problems that you would have faced otherwise.


He is also quoted in the following new article from Processor.com:

Making a cost-of-downtime calculation specific to your own particular enterprise is beneficial for several reasons, says Richard Whitehead, director of solution marketing at software maker Novell (www.novell.com). By fixing downtime costs, IT managers can isolate problems within the data center that need improvement, determine the reason for the downtime, and fix the problems.


SCO



The SCO-Novell court case is not over. It may actually go on for a while longer. Groklaw writes about the Status Conference and also covers the Trustee's moves. He is very influential at this stage, having been appointed to restore some sanity while McBride is out in the streets (not literally).

The deal that we announced at the end of last year with Novell I consider to be very important. It demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property even in the Open Source world. I would not anticipate that we make a huge additional revenue stream from our Novell deal, but I do think it clearly establishes that Open Source is not free and Open Source will have to respect intellectual property rights of others just as any other competitor will.


Here is an old transcript that Groklaw got a hold of and also some details about the lawsuit against McBride (see [1, 2, 3] for context/background).

Pelican has filed its Memorandum in Opposition to Darl McBride's Motion to Dismiss its complaint against him. It's a scorcher. First, it says it was McBride who personally led and oversaw the smear campaign against Mark Robbins on the website SkylineCowboy.com. However, we have yet to hear from McBride on that point, as this filing points out. He hasn't denied it, but then he hasn't spoken about it substantively yet, relying instead on jurisdictional arguments. Most of the filing is in response to McBride's assertion that the court lacks jurisdiction over him.


Older Products



Novell's proprietary legacy keeps popping up in the news. Here is Netware mentioned in an article about "25 Years of PC Week" (the former magazine).

IBM and Microsoft were working together on OS/2 and Novell’s Netware was the most popular networking operating system because it could run on 80286s and use all of the entire memory of the machine.


IT Jungle on Novell servers:

The situation baffled us. Why didn't TCP/IP remain active over our comm lines? Other network servers, including Microsoft Exchange, Windows file servers, and some Novell servers, started communicating again when the router was restarted.


Novell's eDirectory is mentioned in IDG as follows:

Users marked as trusted can normally install or run any program they like, within the bounds of their security privileges. All the reviewed products linked to Active Directory, and at least one can link to Novell's eDirectory services.


More on eDirectory:

PINpoint also provides additional, BES-specific information not normally found in the BlackBerry address book, as well as information collected from the corporate directory (e.g. Microsoft Active Directory or Novell eDirectory), such as department, city, job title, etc.


Novell's old complaints against Microsoft keep showing up every now and then:

Novell and Sun Microsytems complained a few years back that Microsoft controlled the market through anti-competitive practices. European courts deemed Microsoft‘s Internet Explorer (IE), Windows Media Player (WMP), as added on software that failed to create fair competition.


Virtualisation



Novell is mentioned just very briefly in this analysis of virtualisation strategy at Citrix.

Citrix hopes to bolster the uncertain prospects of the Xen hypervisor by making its free XenServer product entirely open source. That is even though the company expects much more of its future server virtualisation business to be based on Microsoft's rival Hyper-V hypervisor than XenServer. But by bolstering Xen today, Citrix is boosting Hyper-V for tomorrow. XenServer consists of the open-source Xen hypervisor, wrapped in proprietary Citrix code. A public comment from a senior Citrix executive has revealed that soon this outer wrapping will also be open source.

[...]

Due to Oracle's acquisition of Virtual Iron last year, and its imminent purchase of Sun, there are now only three major backers for Xen: Citrix, Oracle and Novell. Citrix has said it believes most of its future server virtualisation business will be based on Hyper-V; Oracle faces a tough battle to increase its currently tiny share of the x64 bare-metal server virtualisation market; and, as a Linux supplier, Novell may well follow Red Hat's example and support KVM.


Security



As we've shown twice in recent weeks, Novell is spreading fear in order to sell its products and this article from the British press reveals more of the same.

Novell has issued a warning to today local authorities that they risk failing to meet the assessment criteria for the GCSX Code of Connection (CoCo) because many have implemented systems that do not continuously secure, monitor and audit systems.


Ben Goodman is quoted in an article about internal threats:

"The joke is that if a person works for an organization long enough, they will eventually gain access to everything," says Ben Goodman, director of technology, Novell.


One of our readers argues that "Symantec posts about fake Mac malware." He links to Microsoft Jack and offers a translation for Symantec's message: "please buy our defective AV products."

Partners



Novell is said to have launched PartnerNet (it sure sounds like old news, which was reposted). Official support for Novell NetWare 5 and 6 comes from this product and Novell is also listed as a supplier in this case.

Other suppliers in the program besides HP and Lakeside include AEP Networks, Blue Coat, DataCore Software, Fortinet, Gemalto, Novell, SonicWall, ThinPrint and WYSE. Various other service and support offerings are included in the program as well.


Additionally, Novell was mentioned in many new press releases from Wyse, a longtime partner.

Utah



Novell's facilities in Utah appear to have been used a lot recently. Examples:

Utah Valley group to induct Steven Covey into Hall of Fame

Covey, 77, will be honored at a ceremony during the forum's hall of fame dinner and fall social beginning at 6:30 p.m. in Provo, at Building A on the Novell Inc. campus, 1860 S. 180 East.


A revolution in transmission technology?

At a news conference Wednesday at the Novell Technology Center, VMT announced the company had completed work on a computer-aided design prototype for a transmission that it said would improve vehicle gas mileage by at least 30 percent and allow for the production of better-performing sport-utility vehicles and large trucks.


There is also this sponsorship from Novell Technology Center:

The Utah Student 25 is sponsored by: Omniture, Silicon Slopes, Utah CEO, CEO-BYU, BTJD, Grant Thornton, Cornerstone Media, Compass Outdoor, KeyBank, Utah Fund of Funds, FundingUniverse, Provo Business Development Corporation, Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, Novell Technology Center, Provo Tech Xelerator, Picture This!, PilmerPR, Bateman IP Law Group, Stephen W. Gibson, Doba, and SignCity.


That's about it for this week.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
 
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Links 14/07/2025: Arresting Photographers, Threats to Revoke US Citizenship Over Criticism
Links for the day
More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025
Plunder at the Second-Largest Institution in Europe
cuts, neglect, health problems, even early deaths
Links 12/07/2025: Political Developments, Attack on Opposition, Climate Actions
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: Melodic Musings and Small Web July
Links for the day
Links 12/07/2025: Jail in China for Homoerotica, South Korea Discriminates Against Old Workers
Links for the day
If Only Everything Was Rewritten in Rust, We'd Have No More Security Issues?
Nope.
Links 12/07/2025: Birdwatching and Fake/Misleading Wall Street 'Valuation' Figures
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/07/2025: How to Avoid Writing, Apps for Android
Links for the day
Using SLAPPs to Cover Up Sexual Abuse and Strangulation
The exact same legal team of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft and Garrett already has a history fighting against "metoo"
EPO Staff Committee on Harassment in the Workplace
slides
Adding the Voice of Writers to UK SLAPP Reform
The journey to repair antiquated (monarchy era) laws will likely be long
EPO Takes More Money From Staff for Speculation (Pensions), Actuarial Study Explains the Impact
"The key change in this year’s Actuarial Study, due to cascading the new “risk appetite” from the financial study, is a significant increase of the total pension contribution rate of 5.7 percentage points, up to a total of 37.8%. This is driven by an unprecedented decrease in the discount rate of 105 bps down to 2.2%."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 11, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 11, 2025