01.18.12
Posted in Novell at 1:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look at the movement of staff that left or was pushed out of Novell, along with other news of interest to Novell watchers
NOVELL’S role in the world is declining and so is the news volume about the company. Nevertheless, we have found some noteworthy items that require documenting.
Novell layoffs are listed as one of the major stories of the year 2011, based on the local press in Utah:
Hundreds of people lost their jobs at Novell. Some of them may have been able to snag one of the 100 or so jobs that opened up at Overstock’s new Provo office, which was announced in January.
A primer about the fate of Yahoo! (destroyed by Microsoft) mentions Novell, which also got destroyed by Microsoft:
Sun, Novell and 3Com all lacked experience in both areas. Sun was a hardware company lead by a software executive who had never done a turn around, Novell was a software company run by a series of hardware executives that hadn’t done turn around. I could argue that Palm failed because it was being run by folks who evidently didn’t even know how to run a company, let alone do a turn around.
Novell and IPX are both virtually dead, but this one new article mention these:
AB: That’s why I mentioned the early days of working with Novell and IPX. Even over a piece of standard copper, in those days, they were sending keep-alives every 15, 20 seconds, which really didn’t work terribly well, but it had suddenly gone to wide-area and had a V.56 modem attached to it.
Schmidt is mentioned in relation to Novell over here:
Prior to joining Google, Schmidt served as chairman and CEO of Novell, and before that, he was the chief technology officer of Sun Microsystems.
Sun too died and its patents are now being used against Android/Linux/Google. It is interesting how Sun’s old CEO gets sued by Sun patents (at Google) and also by Apple, where he used to have a chair.
A man who sold his company to Novell gets mentioned here:
Entrepreneur and venture investor Kanwal Rekhi has many accolades to his credit. After selling his start-up firm Excelan, which manufactured smart Ethernet cards, to Novell, he spearheaded the company before returning 100x to his venture investors.
There is more here. About David Skok we learn that:
Skok joined Matrix from SilverStream Software, which he founded in June 1996. Prior to its July 2002 acquisition by Novell, SilverStream was a public company that had reached a revenue run rate in excess of $100M, with approximately 800 employees and offices in more than 20 countries around the world.
Novell swallowed a lot of companies over the years, only to sell them down at the river. A new CFO of a small company turns out to have just come from Novell to manage new funding:
In December 2010, ClickSquared hired a new CFO in Novell veteran Stephen Henkenmeier, joining ClickSquared from M|C Communications, a medical education provider where he was CFO and executive vice president. Prior to M|C, he was vice president of finance at Novell.
Gavin Struthers from Novell is mentioned here:
Struthers worked in various sales and general management roles across Australia, the Middle East, the Mediterranean, and South Africa and served on the management team at Novell in Australia, after moving to the country in 2000. Struthers does have hands-on solution provider experience as he worked for a leading VAR in a sales capacity in his native South Africa.
The former CEO of Novell has a new destination as well, as we mentioned before (he was also mentioned here and here).
Wave Systems Corp. (NASDAQ: WAVX), a leading provider of trusted computing software, today named Robert Frankenberg, 64, to the company’s Board of Directors, increasing Wave’s Board to six members. Mr. Frankenberg’s decades of management experience in the software industry will help guide the company’s business development strategy across key verticals including government, technology, healthcare, financial services, industrial and energy.
Wolfe, whom we also mentioned before, gets mentioned here:
Wolfe is a former president of Novell Americas, an infrastructure software company, and previously worked at IBM. He starts the job Feb. 15 — more than a week after curators are expected to vote on a proposed tuition increase.
Another man with past at Novell is talked about at the Statesman:
Pilot Credentials co-founder Richard Trocino, whose background includes database design at Novell Inc. and Computer Sciences Corp., began developing the pilot software as a contract project for Federal Express in 2001.
And former Novell staff in a new startup venture gets mentioned here. █
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Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Novell, Patents at 1:38 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Novell plays the software patents game
Summary: The traitor Novell continues to be granted more patents, which we already know get funnelled to enemies of Linux through shells like CPTN
THE mobile market is further strangled with yet another patent.
According to this, OTI gets a patent monopoly on the following function:
OTI Receives US Patent for Contactless Smart SIM
[...]
This latest patent, entitled “Contactless Smart SIM”, was issued on January 3, 2012, and covers the capabilities necessary to turn existing mobile handsets into Contactless / NFC capable devices through the incorporation of a SIM card and a specifically designed antenna, all while keeping the phone and operating system fully agnostic.
There are also new Novell patents, granted after the company got bought. Here is one:
Information card overlay, patent No. 8,083,135, invented by Andrew A. Hodgkinson of Pleasant Grove, and James M. Norman of Pleasant Grove, assigned to Novell, Inc. of Provo.
Novell is also mentioned in new patent roundups such as [1, 2, 3, 4] (January 4th to 12th, behind paywall). The Utah press writes this:
Identity-based network mapping, patent No. 8,091,119, invented by Jeremy Ray Brown of Orem, and Lloyd Leon Burch of Payson, assigned to Novell Inc. of Provo.
So Novell continues to pile these up. As we know, Microsoft and Apple got patents from Novell, so what Novell is doing it is dangerous. █
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Posted in Novell at 1:27 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Novell’s ZENworks gets some new developments around it
According to few blogs, ZENworks has not been totally neglected and although reports on this are few, they do provide the little information that exists:
Novell, which was acquired by Attachmate in November 2010, has released version 9 of its ZENworks Application Virtualization solution. Here’s a quick list of some of the new features included in version 9, provided by Novell.
Here is the press release that says:
Novell has announced the availability of Novell ZENworks Application Virtualization 9. This latest release leverages a unique approach to application harvesting that enables enterprise IT staff to tap into a library of trusted resources and find the best stored version to build the necessary virtual application dynamically. By harvesting work that has already been done, IT users can scan a target endpoint and quickly build a set of needed virtual applications, saving time and ensuring quality.
So for all we know, ZENworks has not been abandoned yet (despite suspicions), unlike other Novell products that are quietly killed by passiveness. █
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Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 1:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Xamarin and Mono lack presence in the press and lack any notable activity too
A
few years back we wrote a great deal about Mono. But Mono has hardly been visible since Attachmate trashed it and according to this new article:
Since Novell was acquired by Attachmate last year, the Mono project is being backed by a new company called Xamarin, which was founded by Mono founder Miquel de Icaza, who was previously working at Novell. So the Mono project is alive and well, and it is not too late to add it to IBM i. (It has been rumored that IBM ported Mono to run inside PASE, the AIX runtime environment embedded in IBM i operating system. That idea was bottled up and kept in a darkroom never to see the light of day.)
Xamarin is almost nowhere to be seen. Here is a quick roundup of what happened in recent months:
# July – SUSE signs an agreement with Xamarin giving a perpetual license to all Mono related Intellectual property and stewardship of the open source mono project. Xamarin takes over support for existing Enterprise Mono customers and starts selling Mono-based products, including the popular MonoTouch for iOS and Mono for Android.
# Aug – Mono 2.10.3, Xamarin’s first Mono release, comes out with support for Mac OSX Lion, some WCF improvements and GC fixes.
# Oct – Microsoft takes a dip into Mono by building Kinectimals for iOS
# Nov – Sony announces Play Station Suite built on top of Mono. Phalanger 3.0 gets released with support for Mono instead of needing a C++/CLI compiler
# Dec – CXXI brings advanced C++ interoperability to Mono
That is not much for one to have achieved in half a year. We suppose Mono will just die out on its own. █
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Posted in Antitrust, Database, Microsoft, Novell at 1:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Update on the WordPerfect case and remarks on the need to remember what Microsoft did
JUST before Christmas there were some developments related to the WordPerfect case. We covered them in the IRC channel at the time. Basically, even the dangerous charlatan Bill Gates was called in to testify about those competition crimes against Novell. Shortly after hung jury as we covered at one time it was evident that this 'old Novell' case was about to proceed and Groklaw has this update:
As promised Microsoft has now filed its renewed motion for judgment as a matter of law [PDF; Text] in the Novell case. Nothing terribly surprising here, and we don’t know what arguments Microsoft will set forth to support this motion, although Microsoft renews its arguments set forth in its original motion from November 17.
[...]
Given that the only thing the jury was undecided about was the degree of damage to Novell, are we to conclude that the jury was, in fact, unreasonable in all of its other findings? That seems a bit rich. On the other hand, judges have been known to override juries before, and what a reasonable jury would have done is the basis for a judgment as a matter of law. In this case, however, it would seem that, if the Judge Motz thought Novell had failed to prove its case as Microsoft suggests, he would have never allowed the matter to go to the jury in the first place.
This action by Microsoft is likely simply a matter of protecting its right of appeal and attempting to strengthen its hand in any settlement discussions with Novell. We will await Microsoft’s brief, which is due February 3.
WP is virtually dead and also its employees die if this news is something to judge by (WP/Corel is an old company). Novell too is pretty much dead and to quote:
Fluent in several languages, he used this aptitude working for the LDS Church, WordPerfect, and Novell and pursuing his passion for genealogy.
The pathway of Microsoft’s road of destruction. Doc Searls writes about another former Novell employee who died:
I got to know Judith Burton when she was still Judith Clarke and Senior VP Corporate Marketing for Novell, in 1987. Novell had just bought a company called CXI, which had been a client of Hodskins Simone & Searls, the Palo Alto advertising agency in which I was a partner. By that time HS&S had come to specialize in communications technology clients, and the chance to do something with Novell as well seemed moe than opportune, especially since it was clear that Novell was smarter about comms than just about anybody at that time.
Novell was outsmarted by a company that broke the law in order to get its way and later sneak its way out of justice. Microsoft’s attempt to just assassinate competitors in illegal way continues to this date and we should learn from the past. One day there might be nobody left to tell these stories first-hand; instead, Gates’ PR/reputation laundering operations will continue to rewrite history (including the case against Microsoft, as covered so poorly in the press last month). █
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01.16.12
Posted in Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Patents, VMware at 10:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: OpenSUSE is still being neglected, whereas the product it is used to promote (Microsoft Linux/Ballnux) gets promoted by former Microsoft executives who run VMware
THE OPENSUSE project is a PR sidekick of Microsoft Linux, which is one of the few distributions that Microsoft endorses (for they pay Microsoft a patent fee).
According to numerous reports, the download servers are down and the OpenSUSE site itself acknowledges this:
The SAN array of the backend server server seems to have lost 3 hard disk at once now.
That means the array with the built RPMs is broken atm. We are currently checking and replacing from backups – but since not all binary parts of the projects are in backup it means that we will need to rebuild some of them afterwards. This will take time until Monday, 2012-01-16.
That’s today. Well, previously when OpenSUSE had server issues it sought help from volunteers or donations/sponsors rather than Novell. This just comes to show how much the company cares about this PR front; letting it be down for such a long duration of time is truly a sign. Had it been SUSE (Microsoft Linux), things would be brought back up promptly (and also properly backed up with redundancy). Here we find another new article about the Microsoft Linux push that we mentioned the other day.
One news article says:
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Now On Dell Cloud With VMware vCloud DC Service
SUSE has announced that SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the first Linux distribution for Dell’s new VMware software-based cloud offering, Dell Cloud with VMware vCloud Datacenter Service. SUSE Linux Enterprise offers the broadest application portfolio, as well as optimisation with the VMware cloud infrastructure suite. Now, Dell customers can efficiently run a wide range of ISV applications, on demand with maximum performance, while receiving streamlined support from Dell and SUSE across the Dell public and private cloud offerings.
Here is another take which goes like this: “The new Dell Cloud Datacenter Service has embraced SUSE as its first Linux platform. The hidden twist: The Dell-SUSE announcement is likely built on the SUSE-VMware relationship, which seeks to counter Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization.”
As we showed in previous posts, Microsoft veterans run VMware and the monopolist seeks to hijack the competition wherever it may be, knowing that the days of Windows may be numbered. As one person put it the other day:
Not that this means Microsoft is going away. It just means they will become steadily less relevant, and steadily less required. Because people will want to work, and play, with handhelds and tablets, and they won’t put up with applications that require a desktop-with-Windows. And that’s good news.
Microsoft is busy trying to hijack or tax those who win in today’s market. The solution is to boycott those who serve as proxies of Microsoft. █
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01.01.12
Posted in Novell, OpenSUSE at 11:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A new year’s post about the part of Novell which is not FOSS-hostile or parasitical
THE 'old Novell' keeps the lawsuit against Microsoft, which according to an update from Groklaw is not going to settle.
In a later post, Pamela Jones clarifies that:
Last we looked, Microsoft was breathing fire from its nose, telling the judge in the trial of the Novell antitrust complaint against it regarding WordPerfect and QuattroPro that it planned to renew its motion to dismiss as a matter of law by January 13th. This was right after the trial ended in a hung jury, but a jury made up of 12 people, all of whom indicated they thought Microsoft had behaved badly and one, or perhaps more, who couldn’t agree about damages. That letter made Microsoft sound confident about a second trial outcome. Or delusional. Take your pick.
When it comes to this case, we are on the side of old Novell of course. it is not the same Novell which Ron Hovsepian was running (into the ground). There is an innocent side here and it is not the side which conspired with Microsoft. Over at the OpenSUSE Web site we find this favourable new review of OpenSUSE and OpenSUSE won in a new comparison with Fedora, only to be further praises around Xmas time (‘OpenSUSE 12.1 a “Great Release”‘)
With some HOWTOs about this distro and even some new Xmas videos surfacing about it, we cannot really say anything negative at this time. Novell has been reasonably quiet and although some people struggle with OpenSUSE, quite a few seem to be happy with it now. To quote: “Installation takes 15 minutes or less, and then prompts you to either reboot or continue testing. You’re done!” Later on the same reviewer wrote to say that it ultimately did not work quite so well. But in any event, we try to start this year by being polite to the side of Novell which is not so harmful. Tomorrow is another day. This year we plan to put some more emphasis on Apple and its cult of patents. It’s not a new year’s resolution, but since this is the first year that Novell does not exist, we must refocus. █
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12.28.11
Posted in Novell at 3:57 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Based on news we can find, Attachmate is doing just about nothing with Novell’s portfolio
NOVELL’S new identity will gradually change and some products will get abandoned altogether. This is the inevitable outcome of the company’s sale.
Attachmate, Novell’s buyer, is looking to expand in India:
Seattle-based Attachmate Corp. bought Novell for USD 2.2 billion. But that isn’t the only reason why the company has been in the limelight for quite sometime.
Based on some other articles that mention this company, there is no real sign of Novell products being part of the plan. As we stressed before, Attachmate is too passive and with the exception of articles like this one we hardly see anything of Novell mentioned. “According to a recent survey,” says the latter, “Risk of Insider Fraud, conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Attachmate Corp., more organizations are paying attention to the risks posed by insiders.”
That’s a Novell thing rebranded “Attachmate”. That’s just about everything we found about this company in the news in the month of December. █
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