Some time ago in BrainShare 2008, support from Novell was said to have been deficient. Partners and/or customers complained about poor skills. One bank, for example, said that it was often "hard-pressed to find qualified workers with adequate technical knowledge of the [Novell] products." Here is another such story which is brand new. It might even inspire you.

...Oxford Archaeology initially adopted Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise but later switched to Ubuntu because Novell's British office was not responsive in providing support, he said.

Luckily, Novell seems to be addressing these issues, but if you live in the US or Europe, you may be out of luck.

Novell and India

Novell's new relationship with Genovate was mentioned over the weekend. Some of Novell's weaknesses were also mentioned last week, following the company's buybacks and changes in leadership. These weakness can be seen from all sorts of different angles, despite Novell's attempt to conceal and embellish. Another interesting part of this may be the "Novell Academic courses" (in India) and offshoring to India. Here are a few articles from the past 5 days alone: 1. Genovate Becomes Novell’s First Platinum Partner In India

Genovate’s subsidiary, RapidStart, to work with local universities and conduct Novell Academic courses. [...] Genovate currently operates in nine cities across India which include Mumbai, Cochin, Trichy, Ahmedabad, Pune, Lucknow, Mangalore, Baroda, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. Genovate is also looking at catering to both individuals seeking training in relevant fields and institutes alike. RapidStart, Genovate’s subsidiary in India, will strategise in working with local universities and conduct Novell’s academic courses.

2. Singapore firm to offer Novell courses in India

Singapore-based Genovate Solutions, a high-end technology company that provides business applications, software solutions and consulting besides educational programmes and training services in the Asia-Pacific region, is all set to offer Germany-based Novell's certified courses in India.

3. India gung-ho about open source: Novell

The Suse Linux proponent recently awarded Genovate, an IT training company, the 'platinum partner' status. The partnership would enable Genovate to undertake dedicated account management, business planning and the opportunity to co-engage with Novell on major customer opportunities. Through this partnership Genovate will offer Novell Commercial Training, the most technical instruction program offered by Novell. The demand for the technology, according to Swenson largely stems from government organisations and with many large organizations opting for the easy to deploy software, the training requirement is equally huge. "A single (open source) project required 500 trainees," she said referring to a project with the Government of TamilNadu, a southern Indian state.

A clarification ought to be made, just in case. This is not a protest against overseas labour. It's just an observation. â–ˆ