Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part III: SCO Scandals Revisited, GWAVACon Comes to the UK, and Tech Data Expands Partnership with Novell

Delicate arch



Summary: Leftover of news relating to Novell

IT has been quiet, very quiet. Scraping the bottom of the news barrel, we have:

SCO



Groklaw looks back at one of the last stages in the SCO story. Darl McBride's analogy with trees and branches is being torn to pieces.



My reason is this: at the July 27th hearing, when describing SCO's prospects for rehabilitation, SCO's lawyer clearly indicated that SCO wishes to resume suing new people over SCOsource, should it prevail in its appeal, followed by prevailing in a jury trial, over who owns the UNIX copyrights.


Then, the scandals come back.

The Pelican Briefs - You're the fraudster! No, *you* are!



The first answer has been filed in the litigation Pelican Equity recently initiated against Robert Brazell, Stephen Norris, Talos Partners, Rama Ramachandran, Darl McBride, and Bryan Cave. The other answers were due on the 19th or in one case on the 17th, but this is the first one to show up on PACER. Pelican Equity is essentially Mark Robbins, from the perspective of us SCO watchers. At the July 27th hearing, his name came up. Remember the guy Darl McBride testified he'd loaned $200,000 to and never got paid back in full? Same guy.


For some background, have a look at:



SCO's agonising story is becoming wilder and wilder as the days go by. Here is another unimportant bill. As Jones puts it, "They never give up, these SCOfolk. Absolutely never."

Netware



Looking at Novell's older products, there is almost nothing within sight. Here is one quick mention.

Not every memory is a fond one; I never warmed to Novell Netware and I never found Visual C++ to be particularly visual. I didn't take to Lisp and I wish death upon Microsoft Access.


A person who dabbles in Vista 7 mentions his dependency on Novell, which stands in the way of a migration. Here is part one.

I delayed putting Vista on my school computer because it did not support Novell which is used at Dawson College where I teach. Today I upgraded my school computer and I am fully integrated into the Novell structure.


A bit of a workaround was needed to make an upgrade to Vista 7. From part two:

The upgrade of my school computer also went quite smoothly. That machine is an older Pentium D 3.4 GHz machine and was running Vista 32 bit. The upgrade to Windows 7 32 bit took a little over 3 hours whereas on my faster home computer it took an hour and a half. The only software that exhibited a problem was my Novell Client. I have come to the conclusion that software that uses the network interface for its work must be re-installed after an upgrade. I re-installed the Novell Client 2 for Vista/Windows 2008 and my connectivity to the college Novell based network was restored.


What are the benefits of moving to Vista 7? Nobody knows. Well, it's newer and "it's not as bad as Vista". Does it necessarily make it better than the competition?

Virtualisation



There are two articles we were able to find on this, but none is specifically about Novell. Here is a quick mention of Novell.

The Apptio tools current support VMware's ESX Server 4.0 hypervisor in the current vSphere 4.0 stack, and Day says the company is working on weaving in support for Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor as well the several commercialized versions of the Xen hypervisor that are out there from Citrix Systems, Oracle, Novell, and a handful of others. The software hooks into VMware's vCenter chargeback features, too, and in doing so can enable IT managers to track the real-time costs of a VM as it moves from platform to platform using VMotion.


PlateSpin is mentioned here.

Novell -Tech Data's AIS Division is expanding its virtualization solutions practice with the addition of Novell's PlateSpin products. With PlateSpin, resellers can offer customers powerful tools to better manage virtual environments.


Mail



Attempts are still being made to reverse a decision to dump GroupWise in Los Angeles. Now the police weighs in:

The move is set to save the city council about $8.31 million over five years, after abandoning the need for license fees from Microsoft and Novell.


GWAVA turns out to be coming to Britain. GWAVACon usually takes place in the United States, but not this time.

GWAVA is pleased to announce that GWAVACon, the independent Novell Technology conference, will be coming to the UK. Because many companies are experiencing tighter travel budgets, GWAVA is providing a special free one-day GWAVACon on Tour for its customers and partners in the United Kingdom focused on a combination of technical training and executive business issues.


Privately, Jeff Jaffe promotes Teaming using the whole 'cloud' buzz.

People



From BrainShare 2000 comes this new video of "Eric Schmidt (Current Google CEO), Doug Knight, and Bobby Discuss[ing] TUCOWS DigitalMe announcement in Salt Lake City. A good exchange with humor about a cool deal. "



Other former Novellers in motion: "Webroot Names Dick Williams President and CEO"

Williams' executive leadership experience began at IBM, where he spent 22 years in a variety of sales, marketing, product and business management roles, including vice president for the company's Data Systems and General Products divisions. He then served as president and CEO of Digital Research, which he turned around and later sold to Novell. At Novell Williams served as executive vice president of sales and support, and general manager of Novell's Digital Research Systems Group.


Here is Novell quoted in an unrelated 'article'.

Jim Parker (News - Alert), director of worldwide commissions at Novell, said that SPM is “highly beneficial, yet complex to understand,” noting that it’s difficult to improve sales performance without the correct knowledge and information.


The above is just a cheap derivative of the press release which says:

"SPM is highly beneficial, yet complex to understand," said Jim Parker, director of worldwide commissions, at Novell.


Partners



Tech Data was mentioned a month ago by The Var Guy because of its potential relationship with Novell. This seems to be confirmed now.

It has announced new distribution agreements with Absolute Software Corp., Elgato Systems, Infonic and Quattro BPO Solutions, as well as expanded partnerships with Novell and Samsung.


Novell's relationships with two other companies were also mentioned here and here.

Marketing



A little new campaign seems to have just been launched to encourage people to take a Novell survey.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Censorship of Information Unflattering to IBM (or GAFAM)
Years ago we gave a platform to a censored Microsoft whistleblower
Silent Layoffs at Microsoft in 2026
Time will tell is there are investigative journalists out there who will quit parroting Microsoft (e.g. false layoff figures) and relying on LLMs controlled by Microsoft to spew out false "facts" for them
SLAPP Censorship - Part 91 Out of 200: Legal Aid in Support of Freedom of the Press and British Women (Attacked by Americans)
bolstered by prominent counsels
Codecs and Software Patents - Part XII - GNU's Web Site Will Soon Have Many Recent Talks by Chief GNUisance Richard Stallman (RMS)
GNU videos being transcoded or converted into AV1
The Fall of Slop (Even Microsoft Admits There's a Problem)
If Microsoft admits that slop is too expensive and is for "entertainment purposes" because it cannot be relied upon, why would anyone other than the pushers and profiteers still insist that slop bears potential?
 
It's Friday Night Again, So Microsoft is Again Shelving (Under Weekend Lull) Nightmare News for XBox Staff
It did the same thing when the chiefs of XBox got canned
Links 29/05/2026: "Spyware Economy" and Cuba's Energy Crisis
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/05/2026: Rap Rant and LLMs Criticised
Links for the day
Akira Urushibata on Misleading Numbers From Anthropic's Project Glasswing (False Marketing by FUD Tactics)
Posted yesterday and approved a short while ago
[Video] Richard Stallman's Rapperswil (Switzerland) Talk Online
accessible without proprietary software
Trusting Trust is an Old Issue, Predating Rust and LLM Slop by Over Half a Century
Microsoft Lunduke wants to make a case against Rust and slop (LLMs), but the issues he addresses aren't exactly new or unique
California Should Have Abandoned So-called 'Age‑Verification Laws', Not Make Exemptions (for Now)
This has nothing to do with 1) children 2) safety 3) safety of children
Links 29/05/2026: Cory Doctorow on Why the Internet Feels So Broken, American Pope on Defederation
Links for the day
Techrights Does Not Censor Information About IBM, It Platforms and Retains Suppressed Voices From Inside IBM
They don't like it when people criticise the management [...] panic attacks mentioned
Bob (Robert) Cringely Devoted Three Years of His Life Trying to Profit From LLM Slop and Now He Sounds Off, It's Just Not Working and It Can Crash the Economy Soon
"The labs raising money at valuations with too many zeros are happy"
Techrights After About 60,000 Articles in 20 Years
Sites fail if they don't offer anything new or if they wrongly believe that adopting slop to parrot other sites will give them exposure
Organised Plunder or Robbery: GAFAM and Hardware Companies Rely on Media Bribery to Perpetuate False Narratives and to "Drive Sales" (and Drive Prices Upwards)
The price-fixing seems plausible and, if so, we need to demand action
Linux Foundation Destroys the Identity and History of Linux
Groklaw's PJ was thorn on the side of LF sponsors
The Problem of Microsoft Crimes
Opposing crime isn't "hatred"
Red Hat Will Die Inside a Dying IBM
IBM isn't where Red Hat came to thrive but where it came to die
Very Large Strike at the European Patent Office Today, "Production" Sank a Huge Deal
At this pace, we might be looking at tens of thousands fewer European Patents being granted this year
Gemini Links 29/05/2026: Leadership and Religion, the Board Game (Second Edition)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 28, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, May 28, 2026
Links 28/05/2026: Pakistan and Afghanistan Are Still Fighting, Iranians Back Online
Links for the day
"LLMs Are Not Much More Than Plagiarism Engines"
the impact of LLMs on communities and software projects
Is Slop Profitable Yet? No.
Everything is a giant minus
Bob (Robert) Cringely Has Just Explained That After 3 Years of Hard Work It Became Apparent LLM Slop is Unfit for Purpose in Courts
Added moments ago to Daily Links
Links 28/05/2026: LibreSSL 4.3.2, "Jeff Bezos Is Afraid Of What Comes Next", Measles Making a Comeback
Links for the day
PCs That Are Made to 'Expire' and 'Secure' Boot Contributing to Planned Obsolescence
People who are responsible for this ought to be held accountable
Evil, Faceless Corporation: Google Steals Money From You If You Don't Purchase an Android Device for MFA
At this point, under the guise of "hey hi" (slop) Google is firing tens of thousands of workers
People Go Back to Basics, Abandon Microsoft's GitHub to Avoid Slop
The media didn't pay any attention to GitHub's de facto chief quitting Microsoft only a few months ago
SLAPP Censorship - Part 90 Out of 200: When Efforts to Silence His Spouse and Also the Wife of a Blogger in Another Continent Only Give More Exposure to Embarrassing Information
The Garrett trial ended in October 2025
IBM - Much Like the European Patent Office (EPO) - Gives the President (Head of Board and CEO) All the Money While Staff Drowns in High Inflation Rates
They're discussing the same sort of thing we often see mentioned in the EPO
"THE REGISTER EXPLAINER" as "Paid-for SPAM" at The Register MS With "AI" 40 Times in the Short Page
What will be left of The Register MS in a few years?
2025: EPO President Campinos Breaks the Cookie Jar, Steals Another Million Euros While His "Brother-in-Law" Does Cocaine at the Office and Staff Prepares Rolling, Indefinite Strikes
any additional month of Campinos in charge of the EPO is a liability not just to the EPO but the EU as well
Gemini Links 28/05/2026: Dumping Microsoft GitHub, Gopher Rabbit Hole
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 27, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 27, 2026
Links 27/05/2026: TSMC Workers Next to Consider Strikes, Ceasefire Cracking
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 89 Out of 200: SRA Admits Malfunction, That's Why Transparency is Paramount
There have been more efforts than we can to count or can enumerate (probably over 100 such efforts) to gag us and to prevent us writing about what has happened
Our Free Software Activist in Connecticut (USA)
We'll soon revisit the latest round of legislation on "age" (surveillance, ID)
Links 27/05/2026: Living Without 'Smartphoones' and "Russia’s Biggest Attack on Ukraine in 18 Months"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/05/2026: The USA as an "Experiment" and Some Ubuntu Manuals
Links for the day
[Video] Full Video of Richard Stallman's Talk in Rome
It seems inevitable that the official GNU site will have it
Slop is a Passing Fad, It's About Faking Productivity (Plagiarism, Misinformation, and False Positives)
Slop is a bubble. Some people accept it later than others.
Anderon - Like Kyndryl - Could be Far Deeper in Debt Than Its Alleged Worth (Vapourware)
Time will tell, but it seems like a Federal-enabled (by the Federal Government) accounting scam, nothing more, nothing less
The Media That Keeps Covering "AI" Because the Pushers of It Pay for Spam
23 times in the page they mention "AI"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 26, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 26, 2026
Codecs and Software Patents - Part XI - The Stance of RMS (Dr. Stallman) Reassured GNU Regarding AV1
cautioned against software patents since the early 90s if not earlier