Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell Links: Notes About GroupWise, Fog Computing, OpenSUSE, and Staff Moves

Torn paper



Summary: Weekly notes and links about Novell's business, including OpenSUSE and former Novell staff

Mail



ONE of Novell's businesses which suffered the most based on the latest report [1, 2, 3] corresponds to GroupWise. The latest gainer is usually Google, but sometimes it's Microsoft or IBM. Here is a new example of Novell being dumped:



Yet, after appointing its first IT lead in January since opening in 1991, the museum has shifted from the ageing Novell GroupWise email platform to Microsoft Online Services - the first of many changes to come - in three months.


Novell's business is failing and the company yearns for its legacy, the days of dominance in the area of networking. A little while ago Novell uploaded a decade-old BrainShare Pilgrimage video [1, 2]. Why does Novell spread this type of stuff in YouTube?

Fog Computing



Novell's latest Fog Computing push continues to receive some coverage [1, 2, 3, 4]. To quote one article, "Numerous vendors are adjusting their strategies accordingly: Novell, for instance, earlier this week officially launched the Novell Cloud Security Service (NCSS), which wraps identity and security management around SaaS applications."

Here is Novell marketing proprietary software for Fog Computing (newly-uploaded video):



OpenSUSE



Looking at OpenSUSE without paying attention to its own version of the news, there is nothing substantial. The past two weeks have been very quiet and there was even a scheduled downtime. "We will have a service outage this saturday (21 August) due to work on power supply in one of our server rooms," said the announcement.

Several posts were published about OpenSUSE Conference 2010 [1, 2], about FrOSCon (including from Sirko Kemter, who is attending many such events [1, 2, 3, 4]), and Jos, the new community manager of OpenSUSE, who is catching up and meeting colleagues at GUADEC. From Vincent (of GNOME/Novell):

Jos, the new openSUSE community manager, happens to live just a few kilometers away from the Hague. He was still at his previous work back then, but we were able to share a dinner before the Canonical party.


Vincent says that Novell might hire more SUSE-assigned staff:

But recently, we've been joined by two friends: Frédéric, who's working on SUSE Meego, and Jos, the new openSUSE community manager. And guess what? We expect more!


OpenSUSE continues to improve and contribute to Firefox 4.0 on KDE and to KDE in general [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. There is also OBS packaging going on [1, 2, 3]. OpenSUSE's dependence on Novell is still a risk.

People



"Senetas looks to boost consulting division," says this article and Novell skills happen to be sought.

It is on the acquisition hunt to boost its consulting practice and wants to add Novell consultants to its team.


Looking very quickly at former Novellers in the news, there is Chris Keller with history at Novell, a quick mention of someone with Novell skills, and a former president of Novell.

Tom Quinn isn't the kind of entrepreneur who needs help getting his ideas in front of the right people. He's a former president of networking software maker Novell (NOVL), and he invented the motion-controller technology behind Nintendo's (NTDOY) Wii while running a company called Gyration, where he raised $40 million in venture capital.


There is William Clark in this press release and also in this item:

Prior to Deltek, Clark was Vice President of World Product Marketing at Novell, Inc., an industry pioneer in Netware products. At Novell, Clark led company-wide efforts to establish product families, go-to-market strategies, value positions, and competitive differentiation for its diverse array of products.


Existing Novell employees were approached for a comment in Processor and IDG too:

i. The Rise Of Virtualized IT

Jason Dea, product marketing manager at Novell (www.novell.com), says now that the cost savings of virtualization have been realized and acknowledged, the focus is shifting to the promise of cloud computing, enabled by virtualization, as a better way for administrators to run workloads and potentially run new workloads that were not possible with yesterday’s technology platforms.


ii. CFOs hesitant to invest in cloud: strategist

Paul Kangro, applied technology strategist at Novell, said security concerns coupled with the view that cloud could be a waste of money has resulted in CFOs being sceptical of what the cloud can achieve.


There is nothing too exciting here, but in case these people end up in particular companies, they might become a substantial risk. Companies are merely aggregations of individuals.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft Uses LLM Slop to Defraud (or Rob) Shareholders
Microsoft is basically defrauding its shareholders by LLM slop
The "Davos Effect": Tarnishing the Reputation of Places Not by Overtourism But by Oligarch Infestation
The last Venice needs is an affiliation with Venetian oligarchs
 
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Distraction-Free Writing and Hytale Mismanagement
Links for the day
Links 01/07/2025: "Beauty of Blogging" and "Etiquette of Collapse"
Links for the day
The Web is a Dead End
We need to adopt alternatives
When Words Lose Their Intended Meaning
examples of words that, at least in the technical spheres, don't mean what they sound like
People Who Disagree With You on Technical Matters May or May Not Agree With You on Political Things (But Usually They Do)
What bothers me a great deal is seeing left-leaning people accusing other left-leaning people of being "nazis"
"Too Much Choice" and "Too Many Programming Languages"
What IBM and its apologists aim for was attempted in the 1930s and it failed
Microsoft Lost 400,000,000 Windows Users, According to Microsoft
more people adopt smaller computers and many people replace Windows with GNU/Linux, as they don't really need a new computer
Half a Year Gone, What's to Come Next
In the second half of 2025 we expect to be done with the Microsoft SLAPPs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 30, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 30, 2025
People at the Very Top of Microsoft Know How Bad Things Really Are
There's no product that can replace the former profitability of Windows licensing and stuff that went on top of Windows
Gemini Links 01/07/2025: Mid Year and a Tour of Old Languages
Links for the day
EPO Presentation Bemoans Misuse of Slop in Decision-Making on Patents and in Classification (Which is Likely Illegal Too)
We habitually mention failed use cases of LLMs on the Web
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft Confirmed, "XBox Hardware Is Dead"
It's possible that over 20% of the staff will be laid off
Links 30/06/2025: Kyrgyzstan vs Media Freedom, Dalai Lama Succession
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: Backend Programs in Gemini and Dynamic Content Without The Scripting
Links for the day
Links 30/06/2025: Zuckerberg’s Tax-Evading Scheme Harms Kids, US Copyright Office Lacks Leadership
Links for the day
Microsoft Isn't Laying Off Tens of Thousands to 'Invest' in Slop ('Hey Hi'), It's Laying Off Tens of Thousands Because It's Running Out of Money (and Willing Lenders)
the layoffs are a sign of the business failing, not "hey hi" (whatever that is) replacing staff
Intel Lays Off 20% of Its Workforce, Microsoft is Doing the Same This Year
Like a yoyo, whatever goes up will come back down
Microsoft XBox Layoffs: Almost 2,000 Layoffs Became "Over 2,000"? (Over 20% of the Staff)
over 20% of staff will be let go, not counting staff that leaves voluntarily
GNU/Linux Rises to New Highs in Angola, Africa in General is Abandoning Windows
Western media barely covers Microsoft layoffs in Africa, but in recent years Microsoft culled the workforce and even shut down entire operations
Summer Plans in Techrights and Elsewhere
massive layoffs at Microsoft
Destination Geminispace (in the Age of LLM Slop and Slop Images That Infest the Web and Social Control Media)
Geminispace isn't vast, but at least it is - on average - a lot "cleaner"
GNU/Linux Growing in Sierra Leone This Year
Based on what statCounter is seeing, this year there are more and more people there who adopt GNU/Linux
Serial Sloppers Gonna Slop
More sites out there ought to call out the cheaters
Quartz (qz.com) is Spam and a Slopfarm
It used to be OK. Then they fired the staff.
Links 30/06/2025: US Economic Woes, Extreme Heat
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, June 29, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, June 29, 2025
Gemini Links 30/06/2025: "The AI Hype" and New AuraGem Ask
Links for the day
Our Desktops Are Not Your Experiments, X is Not an Experiment
Breaking what already worked
Microsoft's Big Lies Regarding This Week's Mass Layoffs Have Already Begun (and They're Already Being Spread by Slopfarms)
Microsoft is the "market leader" in slop
Explaining the Full Story of SLAPPs From Microsoft Staff
For every action there is a reaction, for every attack there will be proportionate consequences
The Openwashing Shills Initiative (OSI) - Part III: IRS and Status of OSI
"They lied to the US IRS and there’s a paper trail"
IBM Red Hat's Dogmatic Fanaticism Under a Thin Veil of "Modernism"
IBM now has the audacity to paint people who don't agree as "nazis"
Microsoft's Share in Guatemala Fell From 97% to 14%
Eventually Microsoft will get stuck in a loop of layoffs, layoffs, and more layoffs
They Made Technology Scary and Taught Us That It's Innocent, Friendly, Even "Social"
Rejection of all this "apps" and "gadgets" and "Smart" (whatever that means!) status quo isn't a rejection of society
The Media is Under Attacks Partly Because There's Little Other (Remaining) Press to Speak in Its Defence
The biggest danger here is that when there's very little press or no "opposition media" left it becomes even easier to crush critics because there aren't many people left to speak about the matter
If Your Web Site is Run by Bots, Eventually Nobody Will 'Read' It Except Bots (People Don't Want to Read Slop)
Eventually people learn from mistakes
Links 29/06/2025: Microsoft Releases False/Fake Benchmarks, "Google Wants You to Watch Ads or Take Surveys to Read Articles"
Links for the day
Links 29/06/2025: Data Breaches and Online Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 29/06/2025: "The Price Of Eggs" and Gemini 3D Tic Tac Toe
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 28, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 28, 2025