Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell Persists With Non-Free Software Focus

Clouds



Summary: A weekly glance at what Novell has been doing and how it gets characterised by the news

NOVELL is not sold yet and its stock has been keeping steady. Articles about the stock this week (from old to recent) are [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and the company also got mentioned in some partners' press releases [1, 2].



One of Novell's more recent partners is Amazon, which signed a Linux patent deal with Microsoft after it had hired many executives from there. Both Novell and Amazon put Microsoft patent tax on GNU/Linux and they still celebrate a Fog Computing alliance:

In US cents per hour for the European market, SUSE is pitching in at 12.5 cents for a default implementation. This is a half of a cent more expensive than Windows. Amazon’s Linux at 9.5 cents is somewhat cheaper but Red Hat Linux, at 21 cents, appears much more expensive, especially when you add its $19 per month per customer surcharge.

The confusing issue is that Red Hat controls its distribution and its charge includes support. Support from AWS for basic Linux is the same as it charges for Windows. This is a monthly charge of $100 for Silver level and $400 for Gold. Support for Novell is charged by Novell at the equivalent of around $230.


There is a growing mass of evidence that Novell has decided to aim for Fog Computing, including some new articles that make that explicit, more recently in the Middle East [1, 2].

Another side of Novell, mail and collaboration, is purely proprietary. GroupWise support is still mentioned in some places and GWAVACon is coming despite Novell's unknown future.

Here is a new press release about GroupWise support and here is a defection:

County offices, including the sheriff’s department, changed policy on how long emails should be kept in fall 2009, when the county switched its email service from Novell to Microsoft, the county coordinator said.


Here are some new security issue and an old story of data loss resurfacing in the news:

In 2003, only three days after DiGioia moved from New York to Florida to start his Altamonte Springs IT job, the city's network engineer walked up to him and said, "We've just lost everything. All the Novell servers, the Novell clusters, the backup, the SAN. Everything's gone," he recalls.


A little something about ZENworks:

LiveTime is pre-integrated with Novell ZENworks Configuration Management (ZCM) 10 and 11, ZENworks Desktop Management 6.5 or later, ZENworks Asset Management 6.5 or later, as well as eDirectory and closed loop email management with Groupwise 6, 7, and 8. This comprehensive integration allows customers to leverage their existing infrastructure for immediate ROI and improved customer service. In addition, LiveTime integrates with Novell's Identity Manager 4 and runs on all editions of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.


The PR blog of Novell is still just marketing proprietary software roughly 90% of the time. One example of that was triple-posted by Michele Hudnall just a few days ago [1, 2, 3] and Novell's marketing chief John Dragoon calls or compares marketing to business, still relying on the widely-held misconception that marketing actually produces something. It only changes how people think or feel. Novell is good at that.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When Abusive Law Firms (Working for Microsofters Against Us) Assert That Someone Writing in Social Media About Himself is Confidential Information
There was no reason to throw "GDPR" into 2 SLAPPs; they know it, but the goal was to increase the cost of a Defence and lessen the incentive to challenge the SLAPPs
Throwing Money at Lawyers Can't Stop Us (It Never Did)
Even just trying to censor things can result in the opposite of the desired outcome
BetaNews Has More or Less Died After Experiments With LLM Slop, Is Linuxsecurity Next?
It doesn't seem like BetaNews knows what it's doing, let alone what it talks about
 
Gemini Links 15/06/2025: "AI Fatigue and Crappiness"
Links for the day
Microsoft Attack Dogs Against Watchdogs and Guard Dogs in Software
Last year Microsofters hired attack dogs or "guns for hire"
Slop Cannot Replace Domain Expertise
All this "AI" hype (it's not even intelligence, it's all a misnomer, as many of us have insisted all along) will fizzle and be written off as a failed experiment
IBM's Fresh 'PIPs' (Action Before Layoffs)
At times like these, even once-reputable employers resort to PIPs and other procedures/tricks for denial of workers' rights
Microsoft is a Problem Not Just for Denmark
Every country should consider what Denmark is doing, why Denmark is doing it, and then do the same
The Slopfarms' Self Detonation
If more sites like BetaNews go under, then maybe we can still salvage some of the Web
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, June 14, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, June 14, 2025
Links 14/06/2025: FDA Changes Priorities, Cassette Data Storage From The 1970s
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Steam Next Fest and Thoughts on Gemini
Links for the day
Site/Datacentre Maintenance Next Week
speed things up
Bulgaria: GNU/Linux Near 10%
The Bulgarian market seems to be changing
I Never Spoke to BetaNews. But BetaNews Wants to Ensure I Never Will, Either.
Sometimes just the reluctance to talk about it can say a great deal
Online Search or Large Search Engines Aren't Working Anymore
business models that directly compete with interests of Web users
Holidays and Breaks
I've hardly taken any long breaks since I got married
Danish OpenDocument Freedom
"year of Linux"
Links 14/06/2025: Wars and L.A. Distortion Effect
Links for the day
Gemini Links 14/06/2025: Historic Ada Design and GeminiSpace.Club to Expire
Links for the day
Links 14/06/2025: India Plane Crash and Middle-Eastern War
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, June 13, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, June 13, 2025
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: (Not)virtues and Project Yeet Broadband
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: Journalists Targeted by Cracking, China-Japan and Israel-Iran Tensions Grow
Links for the day
Links 13/06/2025: US Reduces Nonessential Staff at Baghdad Embassy Ahead of Strikes in Iran, Invasion of California Debated
Links for the day
X11 is Free Software
Whether you agree (e.g. on politics) with the person/s forking it doesn't matter
The More Time Passes, the Better Our Advice on Social Control Media Seems
At the end of the day, any platform you do not control yourself is working for someone else
Twitter (X) is Dying, Now It's Just Like a Mafia-Type Operation of the Man Who Does Nazi Salutes in Public
a form of extortion
UK High Court Blasts Brett Wilson LLP for Misusing "GDPR" After Failed Efforts to Censor Critics Using 'Libel' Claims
No wonder this firm is rapidly shrinking
Recent Blunders in Microsoft GitHub (e.g. Slop-Generated Bug Reports or GPL Violations 'as a Service') Taking Their Toll?
Put bluntly, if you still use Microsoft GitHub, then you're slave to Microsoft
American Imperialism and Microsoft Plagiarism
Techrights will therefore do what Microsoft does not want it to do: it'll write even more about Microsoft
When They Have Nothing Left to Help Advance Abusive Litigation for Microsoft People... Other Than Throwing ~500 Pages of Someone Else's Work Into a PDF
Microsoft is having a very tough year
The Price of Exposing Corruption in Poland (and Elsewhere)
It's easier to participate in corruption than to merely do the right thing and oppose it
Slopwatch and Yet More Holes in 'Secure Boot' (as Usual!), Promoted Inside Linux by the Man We Are Suing
Today's Slopwatch will be short
Gemini Links 13/06/2025: People You've Left Behind, Life Update and OS Changes
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 12, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 12, 2025