Comments

• jmmarton

  2011-11-07 14:44:19

  First and foremost, anyone saying not many changes are being introduced in GroupWise 2012 truly knows nothing at all about the product. I would recommend reading some of Novell's documentation about it.
  
  http://www.novell.com/documentation/beta/groupwise2012/gw2012_guide_install/data/aady5l3.html
  
  With regards to the LA deal, what FUD did Novell spread? I don't recall seeing them saying much at all about it, though now there's some commentary about it after all the public info about the botched migration. It's a fact that Google just can't promise security in the cloud the way that an on-premise solution can. Plus, from people "in the know," the reason LA had problems with GW in the first place is because they were running an old version on hardware not configured properly. If that makes GroupWise "outdated" then I guess Exchange is "outdated" as well as anyone still running Exchange 2000 on old hardware is probably going to complain about it.
  
  Lastly, to the person who commented above, what makes you say Novell is trying to move customers away from Novell products? This couldn't be further from the truth. Novell keeps coming up with more and more ways that their products have a great value proposition. They announced Novell FILR at Brainshare 2011, a product that brings social networking and file storage together. This product is free to OES customers current on maintenance. They also announced an iPrint appliance at BS2011 which brings the ability for universal print from mobile device (e.g. iPads) to OES. Again, this product is free to OES customers current on maintenance. Even their new collaboration product Vibe (think Novell's answer to SharePoint) is free for up to 10 users so that customers can try it out.
  
  Novell is increasing their value proposition, while at the same time working on improving interoperability with Microsoft products by using DSfW which puts AD on top of eDirectory, allowing ZENworks to work in AD environments, even they're even working towards allowing GroupWise to work in AD-only environments in the Winderemere release due sometime in 2012/13. They are also working on allowing Mac products to interoperate, such as the ability for ZENworks Configuration Management 11.2 to completely manage MacOS (deliver apps, patch, etc) or by adding iOS templates to GroupWise WebAccess.
  
  Anyone who says Novell is on the way out or is trying to move their own customers on to competitor's products truly has not been following Novell this year.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2011-11-07 17:09:56

  I suggest you read http://techrights.org/2009/11/02/novell-negative-publicity/
  
  Novell did get criticised for it at the time.

• jmmarton

  2011-11-07 17:58:25

  Ok, are you talking about this comment from Novell?
  
  "Novell, however, attacks Los Angeles’ decision, arguing “The City of Los Angeles should have opted for this proven product [GroupWise] to ensure the security of its data and to save taxpayer money. They have taken a risk with no reward."
  
  And here we are two years later and what's the status? Security is still in question, this time by the federal government as I recall, AND a lot of taxpayer money has been wasted. So far no reward, either. And if you mean Matt Asay's article criticized those comments, that hardly qualifies for Novell's comments being criticized "big time." Not in the least.

• Needs Sunlight

  2011-11-07 13:03:24

  It almost seems that Novell's core activity is to move customers of off Novell products and away from Samba onto M$. It's a mystery how they can expect to get any money that way, but maybe making money is not the primary goal.

• Dr. Roy Schestowitz

  2011-11-07 17:10:38

  When you are a de facto Microsoft department, then Microsoft profits matter too.