Bonum Certa Men Certa

Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part II: Quiet Week in Utah Valley

It has been a quiet week because some people embark on their vacations and companies make very few announcements. Here are the few things we picked up. They fit a single post for a change.

SUSE (SLES/SLED)



Novell and Sun Microsystems are both cited as companies that debunk the myth about lack of support for Free software. This appeared in europa.eu, whose reputation is fairly decent.

Sun Microsystems and Novell, two IT services firms promoting Open Source, are telling government CIOs there is plenty of support for this kind of software, the IT news site Zdnet reports.

[...]

Support for the Open Source operating system GNU/Linux rivals that of proprietary systems, Zdnet last April quoted Paul Kangro, applied technology strategist for Novell. He suggests fears over support are spread by companies that feel threatened by this kind of software.




This isn't the right day to express our concerns about this, but the fact that several companies choose Xandros and SLED for their laptops is a total dilution of Free software values. And that's just what Microsoft would want. Maybe IBM, too.

In any case, here is an article about the HP Mini-Note, which can come with SLED 10.

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) SP1 was the installed operating system as delivered on our test unit. Novell has recently released SP2 for SLED, and we went through the update process to give it a spin as well. HP markets this unit to the educational market which would seem to point toward college students. The unit is great for surfing the web, checking e-mail or instant messaging although the battery life with the standard 3-cell battery will be a drawback.


Virtualisation



The big news this week was about VMWare, but here's a belated article about Novell's PlateSpin, which has a new product. The Virtualiation Blog at ZDNet caught up.

PlateSpin, a recent acquisition of Novell recently announced PowerConvert 7.0, The company was quick to point out that this is the first product launch since the acquistion. Why would they go to such great lengths to mention that? They want to convince the market that PlatSpin will continue to be an innovative supplier and that becoming part of Novell’s portfolio didn’t change that.


A Microsoft guy (MVP) compares VMWare to Novell's Netware, wishing them both death in a sense. Premature and wishful thinking? Probably.

identity Management



Not much to see here this week. except for this brief mention of Novell.

An ambitious open source project hopes to provide a unified directory and authentication server, but needs more interoperability work to become a viable competitor for Novell Identity Manager or Microsoft Active Directory.


Security



Ouch.



Moonwalk, a Novell partner, had this press release.

Moonwalk Inc., the Australian developer of all-inclusive data management and protection software, continued on its roadmap of success during the first half of 2008, highlighted by the expansion of its customer base and reseller network in the U.S., more industry awards and the availability of Moonwalk 6.0 across Novell's NetWare and Linux platforms.


People



A former (apparently now contracted) Novell employee decided that she prefers working from home. There's an article about the business that was built around it.

Kristi Hilbert owns Visioncorp., a company that provides technical writing and documentation to high-tech firms across the state. She began her career at Novell and expected to give it up to become a stay-at-home mom, but then she found a way to stay home and keep her career.

[...]

Kristi began her career as a technical writer at Novell. She said she intended to be a full-time mom after working for the company, but Novell still needed her writing skills. So she started doing contract work from home and, through word of mouth, found herself more clients than she could handle. "So then I started contracting and looking for other writers, and it's just gradually grown over the years," Kristi said.


Occasionally you find people who used to work at Novell but have moved on since. Here is another one of them.

Prior to Sanera, Harr ran worldwide marketing at CacheFlow and was the GM of Novell's Internet and Security Services Group.


Here is a somewhat depressing new article about Utah Valley.

Slowing commercial and residential real estate markets, sluggish tourism levels and transportation troubles are some of the issues facing Utah Valley, as well as much of the state.

[...]

The experts agreed that Utah Valley is experiencing many of the same slowdowns that the rest of the state is experiencing. Unique to the area, however, is its entrepreneurial spirit. Utah Valley has a history of innovation; Novell and WordPerfect are just two of the many notable companies that got their start in the area.


Miscellany



We take note of this connection between Xenocode and Novell.

...applications deployed with Xenocode have essentially the same performance characteristics as native executables. "Xenocoded" applications require no setup, configuration, clients, or device drivers, are isolated from external DLL and dependency conflicts, and run properly on Windows Vista and locked-down desktops. Xenocode-virtualized applications can be easily deployed on USB devices, corporate intranets, the Internet, or existing desktop management infrastructure software such as Microsoft SMS, LANDesk Management Suite, BMC Configuration Management and Novell ZENworks.


Here is another event that Novell will attend.

The 'CIO Finance Summit' is nearing and gaining clout as the leading business gathering for top leaders in the financial services IT industry. The delegates, participants, sponsors and attendees are ranging from companies such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Scotiabank, EMA, Wachovia, IDC, JP Morgan, IBM and Novell and more. The summit will launch September 22nd-25th, 2008, at the Four Seasons Resort, Scottsdale at Troon North and is the financial services IT business event not to be missed.


That's all for this week. Have a nice weekend.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
 
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news