Novell to Make Linux Robust and Reliable 380
An anonymous coward writes: "It seems the folks over at Novell have the answer to making the "immature" Linux OS more "robust, reliable and scaleable" according to this Computer Weekly article. We have a lot more problems to use and keep running our NetWare 5 and 6 servers at our University than we've ever had with any of our Linux servers. I can't wait for Novell to help us out here."
Tempest in a teapot (Score:5, Informative)
I've almost got to believe that Jack Messman was trying to make some kind of joke about the SCO/IBM lawsuit in this comment, and has just been horribly mis-understood.
Re:Overstated but could be beneficial to Linux (Score:4, Informative)
Bruce
How robust is linux? (Score:4, Informative)
But anyone who has run a linux server as a true multiuser system (i.e. with other people users, who have standard userlike weaknesses) has discovered that the linux kernel isn't as robust as say the BSD kernel. It's easy to bring a linux system to its knees with malicious or even accidental user scripts that fork bomb etc.
Slightly different angle now, but check out this developer's response [spinics.net] to the latest ptrace vulnerability: "it's a local root hole, and there are still tons of those left out there to squash". And once those are squashed, there are lots of EZ denial of service glitches to correct too.
I would love to see the linux kernel made more robust, like the BSD kernel. Now, whether or not Novell are the people to do it, I don't know. Personally I think that linux is still better than any Microsoft or Novell "enterprise grade" solution.
I seriously doubt large companies have the ability, or the interest, in making any operating system truly robust. But "we" can do it I'm sure, because we know what we really want.
NetWare migration path is to Linux (Score:4, Informative)
With Novell planning for NetWare 7 to be a set of services running on both the NetWare kernel and the Linux kernel...
And there you have it. NetWare is giving way to Linux. NetWare 7 will be the migration path to Lin. Will NetWare 8 simply be Novell's Linux distro? So what will those services that run on NW and Lin be? eDirectory, GroupWise, and ZENWorks mainly. Plus newer stuff like iChain, iFolder, Portal Services, DirXML, et. al.
This really isn't a huge surprise. NetWare 6 shipped with Apache/Tomcat and 6.5 will include MySQL. So Novell has been getting tighter with OSS for some time now. And then there is the sad story of SuperNOS from back in the day.
Even if none of you run any of this stuff, this still has to be considered a win for Linux and OSS.
Links of interest (Score:2, Informative)
Re:NDS (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Novell had a lot of things going for it (Score:5, Informative)
Oh for chrissakes...no, it's not just marketing. For example, system updates are released entirely separately for OS X client and server- and often contain drastically different updates. The server updates come almost always after the client updates, and rarely have I heard of the server updates causing nearly as many problems as the client side updates.
Don't be stupid. Server operating systems and desktop operating systems are similar. The fundamentals are the same. The differences are in the fine tuning.
...and believe it or not, that "fine tuning" is a little more complex than "picking which set of packages to install" and "how we market it". Novell is, in fact, the perfect example of the power of a ground-up, purpose-built server platform. Linux's weakness is that it has NO equivalent; your precious Debian has no core, ground-up focus on being a server distro and ONLY a server distro.
Case and point- there simply isn't a way to use Novell as a desktop operating system(at least, it's not as easy on any other OS). It is ONLY for serving, and as a result, has a clear path in all regards, from development, to QA, to marketing. Do one thing, do it well.
Re:An operating system != operating system (Score:5, Informative)
Comparing OpenLDAP to NDS/eDirectory is wrong. OpenLDAP is there, yes... but pales in comparison with eDirectory/NDS.
Novell was already delivering a very mature and advanced directory services (NDS) when Linux's OpenLDAP was very beta and Microsoft Directory was... well, vastly improvable
Linux *now* is pretty good. But Novell already was much better some years ago.
If Novell puts its knowledge into GNU/Linux so we all profit (Novell grows, Linux gets waaaaaaaaay better, Novell admin tools become GPL and we all improve them) then we all win, and win big.
P.S.: I'm a former Novell Admin, turned into Linux Admin as Microsoft Marketing Division pushed away Novell. I'd love to work with GNU/Linux/Novell systems
I'm excited!
Re:Overstated but could be beneficial to Linux (Score:2, Informative)
There's nothing wrong about saying that Linux isn't the best operating system out there, but what really is wrong with your post and what makes it tempting to mod it as a troll is that you list a fair number of operating systems that in your opinion are in some way better than Linux but then fail to give any reasons as to why this might be the case.
Saying just that FreeBSD is better in every possible way is worth nothing.
Re:Buzzwords (Score:1, Informative)
http://www.idealx.org/prj/samba/index.en.html [idealx.org]
atleast I found it very easy to get running and I had never used OpenLDAP before. After a quick test install, it took a few hours to roll out on all my servers and get all services to use LDAP for authentication. I havent experienced any problems.
However I havent been able to find a decent LDAP browser tool, I've used GQ a few times but mainly use the commandline tools. (there are some smbldap-tools on the idealx.org site)
Re:An operating system != operating system (Score:3, Informative)
No, long gone.
Microsoft purchased part of them in around 1998 or so, and from then onwards Banyan tried to migrate their customers over to pure NT networks, ostensibly going via their StreetTalk for NT product.
At that stage, though, Banyan's market share was falling dramatically, and some nasty bugs (particularly long-filename support with European codepages) and reluctance to support some client OSs didn't help either.
Well fuck you Slashdot. (Score:3, Informative)
This is the company that had Directory Services up and running before Microsoft got the idea to put the word Directory after Active.(and still haven't understood what it should to).
Also they have worked on integrating Linux and UNIX systems into their services, having them work together instead of trying to kill it.
And finally I'd say if you have trouble keeping a Netware server up and running, perhaps you should look at the skills of the people operating them. The same stupid comment goes for people changing to Microsoft from UNIX.
The Network is dead; long live the Network (Score:1, Informative)
The new Network is the Internet: everyone is on it and everyone has or should have protection. To share information on the new Network, make a directory visible; to share privately then use SSL or other encryption methods and force users to login.
If Novell can make NDS work in this newer context then companies will buy that product. But to claim that Novell's NOS will survive in other than niche applications is misleading.
Okay, I'm game for some flamebait (Score:2, Informative)
Anyway, as I said in my post, as a former NetWare admin/engineer, I am glad that Novell is looking this direction and will hopefully give M$ some competition again, especially since NDS 10 years ago is far better than Active Directory right now. If only they will get rid of that Java console that runs on the server (like a server needs a gui), they will be much better off.
That's my rant for the day.