Novell To Cease NetWare Development? 260
Karl Cocknozzle writes "CNET News is reporting that Novell may discontinue NetWare following the purchase of Linux software company Ximian - for details on the purchase, see the recent Slashdot article. Novell plans to run its NetWare services - such as eDirectory and Secure Identity Management - on the Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions."
Jumpin' on the bandwagon (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Jumpin' on the bandwagon (Score:2, Troll)
Good news! (Score:5, Insightful)
One might think that Novell knows what they are talking about when it comes down to UNIX IP...
Of course, none of us need this indicator, but for the managers out there with very little technical knowledge about to say "Hmmm, Linux, let's wait until the SCO problem is settled", that's a pretty good indicator that SCO is just a piece of shit.
Re:Good news! (Score:2)
-A
Re:Jumpin' on the bandwagon (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Jumpin' on the bandwagon (Score:5, Insightful)
As Novell was rather pro-active in favour of defending Linux, I think it's rather rude to associate them as being behind the SCO crap.
Novell is just showing they are still a company that "gets it" technically. Why pay some obscene amount to support and develop a proprietary file sharing OS when the main thing customers buy their products for is directory management?
Sure people use Novell file/print sharing servers as well, but that's mainly because it's an appliance OS that integrates well with the directory management they want. They could care less about the underpinnings of that appliance OS as long as it does the job with reasonable performance.
When is the last time you've seen any applications built for the Novell OS core? That being the case, why would you care what OS API they have under the hood?
Re:Jumpin' on the bandwagon (Score:4, Informative)
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,1212139,00.a
SAN FRANCISCO--Novell Inc. dismissed reports that it is planning to phase out new NetWare development in favor of Linux.
A Novell executive Wednesday told eWEEK that the Provo, Utah, company has no plans of cutting NetWare development in favor of Linux, as some reports had indicated.
Chris Stone, vice chairman of the company, said NetWare will continue in maintenance mode, comments Novell officials said were taken out of context.
Chris Stone speaks out on Ximian, Microsoft and SCO. Read his interview with Microsoft Watch.
"We're into Linux, that's why we're here," said a Novell executive, who asked not to be identified. "That's why we bought Ximian. And we said that with Version 7.0 you'll have a choice of either upgrading to the NetWare base or moving to Linux. But with $400 million of our revenue in NetWare, that would be ridiculous for us to abandon development on it."
Bruce Lowry, top spokesman for Novell, said, "The bottom line is no. The whole thing with Linux is an additive thing. We're not dumping NetWare, we're adding Linux."
In a statement, Jack Messman, chairman, president and chief executive of Novell, addressed the issue firmly. "A recent news report coming out of the LinuxWorld Conference suggests that Novell is considering stopping development of NetWare. We're not," he said. "Despite Novell's firm and frequent statements concerning continued development and support for NetWare, discussion of Novell's Linux strategy invariably leads to concern over Novell's NetWare commitment. Let us put those concerns to rest.
"We have also announced that NetWare 7.0 is in development, that it will run on both the NetWare and Linux kernels, and that we will have more to say on it when it is appropriate. This is hardly a sign of reduced commitment. NetWare is not going away. Period," Messman said in his statement.
Not a surprise (Score:5, Informative)
The recent Novell Connections magazine talked about their Linux strategy up to NetWare 7. So far, no one has talked much about what comes after. With Novell's history of shifting strategies, I think I'll just take it one day at a time.
Frankly my dear (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't true. Netware isn't dead - uncommon yes but not dead by a long shot. Netware provides a great deal of enterprise services under one roof. Yes, a pure Linux/OSS solution can too but the time required to get it "right" is considerable. These different components all work together seamlessly under Netware. (This does require an admin w/ brain - which isn't very common either)
If that pisses you off, then put together all these OSS bits and pieces into one package, create some very refined managment tools and sell your consulting services. You'll make a killing.
The only place Netware is still installed is in already existing places, where, indeed it performs upto its reputation.
This isn't true either. I know of a few local companies I deal with that, within the last year, deployed Netware instead of NT.
(No, I don't resell Netware or provide Netware consulting services of any kind.)
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:4, Insightful)
Why doesn't anyone else seem to understand this? Hello? Have you not had to fight to get Samba to run properly? I now know the ins and outs of Samba but saying that Samba, it it's present form, could simply be a drop in replacement for something like Netware or Windows Server is a joke. It requires a lot of configuration and testing work to get it up to snuff. I just wish the Samba team did a better job of handling their releases. Every single major release seeems to be followed up by an essential patch within days if not hours.
Of course on
Exactly! (Score:4, Insightful)
Client sites I've worked at didn't roll Novell servers because it's Novell, but because it's a stable directory management/resource sharing appliance. They could care less what kernel us under the hood, as long as it remains easy to administer and stable.
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:3, Insightful)
why would you want to pay...
$1,000 for 2003 server with 5 FREKING CALS!!!
>$1,000 for Exchange Server with 5 CALS!!!
$1,000+ for antivirus software
I left out SQL server but I bet it is well over a grand also.
What if your office had between 50-100 users! (This is a
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:5, Funny)
As opposed to non-existing places?
I hope Netware isn't dead, my 17000 users will be most annoyed if their data is gone. Wait here I'll go and check.
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:3, Troll)
I swear, I'll sing a song and dance a jig when bloody, gawdawful Lotus Notes expires...
Nothing like being forced to use the worst email system ever written while you're at work.
H
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:4, Funny)
That's how bad Lotus Notes is...
N.
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:4, Informative)
Netware was not hurt at all by linux. It was the forced adoption of windows that caused Netware's downfall.
Netware is STILL the absolute best server/networking solution out there. IT's better than anything that microsoft has ever created (Netware 3.1x is better than W2003server!) based on one very simple fact...
IT NEVER CRASHES. we have a netware server that has uptimes that make Linux users drool... 4 years 6 months and 28 days. no silly need to upgrade it, no need to install hotfixes every 6 minutes, no reason to do anything to it but watch it work flawlessly.
I do agree, netware is a major screaming difficult bitch to configure but after you get it going, it stays working forever.
Wat killed netware is that abortion called Windows for Workgroups. that instantly gave you FREE server software for 5 users when you buy your computer. well that instantly kills most of netware's customers, the small office.
and that is when this damned complacency with windows failing all the time took root in business.. "this windows network keeps crashing", "dont complain, it was free" etc....
I will miss Netware in a strange love/hate way..
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:2)
Re:Gotta Disagree (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:3, Interesting)
IT NEVER CRASHES
Netware's reliability is indeed legendary [techweb.com].
For those too lazy to click:
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:2, Informative)
Many large corporations still use Netware instead of the Microsoft alternative. CNN still seems to be very fond of it, they had a "Powered by EDirectory" logo on their website for a while
Re:Frankly my dear (Score:2)
Yeah. And I'm sure they put that on there at no charge....
Re:Not a surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
- Single Sign-On
- Integrated Distributed Peripheral Management
- Unified Administration Console from X11 and Win32 Clients
Novell brings all of this to the table, with enterprise support. Now you don't have to hack OpenLDAP, and sell it to the "Pointy-Hair" crowd.
Re:Not a surprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not a surprise (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Not a surprise (Score:3, Informative)
That's the client. I believe the porting they are referring to is for the server component.
Netware killed by demand for application servers (Score:3, Informative)
Linux and NT4 filled the bill there and as a bonus for smaller organizations, could do file and print at the same time.
I think if Novell had moved the filesharing and directory com
Already predicted (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Already predicted (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Already predicted (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Already predicted (Score:2)
I don't think that will happen any time soon. Novell has been focused on x86 for more than a decade. Some of Novell's eDirectory products already run on other architectures. But for Novell to release a non-Intel operating system (and provide support for it) is waaayyyy down the line, I'd think. Even Red Hat only supports x86 (do they still have Itanium and s390? Haven't seen either in a while).
Re:Already predicted (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Already predicted (Score:2)
Novell could just as easily hand wave all of that away by only approving IA-32. I guess that brings up another point. Novell's Nterprise Services for Linux will run on either Red Hat AS or SuSE ES. But when NetWare 7 rolls around, will it include "Novell Linux" or will you still need a separate distro to install the Novell services on?
Re:Already predicted (Score:2)
Re:Already predicted (Score:2)
Re:Already predicted (Score:4, Informative)
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 2.1 supports x86 and IA-64:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 is in beta for x86, x86-64, IA-64, pSeries, and iSeries:
Red Hat is very careful to keep packages clean for architectures other than x86. IA-64 support was one of the reasons for the controversial GCC 2.96 fork.Re:Already predicted (Score:2)
Re:Already predicted (Score:3, Informative)
Yes.
http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2003/0
Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:5, Interesting)
The found it after 4 years of it being missing, and still working perfectly, never dropping packets and doing it's job perfectly. Now that's what I call uptime!
I wonder if they will wall it back up after they put SuSE on it?
Re:Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:2)
Didn't Microsoft move video drivers from ring 1 to ring 3 in WinNT 4.0? I don't think WinNT 3.51 ran video drivers in Ring 1.
Re:Let's hope their quality doesn't die (Score:2)
Let's Hope this Attitude Lasts (Score:5, Interesting)
"NetWare will continue to exist with a large customer base, and we will continue to maintain it as long as customers want it," said Chris Stone, vice chairman at Novell. Stone said he thought NetWare support would continue for the foreseeable future, even if development does not. "There are still people using (the) VMS (operating system) and minicomputers. Just because development stops, doesn't mean people stop using it."
It's nice to see a company that admits it will have to continue to support an old product and will continue to do so. However, it's yet to be seen how long this attitude will last.
But at least they have decided not to follow Microsoft's precedent for dumping all support for old products when new ones roll around.
Good news, at least for now.
Re:Let's Hope this Attitude Lasts (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Let's Hope this Attitude Lasts (Score:3, Informative)
"There are still people using (the) VMS (operating system) and minicomputers. Just because development stops, doesn't mean people stop using it."
OpenVMS development has stopped? It looks alive and well to me, for now anyway. See here [hp.com] for New Features and Benefits.
Re:Let's Hope this Attitude Lasts (Score:2)
Not what an employee told me (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure we can know one way or the other. Companies can change their minds very quickly. Anyway, FWIW, that's the scoop I heard from an employee.
Re:Not what an employee told me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not what an employee told me (Score:4, Interesting)
From what I understand, NetWare 7 will be able to use the Linux kenel or the old kernel. The product will still be NetWare.
I fully expect that the Linux-based NetWare will support older NLMs (presuming x86 hardware).
I'm running NetWare 6 at work. The included httpd is Apache. Tomcat is also included as part of NetWare. Presumably their NW7 with Linux kernel will run existing NLMs, so the transition to any traditional Unix userland--if that's the direction they're going--should be fairly smooth and painless.
I would guess that the server console interface will remain much the same rather than going to the usual Linux VT & bash to make it easy for NetWare admins that don't know Linux to keep upgrading and paying Novell money.
I suspect they will provide much more support for Linux clients, and that's what the recent purchases and announcements are about, but they probably won't try challenge MS on the desktop head-on.
Re:Not what an employee told me (Score:2)
The prospect of running Netware on a Linux kernel is very exciting though. It gives instant access to many more drivers and much better hardware support, and I can see it reducing costs of using/support Netware quite a bit.
If
About the console (Score:3, Informative)
I for one hope they will dump the old console interface as it sucks pretty bad as it is.
For years it used to run in a single thread which would hang on the first defunct NLM you'd try to unload during shutdown or whatever. If you're smart and know which module is causing trouble on a N
Re:About the console (Score:5, Interesting)
On the one hand I think it would make a lot of sense to replace the console, but I'm thinking they don't want to leave their NetWare admins in the dark; that might tempt the Linux-savvy ones to just use Linux instead of Linux-backed NetWare and tempt the non-Linux savvy ones to stay on their current version rather than continue to pay for new versions and new feature support.
I'm fairly sure Novell doesn't want NetWare to be Yet Another Linux Distro. That just wouldn't make business sense. They're probably looking at Apple OS X and thinking along the same lines: put their proprietary apps & modules on top of an OSS Unix base.
I expect them to offer client software that will run on 'normal' Linux distros, though, or perhaps even distribute a whole Linux NetWare client with OS, apps and all. But I think the server itself will look and feel like NetWare for a while longer, but hopefully with better robustness from the console screens.
Forking to another subject, I'm also wondering about future platforms. I'm not so sure that PowerPC won't become the dominant low-end server architechture in the next 10 years, and these moves by Novell would let them easily migrate if needed. I don't really have anything to back that up; it's just a feeling that IBM can make that happen. Or maybe it's just wishful thinking on my part because PPC seems like a much cooler arch. (Think virtualization.)
Re:Not what an employee told me (Score:2, Informative)
Novell supports perl, except for the commands for directory traversal [novell.com] etc. If Novell coul
Re:Not what an employee told me (Score:2)
Linux *does* support many other types of access control. It's just that most distros seem
So does... (Score:2, Funny)
Flamebait? (Score:5, Insightful)
Novell (who has been quoted as saying that the issue between them and SCO isn't completely over) is now investing in Linux as part of their business model.
They have different roots than a Linux distro house like RedHat or SuSE, but they'll eventually push out their own Novell Linux distro. Yeah, my money is on Novell continuing to have issues with SCO, and vise versa.
One hell of a game of chicken.
Novell v SCO re: Linux (Score:2)
Then again, I imagine that of IBM and SCO is suing them anyway.
Re:Novell v SCO re: Linux (Score:2)
Bring on Novell Red Hat Linux, Novell SuSe, Novell Debian
As long as it's on a Novell server....
Re:Flamebait? (Score:2)
Whatever the claims, Novell is immune.
We'll miss you Netware (Score:2, Interesting)
Interesting, I never knew this.. (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess Novell pulled a smart move of "Can't beat 'em, join 'em!" a year ago. Got to love the history points amoung articles making the view point a lot easier to understand. I "think"
i feel justified (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:i feel justified (Score:2)
Re:i feel justified (Score:2)
Re:i feel justified (Score:2)
Re:i feel justified - How are you using Netware? (Score:2)
Err. Linux and Netware are two completely different beasts:
User Management in linux is abysmal compared to NDS.
Hell, there are no inherited rights/filters on ext3 (or multiple ownerships)
Ther
Re:i feel justified (Score:2)
Then they went and ruined everything by putting up a shitty web site that, for each page, takes half an hour to load
Guess that's why they're teachers and not sys admins, huh?
Re:i feel justified (Score:3, Funny)
Re:i feel justified (Score:2)
Wow, huge move. (Score:2, Insightful)
However, it's another matter entirely to move to a model wehre instead of shipping a large, propeitary, unique product no one else has [NetWare] you are providing essentially a pure service-- you are taking products anyone else could have picked up and assembled (ximian, etc) and assembling them in a way that anyone could have done, but probably someone not doing it professionally could not do in as nice, coherent or usable a psckgage-- is another matter alt
Re:Wow, huge move. (Score:3, Informative)
You still have to pay for the actual products like edirectory, groupwise, zenworks etc it's just that the plan is to have everything run under Linux instead of the old Netware OS. (Which some of the software does already)
thank god (Score:5, Interesting)
THANK GOD.
I like the Novell kernel - but unfortunately programmers have gotten worse & don't want to take the time required to properly code drivers or modules for it. Everything runs at RING 0 - this means it's fast. It also means it's not a good market for developing software on it.
The Linux kernel has gotten Pretty Darned Good - with all of the modern features necessary in a state-of-the-art kernel. My complaint with it is that you can't scale Linux to multiple servers (from a management standpoint) like you can Netware.
Linux with Novell's style of enterprise management (eDirectory, cross-platform tools, open access to data, outstanding workstation management tools, etc.) would be a dream system to administer. It would also be innovative enough to handily compete with Microsoft's lack of enterprise management tools.
Re:thank god (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:thank god (Score:5, Interesting)
I've always thought that was cool too - but in reality, I don't think most people (outside of geeks) care that file serving speed is 20-30% faster than the competition. Except on really big servers that serve lots of people - but how many of those are left?
Unfortunately, the faster file speed has been tempered by problems (lately) with NSS & the Netware client itself. So it's a wash.
SAMBA (and Novell's own Native File Access Pack - presumably built on that) actually does a decent job with this--and is now faster than Microsoft's own file serving routines.
I do wonder how they're going to maintain the extended attributes associated with netware volumes--Novell's file systems have a richer standard set of attributes & trustee assignments than any other common server file system I've seen.
Re:thank god (Score:3, Informative)
Yes and no
Not for lots of small files. Translating file system semantics can take up a lot of time, and is much slower than windows. This is not likely to be fixed soon. Samba was noticably faster for large files, but I think that m$ have taken steps to make their fileserving faster these days.
Yay for competition.
Re:thank god (Score:2)
What about OpenAFS with Kerberos/LDAP for directory/auth/etc.
As an added bonus, they are free, open source, standard, and cross platform.
I've used netware for some time, and it's certainly a huge step up from Windows servers, but I've always found Unix systems to be a step ahead at least.
Re:thank god (Score:5, Insightful)
Setting up OpenAFS/Kerberos/LDAP is a lot of work--and kind of high-maintenance in comparison to eDirectory. eDirectory itself is actually more advanced and feature-rich than even the three of those pieces combined--it's a loosely-coupled replicated database that's tuned for slow WAN links. It's completely object-based (LDAP is just an access protocol - Kerberos is just an authentication method - AFS is just a distributed file system--none of these really define the "way" this data is stored, extended, replicated & accessed) & can handle any type of information. It can be extended on the fly. It's kinda hard to describe how impressive eDirectory is if you haven't seen it in action on a big WAN.
Other problems with the Novell kernel. (Score:3)
Virtual memory sucks, too. But then, virtual memory sucks most of the time.
As you've noted, ring 0 is fast. But any module can take out the entire server. ARCServe is notable for doing this fairly frequently.
Now the good things. It uses DOS to load itself. This might sound bad, but it makes troubleshooting a problem very easy.
Also, everything is a module. You can find the exact module that is causing th
Novell licensed rights to SCO, kept rights? (Score:3, Interesting)
If this is right, I assume that Novell also retains ownership rights to Unix. I wonder how this story affects the SCO/Linux and now Redhat/SCO lawsuits, Redhat being one of distributions Novell choose.
Re:Novell licensed rights to SCO, kept rights? (Score:3)
Dude, read up on it in the SCO Archive [pinkfairies.org].
It's all in there, all from the beginning.
~Will
GroupWise (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:GroupWise (Score:3)
At the moment I'm dealing this Notes/Domino. This platform is also impressive, but they could learn a thing or two from Novell. Especially in the GUI department. The 5.x Notes client is still a buggy, weird mess, which is a shame because the server hiding behind is it very worthy of respect. The last vers
Welcome Novell! (Score:4, Interesting)
Denied (Score:5, Informative)
Network software and service vendor Novell, meanwhile, upped the ante of its bet on Linux by announcing that it was porting its GroupWise groupware and collaboration software to the open-source OS.
Novell, which has been rushing to shift to Linux, announced Tuesday that its GroupWise collaboration platform will run entirely on Linux in the first half of 2004, when both client and server software is finalized. The Linux version of the GroupWise client is currently in beta, while the server software will enter beta in September.
GroupWise, which is part of Novell's Nterprise suite, does e-mail, calendaring, instant messaging, document management, and workflow management. Currently it runs on Windows and Novell's own NetWare operating systems. The Linux edition will also integrate with Ximian's Evolution collaboration client, promised Novell. The Provo, Ut.-based Novell acquired Ximian earlier this week.
Novell's pitch is just the latest in a round of moves by companies to port their collaboration and workgroup software to Linux. Last week, IBM Lotus said that it would include Linux support in the next version of its Domino Server, which is scheduled to debut as part of Notes 6.5 this fall.
"Enterprises are looking at Linux and open standard platforms for their messaging and collaboration applications," said Maurene Caplan Grey, a research director at Gartner.
Novell also announced that it's added support for Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 to its eDirectory directory service software.
eDirectory 8.7.1, which will be available August 8, will add support for these two Linux distributions to the already-available support for Windows, Solaris, NetWare, and AIX. Additional authentication features, including support for biometrics, smart cards, and tokens, will also be part of the upcoming edition. eDirectory will be priced at $2 per user, said Novell, with volume discounts available.
Also at LinuxWorld, reports surfaced that Novell was taking an even bigger step towards Linux by discontinuing development for its flagship NetWare network operating system.
That talk is all wrong, said Novell's president and CEO, Jack Messman on Wednesday.
"Novell is not dropping NetWare, we're adding Linux," said Messman.
Novell's shipping NetWare 6.5, the most recent version of its OS, next week, added Messman, and when it debuts NetWare 7.0 -- which is still in development -- the operating system will support both the NetWare and the Linux kernels.
"NetWare is not going away. Period," said Messman.
This story is a Troll! (Score:3, Insightful)
In future versions they have promised Netware will either run on a Netware kernel or a Linux kernel. Netware 8 may only have the option of a Linux kernel but Novell can still call it Netware if they want.
The question is how tightly they can wrap there added value services like eDirectory, iPrint, iManager, etc without having to GPL them as well.
Cheers
VikingBrad
Novell v. SCO? (Score:4, Interesting)
I suspect Novell is certainly up to something. Why? Novell wants to use linux as its default OS for the new netware product which will run on Linux.
But there's a snag. SCO is suing IBM, and possibly countersuing Red Hat. So what's a nervous Novell supposed to do?
Sue SCO. This will probably come at a shock to more than a few of you. But remember when SCO announced that it had ownership to the copyright to UNIX and didn't really transfer the copyrright to SCO?
First there was This statement [novell.com]. Then came the retraction. [novell.com]
In this article [microsoft-watch.com] Chris Stone says:
The funny thing is that upon reading the retraction carefully, Novell never said SCO was right. It was carefully worded. It said, that the documents "appeared" to be valid. If you read it one way, it agrees with SCO. If you read it another it doesn't.
Interesting, No?
Will they "close" Evolution source? (Score:5, Interesting)
Evolution is presently distributed under the GPL [ximian.com], so of course Evolution in its present state can not be "closed".
But, as far as I can tell, Novell Groupwise is not open source [novell.com]. Is this correct? I admit that I do not have any experience with their products.
What I am worried about is that the above quote is meant to suggest that the technologies in Evolution will be integrated with Novell's own proprietary solution, and that future development of Evolution as an open source product will be called into question, or will be seriously slowed.
Are these fears justified, or am I missing something here?
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? (Score:3, Insightful)
Chris
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? - No Chance (Score:3, Insightful)
Your fears are not justified, you are missing something - what's happening with other largish corporations working with OSS.
IBM have ported Linux to their s390 the code is still open. That's how GPL works, and IBM benefit from community contributions, peer review, reduced development costs and all the benefits that OSS brings.
Apple use OSS software extensively in OSX. Stuff that includes Samba, CUPS, OpenSSH, XFree86, and in all these cases Apple
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? - No Chance (Score:3)
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? (Score:3, Insightful)
If Ximian (and Novell) holds the copyrights they can release it under multiple licenses like Helix, apple etc. The code which is already out will be open while the newer code might be not.
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? (Score:2)
I use Evolution as my email client of choice. I seriously hope it continues as it has been started. I *think* that Novell "gets it," and I interpret what's been said to mean that they will be merging the products into one GPL'ed suite.
Re:Will they "close" Evolution source? (Score:2)
I was wondering the same thing, myself. I predict that Evolution will go the way of Nautilus. The Evolution developers will be reassigned to do a native GroupWise port. A patchwork of GNOME developers will keep Evolution on life support (i.e., adapting it to each backwards-incompatible revision of GTK+).
I don't miss many features in Evolution, so this would be an acceptable scenario. If anything, I'm more worried that
Novell denies claims (Score:5, Informative)
he forwarded me an e-mail from the CEO
A recent news report coming out of the LinuxWorld Conference suggests that Novell is considering stopping development of NetWare. We're not. Despite Novell's firm and frequent statements concerning continued development and support for NetWare, discussion of Novell's Linux strategy invariably leads to concern over Novell's NetWare commitment. Let us put those concerns to rest.
As we've said repeatedly, Novell is not dropping NetWare, we're adding Linux. Novell's focus is on the customer, and the customer wants choice. As we stated in April of this year, and again yesterday at LinuxWorld, we will make Novell's services available both on a NetWare kernel and a Linux kernel going forward. Novell has a large installed base of NetWare users, and we'll continue to serve those customers as we've always done. NetWare 6.5, the latest version of NetWare with powerful new services for business continuity, open source, Web application services and "virtual office" capabilities, begins shipping next week. . We have also announced that NetWare 7.0 is in development, that it will run on both the NetWare and Linux kernels, and that we will have more to say on it when it is appropriate. This is hardly a sign of reduced commitment
NetWare is not going away. Period.
Jack Messman
Chairman, President and CEO
Novell, Inc.
Wish SCO did the same. (Score:2)
I'm also getting very tired of all the SCO stuff, but this is really what SCO should've done. But then they would not have had a higher share price and a dickhead at the top.
But still, congrats to Novell for being brave. I hop
Re:Wish SCO did the same. (Score:3, Insightful)
This article states otherwise... (Score:4, Informative)
For those who have never seen Netware in action (Score:4, Insightful)
If I was a Network Manager at a small, 50-500 person company, I would definitely consider ripping out NT and replacing it Novell's offerings some time down the road.