Novell Nterprise Linux Services Announced 236
eer writes "At BrainShare (Novell's customer/developer conference), Novell customers reacted positively to the news that they would have the choice of running Novellâ(TM)s network services on Linux or NetWare or both. Today the company provided more details by introducing Novell Nterprise Linux Services, which will give customers file, print, messaging, directory and management services in an integrated package that runs on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server distributions--along with providing those customers with comprehensive Novell technical support, training and consulting services for Linux. Partner companies, including IBM, HP, Dell, Red Hat and others, also voiced their support for Novell's Linux."
Two fingers to SCO (Score:2, Insightful)
A couple years late? (Score:2, Insightful)
Novell Is Smart. (Score:2, Insightful)
Novell is coming around (Score:5, Insightful)
No we know... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm not sure about that. Can you imagine if Novell had announced this 2 years ago? Linux lovers would have praised them, but no one else would have taken them seriously because so few people took Linux seriously. It would have been another questionable product/marketing move from Novell.
Now, however, Linux has tons of mind share, and we also know why Novell got involved with the SCO train wreck.
--madgeorge
How much will we pay for convenience? (Score:5, Insightful)
About time (Score:5, Insightful)
Used to be, the reason why you bought Netware was to do thse these things:
1. File Server.
2. Print Server.
3. Administration of 1 and 2.
For a long time, Novell had the best of 1 and 2 - and with their directory services, they weren't matched. I loved using Novell's admin tools. They were usually easy enough to get in and do what you want, and powerful enough to do all sorts of other things. You could set up rights, trickle them down or stop trickling, take care of email stuff - right there in one nice interface. Sure, it wasn't perfect - but compared to the compeition....
The problem came with Linux, and people realized "Hm - do I need to spend this much for a file/print server?" They web server offerings in my humble opinion stank, and I never really liked Groupwise that much. It could do a lot of cool things, but other simple things that I would have expected were beyond it's grasp.
So I see this as a Very Good Thing for Novell. In a way, they can be like Apple, only for the Server world on Linux. Apple's OS X's strength is that you can do all the cool Unix stuff you want - without having to do anything Unix-y to get it to work. You can crawl under the hood if you like or just sit at the dashboard.
I'm browsing through the Novell offering, and here's what I'm hoping for:
1. A kick-ass admin tool like thier old NWAdmin.exe tool. Start making plugins for things like Sendmail, Postfix, Apache - whatever. Go ahead and charge for the plugins so we can just sit back and go "click, click, click" and get stuff done rather that going "Hey - what was the setting in Apache for turning on directory indexing!" (Yes, I know what it is, thank you, move on.) Sure - there's stuff like Webmin that can do this, but Novell's Admin tool was still (IMHO) cooler. And with drag and drop, the directory style layout, and being able to click on a user and get all info right there would be most excellent.
Make it Java based so I don't have to run it off of Windows. (What the hell was up with that, anyway? I could never figure out why Novell couldn't make an Admin tool for their servers that didn't run on Windows - granted, the last Novell I really used was Netware 5, so don't sue me if things have changed.)
2. You can have multiple Linux servers out there, and instead of trying to figure out your LDAP settings and that, just install the software, start the admin, and say "These Directory users have these rights on this box on this directory" - click, click, click - you're done, have a nice day. This was something promised with eDirectory, but I'd like to see it really hardcore delivered.
With this, merge the strength of Linux's "no license fee" with Novell's admin/directory tools. I want to have a server I can throw 5, 500, 50000 users on and not worry about licensing - and I just pay Novell for the user interface and tools. I can even see paying Novell like their mass server license - I pay for how many concurrent users I have on the system, unlimited servers. (So, for example, I can have 500 servers out there, and if I only need a 5 user license, I just pay Novell once for 5 users to administrate the boxes.)
I think if Novell plays their cards right and goes for the "administrate, authenticate, and authorize" bit for Linux services, they can work with Linux to make a lot of money, and make Linux so Admin Friendly as to keep pushing that other desktop/server OS [microsoft.com] out of the market.
Of course, I could be wrong. But... isn't it nice to dream....
Re:Way to go Novell (Score:2, Insightful)
They don't even have to challenge it. Just show pretty pictures and spend enough money on researching Outlook that managers then have little or no choice but to follow through (or be seen having wasted money). *sighs*
Why Companies Support Linux (Score:2, Insightful)
Why does IBM support Linux? So they can sell more consulting, hardware and software, their bread and butter. How about Dell? More hardware, more choices of consumer OS. How about HP? Same as IBM. What about Oracle, Veritas, WebLogic and Novell? To sell more of their software.
I'm not saying Linux is the best solution for every need, but I'm not saying it's the worst either. Just keep in mind when you see companies cheering on Linux it may not be because it's Linux, but because it can provide more revenue for the company's products that produce the majority (or all) of their revenue.
Re:No we know... (Score:3, Insightful)
I remember the big push by Microsoft to use Active Directory in enterprise networks, upgrading from NT to 2K and using Active Directory to manage everything. Just like today, no one else really had a solution for massive infrastructures (using a client-server setup) with a central system for administration. Sure, NetWare was/is available, but it requires Windows to be utilized completely. This new functionality now makes it possible to have a massive server-clinet network with a non-Windows client OS and still retain the central point of administration.
Novell + Linux = an alternative for Active Directory. Had this possbility been available before Active Directory was proven/accepted, we would be seeing a more competive enterprise business.
Re:Way to go Novell (Score:4, Insightful)
As one who has to suffer with Groupwise under Windows at work, I am concerned for your mental well being. For me, GW has been nothing but a leading source of crashes on my desktop. In all likelyhood this is related to our IS department (complete with the Windows experts that plugged my SCSI Zip drive into the parallel port after an upgrade), so I should take your message to heart and not blame Novell.
Re:debian advocacy (Score:1, Insightful)
I, for one, am a happy boy. (Score:3, Insightful)
Now I can have the best of both worlds. I actually prefer to work with Linux. NetWare can be frustrating, but it's bulletproof when it's setup correctly. Linux seems to be more forgiving in many ways. Plus the wide variety of software for Linux (there are, what, 6 different widely-used MTAs alone?) means I can accomplish more with the platform.
This news kept my largest NetWare client from moving to all-Windows servers. The client had been intrigued with Linux, but didn't feel comfortable using it in production. Now they won't have a problem with it. In their eyes, Linux is ligitimate now. I'm sure they aren't the only ones.