Open Source Advocate VP Chris Stone Leaves Novell 172
SafeTinspector writes "ComputerWorld has a story regarding the sudden departure of Chris Stone, a respected open source advocate and the man often sited as the architect behind Novell's acquisistion of Ximian and SUSE as well as the recent open source orientation of Novell.
At the same time, Novell has a web site dedicated to dispelling the mistruths propogated in Microsoft's 'Get the Facts' campaign. What does all this mean to the future of Novell's Linux and Open Source strategy? Does any of this relate to the imminent release of Open Enterprise Server? Anybody?"
At the same time, Novell has a web site dedicated to dispelling the mistruths propogated in Microsoft's 'Get the Facts' campaign. What does all this mean to the future of Novell's Linux and Open Source strategy? Does any of this relate to the imminent release of Open Enterprise Server? Anybody?"
Maybe that they realized that Evolution sucks (Score:4, Interesting)
If you don't seek help here... (Score:3, Interesting)
Get [reference.com] help [m-w.com] somewhere [bartleby.com].
tr.v. sited, siting, sites
To situate or locate on a site: sited the power plant by the river.
tr.v. cited, citing, cites
To quote as an authority or example.
Do it now, before it's too late [detnews.com].
Wall Street didn't appreciate it (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.reuters.com/financeNewsArticle.jhtml?t
Re:He's coming to MS. (Score:2, Interesting)
Though some of they work is good and genuinely well-intentioned, the OSS community know that they never really had an 'image' to begin with among the UN*X/OSS community - and I don't believe I need to expand or prove that claim. Maybe to organisations, companies and average users; but not to anyone who understand how MS 'thinks' collectively.
I think Ballmer's open desparation to cut-down Linux is continuing its established course.
As they have said Open Source/Linux is a concern to them and they continue to over-estimate the threat.
"Capturing value" vs. free beer (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:He's coming to MS. (Score:5, Interesting)
1) If 'younger ones' at MSFT already know about this (suggesting it's widely known in Redmond), why is an AC posting on /. the first the rest of the world hears about the alleged offer?
2) From TFA:
Doesn't exactly tally with your tale of Ballmer buying him off. Which is not to say that he couldn't go to MSFT, but I doubt that Redmond was his intended destination when he left.Re:He's coming to MS == Bullshit troll (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?New
Re:Push Open Source:???:Profit!!! (Score:2, Interesting)
Hoax (Score:2, Interesting)
He says he can't post using his real UID because it would jeopardize his job. Then he says that he is "coming _here_ to Microsoft".
If he was concerned about his job he would not have given an indication that he worked for MS, nor would he point out that he posts anonymously because he is at risk.
what it is like to work with Stone (Score:5, Interesting)
We spent 2 years putting together a fancy XML based web application for inventory tracking at Stone's Tilion web startup company in Maynard. We went, burned, through about 26 million. The sales people couldn't sell the Tilion product at all. Nobody wanted it. Stone desperately tried to retool the product several times by adding in other third party software. We just ended up spending more money on a more expensive product that still nobody wanted! Eventually the investors showed up one day and pulled the plug on the company.
I followed his path for awhile after he left Tilion for Novell. He seemed to be doing the exact same thing he did at Tilion his failed startup: buying up third party software and mashing it all together. My guess is the same exact thing happened at Novell which happened at Tilion: a lot of money was spent and sales didn't increase -- a practice which is discouraged in the corporate world.
In conclusion, lately I have been seeing Stone as the Al Gore of software executives. Just because he claims to have 'invented' CORBA doesn't necessarily mean he is a good business leader. He is a decent guy but just not a great leader.
Re:Sky is not falling, no film at 11 (Score:1, Interesting)
The difference in this case, is the tech community
has a mature understanding of where apple, microsoft, and even linux are heading both from social and technical perspectives.
with novell, the picture is a little less clear. who -really- architected novell's recent shift? assuming one person had the most influence, if -that- person bailed, would novell keep their current course or deviate again? what if -that person- was chris stone, as some speculate?
-ac
Re:He's coming to MS. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sky is not falling, no film at 11 (Score:3, Interesting)
Chris Stone said that "it is with some regret" that he is leaving and he got a big severance package. That doesn't sound like it was an amicable parting.
As much as folks invest in the cult of personality Linux wouldn't come to a screeching halt without Torvalds,
In this case, it's Wall Street and customers that may have invested millions that are practicing the cult of personality, and they will be practicing it with Novell the same way as they do with any other company. (Besides, like it or not, without these cults of personality, Linux, MS, Apple, and other big projects just wouldn't exist.)
No, the sky isn't falling, but this is the sort of thing investors do pay attention to, and the ball is in Novell's court to come up with an explanation and a reassuring response.
Re:He's coming to MS. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:He's coming to MS. (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Sky is not falling, no film at 11 (Score:5, Interesting)
Funny that you put this in the past tense, as if a bunch of promised vaporware is reality or something.
Novell's main source of revenue comes from NetWare-based products. They bought a money-losing SuSE, but haven't done much to reposition it or sell it to their current customer base, yet. They bought Ximain, but haven't articulated any clear plan for the "desktop" or developer tools (Mono). They haven't even put the SuSE (KDE) people and the Ximain people on the same page.
I only say this because Novell has a history of schizophrenic strategy changes every few years. They might become a "Linux Shop" in the future, but I wouldn't count these chickens before they hatch.
Re:what it is like to work with Stone (Score:5, Interesting)
To dispel the troll myth let me put it this way, Stone was in my cubicle once a week to review things. Was he a good motivator? yes. Was he technically astute? no. He was good at knowing current buzzwords in the industry like 'XML database' but he lacked the technical ability to see how useful the buzzword was. Was the company fun to work at? Not really. The engineers never really knew the direction of the final product. The company had a feeling to it like it was being run by old IBM exec's, which was weird for a startup.
Re:They Got 'Political Capital' with Us (Score:3, Interesting)
The fact of the matter is, Novell has killed EVERYTHING it has ever touched. Everything. WordPerfect - All but Dead. OpenDoc - Dead. USL/Unixware - Dead. Etc.. etc.. etc..
I was rightly concerned when Novell bought Ximian, and even more concerned when they bought SuSE. Apart from the utter stupidity of an american company running the show at a german one (and a brazillian one), Novell doesn't know how to grow a company, how to change, how to adapt.
The best that can be hoped for is that Novell see's how incompetant it is and sell those divisions off again. At least that's what it did with WordPerfect and USL, but it was too late.
Re:They Got 'Political Capital' with Us (Score:3, Interesting)
RedHat was founded in 1993. SuSE was founded in 1992. Novell was founded in 1983.
The point is that from a technical prospective the differences between SuSE and RedHat are minor except to the most sophisticated of users. From the angle of experience in the Linux business again RedHat and SuSE are about the same. From the angle of experience supporting a very large customer base ranging from small to large businesses Novell trumps RedHat hands down.
In the end the battle for Linux (and OSS in general) is going to be won or lost based on quality of support.
That's not saying Novell doesn't have alot to learn and change, but as long as enough people at Novell recognize what is was about Novell that made it survive all these years and what it is about Novell that has to change with the switch from NetWare to Linux, they'll do pretty well.
Also, Novell has no choice but to stay the course, I don't think anyone there is stupid enough to think they can go back to NetWare.
Bad Things Going On At Novell (Score:2, Interesting)
There is a culture war underway between the products side of the house and the services side. This is the beginning of much restructuring at the big red N house...
Novell runs a strict hierarchy; Stone didn't fit (Score:2, Interesting)
The acquisitions were pretty good, although Novell's not known for integrating their acquisitions very well-- if at all given they let Unix slip from their fingers at a crucial time.
Novell has one of the strictest hierarchies in the business world. That hasn't changed, and likely never will until they're acquired. It's their corporate culture-- embedded by Ray Noorda-- still another guy that tried to face down Bill Gates and lost. So, Stone's departure isn't any news; it was simply a matter of how long Chris could survive there.
Re:what it is like to work with Stone (Score:2, Interesting)
Was he technically astute - No, he just knows buzzwords
He tended to be a typical salesperson - Political, He was careful to make himself look good at the expense of the company.
Just my 2 cents. (Just don't ask me what it was like to work with Jeff Merkey -- YUCK)