Novell as Open Source Hero? 283
ccnull writes "Who's the #2 Linux vendor in the world? Would you believe Novell? Infoworld takes a look at this long-struggling giant and how it has (and hasn't) reinvented itself as an open source company in the face of utterly losing the LAN market to Microsoft." The piece argues: "But even though it seems to be holding all the right cards, Novell faces tough odds. In recent years, tough competition from Microsoft and dwindling support from third-party developers have caused Novell's once-loyal base to look elsewhere for infrastructure needs. Unless it can win back the loyalty of the industry, Novell's new, Linux-centric message could fall on deaf ears."
Well, yes.... (Score:2, Informative)
Well, yes. Yes, I would. They just bought SuSE.
Owners of SuSE are second-largest Linux supplier: really, who'd have thought it? I eagerly await Slashdot's coverage of papal philosophical leanings and silvan ursine defecatory habits.
Re:Mono (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Effective? (Score:5, Informative)
Evolution 2 seems to become all good! (Score:3, Informative)
http://codeblogs.ximian.com/blogs/evolution/
Re:Mono (Score:2, Informative)
There's a nice Case study of upgrading from Suse 8.2 -> 9.0 using APT [geocities.com]. Didn't quite work as cleanly as a major Debian upgrade, but sure as hell beats re-installing the whold OS (as redhat and suse's yast installer seem to enjoy)
Trying (Score:5, Informative)
This comprehensive Novell Linux collection includes the following on 3 DVDs (10 GB):
- SUSE Linux Professional 9.1 (Bootable Installation DVD)
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 (ISO Installation Images)
- SUSE Linux Professional 8.2 (Installation ISO images for use with Ximiam Desktop)
- Ximian Desktop 2.0 Evaluation (ISO Image)
- Red Carpet 2.0.2 Evaluation (ISO Image)
- GroupWise for Linux 6.5.1 - Server, Client & Messenger (ISO Images)
- Novell Nterprise Linux Services 1.0 (ISO Image & NLS Companion CD)
- And more...
I look forward to trying out SUSE Enterprise Server 8, as I am / was considering moving to Fedora. Sorry, if you're interested, they aren't offering it anymore. Link Here [novell.com]
Novell (Score:5, Informative)
Take a look at eDirectory, which is far superior to MS AD and runs on almost any OS. Identity Manager (formerly DirXML) can syncronise information across your enterprise.
Zenworks delivers applications/patches to your workstations, servers, laptops and handhelds based on who you are and what relationship you have with the company (employee, division, position, customer, business partner, etc). Furthermore, it does not care how you connect!
Adding linux to the mix gives existing Netware installations an alternative future and piggybacks off OSS - smart move. For some interesting reading have a look at Open Enterprise Server - all your favorite Novell utilities on a linux platform. I for one will be making use of this....
Re:Still a lot of restructuring ahead (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Some years ago... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Trying (Score:3, Informative)
Another thing to consider... Enterprise products such as SLES and RHAS will have a 5 year supported lifecycle. That means that you'll still be able to get security patches in 5 years time. Can you say that about your current version of Fedora ?
Novell and IBM, sitting in a tree (Score:5, Informative)
Novell has realized that the OS the server runs is largely irrelevant to the users - they just care about the SERVICES the server provides. Migrating away from NetwareOS to an OS that supports 64 bit platforms allows Novell to break through the 4G barrier.
So, what do you want from your file server? Massive RAM, MASSIVE DISK I/O and even more massive network I/O. Reliability. Fault tolerance. Expandability. Hot-swap EVERYTHING.
Now, name a vender of server iron that meets those specs. I know of a little company that can do that - so little they only need three letters for their name. A company who's middle name literally IS "business".
Imagine what would happen if Novell made Netware services available on the IBM zSeries or iSeries. Now you have a platform that supports massive quantities of FAST disks, smart disk I/O subsystems, smart network subsystems. A system that can sense a failing disk and phone home - you come to work in the morning and an IBM tech is waiting at the door with a replacement disk before the disk fails, swaps it out in a minute, and you users never notice.
A system where if you find yourself a little light on CPU, a phone call fixes the problem. A system where you can run multiple virtual servers as needed. You want database? Run DB2, either on the Linux image or under OS400/OS390.
A Novell/IBM teamup would be SCARY compelling for IT managers world-wide.
Now, I don't have any insider information, but I cannot beleive that this is NOT being worked upon in Deep Dark Places at Novell and IBM.
Re:Effective? (Score:3, Informative)
Technically this is true, but the connector basically uses Microsoft Outlook Web Access via HTTP. Nice toy, but I wouldn't want to use it in anger.
Re:Novell and IBM, sitting in a tree (Score:2, Informative)
Now that SuSE is part of their strategy, Novell are moving to make their products available on the entire set of IBM hardware.
So they are in fact already doing exactly what you've just said, and making no secret of it, either.
Re:Gentoo (Score:3, Informative)
That I find that Gentoo's startup scripts and the way
Excuse me? (Score:5, Informative)
In the server room 30 feet from my desk I have 21 servers. 3 of them are running Novell Netware 6, the rest of them varying flavors of NT Server, 2K server and 2K3. There's a reason I'm running 3 large office buildings worth of users on only 3 Netware servers - because that's all I NEED to do it. If you look out there you might say "Well, Microsoft has 18 server installations to Novell's 3. Microsoft is winning." You'd be wrong.
Re:Mono (Score:3, Informative)
But by far the best part of compiling has to be dependencies...
Many programs have optional features which are only turned on if certain libraries are present, for instance kerberos support in pine and some other packages... If you use a precompiled distribution then all these packages will be compiled against all the optional components so they suit the widest possible audience of users...
However, that means we have to waste diskspace and ram on these unnecessary libraries... I use pine and pico on a regular basis, but i have never needed or wanted kerberos support...
And lots of apps come with optional X11/kde/gnome/gtk interfaces... its pretty irritating that some tool you want to run in commandline mode on a headless server requires you to install X11 and gnome etc..
Gentoo is not just source based. (Score:2, Informative)
As for compiling yourself and any speed improvement, that's dependant on what CFLAGS you use and how fast your computer actually is, and what processor you have. Some people won't notice a difference, some people do, and the people that do notice will notice it in varying amounts.
There's also binary packages in "regular" Gentoo for packages like the Flash plugin, NVidia/NForce drivers, Java and some games, which fall in the "non-free" category (ie: closed source). There's also ebuilds for some commerical games (that you have to purchase).
Re:Excuse me? (Score:2, Informative)
WTF - SUSE Desktop Registration (Score:3, Informative)
"Registration is required for the free download of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal. You will also be asked to complete a very brief survey."
No thanks, Novell. I think I'll grab my copy here [linuxiso.org].
Re:Not "winning back" loyalty, but maybe winning. (Score:2, Informative)
1. Novell's products have always been top notch
2. Novell's support community is great and you won't hear, "Hey, N00B, RTFM"
3. Novell seems to respect their customers and does not force feed them crappy products with forced upgrades every two years
4. Novell has inspired great loyalty among those of us who have used their products over the years. In order to foster this loyalty, a company must produce technically superior products and have a great support ecosystem
Re:Is Ximian dead? (Score:3, Informative)
When a SuSE/Novell rep came to my university to try to pitch his wares to our Linux admin group, he said quite clearly that Ximian Desktop's going to be a Novell exclusive. That doesn't mean they're going to suddenly pull their source tree, but if you liked XD (and it's not bad!), you're going to need to move to SuSE. He also said they wouldn't be releasing a general Netware client program, but implementing it into SuSE. I'm assuming it'll be open-source, though, so there's nothing stopping Red Hat, Mandrake, GNOME, or KDE from simply integrating it themselves.
This change might be painful for Debian and some other distros, but Red Hat and Mandrake are rolling their own Evolution RPMs anyways, so it's not likely to affect them much.
As the parent points out, XD was largely superfluous for FC1 anyways, since it had most of the graphical config tools anyways. I can see why it would be a lot more important for Debian, though...
-Erwos
Re:Should Novell have lost? (Score:5, Informative)
Before you write off Novell completely, consider the following:
1) I have two helpdesk staff supporting 40 locations and 500 users across the US.
2) I have no other IT support outside our headquarters.
3) I can have someone whose PC catches fire, sit down at any other PC in the building and be back up and running in 5 minutes. With no intervention.
This is why you want to distribute per user, or entitle individuals to applications. You're leveraging the fact that identity is meaningful.
4) My helpdesk can reimage any PC back to known good, off-network, in less than 30 minutes, anywhere in my company.
This is why you want ZEN in particular. It provides a cohesive link between individual, PC, and applications, and allows you to centrally manage all of them.
Spend some time doing serious network administration at a big company, and you'll probably wish for ZEN or something like it. "Automate Everything", one of the core rules of system administration.
Re:Is Ximian dead? (Score:5, Informative)
The Ximian hackers are still together. As a matter of fact, they moved into some really nice new offices in Cambridge from Boston. They are still doing what they do best.
Evolution: 2.0 is due out this year. It's awesome. It required a ton of work and most of the people who did 1.0 are doing 2.0, they're still there.
Ximian Desktop: Wait and see for this one. You'll see.
Connector: GPL'd. This surely isn't a bad thing from the open source community's point of view, is it?
Yes, maybe some of the branding is gone and the name Ximian isn't used as much, but it doesn't mean Ximian is dead. Far from it.
Re:Effective? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Novell needs to do the following: (Score:4, Informative)
Live down their past??? So Netware faded away. So? You still have the finest directory service in the world in eDirectory and one of the best sets of tools for desktop management in Zenworks. Novell has consistently created valuable solutions that they have sold to a very large number of very satisfied customers. After all, they still have the cleanest balance sheet in the IT industry. They didn't get that without revenue.
Please. IBM didn't pay for the port to the mainframe. A handful of developers within IBM found out that some enthusiasts within Suse were working on it and clandestinely helped them out. They got it done in less than six months. At that point, they told IBM's management, who were completely blown away. The first $1 billion IBM w spent was almost entirely on marketing. What didn't go there was spent on ramping up skills within their dev groups to port apps and OSes.
Yes, Novell has do a major marketing push. In case you haven't noticed, THEY ARE DOING JUST THAT! It takes TIME to change perceptions. Give them a year or two to get the message out and sell some support contracts, willya?