Novell Buys Ximian

Quite a number of people have been submitting the news that Ximian has been purchased by Novell. All I've found so far is the press release linked to above; more links as they come in. Looks like Nat & Miguel will be remaining around, and Novell's continuing to expand its Open Source commitments. Update: 08/04 17:30 GMT by S : viewstyle writes "According to an interview with Ximian's CTO Miguel de Icaza at Eweek.com, Ximian won't be affected at all by Novell's buyout, and will be shipping a PowerPC version of Mono (preview release in Sept)."

Comments

Good News!

[nbarr]

Hopefully, this will improve the development of the desktop Linux. Maybe we will see big improvements in this area, as Novell improves Gnome, causing KDE to also improve so that they dont lag behind.

Also, Mono will probably get major improvements, becoming a good .net alternative.

As far as I'm concerned, good news.

Re:Good News!

[nbarr]

I understand your comments, but the reason I believe it will help Mono and gnome, is not because of Novell experience, but simply because Novell has more funds to invest in full time programmers for those projects. That will make the development faster, if not better.

Re:Good News!

[Hecubas]

Um, have you actually used Novell or are you just trolling?

Yes, the Netware server doesn't have a fantastic GUI, but then just like Unix or Linux, having a character based console is preferred by many sysadmins. It's fast and simple--no wasted memory on a GUI there.

I'm thinking Novell knows a little bit about GUI apps since they've built a very important one. The ConsoleOne GUI for managing eDirectory is an interesting program, you can extend its capabilities with snapins. Maybe not the best GUI but it gets the job done. Adding the Gnome developer will only help Novell in the long run.

Novell also has a great interest in the desktop since one of their hottest bits of software, Zenworks, is all about managing desktop PC's. If you've ever had to manage 50 or more desktops, you'll realize how handy all the Zenworks tools are. If I'm not mistaken, you'll be seeing those tools on Linux soon.

As for .Net, it seems to make perfect sense that Novell would like .Net running on their platforms if they want to play the "embrace and extend" game that Microsoft is so good at. Give the developers no reason to avoid Novell.

As for the licensing, I would argue that the value you get in Novell's products is well worth the cost. I have yet to see any thing else that can do a better job at managing a network for an enterprise for Novell's price.

One last thing, Novell has certainly been good with supporting Open Source projects. Very cool, unlike the alternative that is trying to squash the GPL.

If I had my mod points today, you sir would have not been given insightful.

I wonder...

[avalys]

I wonder if this will affect Novell's behavior towards SCO - if they didn't already have an interest in defending Linux, they certainly will now. Considering that they claim to possess the copyrights that SCO is using to bully IBM, I think this may prove to be a Good Thing.

Evolution Exchange Connector

[revividus]

I wonder what will happen with Ximian's Exchange connector for Evolution? I hope Novell keeps it around, because it's probably my sole hope of getting a boss-approved Linux box at work...

Mixed Feelings

[Silwenae]

I'm of mixed feelings on this.

I am of the belief that Novell bought Ximian more for Ximian Connector than anything else, Mono second, and oh yeah, Ximian Desktop / Gnome Development is thrown in.

I have a hard time believing Novell has a vested interest in a Linux desktop like Gnome. Out of the three software apps Ximian works with, Gnome is the only one that isn't so much a cross-platform application (Gnome development for Sun / *BSD aside).

It's probably good for Mono as well. But does Novell have the cash to continue development of all these?

I just hope Novell doesn't let them die on the vine.

Re:It's all over for Ximian

[Ominous Coward]

I think perhaps Novell has a tendency to make poor choices in its purchases?

I'm not sure about the rest, but there's little Novell could have done to help DR-DOS. Microsoft broke many laws to keep MS-DOS on top back then.

Re:It's all over for Ximian

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh please. The parent should be moderated Flaimbait. The thing different from all those other companies is that Gnome is not Ximian. 99% of Ximian's technology is Open Source so Novell dieing out would not affect this. Besides they have been predicting the death of Novell for years now, just like Unix. Novell has a good stratigy behind it. Since its services are top notch and run under Linux they can sell both directly or say to IBM customers. My whole city still runs on Novel. Well instead of migrating to Windows they can now migrate to Novell running Linux. I wish this solution was out when I was doing an internship in London. The solisitors I was working for was using Novell I had to recommend a company that was switching them to NT. They wanted to stick with Novell but all the support was dropping for it. Now this comes out, coupled with the growing number of firs supporting Linux and Novell has new life. It is still a gamble for them but one I beleive will pay off.

Re:It's all over for Ximian

[Menthos]

Novell [...] has purchased one of the few Linux desktops

Novell acquired Ximian, not GNOME. Ximian is not GNOME, they're only one of the companies behind it. Other significant companies behind GNOME include Sun and Red Hat who also contribute loads of resources, and also many additional sponsors like HP, Mandrake, and IBM. Not to mention the huge amount of independant volunteers, that made the project even possible to begin with.

So there seems to be a huge difference with GNOME compared to the examples you mentioned -- this one will undoubtly survive even without Novell, should they decide to leave it for some reason.

Re:Expanding thier OPEN SOURCE committment?

[mccalli]

"If all Novell will do is 'support GNU/Linux'...then they are not 'supporting Open Source', they are supporting GNU/Linux...Why use the inclusive language of Open Source when you are in fact not inclusive?"

You're getting ahead of yourself there. Novell's statement is that they'll "continue to expand their Open Source commitment", not that they'll only support Linux. Sun, for one, will be quite interested in having GNOME and associated apps supported under Solaris as they've chosen it for their next UI.

I'm dubious too, but give some time to see what happens. It's too early to see this is either good or bad - actions speak louder than words, and we would do well to sit back and allow some action to take place before writing people off.

Cheers,
Ian

What does it mean?

[conan_albrecht]

It means that many of the Novell employees are Mormon. That's it. I have many friends who work for Novell, and I can tell you, Novell's historical poor business choices have nothing to do with religion. :)

Saying that "Mormons are in control of Novell, Canopy, etc. because the companies are in Utah and have Mormon employees, board members, etc." is like saying that the "German government is in charge of United Linux because many of the SUSE employees are Germans."

Re:Might not be about the desktop war

[afidel]

Personally I think it has more to do with Mono and Novell's attempted transformation into an ecomerce/ebusiness platform. If you can run your .Net middleware on something as stable as a Novell server (yes Novell server beat even Linux for uptime, hell they aproach mainframes, would probably be there too if the hardware was better) then why would you run it on windows =)

Possibilities

[The Evil Muppet]

The way I see it, there is an awful lot that Novell stands to gain out of this:

• A native Groupwise client - Novell has publicly stated that the anticipated move away from client software to web interface access to Groupwise was wrong. Looking at the Ximian press release confirms this part of the deal. The fact that they now have Java clients available to fill this gap seems a bit hollow now really.
• Another bit of server software to flaunt - Novell is being a lot more proactive in expanding the Novell NetWare software library as of late. They assisted in the ports of PostgreSQL and MySQL to NetWare after Oracle dropped support. Mono fits rather nicely considering the above.
• They can let PHB and BOFH types have their way - Some PHBs will choose Windows as their server platform based on the "strugle" (read slaughter) involving .NOT and J2EE. If Novell throw some resources behind Mono, they can also fill that role for those who must have a commercial OS (yes, all 6 of you).
• ZenWorks gets a boost - Red Carpet works and works well now. As ZenWorks is one of the cornerstones of Novell's Linux strategy, anything they can get their hands on to improve it is a definite "yes, gimme!".
• "From the trenches" assistance with their Linux push - Even though Novell have plenty of experience developing for UNIX in general and Linux specifically, having some of the bods from Ximian to help out with the porting of things like iPrint to Linux would have to be a plus
• Offering the complete package - Even though they tend to work together a fair bit these days (both are committed to J2EE, both are involved in the Liberty alliance), Novell needs a desktop strategy to compete with Sun's desktop Linux plans. Additionally, their sales force will no longer need to say "Sure! We can provide all of your server needs! Err...client side? Umm....the area code for Redmond is...."
• Highlighting Novell's commitment to the open source world - Even though Novell have backed down slightly from those dicks who sell stuff that they dare call a UNIX (all who want to see an OpenServer box urinated on, set on fire and then detonated get in touch) this is a pretty decent way of saying "Yes, you own the copyright to a few things. Think we care?"

Well, that's me out of ideas.

Re:One more involved

[MyHair]

These companies, which on certain fields compete against each other, are willing to go in the same direction, isn't it weird?

It's not weird at all. What these companies have done is embraced a piece of software that can't be forcibly pulled out from under them. For an x86 example, Microsoft has consistently been ulitmately destructive to the more successful vendors that run on it (WP, Lotus 1-2-3, Citrix, Quicken, Netscape, co-dev deal with IBM OS/2, etc.). With open source they simultaneously cut costs, improve their PR image, retain control over the code as used for them and have public code review/debugging/contributions.

Remember, there are a lot of Novell installations

[WoTG]

Fact 1: A lot of Novell installations are still out there. I would hazard a guess that a disproportionate number of the larger corporate networks are Novell.
Fact 2: Linux is slowing making it's way into corporate networks, but realistically very few companies will completely switch over.
Given this, we see that more so than ever before, it's a mixed network future, Linux + MS + Novell (sometimes) + Whatever. Something people haven't mentioned too much is that Novell Directory Services has add-ons to make it cross-platform, Microsofts AD does NOT. So, if you want to make your spiffy new mixed network run smoothly with less administrative work the choice is clear now, run Novell NDS - possibly even if you don't have Novell servers at all!
Good deal for all involved... all makes sense to me at least.

Re:Wha...?

[Arker]

It's higher than 55%. But even if it weren't, that's still a majority, which means the original poster was right, most utahans are mormons.

And yes, the first post was 'a little goofy' that's why it's rated funny. Laugh. Hahah. You familiar with the concept?

I spent some of the best years of my life surrounded by mormons, I've had a lot of mormon friends, I've got nothing against mormons. Doesn't mean we can't occasionally joke about them. Fact is, most of the good mormon jokes I've heard were told to me by mormons. The best lawyer jokes always came from my aunt who is a lawyer, and the best jew jokes I know came from friends who are jewish. Humour is a pretty universal human trait. Although every group has a few that just don't get it, apparently.