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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)."
My biggest problem with Novell is that to get any of the great benefits that Netware provides, I have to buy a slew of stuff -- like ZenWorks and BorderWare. To get a complete network OS, I have to either shell out, or make some kludges to get things to work together, using olde batch files, for example.
In all, this means it's better to start of with something that only claims to be the hub of an NOS and build other software on to it -- like SME Server -- and its at no cost.
In buying Ximian, I hope Novell will be able to offer SMEs a workable, useful, solution that gives everyting a NOS should be capable of for the same price (rather than just the core) so desktop management (over Windows, Linux and Mac), e-mail, and firewalling would all come together at a Microsoft-beating price.
First there was IBM. But IBM made a deal with a guy named Bill and slowly saw their computer monopoly erode, as this thing called Windows allowed anyone to operate any PC. But then it was decided to link computers together, and up came a new software company, Novell, and now someone other than Bill was making money off of software, and Bill didn't like that, so out came Windows NT, and Novell saw their brief monopoly collapse. IBM and Novell weren't happy, so IBM hooked up with another guy, named Linus, and slowly started taking back what Microsoft had taken away, in the datacenter, at least. So here's Novell, looking at IBM and realizing hey, it brought them back, it can bring us back too. And now the community has a big player putting Linux on the corporate desktop. Right on, Novell. Best of luck to ya.
It would be easy for Novell to put together a nice bundle of Linux technologies, then sell it under their own name. The PHBs who don't trust OSS wouldn't have to know any better.
I'd personally like to see Novell hire the SAMBA team. It would be pretty cool to see them take back the file and print server space from MS using their name on OSS.
Yes, but Novell does have experience buying, then passing along, dying technologies. They bought the UNIX codebase, which they then passed along. They bought WordPerfect too.
The problem is, Ximian isn't a dying technology. This doesn't fit the pattern for Novell...
A Good Intro to NetBS
Are they all wanting the success of GNU/Linux or is it a case of against-Microsoft-anything-will-do?
These companies, which on certain fields compete against each other, are willing to go in the same direction, isn't it weird?
Well, since the most major improvements to Windows in the last 8 years (Active Directory) has been available in some form or fashion in Novell for over 15 years I would say that their strength may well lie in merging that kind of functionality into Linux. I only hope they keep their development OSS. That is the only real problem I see.
It really won't matter one bit if they start running Ximian offerings into the ground. If they are OSS, the community can take over. I thought that was the whole benefit to OSS in the first place. Don't like what the author is doing or the author gets hit by a bus (or acquisition)? DIY.
Previously, Novell had an excellent product - their directory services. In addition, it would run on more Microsoft operating systems than NT. For example, you could authenticate and use Novell resources from DOS, not so with NT, at least not without a LOT of help. Novell is the product everyone wanted to use, because it made your life easier, it's just that noone wanted to run their operating system.
Now they have a chance to go in with the operating system that EVERYONE is wanting to run (a lot of people _want_ to run Linux, but are unable to do so because of their Windows machines). Novell is the king of getting their software to play nicely with Windows. I can see Novell going into Linux, and then being able to replace Active Directory with the click of a button.
And this purchase means that their server will be incredibly easy-to-use.
Engineering and the Ultimate
WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, and Paradox are a different story. Novell never owned Paradox (and I don't they owned Quattro) -- that was a Borland product that was licensed and bundled as part of PerfectOffice -- Novell's competition to Microsoft Office. Novell also had a thin-client/kill-Microsoft strategy at about the same time... this eventually became Caldera OpenLinux.
The real story is the Ray Noorda wanted to be the David to Microsoft's Goliath. After the disasterous acquisition of WordPerfect (and one of the many near-deaths of Novell), Noorda was ejected from the company and started Caldera. Novell became much more sane after that point.
So, don't count out Novell because of WP -- that was a different company than now. They could be getting the megalomaniacal urge to kill Microsoft again, but all the code in this case is GPL'd. Improvements made by Novell in this fools errand will be given to the community and will continue after Novell is gone... or maybe, just maybe, it'll work. (But I'd be selling my Novell stock, if you know what I'm saying.)
-30-
they have VIRTUALLY ZERO experience with development windowing systems and GUI interfaces.
Quite disagree. Novell has a VERY NEGATIVE experience with developing UI:
Less is more !
My guess is that Mono interested them as well - Novell would love to take eDirectory (NDS) and make add-on components like ZenWorks truly cross-platform. Imagine having a Linux/Windows/Solaris network, with single sign-on and a unified directory, and being able to deploy apps to any workstation with a few clicks, after installing a .NET runtime (Mono on the *nix hosts). If you've never used Netware in a larger environment, you don't understand. I'm sitting in an academic position right now.. and really, really wish that we could afford to buy NDS licenses and modify our systems to use them.
Statements like:
"The acquisition of Ximian was an all-cash transaction and is not expected to have a material effect on Novell's financial statements"
imply the amount of money involved was peanuts. Does anybody have figures on this?
My bet is this is why they bought Ximian. The Ximian guys have the knowlege to write an Exchange replacement. Add that and there .NET/Mono work and Novell could once again be a major player in the server market. What a product they could have Linux based, with NDS, backward compatable with the old Novell stuff, capable of running .net/mono, and an open source exchange type server. This could be a very good thing. Yes I know that they may not open source the Exchange stuff. I can dream can't I.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
WHAT??? The Novell guys origionally tried to squash the SCO lawsuit because they believed that they still owned the copyright to the source code. The origional and first amended copies of the contract spelled it out that way, it was only a second amended copy from several years later that some mid level exec signed that the copyright was signed over (somebody at SCO pulled a smart one there, it probably never even went by a lawyer for Novell). Novell doesn't even think they have a copy of the second amended copy, but they did verify that SCO's copy was legit and signed by an authorized representitive of the corporation.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Everybody keeps comparing this to Novell's "disatrous" purchase of WordPerfect -- but that was no disaster. They never wanted WordPerfect; they wanted Groupwise. Wordperfect wasn't interested in selling just Groupwise, so Novell bought the whole she-bang, stripped out Groupwise, then unloaded the rest of it on those poor chumps at Corel. The whole thing actually made a lot of sense for Novell . . .
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. But when life gives you crap, please don't make a beverage out of it.
There are three areas where GNOME is of value to them:
* Evolution -- since they control the direction of it, they can integrate Novell services
* RedCarpet (which is popular and linked to Evolution and Ximian GNOME's success) -- able to ship Novell products to several distributions and to Sun and HP.
* Ximian GNOME (which standardizes the UI and RPMs/DEBs of several desktops) -- allows Novell services to install easier because the have a common install environment (it's basically like UnitedLinux, but broader). This environment also allows them to use RedCarpet to distribute and install other corporate products from other companies (much like Lindows does with their "clip-and-run").
So every facet of Ximian is perfect for Novell. They made a good choice. I hope that they're able to deliver on even half the potential.
Novell makes great *products*. As a company, they suck. They had a total lock on network services, and threw it away. Bill Gates and his evil minions didn't do it to them, they did it to themselves, over and over, because their management just doesn't know what they are doing, or what market they are in.
They're like that Mel Brooks movie where they try to make the worst musical ever to collect on the insurance. Novell executives have been trying to kill the company with the most absurd policies imaginable for years, only saved from disaster by some really outstanding products that were so good that even Novell couldn't fail to sell them.
Netware 3.x was so superior to its competitors that it was in a separate category. Excited at their success, Novell then proceeded to screw their sales channel by changing the reseller requirements on an almost daily basis (we actually got two different updates on the same day, but that was an aberration). Not content with that, they bought up Word Perfect and decided that they were a software company. Resellers had to get training on those products, too, or lose status. Too bad the training didn't actually exist, or was expensive and only available several hundred miles away. Maybe we should take that Unixware class instead. Oops. Oh, and they started pusing their own consulting services in direct competition with their resellers.
Apparently, that didn't drive enough folks into Microsoft's hands. So they decided to come out with a completely new technology that was backwards compatible only if you turned off most of the new features that justified upgrading in the first place. And it was slower. Oh, and the initial release was so broken that when the first dot rev came out, you couldn't upgrade. Take *that*, early adopter scum! You either had to drop back to 3.x and do the entire upgrade and migration all over again, or use some expensive third party tools and hope for the best.
NT took off in no small part because we just got tired of dealing with Novell. It was never great, but it was Good Enough, and their conversion tool from 3.x was at least as easy to use as jumping to Netware 4. Brilliant.
You think Novell buying Ximian will help? No matter how good the code they are pushing in a given week is, they couldn't sell water to a guy who was on fire. Only Xerox is worse at coming up with great ideas and failing to sell them. The best that can be hoped for is that Novell won't screw the project up too badly before they get bored with their newest shiny toy and spin it off to someone else. It could be a good match that has great long term benefits, but it's probably going to be another slow agonizing failure.
You're just jealous 'cuz the voices talk to *me*
I don't know about Mono, but Ximian + Gnome + Linux + ZenWorks = Novell Desktop OS
It seems to me they're trying to eliminate Windows from the enterprise desktop, as well as the server end.
Um, Mr/Ms. Coward, I have been to Utah. I grew up here. I'm posting this from about 1 mile from the Novell campus. What, exactly, do the Mormons want with Novell? Perhaps, "If we price Netware at $xxxx.xx, we'll convert more people?" :)
:)
Nice try. I'll agree that Mormon practices may influence Novell a lot. What do you expect when so much of the workforce of a business subscribes to a certain religion or way of life? Perhaps they didn't have coffee breaks since Mormon's don't drink coffee? I'll agree that there is influence there but I have a hard time seeing how the Mormon church is *controlling* Novell.
I've been to church headquarters many times in SLC. I've met with the Canopy board. I've met with several of the twelve in the Mormon church. I know the Church's CIO personally. I've been extremely happy to see him switch from a pro-Microsoft person to a pro-Unix person in the past few years.
I can tell you that (currently) the Church offices use Windows more than anything else. I'd love to see them use Linux or Novell or anything but big bad Redmond. In fact, perhaps we should just say that the Mormons are controlling Microsoft since they use Windows 99 percent of the time!?! (oh great, now what did I start...) I use a Mac and Linux at BYU, and I have a hard time because everyone else uses Windows!
Disclaimer: Yes, I am a card carrying LDS member. Yes, Mormons have a significant influence in the culture and businesses in Utah and elsewhere. That's what happens when 80 percent of Utah Valley are members. No, the Mormon Church is not controlling Novell or Canopy or the dummies at SCO. If they were, Novell wouldn't be in such financial troubles.
It's higher than 55%:
Mormon density, the percentage of Mormons in Utah in 2003 is approximately sixty four percent (64%).
-- From Wild Utah.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Over the last few years, Novell has undergone a quiet metamorphosis. Written off as a failure once Windows NT shipments exceeded NetWare sales, Novell surprised many by refusing to die. Even after committing multiple marketing blunders, the company continued to survive. No longer Microsoft's arch enemy, Novell silently reoganized. In the past few years, Novell has focused on basing networking solutions on Directory Services. Once eDirectory could run on Windows NT/2000, the unbelievable occurred: eDirectory on Linux. While Novell's initial efforts were not taken seriously by Microsoft, most businesses or the Linux community, it was an important step. Jump forward a few years and Novell is strongly supporting Linux in the enterprise with a declaration of services for Linux. In addition, Novell is supporting OSS on NetWare. With the purchase of Ximian, Novell is aligning itself even more with Linux. Is Novell doing this to get back at Microsoft? I don't believe so. Novell wants to sell products. They see a dwindling future for NetWare if it competes against Windows and Linux. Considering their options, I believe they've made the smart choice.
After exhaustive research and excrutiating analysis, I've determined that Bubba is, in fact, everywhere.