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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)."
They have the announcment on their main page now.
UPS Sucks
I ran "Red Carpet Update" this morning. Now I know why it downloaded a copy of the Book of Mormon to my computer. Thanks, Slashdot!
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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.
Call on God, but row away from the rocks.
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.
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Let's recap some of Novell's previous purchases:
Wordperfect - barely breathing
Quattro Pro - dead
Paradox - dead
DR-DOS - dead?
Novell, a company whose mission for the past 15 years seems to have been "Buy Microsoft's competition and run it into the ground" has purchased one of the few Linux desktops that could potentially give Microsoft a run for its money.
Might as well cede the desktop to Microsoft.
Does not sound to me like Miguel will be rolling in cash though ...
Pathman, Free (as in GPL) 3D Pac Man
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...
philcrissman.com.
I am not hawking NOVL, and I do own less than 100 shares (disclosure complete, post commencing) but I'm glad I re-evaluated them. With their recent release of their products for Linux (which seem to be doing reasonably well), and now with this purchase, it seems that they are serious about Linux. Since they were always great in the directory space, it seems like they just might be positioning themselves to try and contend in directory services again.
libertarianswag.com
Usually it's not a good idea to attach a lifeboat to a sinking ship. Novel should be selling off/spinning off divisions that have a chance of surviving, not acquiring more units to pull under.
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.
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.
All that useful software I've always wanted on my Linux desktop! Wonderful software sch as:
;-)
* Groupwise connector for Evolution.
* Directory Services for Linux.
* ZenWorks for Gnome
I can't wait!
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.
With Novell being great as a directory company and Ximian great as a desktop company, I would expect to see security and ease of administration for Linux desktops to be the great beneficiary. This could become available as a proprietary solution or as an open source solution. In either the quality and ease of administring Linux application will improve.
What I am happy with is that Novell first proved itself as a good member of the community before they bought Ximian.
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?
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
Novell a few years ago used David Bowie's "Changes" in a television advertisement.
1) Start a company
2) Sell it
Like teaching a new dog old tricks
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
Let's just hope they don't turn around and sell Ximian to SCO!
--
Luck is just skill you didn't know you had.
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."
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?
Novell aren't the highest profile company but it is apparent they are misunderstood even here on /.
They aren't "about NetWare" or "moving their product lines to be enhanced linux servers". Their position has been solutions for the past 8 years or so. They push the directory model and make peripheral products that use it. They are [almost] as happy for you to use eDirectory on Windows, Solaris, Linux or whatever as NetWare. Using Linux means they don't have to put resources into a kernel and commodity services and can focus on what they do - making a BETTER version of what everyone is doing.
Their GUI isn't really lacking - it's a basic XFree86 - it does the job. I am pretty much never at my console so I don't even load it. And Gnome as an admin desktop is unlikely to be what they want - again, NetWare admins rarely use the console - certinaly not for normal admin which is all currently a mix of the 5 year old Java ConsoleOne and increasingly Web based.
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.
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 =)
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.
That Ximian may give more to Novell that what Novell can give to Ximian.
Think about it. Novell Netware 6.5 has a *really* crap management console, why not purchase the necesssary skills to improve it?
Now, lets add on top of that the fact that Novell doesn't want to be left out. They have Java, why not add a dot-net compliant framework to the mix so that no matter what the outcome of the framework wars is, Novell will be sitting back with a smile on their face knowing that what ever the outcome, they're covered either way.
Then lets add ontop of that! there are now *MORE* businesses moving to centralised processing, why not make Novell an viable alternative to Windows? get OpenOffice.org, Ximian GNOME, Evolution etc and you will have a really good combo for the end user.
Add even *MORE* ontop by the fact they Novell will earn some brownie points in the developer circles by embracing openstandards and as a net result, Novell has *NOTHING* to lose and everything to gain from this.
"The difference between pornography and erotica is the lighting" - Woody Allen
The only thing that's even remotely comparable is zsh.
-Dom
Well, that's me out of ideas.
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 wonder if they're buying a potential anti-trust lawsuit. If MS screws Ximian Mono by changing .NET or pointing the patent gun at them or whatever, Novell will have the resources to go after them for abusing a monopoly position, whereas it would be harder for Ximian to do that on their own. Kind of like with DR-DOS, although I think it was Caldera who pursued the litigation in that case.
This post started as a joke; now I'm not so sure.
You have a choice: tax and spend Democrats, or borrow and spend Republicans. Choose wisely.
So yeah, Novell is probably run by Mormons.
Well I don't mean to troll, but that's a silly connection. The largest church in California is the Catholic church, but I wouldn't assume Cisco is being run by catholics. A poster farther down made a great annalogy, I wouldn't assume SuSE is being run by the German government just because most of the employees are German.
Let's keep religion out of the whole SCO/Novell/'Anything else techie' argument when it has absolutely nothing to do with religion at all.
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..
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.
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.
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.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
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.