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Novell To Cease NetWare Development?
Karl Cocknozzle writes "CNET News is reporting that Novell may discontinue NetWare following the purchase of Linux software company Ximian - for details on the purchase, see the recent Slashdot article. Novell plans to run its NetWare services - such as eDirectory and Secure Identity Management - on the Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions."
This has already been predicted several months ago. This is probably a good thing for Novell, as they no longer have to focus on the ENTIRE OS, just their proprietary services, and therefore can make more advances such as further seamless integration with windows clients and the addition of seamless integration for UNIX/Linux clients. While never particularly a fan of the entire OS itself, I've always admired the capabilities of the Netware solution. This really looks like a good sign for the future.
The poster asks a valid question.
Novell (who has been quoted as saying that the issue between them and SCO isn't completely over) is now investing in Linux as part of their business model.
They have different roots than a Linux distro house like RedHat or SuSE, but they'll eventually push out their own Novell Linux distro. Yeah, my money is on Novell continuing to have issues with SCO, and vise versa.
One hell of a game of chicken.
-- I'd say your post was about 3 monkeys, 18 minutes.
At least, that's a big indicator for the industry that nobody in the UNIX business takes SCO FUD seriously.
One might think that Novell knows what they are talking about when it comes down to UNIX IP...
Of course, none of us need this indicator, but for the managers out there with very little technical knowledge about to say "Hmmm, Linux, let's wait until the SCO problem is settled", that's a pretty good indicator that SCO is just a piece of shit.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
like most open source things, you have to build it to make it work. eDirectory just drops in--and some of the surrounding pieces of it are either free or open source now.
Setting up OpenAFS/Kerberos/LDAP is a lot of work--and kind of high-maintenance in comparison to eDirectory. eDirectory itself is actually more advanced and feature-rich than even the three of those pieces combined--it's a loosely-coupled replicated database that's tuned for slow WAN links. It's completely object-based (LDAP is just an access protocol - Kerberos is just an authentication method - AFS is just a distributed file system--none of these really define the "way" this data is stored, extended, replicated & accessed) & can handle any type of information. It can be extended on the fly. It's kinda hard to describe how impressive eDirectory is if you haven't seen it in action on a big WAN.
Netware has been dead for some years now. THe advent of Linux has basically killed the use of Netware.
This isn't true. Netware isn't dead - uncommon yes but not dead by a long shot. Netware provides a great deal of enterprise services under one roof. Yes, a pure Linux/OSS solution can too but the time required to get it "right" is considerable. These different components all work together seamlessly under Netware. (This does require an admin w/ brain - which isn't very common either)
If that pisses you off, then put together all these OSS bits and pieces into one package, create some very refined managment tools and sell your consulting services. You'll make a killing.
The only place Netware is still installed is in already existing places, where, indeed it performs upto its reputation.
This isn't true either. I know of a few local companies I deal with that, within the last year, deployed Netware instead of NT.
(No, I don't resell Netware or provide Netware consulting services of any kind.)
The heart of Netware is NDS, Novell directory Services, and it's not really important what operating system or kernel it runs on. You can run NDS on NT (not really logical, since you've already shelled out all that money) or Linux. When NDS 1st came out, it was light years ahead of what Microsoft had to offer. However, Netware, the OS, was not the friendliest environment to work in and the number of people who know it in and out is dwinding. BUT there's an army of people who know Linux and are willing to help you for free or a fee. A Microsoft network admin is not going to rip out his "investment" in NT/2000 and replace it with something unfamiliar. However, a unix/linux admin may consider doing so if it's offered on a platform that he or she is familiar with - Linux os, x-windows GUI and flawless integration with the rest of his unix and Linux enviroment. Obviously Windows desktops will be able to authenticate into NDS and use resoruces on Linux boxes...AND maybe some day in the future the admin will be able to get rid of the Windows 2000 Professional/XP desktop and replace it with...you guessed it, Ximian desktop + easy software distribution and management.
If I was a Network Manager at a small, 50-500 person company, I would definitely consider ripping out NT and replacing it Novell's offerings some time down the road.
As Novell was rather pro-active in favour of defending Linux, I think it's rather rude to associate them as being behind the SCO crap.
Novell is just showing they are still a company that "gets it" technically. Why pay some obscene amount to support and develop a proprietary file sharing OS when the main thing customers buy their products for is directory management?
Sure people use Novell file/print sharing servers as well, but that's mainly because it's an appliance OS that integrates well with the directory management they want. They could care less about the underpinnings of that appliance OS as long as it does the job with reasonable performance.
When is the last time you've seen any applications built for the Novell OS core? That being the case, why would you care what OS API they have under the hood?
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.