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Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire SUSE
Mickey Hill writes "Novell today announced it has entered into an agreement to acquire SUSE LINUX, one of the world's leading enterprise Linux companies, expanding Novell's ability to provide enterprise-class services and support on the Linux platform. Novell expects the transaction to close by the end of its first fiscal quarter (January 2004). This latest move follows Novell's August purchase of Ximian."
I hope they don't make SuSE use gnome (remember, the aquired Ximian), because SuSE is the best KDE distro around!
This looks like an interesting move. Novell used to make some interesting products before being owned and pushing to linux might make it easier to keep up with the boring hardware compatibility, performance crap.
I'm glad to see Novell making a move here. They've been sliding into remission too long. I've still got a warm place in my heart from them for the 4.11 line that I used so extensively back in the school system.
Apparently, the Novell CEO upon signing the agreement burst out into song: "Suse-Q, baby I love you, Suse-Q".
It really happened - I swear.
Now SCO can sue the company that sold them UNIX.
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
It looks like there is a web cast at 11 AM EST. Perhaps we will learn some useful information on what Novell is planning.
http://www.novell.com/webcast
will Novell make their SuSE distro contain the infamous PHASERS.WAV and the FIRE PHASERS as part of the login?
Sehr geehrter Toilettenbenutzer!
two possible results:
1. Novell stuffs this up, and I'm left with no real "Free" solution for buisnesses (I dont care about support, I just want a brand name and is recognizable and usable).
2. Novell doesnt stuff it up, and SUSE takes over Redhat's market share here in north america.
Either way, linux growth is going to stop dead for a good chunk of time while these issues with Redhat and Suse settle down.
After yesterdays' article regarding Redhat's changes, I started looking at SUSE more carefully. Now we've got such serious flux in the two most important linux distributions that it'll take six months to a year before I feel comfortable pitching either of these to buisnesses.
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The divide between Novell and SCO gets wider. Once allies, this has got drive the wedge deeper between the two. While its been happening for a while now, this is will most assuredly accelerate their falling out and will force Novell to adopt a much more aggressive position against SCO's IP claims.
In short, "The plot thickens."
"The words of the prophets are written on the Slashdot walls."
Novell/Suse is going to pick up the slack left by Red Hat getting out of the retail market. Very good indeed. Hope Suse is repackaged into the the red and white Novell style. I get the feeling that Red Hat will live to regret abandoning its base.
I'm not sure Red Hat has abondoned their desktop line at all. If they had, BlueCurve would be a sure waste of money, would it? The RH desktop is alive and kicking with RHEL WS, albeit perhaps not aimed at the home user anymore.
GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.
I agree this is an absolutely brillant move on the part of Novell., They're going to be going after not only Microsoft, but Red Hat and the Enterprise Server Market. I think it's going to be rather interesting to see if SuSE Linux as a desktop OS survives.
Novell apparently is more interested in the Connector than the Ximian desktop, and more interested in SuSE's servers than its desktop offerings. However, SuSE has been a huge backer of the KDE project and Ximian is the home of Gnome. It'll certainly be interesting to see how the Novell management allocates their resources going forward, won't it?
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I bet they wish they hadn't sold all that IPnnow. But then it would just have tempted them into doing what SCO are doing right now (making it appear that their distro is the only legal one).
Since the KDE camp has always been strongest at SuSE, and with the now merger of Novell/SuSE/Ximian, are the KDE guys going to be left out in the cold?
RedHat discontinues RHL and goes for big bucks only.
Novell buys SuSE.
Do we have a new leader, and therefore a new mainstream image for linux?
Or do we have a more expensive distro?
Can Novell actually rise from the dead?
Stay tuned.
i don't know if this has been reported on /. yet. basically what its saying is that RH is dropping RH Linux in favour of Entperise and a "developer" version called Fedora.
funnily enough, i was thinking "oh, interesting. that leaves someone to pickup and seriously evolve the desktop platform if they decided not to concentrate on the server environment". then i refreshed slashdot and saw this SUSE news!
personally i think this is terrific. novell have excellent experience in the enterprise market from NetWare and their directory services. hopefully they can start to penetrate the desktop.
it sounds to me as if RH will find its place in the "appliance" market for such things as storage, web applications and security (system infrastructure) and SUSE/Novell will be well positioned for user-based infrastructure such as directory services, groupware and the desktop.
This action may be creating their future. As I said above, I agree that they've been sliding towards irrelevance, but with this purchase, they could gain a whole new lease on corporate life. Let's pull for them - not shoot them down before they begin.
For over three years now the differing factions at Novell have been fighting over which route to take in relation to the what will be the backbone of it's products. The Netware factions has been directly responsible for Novell NOT developing it's own Linux, despite them having their own kernel and distro in house.
While this move is good for Novell, and good for the community, it has taken way to long in coming. This is partly due to the fact that if Novell HAD gone with Linux three years ago, they would have been the major supplier of the OS right off the bat for IBM, with IBM offering Linux based servers and caching boxes. When Novell dropped the ball, IBM pulled out.
Another point to make here is what this will do in relationship to SCO. You may well remember the piece a few weeks ago that talked about a statement that Novell made, quietly at the time, that the license that SCO had to sell licenses to UNIX came from them. I would expect a major blowup from SCO in the next few weeks, though do not be suppressed if Canopy decides to kill SCO outright and take the tech into Netware Linux. Canopy waffles more then Clinton at a beach party.
One other point...I have NEVER seen a machine serve as fast as a Linux box controlling files that are on Netware partitions. Say what you want about Netware being owned, but with the 2.4 kernel and multi-threading issues resolved (another reason why Novell was very hesitant to go with a 2.2 kernel based system) I would expect to see something really good from them in near future.
Fedora! Fedora! Fedora! (http://fedora.redhat.com). For once, please read ...
RHL like a rock (even if most of us knew it
was comming). I think RedHat will lose their
brand recognition with the masses (boxed sets,
inexpensive downloads, here, try RH 8 or 9, etc.).
Maybe they'll make more on the enterprise version,
but at what cost.
Meanwhile, SuSE gets aquired by an entrenched
Novell (still a $1B US company). Novell has
customers, support, and name recognition. They
have a large customer base (still). If they go
after the space vacated by RH 9, what will that
do to RedHat?
Yes, I know, Fedora. However, Fedora is NOT
RedHat Linux. Even though it is under the hood,
the PHB's of the world won't see it that way
without massive re-education. Add in the
SCO factor....
These two announcements could indicate a massive
shift in the Linux community.
Novell offerred $210M for SuSE according to the article, that may be a bit low. I personally use SuSE and would like to see them continue to do well. Perhaps others can give details, my memory is a bit fuzzy, but I don't remember their stewardship of Unix System Laboratories to be especially good or bad. SuSE may be in a position to become a much larger player in the Unix arena, given Redhat's recent change in direction. I wonder how IBM will react (IBM is using SuSE internally, how well does Novell's management get along with IBM?).
Actually that might work in Novell's favor. Their marketing department can now say: "Buy our copy of SuSE for $400 and you don't have to worry about SCO's IP fee!"
But then again, SCO may have some sort of UNIX IP exclusivity deal in which case Novell & SCO may have to hammer a deal behind the scenes.
Wearing pants should always be optional.
With the regionalization of Linux distros, SuSE has always been known as Europe's Linux (German company, strong EU language support inherent, etc.). I'm curious to see if the EU will try to flex its regulatory muscles rather than allow a US company to buy SuSE. Obviously, they can't cry anti-trust, but who knows what other regulations they could come up with.
RW
I work for the 3rd largest software-only developer in the world. I get plenty of opportunity to go to large, Fortune 500 companies and see their environments.
I can only remember seeing Novell products in less than a handful of places-- and it was in the process of being removed in those places.
SO-- Does anybody know where is Novell getting the capital to keep gobbling up companies? It seems like every time I turn around there's a story about Novell buying X...
If Novell's doing so well, maybe there's an investment opportunity hiding somewhere in there...
Does this mean that Novell will implement a proper open-source directory service within linux as well? I understand their Netware product line will be migrating (or is migrated) to the linux platform, but what of something open? Or will novell just throw its proprietary software on top of linux, and ride the open source wave without giving anything worthwhile back (a la apple).
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"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
It'll be interesting to see how Novell's stock does after this.
.iso's with the latest patches to appear. Eagerly awaiting new torrents...
While the fate of SUSE on the desktop may be uncertain, this has to be a good thing for Linux awareness and acceptance in general. I see this as a wise move at a time when whole countries are migrating away from MS. A top-down migration would start with the enterprise. And that allows a little more time for the load-the-CDs-and-go desktop distributions to get a little more polish. The Linux migration paper (translated from German I believe) here recently had made the strongest case for server and sizable environments.
As for the desktop, it seems like its about time for Mandrake
SuSE is very much relevant in Europe.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Wow, Novell is clawing its way back into relevance. Whats next? Will they find addition documentation that they did not sell SCO the rights to the Unix V codebase? ;-)
Since when did we rely on SUSE and RHat for our linux development?? Last I checked, Linux and the associated environment were Open Source/Free Software. That's what's so special about it: companies can come and go and thrive and fail, but they can only help GNU/Linux, and never hurt it.
This is why I was cheering for AOL to buy RHat last year or whenever that rumor was going around. Not because it would be good for RHat, but because AOL would probably contribute alot of development coders, and being GPL work it would benefit the entire community.
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
Will the hardware vendors now start moving away from Redhat towards Suse? IBM is already sold out (they already own a stake in Suse and now this move). HP and Dell were worried about the SCO problem (HPs indemnification program etc.), maybe now they will see some added legitimacy in buying from Suse rather than from Redhat (questionable since ,assuming GPL is valid, a redhat kernel is as good as a Suse one).
Anyway it is a bad day for desktop linux and an extremely good one for redhat servers.
Also what is the IBM-novell synergy here? Its true that IBM is pushing web services and that Novell has some products in that area, and also Novell has some nice management suites (some of which clash with IBMs existing line) , but I cannot make a link between IBM and Novell.Waiting for a move from IBM
.ACMD setaloiv siht gnidaeR
Novell has been trying to get a desktop OS for years, remember Novell DOS? I think they finally have a winning combination withe SUSE and Ximian.
I hope they succeed, NDS is a great back end platform, so they can offer a end-to-end solution for business on Linux. They just need to learn to market it!
... if that's your best, your best won't do... - Twisted Sister
From the press release:
Novell today also announced that IBM intends to make a $50 million investment in Novell convertible preferred stock. In addition, Novell and IBM are negotiating extensions to the current commercial agreements between IBM and SUSE LINUX for the continued support of SUSE LINUX on IBM's eServer products and middleware products to provide for product and marketing support arrangements related to SUSE LINUX. Both of these agreements will be effective when the acquisition of SUSE LINUX by Novell is completed. zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
I doubt that this acquisition has coincidentally happened so close to the RedHat announcement. I have the feeling that the big pay distros are circling the wagons. I wonder if Novell/SuSE will shortly make an announcement similar to RedHat's?
A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg. -- Samuel Butler
As I recall, SUSE has been working on a drop in exchange replacement that will allow outlook clients use it (with some sort of connector?).
Novell has been playing with putting their Novell Directory system on Linux (as well as their other stuff - i.e. groupwise)
q1) Will this mean that SUSE's groupware client is dead?
q2) will this mean there will be a directory enabled printing method for linux clients?
didn't Novell create this SCO problem to begin with. Can they really be trusted? Why in the world is SUSE selling out to Novell, when their stance on Linux has been wishy-washy at best. I like having different distributions of linux, so I hope SUSE reconsiders.
If linux were a typical closed source product, it would be expected that consolidaton in the linux sector would have begun long time ago. Given the fact that it isn't, I wasn't sure whether any linux company would bother purchasing another since the product that they "sell" is not protected and can be easily copied. However, consolidation has begun for enterprise linux and this is a really good thing. For linux to flourish, it needs the backing of a couple of strong corporate players. Obviously IBM, Sun and Redhat qualify but only Redhat has a direct interest in linux for the sake of linux. I hope that novell can really get its act together and put together a compelling package, they certainly have the right pieces.
novell has a long history of fucking up good ideas. only now, at the end, do they realize what has been kicking their ass: limited APP server offerings.
Novell is perceived by most of my customers as a (fairly kick ass) file-print-directory services server only system. but file-print-directory services are only part of what companies need these days. they need groupware/email (groupwise is a joke), they need SQL servers, and they need "Micro Vertical App Server" for Their Tiny Industry that somebody in a garage is addressing. And they want it all on the same platform, with integrated authentication.
small vertical apps is a big one, but it seems to be too much of a bitch to write these VBesque vertical apps on novell, so nobody does. "Small Dentist Office Accounting Pro" gets cooked up on windows by a small software company and not on novell. (incidentally this is a bit of a problem for linux on the desktop front: the crazy apps like "BeeKeeper Ranching and Honey Tracking" are what keep most businesses from switching on the desktop).
looks like Novell is trying to do what they failed to do with the original Unix license they pissed away: create a Novell branded viable app server platform. they screwed up the first time with proprietary unix. maybe a more open system will succeed, but knowing Novell, probably not.
But I think that it'll certainly be interesting what will happen next with RedHat.
Now, when SuSE is aquired, I don't think RH will be independent forever.
But who'd it be, I dare not say. According to the press release, it seems IBM's is going with Novell, at least for now.
“Wait for Hurd if you want something real” –Linus
Vs. Microsoft this is a tricky move, because I think even the Bush Justice Dept would look very hard at Microsoft entering the Linux market.
But historically, Novell has thrown away every technology and market advantage they have ever held, and handed their business on a silver platter to Microsoft (and maybe Sun). So does this mean Novell will now screw up SuSE, whose distribution I like a lot?
sPh
They buy promising company and bug them down in politics. The leader of the bought company run away with their new cash so no new development worth noticing happens. What's left is a company that sells and resells repackaged old product at an ever increasing price. I hope SuSE will be strong enough to resist the Corp politics.
the business-guy-sticking-his-tongue-out image that I saw when their home page loaded. I mean, come on, it just looks silly. Really.
I was skeptical as well, but I'm very happy with Debain.
If you want the latest stuff run "unstable".
It's not really unstable, it just changes a lot, but I have never had it break on me.
Now what company was it yesterday you all called a sellout? I forget. I thought it was Redhat. Now who are you guys going to turn to when Novell turns SuSe into a half closed half open business hybred? They will have lots of locked down protocols going in this new product i'll betcha.
It might be time for all of you to jump back on RH's bandwagon after you realize they're the only ones you cant buy out.
forgive my pessimism, I should give Novell a shot but they appear to be a company evolving to stay alive in the free software movement, but is thier goal a GPL world while making money, or trying to make money in a GPL world? Personally i think redhat is the former, Novell the latter.
-- "of course thats just my opinion, I could be wrong." --Dennis Miller
This is a great match, especially if Novell is looking to take on Redhat in the enterprise market why continuing Suse's traditional of having a great desktop distro. If Novell really spends a lot of $$ on this project and brands a distro as Novel Linux or Suse Linux by Novel, it be a lot easier to convince "the suits" to move to Linux when you have a company like Novell producing its own distro. As mentioned in other comments it will be interesting to see how the Suse/Ximian combination plays out since it is essentially KDE/Gnome. .
CBSMarketwatch is reporting that IBM has announced that it will invest 50 Million in Novell, This is getting more interesting by the minute!!!
Novell has woken up. I thought about this strategy years ago. It is obvious that M$ was making things difficult on the back end because they have total domination on the front end. Having Linux on the desktop will benefit Novell because they will be able to get under the hood of the desktop, and therefore their network OS will function better at the desktop.
Now that is a very interesting number indeed!
And I think it sends a very powerful message to all those businesses out there that are succumbing to the SCO FUD (hey can we shorten that to SCUD!). IBM are basically putting their money where they're mouth is to show their confidence in the future of Linux. Nice one.
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In pre-market trading, Novell stock is already up 27%.
For more information, click here.
What I predict is Novell telling the Ximian folks to create a best-of-breed desktop based upon freedesktop.org guidelines, by hand-picking the best ideas from Gnome and KDE, both at the API and user-experience level. The end-result will be a unified Linux desktop environment that will come to replace both Gnome and KDE, within the next 12 months, as the de-facto standard.
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
That's funny, because the Sun "Java Desktop" is SuSE Linux 8.2 running GNOME and it's selling like hot cakes.
Stick Men
SuSE's got a damn good thing going. Don't muck it up. It's one thing if you want to bring enterprise level functionality and a slew of awesome new features to Linux (and to SuSE Linux in particular), but it's quite another thing to buy out a linux company and force them to take their linux distro in a different direction. I hope you choose the former and not the latter. SuSE is doing a dynamite job, so stay out of their way. Help, don't hinder.
;)
I've been using SuSE in the office since v7, and for my money it's the only distro I'll touch because it's easily the most advanced one on the market and I can get excellent technical support for it any time I need it (which isn't often, but in business you absolutely must have the security blanket). I'm going to be quite pissed off (and switching vendors) if this changes because of Novell's influence.
Don't be dense and stop offering it for free like Redhat did, either (Fedora is not RedHat, different discussion entirely, see Redhat thread for discussion ad nauseum about this). It's a boneheaded move on so many levels. Nobody's saying you need to support the downloaded version (or even host it for free, people will mirror it after all), as long as you continue to release it so folks can get their hands dirty and get comfortable on the product without having to pay for it first. Using it for free for a time was the only way I could convince folks here to pay for it, and they did gladly once they saw how good SuSE is at doing its job.
Keep the Novell-ized components optional, please. Some of us aren't using Novell technology, and it's going to be very annoying if we have to install NDS and Novell client software even though we have no intention of using them. Keep the Novell additions optional, not mandatory. You'll need to lure us into using them by quality. I still remember the days when Novell had a good product. Hopefully that can happen again.
First Redhat... now SuSE. Tomorrow, Debian and Slackware will anounce a merger citing similar goals. I'm sure Thursday Mandrake will be bought out by Microsoft, followed by Linus selling the Linux trademark to SCO on Friday. Saturday we'll see Apple acquire all the rights to FreeBSD, and Sunday the world will simply end. After a week like that, most of us probably wouldn't mind.
Hell is being intelligent in a world full of idiots.
NOVELL INC (NasdaqNM:NOVL)
Pre-Market: 7.499 +1.449 (23.95%)
NOVL Market Cap: 2.26B
Let's do the math.
Novell will pay $210 million for Suse, but Novell's market cap goes up by $500 million upon announcing the deal.
So basically, the acquisition of Suse is FREE. Actually, Novell made an extra $300 million in stock value by announcing the deal - so it's better than free.
Gotta love the free market system.
- Lindows
- Mandrake
- Knoppix
- Vector
- (and many more
Not that I like linux that much (since I'm more of a *BSD nut), there are plenty of end-user targeted distros out there. Lindows and Mandrake have quite a strong commercial backing.With Ximian, Novell acquired a really polished Linux desktop.
Despite how wonderful the Ximian desktop is, it is not ripe for consumers buying mix `n match crap hardware and shrink-wrapped software titles for Windows 95...
Just as market-leader Red Hat knows that uncontrolled widespread consumer deployments aren't a viable business plan, so does Novell.
In a controlled environment, corporate deployments, Linux desktops make great business sense. This acquisition gives Novell Linux credentials in corporate networks (it had them before the Redmond behemoth marginalized their earlier good work on Windows).
The only thing Novell might be missing now is a solid relationship with some high-quality hardware supplier...
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Except that Novell can just tell SCO that they can't sue - I wonder why we don't hear more on this... Since it appears that SCO can't sue IBM anyway.
Any technology distinguishable from magic, is insufficiently advanced.
This could be an excellent business strategy if properly executed.
Novell clients are usually pretty slow to move into new products and spaces because of their current Novell comfort level.
Bring that comfort level along with the stability of the Linux platform and NetWare's reliability and you've got a pretty solid and very competitive platform. PERIOD.
Proven File and Print Services
Proven Directory Services
Solid Groupware/Email Services
Solid out-of-the-box web server/services solution
and now built on top of a rock solid Linux foundation... this is going to get very interesting... very fast!
Will Microsoft buy Novell and SCO and Apple and RedHat and all the other Linux distros? They have the cash.
Help end the use of Sigs. Tomorrow
beginning of the end for suse?
Plus, Novell is another company with a lot of "history" with Microsoft, so I don't know which is going to be more enjoyable; watching Novell's posturing with Microsoft, or watching them kick SCO from here to the SEC's offices. Either way, I'm sure it is going to be "entertaining, in a Jerry Springer kind of way." ;)
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
Yes, in this economy, Novell shelled out $210 million IN CASH for SuSE in order to kill the desktop with 0.2% market share compared to the desktop with the 0.1% market share, just so any current enterprise market share that SuSE has is lost. Your logic completely baffles me.
What they are probably going to provide tight integration between Evo and KDE. A lot of enterprise environments have already adopted SuSE Enterprise, which means it would take a large amount of work to switch to GNOME. It might even mean the gradual phase out of XD2 Desktop, since it runs on Novell's new arch rival: RedHat (note that Ximian and RedHat weren't rivals, but SuSE and RedHat definatly are). If I was Novell, I would almost certainly kill any support of XD2 Desktop on RedHat NOW, and gradually phase it off for SuSE (improving it will help RedHat's push on the entrprise, something Novell must not let happen)
At the same time, I don't see Ximian completely ditching GNOME. Porting Evolution to KDE would make it an entirely new app, and thus break current installations.
So, basically, the GNOME developers employed by Ximian are safe as long as they can sell Evolution, and the KDE developers employed by SuSE are safe as long as they can sell SuSE Enterprise.
I thought that I was a keen Open Source-preacher, but listen to these (separate and shortened) clips from the Novell announcement:
... provides ... services with the high-availability and scalability features needed for mission-critical environments. "
"Novell expands its open source commitment "
"... acquisitions affirm Novell's commitment to promoting the open source model and developer community. "
"Responding to customer demands for open, standards-based computing, Novell has been dedicated to a cross-platform vision for four years now, and Linux is an increasingly important part of that strategy,"
"Novell understands the power of open, standards-based computing, and has been moving in that direction for some time,"
"we're looking forward to joining forces to help customers gain the benefits of Linux and to help Novell continue to expand its role in the open source community."
"SUSE LINUX
"... provide a powerful business network to promote more rapid Linux adoption around the globe. "
"Beyond the technology, the acquisition will also expand Novell's strategic commitment to the open source community. "
"Novell is firmly committed to open standards and maintaining the existing open source kernel development efforts."
"From advocacy and development resources to events and support of open source efforts like kernel projects, XFree86, ReiserFS, KDE, GNOME and Mono, Novell stands side-by-side with the open source community. "
Somehow, I do not think that we are seeing the big picture.
...if Novell makes Ximian port their products to KDE, it might make RedHat fork the last version of Evolution.
Port? Fork? I run Evolution in a KDE desktop with no problems now.
--
As a matter of fact, I am a lawyer. But I play an actor on TV.
I wonder what would happen if Apple were to buy Novell right now? They could certainly use the enterprise tools, though there would be an obvious conflict between the linux and OSX desktop interests. Apple has something like $4b in the bank, and Novell's market capitalization is about $2b. Thoughts?
I think this is one of the best things that could happen to Linux. Novell is still a powerhouse and has a lot of sway with major corporations. Suse is not my favorite distribution but has a lot of loyal followers. Acquiring this customer base will allow them to handcraft viable desktops for corporate use.
With Open Exchange Server They will be able to market a complete computing model to a lot of companies. Lets just hope they honor open source licenses and return the favour to the community.
Are you intolerant of intolerant people?
The recent changes in the leading Linux vendors combine to make for a very interesting future. Novell first acquired Ximian which along with its Ximain Desktop, Evolution and Mono, also provided the Red Carpet update service for Red Hat distributions. Then Red Hat announced that they would not be providing further updates for the free/consumer version of their product. This left users in the cold forcing them to use Fedora or some other free disto or Novell/Ximian might have used Red Carpet to fill the gap.
Now Novell has also acquired SuSE, the number two vendor and alternative to the now defuct Red Hat Linux, which is also an RPM distribution but, uses a different update service.
Novell, looking to increase revenue, is unlikely to offer much in the arena of free services and is also unlikely to expend much effort supporting a distribution that is not their own, as SuSE now is. So, one is left wondering what the landscape will look like in the coming months.
Will Ximian's Red Carpet survive at all and if so, will it support the Red Hat distro or the SuSE distro or both? Will Novell/SuSE continue to develop using the KDE desktop or will they more likely shift SuSE to use the Ximian Desktop? Will SuSE, who had historically been somewhat "less free" than Red Hat, become even more "less free" with its acquisition by Novell?
Any which way it goes, the Linux landscape will change dramatically in the next few months, as it has in the past few weeks. One can't help but wonder if there will be a truely free Linux left with all of the commercial activity of late. Fortunately, Debian continues as it always has, at least for now.
I'm reminded of my reaction to Novell buying Unix System Labs in 92/93 and the sale to SCO in 1995 and the SCO rename to Caldera later. It all seemed to Rosey.
Unix appeared to be in reliable hands and was being freed into Linux, Caldera even said as much.
Then came per seat, and all the rest to the point where we are now with SCO attempting to steal Linux and claim far more in Unix than the law ever intended for.
It keeps me from getting any warm fuzzies over Novell aquireing Suse.
On the Redhat front. I find it odd being a registered adoptee of Redhat (can you really be the owner of OS software?) and a shareholder in the company that I have yet to recieve the email about the end of Redhat Linux.
Redhat's site backed up the stories.
BUT it's being misunderstood.
Yes RH9 appears to be the last in it's line BUT RH Enterprise Linux WS is actually it's repacement.
The License for RHEL WS is the same as for RH9. The only real change is that to get support from Redhat, you are going to HAVE TO PAY for the support.
Your free to get support elsewhere free or otherwise.
Reasonable and overdue, it's a sign of the maturity of commercial Linux.
I'll probably step up to RH Enterprise, and now that Suse is under Novell I'll give it another cautious try, but there really isn't a reason to leave RH.
That their products will run on a Distro *other than* Redhat?
I really wanted to try the directory server, but it *requires* redhat (and comes only in rpms).
Netware Linux is an oxymoron and it smells. I am sorry to see that SuSE has done this, and could not go it alone in the U.S. market. Novell has been looking for a way to stay alive now for over three years, and has jumped on the Linux bandwagon pretending they were part of the team from way back which is -bullshit- they're just opportunists..
I've been a SuSE user since 5.2, buying the Pro version every release. If SuSE does get bought by Netware, it will change their culture, Americanize it. And for this I'm sorry.
Hmm. Some consolidation amongst Linux companies might be a good thing, but I'm somewhat concerned when another Utah-based company gets involved in Linux. We're still smarting from the SCO business, which is far from settled. I'm more concerned, though, that the same failed model that tanked Novell in the 1990s will tank Novell/Ximian/SuSE in the 2000s. I'll be delighted to be proven wrong.
Perhaps a review of previous Novell acquisitions is in order...
None of these is currently a market leader. Perhaps RedHat ought not to shut the doors just yet.
You're obviously uninformed...
Your one of those guys that says crap like: "No No No, don't use that program, it was crap in the early 90's."
Get with the times sucker.
Your probably one of the 250,000 MCSE's in the US that knows nothing but "Okay right click here, then there, then reboot, over and over."
You're irrelevant.
A Novell/SuSE merger won't be good for M$ in the enterprise. Meanwhile it looks like Apple is denying them their WMA monopoly (or at least postponing it) with itunes. Now if Apple and Novell were to push Open Office or some derivative...
Is Novell in a better position to float a free, prosumer/hobbyist version of Linux to support their paying enterprise Linux product than was Red Hat?
Does this mean that we are now more likely to see SUSE on the hobbyist desktop vs. Red Hat? I guess it depends if Novell plans to release a consumer grade version of SUSE for free--and it's too early to tell if that's going to be the case. But there's now a "hobbyist/prosumer" niche to be filled, and IMHO whoever fills that position is much more likely to be recommended for server grade Linux, also. You recommend what you're familiar with--and if we can bang against SUSE for free on our closet boxes, when a PHB asks for a Linux recommendation, I think we are much more likely to recommend SUSE. Regardless of the technical differences/advantages, since it's always better to go with "the devil you know."
Sounds like we have another standard bearer, folks, which actually underscores the strength of Linux--any number of companies can offer the product, since it's owned-at-large, regardless of the travails of a company in particular. If Red Hat had been the sole proprietor of Linux, their stopping support for the consumer version could very well have been the end of the line of Linux on the desktop--but inasmuch as it's open source, another company is able to fill the breach.
What this means for SCO is better left to other threads, I think. But I would've liked to see their faces--and I'm glad I'm not a SCO customer (or distributor). Can Novell revoke SCO's license to UNIX? hehee.
--
$tar -xvf
What's more likely is "We, Novell, are the TRUE owners of Unix, we now have a Linux distro, and you, SCO, are irrelevant. Have fun with IBM's lawyers. B'bye."
The big question is how long before SCO's stock tanks the big one? This move puts Linux (at least SUSE) firmly behind Novels SCO lawyer deflector screens.I bet the markets and SCO take at least a month to recognize this.
Even better. Novell is now providing the the source code to Linux under the GPL. SuSE should be litigation free and so is any code that Novell distributes.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I'd never actually SEEN it anywhere either, but then I started working as a field tech, and it really is running a LOT of school districts, etc. The Bank here uses it, our dual-PII/233 file server has about 978 concurrent connections -RIGHT NOW-.
And yes, we're trying our damndest to find a way to move to AD, which is a mistake IMO.
"Sometimes, I think Trent just needs a cup of hot chocolate and a blankie." -Tori Amos on Nine Inch Nails
Can you smell the money pouring into Linux these days? The excitement is clearly in the air, with everyone noticing that Linux is, indeed the platform of the future, and a lot of money will be made in the business.
Even if the excitement got out of hand and reached a dot-bomb like state, the fruits of all the money poured into Linux would still be available in the form of source code, instead of getting lost in the archives of dead companies.
Even with all the crap regarding SCO, I can't help but feel extremely optimistic after these news, and the release of RHEL 3.0.
Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak
It seems like a funny combination. What was it again that Ximian offered: an installation tool, a mail client and a Gnome desktop. Isn't Suse not a totally KDE focussed system with a very fine admin/installation tool?
I love Suse for the distro it is, I hope Novell will not mix it too much with the Ximian stuff. I can understand they see Suse as a good server system, and they want Ximian for the desktop. That really would be a shame, since Suse features one of the nicest KDE implementations.
The site where: "I'm right, as long as you ignore the things that prove me wrong", became a valid method of debate.
It's about time!
As a long time Novell admirer and CNE (installed my first NetWare LAN in 1986/87, certified in 1992, sigh), I've watched them struggle for years, most times in dismay.
First it was Ray Noorda's determination to beat Microsoft by buying Wordperfect Corporation, DRI and USL. The potential was there, but Microsoft was far too entrenched by that point.
Then it was their poor marketing (renaming NetWare to IntranetWare for a short time, for example), and nearly 10 years of "wandering" around the networking landscape as Microsoft's marketing machine went into high gear and its networking became "good enough" for business use.
Now it seems as though they are back on track. They started awhile ago, by emphasizing network services over the NOS.
With NDS, a stable and mature cross-platform directory service (yeah, yeah, it has its problems - tell me Active Directory doesn't?)and a good Linux distribution obtained through this purchase, they have the potential to challenge Microsoft's dominance in the desktop arena, and slow or even stop their encroachment upon the server space as well.
They have the tools already (NDS and ZENWorks among others); if they can create a transparent network management environment that doesn't depend on any particular OS/NOS, but allows them all to be centrally managed, and encompasses the desktop as well, they will have accomplished something
unique, and will be the first company to do so.
It's about large networks, and the ability to choose best-of breed products regardless of OS and be able to integrate them, and support them, to provide services to the users.
In short, it *is* about the network, and it is all connected.
Desktop PC hardware is already a commodity. Server class hardware is rapidly becoming so - the next step in the evolution of networking isn't at the "nuts and bolts" level, it is "above" the network.
Just my opinion.
dj
I doubt that the Germans are happy about one of their innovative software companies being swallowed by a derelict, dot com busted, American has been, living off of revenues generated 10 years ago! It is preceeded by Ximian on the road to oblivion!
an ill wind that blows no good
I would like to know what part of Groupwise makes you laugh so much.
Just over a year ago, we switched from Groupwise 5.5 to Lotus Notes 5.0, and I have been cursing Notes ever since. Groupwise is easier to manage, users can move from workstation to workstation freely, and it's simpler for the users to understand. Groupwise is neat because it was made solely for email/groupware. Lotus notes wants to be more of a database/web server. The thing about notes that really ticks me off is that it doesn't send an autoreply RIGHT AWAY, it waits till 1AM in the morning, and then sends all of them. Sheesh!
Perhaps if Novell puts all of it's effort into Ximian, it may solve some of the problems that you didn't like, but I would love to use groupwise again.
1.) Novell does a f*ck up with SuSE, goes down the drain and pulls SuSE along until they're bought out by somebody else. This is somewhat likely, as SuSE is doing very good as a Linux brand right now. It could hardly get better rather than worse. In germany (most Linux users per capita) SuSE is even synonym for Linux!
All in all that would stall Linux brand recognition but probably be good news for Mandrake, the last one left.
2.) Novell has actually seen the light and plans way ahead into the future, were software won't make a buck anymore, but free software will reign and the business is in services.
3.) Novell/SuSE twitches here and there, barely surviving, taking shares from Mandrake, they all die eventually, Mickeysoft prevails and there is a 5 year setback for OSS, with only Gentoo and Debian to the rescue in the far future, when the OSS model has consumed everything.
Bottom line:
I don't like this news. Sound bad. Chances are to high that this once o-so big company Novell is gonna screw up. And SuSE is my first recomendation to n00bs right now. It would be a real shame for them to go down the drain.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
... how this is going to fly. SuSE is a German company which uses KDE predominantly. Since Novel bought Ximian and with it GNome development... Anyone has any thoughts on what is to follow?
Free speech is getting expensive...
Also, SuSE is doing remarkably well in Europe, where the German government has been giving it a lot of support. Once it's seen as "tainted" by US corporate interests (trust me, Europeans are not happy with the US), it might impact how well SuSE is received by Governments in Europe.
(Especially as SuSE is perceived as being a safe way to avoid backdoors imposed by foreign Governments.)
On the flip-side, development work costs money, and Novell probably has more of that than SuSE. If Novell gets this right, and puts in some serious cash, Linux could get some badly-needed investment in the ease-of-use arena. IBM and SGI have done wonders for filesystems, high-end architectures, etc, but they're not known for producing software for Joe Average. Novell's networking products were popular in schools, at one point, precicely because they were easy for idiots to use.
Since that fits in nicely with SuSE's reputation of easy-to-use, easy-to-install distros, that offers some excellent opportunities.
That's where the skeptisism must come in, unfortunately. An opportunity is not the same thing as a reality. Unless Novell makes use of this, and brings Linux to the masses, this move will do nothing for anyone, SuSE included.
If Novell do bring Linux to the masses... well, that's a different kettle of fish. Then this will be the greatest move imaginable, and everyone will benefit signigicantly.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Hopefully this doesn't happen! Ximian makes some of the best Gnome products around! I'm worried though, if Novell makes Ximian port their products to KDE, it might make RedHat fork the last version of Evolution. I really don't want to see that happen.
I'm mainly a GNOME user, but my MUA of choice is K-Mail. No problems there. Let's say that Novell drops Ximian support for GNOME entirely. I'm sure it might, but why would that be a p0rblem?
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
I've been watching this as a SysAdmin that is looking to move from Solaris for an Oracle installation. With RedHat's decision yesterday to drop the free portion of it's operation on Fedora, and today Novell snapping up SuSE I've got to say that Linux has come of age. It's now no better really than any of the other 'open systems' constellation of UNIX-a-likes. Sure there are more developers for Linux, sure kernel patches happen faster, which probably makes Linux the most desirable of the 'Open Systems' crowd, but for me in my application it's really just become another *nix.
I now have to pay for licenses for my test and development servers (where before I could get away with RedHat 9) and I have to stick close to something that will certify with Oracle. It's not a terrible thing by any means, but I think that the golden age of Linux is over.
What if it is just turtles all the way down?
NDS has been Suse's crown jewel for a while-- An easy to use (relatively--- compared to OpenLDAP) authenticating directory.
Suse's installation has been very LDAP friendly-- Combine this with decision to run Netware on Linux and there's your one stop shopping/complete desktop environment/single sign on Utopia.
Maybe I should review that Novell certification...
Acquiescence leads to obliteration
"I would bet that Novell/Suse arent going to piss off all the developers like Red Hat has done."
Um, yeah, how has Redhat pissed off all the developers again? By giving control of their distro back to the community with Fedora? By letting developers submit their packages for inclusion in Fedora, and giving them more control over maintaining said packages? By releasing under the GPL the source code to every single piece of software they've ever made, so that developers can add to and modify it as they like? Oh, maybe it was by hiring developers that have been working on projects such as GNOME and Mozilla, so they can get paid for doing what they love.
Moron.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
This is very interesting indeed. Like it has been said in other posts I hope they don't screw up a good thing. I have been using SuSE since 6.3 and have been for the most part pleased with their products. I just hope they do not follow Red Hats lead.
"I bow to no man" - Riddick
Neither United Linux nor SCO appear in the announcement. But relationships to the other two partners of United Linux (Conectiva and Turbolinux) are mentioned.
I have problems with lotus notes too. Notes seems to be useful only if you have a notes programmer customizing the system to your business workflow. "out of the box" it is merely an OK email/calendar system.
the client is a bitch to admin on a large scale. custom notes.id for each user? copying icon files and dlls for EACH user on a windows terminal server? screw that. I question whether the notes.id file buys you any security (encryption keys or whatever they do for you), since you have to put them on your unencrypted network shares anyway for backup/centralization purposes.
you are the first groupwise admin I've ever heard who actually liked groupwise. my admittedly limited experience with the client was that it's clunky and seems to have very little developer resources behind it.
With Sun's Java desktop, and now this, there is about to be a shift in thinking by corporations. When Sun was all by its lonesome trying to break the mindset of the Microsoft desktop, the odds were slim. Now things will move. Trust me, Novell will have a play for the corporate desktop. They have already been at my company, wanting to be our Linux provider. Couple these developments with some life in the Mac world, and the perception of Windows as a breeding ground for trouble, and all of a sudden the desktop is not as automatic a decision as it was even 6 months ago. The Novell guys that came to visit looked at home schmoozing with the executives, which will give them credibility in the eyes of the PHB's. The availability of many options, rather than one, will give the movement steam. There is a tectonic shift at work. Hold on.
Novell has one great stronghold, and that is eDirectory (i know - ZenWorks and DirXML is also great :-). Linux lacks any equivalent solution today, and hopefully Linux and eDirectory will complement each other perfectly.
For me as a sys.adm. this is a dream come true. No more fighting with Netware, and the (IMHO) best directory services being available for Linux.
Go Novell!IBM wants Novell back in the Linux business and that's why IBM is providing the backing for the deal. This is also tied in with the fact that Novell retained the right to require SCO to "amend, supplement, modify or waive any right" under the license agreements sold to SCO for UNIX (and if SCO did not comply, Novell could exercise those rights itself on SCO's behalf). IBM is interested in crushing SCO and Novell needs a distro to further it's investment in the Ximian desktop. It's a symbiotic relationship that will cause the fall of Darl McBride :-) This would be a really good time to get rid of any SCO paper before Scott Tissue takes it over...
If you bought SuSE and things started getting expensive, then there is RedHat, and vice-versa. Both products are similarly positioned and if one starts getting really unreasonable, there is also room for more competition in the form of professionally supported versions of other distributions.
See my journal, I write things there
Novell has a history of jumping on every bandwagon at it's peak, then abandoning it when something else comes along. Consider their past:
1. Buying the AT&T source, then announcing plans to merge NetWare and UNIX into a hybrid called "SuperNOS"
2. Buying Wordperfect, Quattro Pro and creating WordPerfect Office.
3. Java-on-NetWare. Anyone remember "the world's fastest Java execution environment"?
Every one of these failed, and was quietly abandoned. Now it's Linux. Hopefully they actually stick with this initiative long enough for it to bear some fruit.
IBM probably paid Novell in order to prop up the failing SuSE. IBM depends a lot on SuSE, and has been funding them heavily for some time. Perhaps this is an effort to offload some of that expense to Novell, with the promise of continued business in the future.
IBM doesn't depend upon Novell in order to win their lawsuit. Their lawyers are confident they can win it anyway.
As for Red Hat being evil, I have no idea where you got that stupid little idea. Perhaps you pulled it of your very own stupid little head.
1. Buy the Linux desktop company with the Outlook replacement solution.
2. Buy the world's second leading Linux distro with its excellent LSB-compliant base and its Exchange replacement solution.
3. Add own directory service, networking and workgroup products.
4. Buy former leader in high-performance UNIX hardware with its solid experience of Linux porting.
5. ???
6. Proffit?
/me sends CV to local Novell branch office...
Software is not supposed to be about how to work around a useability issue. - Ken Barber
You didn't really expect someone posting on Slashdot to be informed about what they were bitching about, did you?
Everytime I read something about Novell, someone brings up IPX/SPX. It never fails.
I don't bring up NetBeUI (oops!).
I can't say I really care one way or the other about this.
Novell has been quite stagnant for a while. Thankfully they realized that they needed a shot in the arm in order to expand their increasingly legacy user base. But have they done anything interesting? Will they be a contributing member of the community? Why should I get excited about Novell?
Then you have SuSE. I've used the distribution quite a bit. More often than not for their Live CD to do rescues. It's an ok distribution - it definitely has more software than any other distro and the book they provide is excellent. But again, it's not that interesting of a distro. It's just enough of a pain in the ass to use to not be enjoyable.. unless you think Slackware combined with RPM's is cool or you enjoy finding random documentation written in German.
Can someone please tell me something I don't know that will make me care about two also-rans?
----- obSig
Just wondering, if the suse folks do sell their company voluntarily.
They've some venture capitalists on board. From their press release (german): "Main investors of Suse are e-Millenium 1, Ad Astra Erste Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH and APAX Partners &Co."
Not that it makes any difference...
When will lotus notes CLIENT be 100% ported to linux/unix!!!!!!!!
If IBM can spend 50 million to support a 3rd party, why can't they spend 1/25th of that to port there "core" business notes/messaging application to a unix/linux system!
Novell won't do that, unless IBM makes Novell the Unix gods for all of there unix applications..
Well the only thing I have seen that could bring that kind of RAD development to Linux was Kylix from Borland. Unfortunately, the product has languished recently even though it was so promising. I wonder if a $25M investment and a $100M .net agreement could have anything to do with it.
This makes Mandrake the only even moderately high profile commercial Linux distribution left in European hands, and as is well known Mandrake's finances are seriously wobbly. And this matters for everyone just now, because the future of Linux in the US is being played out in just that same murky Salt Lake City slime-pool. Fall out from the SCO case will affect all US-owned Linux distributions.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
I'm sure I did my fair share of bitching about Groupwise, but I dislike Lotus Notes more. :) :-/
Just recently, I realized that the online support for Lotus Notes SUCKS compared to that of groupwise. With groupwise (or ANY novell product for that matter), I could search the knowledgebase for the error message or problem I am having, and I would get SOMETHING. Rarely would I have to open my own ticket. With the Lotus notes knowledgebase, I search for "Archive", and they have never heard of it.
An unsubstantiated assertion came to light recently that Novell has the power to overrule SCO to force it to make a licensing exception in the IBM case. If this is true, this investment could be seen as a Quid Pro Quo and SCO could use it in their defense. I hope IBM is smarter than this.
According to our Novell rep, they will indeed be porting GroupWise's back-end to Linux, and are already partway along. He also said they are going to be developing a Ximian Connector product to connect Evolution to GroupWise, similar to the way they did for Exchange.
I, for one, welcome our new Novell overlords!
___ I don't respond to Anonymous Cowards, and I Never Mod them UP.
The key question I have coming from this acquisition is:
What affect will this have on Sun's MadHatter project?
Given Sun was basing MadHatter on, from my understanding, the SuSE Linux ditribution, will Novell honor any existing formal arrangements between Sun and SuSE, will Sun want to continue developing a solution that feeds content back in to the now Novell owned distribution?
It seems Novell may have just won a -very- significant victory against Sun (both companies are looking to produce alternatives to Microsoft on the desktop/workstation, both were looking to use SuSE, Novell now owns SuSE and hence can shut out Sun).
SuSE has been my preferred distro for a few years now... I really really really hope Novell doesn't screw things up. I'm not so optimistic about that :-(
What could possibly hurt the security of the American people more than giving our own government the ability to hide its
I dont know about you, But I would be worried if I used SuSe as my Linux Distro.
Why? Because Novell Aquired it. If there's anything that has been proven over the last couple of years is that Novell buying a company out is basicially the Kiss of Death.
Look at Wordperfect (pratcially dead), Quattro Pro (dead) and Caldara (Now SCO. - Suing anything that Produces code for money)
Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe their aquiring it in order to expand their networking capability beyond Netware futher, or do away with the netware OS altogether and replace it with a Linux based network server.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
The big question is how well have they thought this through. With the recent aqcuisitions, they have the firepower, but now they need to use it
:
wisely.
To crack MS's lock on the desktops I can see them doing a couple of things
1. Offering SUSE ISO's for DL
2. Offering SUSE to Dell, gateway etc with a minimal or no license fee.
They now have the option of an end to end software solution, tied to a global directory
that works and is easy to admin. They will need to push the desktop to gain acceptance, which is why I think we'll see SUSE ISOs. Now if only they'd start spamming those CD's like AOL does....
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
To undercut redhat and suse, the labour intensive packaging and testing of linux on a commercial basis for the desktop would have to be based in a low wage economy, and I do not mean Germany.
Red flag linux, http://www.redflag-linux.com/eindex.html , to the rescue of linux on the desktop?
Be Free: Free Software Tuition
So Novell already bought Ximian, a Gnome-based desktop. Now Novell is going to buy Suse, the primary funder of KDE? Interesting.
Common sense is not so common.
The last I heard, SuSE wasn't making YaST publically available. I suppose I should have checked their current license before opening my mouth, though - this one isn't technically open source (since it only allows you to redistribute free of charge), but it's pretty close.
It's a shame you can't moderate your own posts down. I still think the other half of my point (that it's hardly an "evil empire" activity for Red Hat to reduce the amount of free support they give to the older versions of free software) stands, at least.
is all I can say. SuSE being owned by an American company and not one with a very good track record at that is a bad day for those of us who cherished SuSE's indepedance from strange US IP laws and the abuse of the law through such vagiaries such as the Patriot Act. DMCA etc as well as Microsoft abuse. I find this pretty crap. And sadly this means jobs get lost in Germany and Novell is almost sure to fuck this up on the desktop.
will the new company be NoSE or NOSE?
sorry...
Life is short; think quickly.
I can't help but wonder how the city of Munich feels, as wasn't it them who just recently signed a big contract with SuSE to replace Microsoft on their computers, even with a higher price - I'm sure some national pride came into play as SuSE was a German origin distro. Wonder if we ( meaning Linux), would still have won, if it was a Novell offering.
I think that we shall see more of this as the SCO claims get closer to court. All these companies (Novell, IBM, etc..) are going to be snatching up the various Linux distro companies. On the slim chance that SCO actually gets to court and even in the slightest chance that the GPL is ruled invalid. These purchasing companies now have pretty impressive software and it's all free to do what they want with it. Call this post flaimbait or trolling. The one thing that I have learned is that allmost all big businesses are evil and have one thing in mind. Make lots of money on the backs of others and Open Source is just waiting to be picked dry.
It would be a sad day if this came to be true....
I'm not exactly a novice at programming, or designing user interfaces, or writing back-end code that doesn't suck. But I've yet to find a simple, easy-to-understand GUI environment to develop shiny, lickable user interfaces, and link the interface to code underneath.
Microsoft may be the whipping-boy for monopolistic practices, but if you want to write "BeeKeeper Ranching and Honey Tracking," it doesn't take a genius to fire up Visual Studio and get a prototype interface to show to PHB-types. A little more work, and you have an almost workable prototype. Apple has gotten better with their offerings for OS X, and CodeWarrior tried to make it easy for cross-platform development. Other than a designing a web interface and tying it to a back-end language, is there a similar programming environment for X?
I know it's not a Novell-specific rant. But seeing the complaints about people not hacking out vertical applications for Linux without pointing out a development environment in which it's possible just makes me angry.
It's easy to teach/learn text-based programming languages to students, it's easy to teach/learn GUI programming with Visual Studio, it's somewhat more difficult to teach/learn GUI using Interface Builder. What do I use to teach/learn GUI programming on Linux/XWindows?
GroupWise is a very sophisticated object-based database with advanced replication that's relatively easy to deploy and manage. Tell me why Exchange or Notes is better?
So with Red Hat ending their free Linux product, Mandrake perhaps with one foot in the grave at least hovering around the cemetary, and SuSE being acquired by Novell (mmmmmm, batch file goodness and 5 1/4" boot disks :) good times) are there any companies left that think they can make money off of Linux by giving it away?
I guess we should say Long live Debian and Gentoo?
"For a successful technology, honesty must take precedence over public relations for nature cannot be fooled." -Feynman
With the open source expertise of SUSE LINUX and Novell's world-class networking and identity solutions and support, training and consulting services, Novell will be able to deliver Linux and all its components - from the server to the desktop - and give organizations a secure, reliable and mature Linux foundation.
Some people think I'm anti-capitalism because I think Microsoft is a shoddy company. I'm not. Here's a percect example. Novell is a big corporation (yes, they're still pretty big), whose goal is to make money by providing software and services. The difference is Novell seems to care about the quality of their products and services.
I still won't go back to using Novell products because I prefer Linux now, but I do wish them all the best of success. They're hackers who are trying to make a profit; good on 'em.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
... it seems most of the people involved in Novell management from that period have all migrated to SCO !! :)
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
It is a web-based (platform independent) Netware server tool.
With RH & Suse trapped into money sinks, I can only say: Go Mandrake!
Sigs ?? Mods ?? Karma ??
What's in a sig?
I just had to throw this one out here, figuring the black helicopter crowd might take the bait. Let's see RH9, last version of Red Hat as we know it, SuSE get's bought out by Novell after Version 9, Mandrake 9.2 eat's LG cdrom drives, only Slack seems to getting through the 9's nicely!!!
I could go on... About the only thing it is missing is encryption. Of course it remains to be seen whether the port to Linux will be successful, and whether Novell has the sense to make it open source.
"There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence."
the real movement is in Open Source and not J2EE.
J2EE is simply a set of specifications. There are many very widely used open source implementations of all or part of J2EE. Apache's Tomcat for example, or JBOSS. Every time you see a JSP page - that's J2EE.
Anyone who things that J2EE is not experiencing real growth has not looked at the IT job market for years.
I just moved back to Slackware (on which Suse was originally based) after I got sick of the problems that have plagued Suse since 7.3 or so. Yast was always a really nice configuration tool, but the other, semi-proprietary problems lie under the hood. The directory structure is slightly non-standard, which means about one out of every three source packages (and 90% of non-Suse RPMs) failed to install without alot of frustration. Suse was a godsend when it came to having a variety of apps, but you were pretty much stuck with the versions on the install cds because of this, and upgrading something like Gnome was a nightmare because none of the libraries were where they *should* have been. It's one heck of a great distro for beginners, but the training wheels never come off.
THE GOOD HUMOR MAN CAN ONLY BE PUSHED SO FAR
Bart Simpson on chalkboard in episode 2F18
Suggestion for Novell: They should acquire Codeweavers. If they are serious about owning things end-to-end, and fighting Microsoft head-on, then Codeweavers is a critical part of the arsenal.
Chronology: 1995+
Novell acquires AT&T UNIX source code.
Novell rewrites NetWare.
Novell sells UNIX source code to SCO.
NetWare customer base shrinks to increasing Windows NT marketshare.
Novell changes CEO's (Schmidt, etc.) like new parents change diapers.
Novell acquires Ximian and SuSE Linux.
SCO announces intentions to sue everyone with derivative UNIX technologies.
Oh if only we knew then what we know now.....
Hopefully Novell will be more forward thinking than it has demonstrated in the past, one notable indcident being it's slow process to adopt TCP/IP as a 'core' protocol over the inefficient IPX/SPX suite. Other incidences like the acquisition of the Word Perfect office suite (around 1994) and the subsequent lack of execution for this acquisition have often been the downfall of Novell. I would really like to think that Jack Messman (he whom called GNU/Linux immature) is going to change all that but alas only time will tell. Novell has had more than their share of talent that failed to materialize profit, Peter Schmidt (Java kingpin) among others have made contributions but never brought the cash cow home to graze.
C'mon Novell don't fail us this time....
But I have the IQ (and spelling ability) of an emtpy shoebox so what the hell do I know.
They have abandoned Redhat as a gratis,copyleft desktop OS. That is sufficient enough to call what Redhat is doing "abandonment".
Have they learned nothing from the example of DOS?
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
As of 12:45 today, Red Hat is down $2.19 or 14%, on concerns of competion according to CBSMarketwatch. A Major OUCH!, after the great rise of the past two months.
It is well past time for some commercial venture
that would provide enterprise support for a modified
Debian core. Has such a thing been seriously
attempted?
The leading Linux "core brand" needs to be immune from some idiot corp. turning it into strictly payware.
This has nothing to do with being cheap. This is about being competitive and allowing home users to use (for free) what they have at the office without being PIRATES.
Linux needs to be BETTER in all things, especially this.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
What is wrong with giving a little money back to the developers?
In general they want more than 'a little money'.
If my favourite distro sold what Cheapbytes sells-- just the CDs, no book, no support, I'd gladly buy from them, possibly even at a slightly higher rate. But I don't want to pay $40 for a boxed set
It's just like a fascist dictatorship, without the punctual rail service!
However, now woth thits announcement, ehen NetWare 7 rolls out at the end of 2005 it will come with two disks, one based on the NetWare kernel and the other a Suse kernel.
All of the tools and apps will be there and run the same on both kernels. In addition, Novell, is looking for a desktop OS and Suse will be the basis for this so that they can run their other open source acquisition Ximian. It is obvious what these open source companies are bringing to Novell, a lifeline in an industry where they are an afterthought and seeing their install base decline. It may save them or it may not - but it seems to be bad news for Microsoft that another major Network OS has moved to the Open Source camp.
Novell has run a lot of good software products into the dirt over the years. Because of this my first reaction was one of sadness. I hope they have a clue and won't do the same to SuSE or Ximian.
the good ground has been paved over by suicidal maniacs
1. Buys DR DOS (a solid, advanced DOS; much better then MS-DOS). "Fixes" it and releases Novell DOS 7. Enough said?
2. Buys and then sells UNIX - TO SCO! If it wasn't for Novell, we wouldn't be having all these SCO problems...
3. Has anyone ever had Netware work out of the box? I've always found that there's always a pitfall...yes, you eventually get it to work, but usually after pulling out some hair...or finding your wallet a bit lighter because there's some 'enhancement' that (only) you need but costs another 50 bucks...
4. Groupwise....well, just one word sums that up...Groupwise
Yes, Novell will screw this one up too...Guarenteed!I'm not sure where you got this idea but Novell's Groupwise is absolutly an enterprise solution. Built on NDS it can do things even Exchange can't. It's hardly a joke.
Or you could do what I did and buy a Qt programming book from orielly and just start using kdevelop. You can also develop your application in java using eclipse. A good place to start would also be using the tk libraties for perl, tkinter for python or tcl/tk. Oreilly has books on all of these.
Anyone care to comment on some thoughts this raises in my mind?
1- This is good for SuSE, and Linux in general because it means that SuSE Linux is now an "US-owned" product, which means that it can be used by divisions of the US Government and US businesses that demand only US-owned products go into their systems. Now there is another competitor to force MSFT to make a better, cheaper product or get out (Or just buy off more Congressional representatives.)
2- This could hurt SuSE in Europe, where being a European company helped sell SuSE to Europeans wanting a continental alternative to Microsoft.
I'm thinking that most control over SuSE will stay in Europe, keeping Europeans happy, and Novell being able to push a Linux distro that is a great alternative to Red Hat in the USA will make Americans happy, and everyone wins. But maybe I'm crazy...
Novell is a "big name" that has lost market share to it's competition (Microsoft). They aren't as powerful or as profitable as they once were but they still have an asset that can make them a lot of money: Their name. They have a brand name that is recognized and respected by many people both inside and outside of the industry. They have little hope of staying in their niche and regaining any sort of dominance in the market yet they are a hungry and competitive company and are no doubt looking for a way to turn things around.
Novell knows better than most who "likes" Microsoft and who "hates" Microsoft. There are big players in other parts of the industry who hate Microsoft almost as much as Novell. For instance: If I were a PC manufacturer I would be upset that Microsoft makes as much or more profit from a PC as I do. Imagine Novell talking with these people in the back rooms at trade shows, conferences, and wherever they run into each other. I'm sure that if Novell approached them offering a much lower cost O/S with advanced features and the Novell name attached, they would listen.
The Novell name is important to marketing a non-Windows O/S in a big name over the counter PC. It is a marketable brand with name recognition that helps to level the playing field. In the case of Novell, this is even goes further, in to the high-end server market. IS executives are willing to risk something with a name like Novell where they would be less willing with a name like SuSe.
Novell is getting ready, they are positioning themselves for war against Microsoft. They are going after not just the back room but the desktop as well. They are going to offer a secure solution for the office. If they play their cards right, they can offer the O/S, applications, and support and go head-to-head against Microsoft in the market that really counts - the OEM market. Everyone except for Microsoft can come out a winner on this. It means lower costs for the manufacturer, these lowered costs mean that they can pass on some of the savings to consumers and this means the manufacturers can sell more boxes! Novell will gain market share and win back their position in the market place.
It will be fun to sit back and watch. This is like watching a "Hail Mary" pass or an on-side kick where the underdog stands a chance of stealing the game away from the bigger, more powerful competition.
According to an article on CBSMarketwatch, Novell's Chairman & CEO Jack Messman during a conference call with employee's and reporter's stated that "Novell planned to retain the SuSE brand, at least in the short term". This to me doesn't sound too promising for a SuSE desktop OS down the road in the near future.
The only good thing I can see about this is that we see one more major commercial player putting resources behind Linux. This may help convince the PHB faction (and perhaps some of the clueless investor community) that nobody real is taking SCO's FUD campaign very seriously. This could make life easier for clueful Sysadmins trying to develop Linux deployment plans.
I really hope Novell do good things with their new property, though their history is agin' 'em. In fairness, I believe that most of their really dumb moves were made under the reign of Ray Noorda. (I hear he's gone to some other company now that continues propagating stupidity.)
There might be an interesting bit of insight (or hindsight) into Novell's strategy in this InfoWorld article (12 Sep 2003). Their copyright policy precludes quoting without getting permission (which no one here would do, of course!), but I'm referring to the last 3 paragraphs in the article, beginning with the quote from Laura DiDio. Guess we shoulda' seen it coming.
Enough with the gloom 'n doom prognostications about the death of Linux! Linus, et. al., don't work for SuSE (or RedHat), and Linux development isn't going to die because a handful of corporations are getting into merger & acquisition mode. These guys are just trying to figure out how to make money from a phenomenon they don't directly control. That's a new way of thinking, and basically a Good Thing.
And please, God, don't let some corporate behemoth buy up and bastardize Slackware!
Never grep a yacc by the i-node.
Groupwise really hasn'
t done much in the marketplace and most admins I've ever dealt with were thrilled to move from Groupwise (either to Exchange or SendMail).
I bet their "thrill" was gon when they encountered the first of many viruses that they had to / will deal with on Exchange.
Groupwise is not glamorous, but neither is ELM, or Pine. But all three are safe from the "malware o' the day" that those of us who have been forced to admin Exchange boxes do.
After deciding to go with The Penguin, the company is now ready to expand its zoo with Monkeys and Chameleons. Great circus coming into town!
no idea.
Excellent move for Novell. They were smart enough to realize that NetWare has had it's day, and it's time to move on.
I'll paraphrase a post someone made on another website, "What company is going to think twice about their Linux suppliers viability when that company is Novell (with a touch of IBM thrown in)?". I think this will work out very, very, well for Novell as Linux makes it's way out from the server room onto the desktop.
Rubbish. SUSE as a company have no influence over how KDE is developed. They do employ several long standing KDE developers, who would no doubt continue to develop KDE.
The SuSE move by Novell is perhaps in line with a previous announcement already back in 2001:
In an effort to kick-start the building of applications that leverage directory technology, Novell here at the NetWorld+Interop conference announced plans to offer its eDirectory free to developers, equipment manufacturers, and independent software vendors
But, what happened to that initiative? Is it free today? Or, what is free, really?
I have to wonder what the german cities that have invested heavily in switching to SuSE precisely to remove independance from US based software are thinking, now that SuSE is going to be US Based software.
They're probably wishing they took Ballmers offer now.
If you need web hosting, you could do worse than here
I dont know where you get your info, but IPX/SPX was designed for large networks, it could have easily replaced TCP/IP for the internet. IPX/SPX will support 300 million nodes, with no configuration needed and not need for crazy EIGRP and OSPF routing. Cisco is lucky the novell were too greedy, or they would have been out of a job. I love that you say IPX has an inefficiency, what exactly are you talking about? A protocol that will run without any routing, subnetting and will scale up to 300 million nodes sounds pretty good to me. IPX would be perfect for the LAN admin who doesnt know jack, its jut plug it in and make sure the lights are blinking. Sounds like a MS Admins dream job to me.
There is a flaw in you part 2. You don't take into account that microsoft might not be happy about gateway and dell offering linux as an option. Microsoft might punish them by increasing the pricing of the oem licenses. Another option which is being in effect now, is that microsoft give reduced prices to oems that only offer microsoft products.
The change to linux is going to be gradual where there will come a point where microsoft can't grab the balls of major computer providers and force them to use microsoft products.
You don't keed to be Kreskin to look into Microsoft's future. Even a child knows that Microsoft is dying. All major marketing surveys show that Microsoft has steadily declined in market share. Microsoft is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim.
Due to the troubles of Santa Claus, scientific investigations and so on, Christmas went out of business and was taken over by Microsoft. Now Rudolph is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.
The numbers continue to decline for Santa but Microsoft may be hurting the most. Look at the numbers. The loss of user base for Microsoft continues in a head spinning downward spiral. In truth, for all practical purposes Microsoft is already dead. It is a dead man walking. It's a fact: Microsoft is dying.
Are you serious? Spending $210 million dollars to buy SuSE, just to crush one major Linux player? In addition to the amount invested into Ximian? I think not. With the combined power of Ximian leading to full desktop integration with their existing product line, and the #2 enterprise Linux distro, their benefit to RedHat would be greatly outweighed by the damage they will cause to it. RedHat is pushing enterprise only adoption; Novell/SuSE is backing the Desktop and Server models, bringing it to everyone. This is much more appealing than RedHat's offerings. I've been souring to RedHat lately, and this is getting me damn near ecstatic.
Buy recommendation for Y2K4: Novell/Google.
This is getting interesting.
Been using SuSE for many years, can't remember whether kernel 2.0 was out then. Was hoping for kernel 2.6 with KDE 3.2 in a few months, but I think I'll teach myself something else. Either Debian (via Knoppix) or Mandrake. Or why not actually make the switch to FreeBSD? That keeps me even safer from ever getting a $699 bill from the SCO Ferenghi.
[My sig got messed up, add "/dev/audio`" to the end to get the joke]
What is the sound of one hand clapping?
cat
Sometimes I wonder how I ever figure out how to tie my shoe laces.
Stick Men
Remember when YOU were relevant?
No?
Neither do I.
- Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
Novell will be exhibiting at the Southern California Linux Expo on November 22nd at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. Other exhibitors include Real Networks, IBM, and Pogo Linux. Some of the speakers include Seth Nickell, Chris Dibona, and Patrick Mochel. Full and student tickets are still available for this event as well as free exhibition only passes using the FREE promotional code.
Great, which DIstro is now save to use if you want to abide US export restrictions, but nevertheless have to deploy IT-systems in Sudan, Libya, Cuba or North Korea etc.
It is not possible to use technology to solve social problems
I had a chat this evening with one of my contacts in SuSE. She had just left a rather long meeting and was somewhat behind the times (the news was made public whilst she was in the meeting). One of the first things she said was 'Have you read Slashdot? What do people think of the announcement?'
I'm not sure what Novell is planning, but (as at 2003-11-04 20:45GMT) http://www.novell.com seems to nail their colours to the mast. (In case it has changed by the time you click, the top 2.5 inches of the page are filled with 'LINUX', with a red N.)
Interesting times. This needs a chance to mature - a year or more, at least, I would hazard - but I can't say that I believe this to be a bad thing for Linux in general.
Well, this is interesting. I was on the Corsair research project at Novell in 1993, when Bryan Sparks and the rest of the gang that became Caldera spent 18 months trying to create a Linux desktop product inside Novell. Novell killed the project, because they couldn't see the value in the world wide web or in Linux.
This is during the same period when Microsoft was cementing its monopoly in the desktop market and preparing for the release of Windows 95. What a different world it might have been if we had succeeded (or been allowed to succeed)!
I think this is a good move for Novell, but I can't help think it would have been even better if they had continued executing on a project started over 10 years ago in the same direction.
Hindsight is 20/20.
Glade. It generates the gui, and all you have to do is fill in the callback routines, a la visual studio.
Speak for yourself.
This could be great in the end. Provided Novell will combine everything:
- Suse drops YOU and uses Ximian Red Carpet to update stuff (this has been my nr 1 wish for a looong time!)
- Evolution
- Corel for Linux
- Joined themes
- preferably a closer integration for KDE and Gnome (cut&paste!)
And Novell is planning to pay developers for Mozilla and OpenOffice...
Sounds like all the tools I use are bound to get better and integrated!
In fact I hadn't read slashdot today until about 30 minutes ago when one client called to ask about novell buying SuSE and me going, "Novell did what?". I knew SuSE's sale was in the works, but I didn't know to whom. Novell makes some pretty impressive enterprise level stuff, but I work with SMB's.
We had one office here in the last three months abandon Windows for Linux on 90% of their desktops. Their accounting and shipping department still used Windows 2k pro and their whopping Marketing and PR department of two people are using Macs. So far they loved the advantages, but I might have just shot myself in the foot in this town if RH and Novell doesn't make what is going to happen clear. I had two other offices in town getting ready to switch, and let me tell you, Linux just lost.
I had to call one office today and tell them the truth as I see it, "The Linux market is going into flux and I cannot predict how its going turn out. That leaves Microsoft and Apple." Between RH yesterday and SuSE today, that's the truth. The last thing businesses want is a question mark on what's going to happen. My Guess is that today or tomorrow, he will be placing an order for 30 new Dell computers with XP pro and Office 2003.
Most of the businesses I work with have between 10 - 50 employees and maybe one or two IT support staff. Most of these companies hire me has a consultant to act as CIO to the president/CEO and give them advice. I had been going around recommending Linux as alternative to M$ since it would run on their exisiting hardware, cost, and that there was commerical support from IBM, RH, and SuSE. Well, there is not a clear road map for either RH or SuSE at this moment. I cannot recommend either of these products in good faith because I don't know if there will the support they are looking for in a year or two years, and that leaves two options: Apple and Microsoft.
Apple is creating some killer systems, especially laptops and mid range systems. All of our desktops and laptops here in the office are macs and we love their stablity and the fact we don't have to worry about the Worm of the Week. But their higher front end cost compared to Dell is often enough that no matter what people's expirances are, they will choose the Dell, especially since the stablity with 2k and XP has improved a lot from the 9X series.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
SuSE is the company with no future.
I don't call Fedora an abandonment.
GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.
On one corner I hear people saying if you don't want Redhat Support for Advanced Server - don't buy support.
On the other corner according to EULA, you have to buy support for *each* machine you have Advanced Server installed on. I mean isn't this just another form of 'per-seat' licensing where Redhat can throw any type of costs it wants into the 'support figure'?
Or the muddy question - suppose you buy support from them and Get Advanced Server - what restrictions to you have on copying? You should be able to copy the GPL portions of AS without restrictions - but pretty much all of AS is open source no?
Or suppose you just get AS and don't install it on any system for operational use, but rip it up and distribute the GPL portions, and provide binary RPMS by recompiling the SRPMS.
Can anyone answer these questions?
Kashif
Now microsoft can be afraid, and mean it.
With Novells server management, NDS, etc, it finally (combined with all the other open source forces) be enough to ACTUALLY pose a threat to microsoft..
As to the Destop, Mandrake 9.2 rocks.
(Even given 350M of updates)
Likely Red Carpet-
:)
Enterprise patch distribution is *key* to any sort of well, enterprise
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
Argue all you want that "choice is good" but considering the talent behind both of these, and their respective featuresets, it's been a fucking collossal waste of time.
Feature for feature they are almost exact- imagine where the "dominant linux desktop(s)" would be today if everyone was working on the *same project*...
Maybe finally Novell can pull them all in to one.
I browse at +5 Flamebait- moderation for all or moderation for none.
I hope that answers this and any other silly question you may have.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Look what they did with Unix(R) !!
Uh uh.. Bad move.
I would prefer that Suse stay a German owned and based business. Keep it out of the meddling hands of American profiteers and legal entanglements..
Possibly some developers will bring Fedora to Sparc.
I don't know of any concrete efforts yet, but it certainly seems possible (see the relevant entry on the FAQ page), given interested individuals with the proper knowledge.
GNU/Linux. The Freshmaker.
I would put forward that Novell would not have bought into SuSe if they had any doubt about the claims of SCO. I think we can now all safely assume that SCO doesnt have a leg to stand on (not that we didnt know that already).
I am Monkey, the Great Sage, equal of heaven!
No I am not flaming your spelling but I object to the choice of words. SuSE Professional is a product that is sold in a box. Unlike Microsoft that sells licenses that can be used per machine. The SuSE product can be used as you wish except for general copyright issues. You can use the product to install SuSE Linux on as many machines as you wish. Microsoft Windows is only 'licensed' for use on one machine.
I do accept that this is a bit of a nit pick but I think that the difference is important and I therefore do not like the 'license' word when refering to SuSE, or in fact any flavour of Linux that I can think of.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
Hmm.. have you seen the groupware solution in KDE3.2? Kontact, which integrates KMail, Korganizer, KAddressbook, etc. I find it much nicer to use then Evolution.
Actually this looks good. Many companies have held off MS assimilation by hanging on to Novell as a backbone...and it just might pay off now! Suse really does have a nice desktop when people aren't sending you MSOffice files all day, or expecting you to use LookOut! Novell has the ESTABLISHED top end networking solution...and now has desktops to sell to it's hardcore fans. I know my former employer will be biting soon...they've been paying for MS Site licenses for years now...and are sick of it!
The novell deal pretty much wraps the Linux future up for now... if they don't screw it up. Hp and IBM [perhaps SUN] will be able to sell big-iron servers [like before] and novell can provide the "glue" [like before] but with linux as the desktop! As long as they keep a certian level of connectors opened up for free Linux to connect to they won't screw this up.
The key is to be willing to allow hackers to build free systems that work with or mimic theirs...the corps will almost always buy a version for support, or need the big-iron servers. But as a good will move to the community to keep Linux open for the home desktop to grow in it's shadow.
Suse is mostly a European company and the EU was starting to take a liking to a native software maker. Suse is German which may have had more to do with Munich than anti-MS! They should let it go thru, they we can trade germans back Suse for Chrysler!
Hope not! Suse has a pretty good desktop. If they could bundle more home user features [Winex, DVD, etc] like Lindows they could make a killing once every one starts using it at work...Or maybe it's time for Lindows[creepy chills] or perhaps Mandrake, Xandros, & Lycrois to get a real shot at the home desktop for once!
if you can get people to BUY it you could run it in your garage! Boxes and packaging are pretty cheap even in the US. Problem is that YOU do it by hand unless you can sell X thousand copies. Testing is an issue, but simply getting X people to BUY linux is the first problem to overcome.
Normally, I'd take that as extremist, but lately free linux is becomming the only way to go. If companies want to "can" something to sell fine, but it seems that unless they want to support the base [i.e. debian, gentoo, etc] they don't deserve the time of day. Not to be mean, but RedHat and Suse are just means to buying their servers...That's OK if you want to use them, but unless THEY are willing to start putting back [to the originals..not just "dump" source] What's the point of trying anymore.
That said, I'm now an even bigger knoppix fan...It springs from debian, and all the tools get put back into debian for others to use too. It's got the ability to do well as a "canned" distro for somebody, but the author [Klaus] is always careful to stay true to the roots and let others stray...now more than ever I see why.
I have not seen one reference to the Canopy Group in all the reactions to Novell acquiring SuSE. As the controlling influence for SCO, Canopy is screwing the GPL and now as a controlling influence in Novell, they are buying SuSE.
Way back in the olden days (5 years ago), we were all saying how important it was that we have a broad selection of Linux distros, so that we could avoid having a Microsoft with another name. Now we have RedHat and Canopy Group as the two major players. Isn't anyone else concerned about this?
Probably too late to get read by anyone, but here goes anyways.
... but more importantly OpenExchange, the Exchange clone.
It is no coincidence they bought Suse and not another distro and here is why.
First they bought Ximian. What is Ximian good at? Right, Evolution, the Outlook clone.
Then they buy Suse. What are they good at? Server software? Yes that too
If I was in the position of the Novell executives, I would do the same thing.
The reason why most businesses use Microsoft products is because executives like the Outlook Calendar and they "need" Word/Excell.
Novell now has everything inhouse to provide a viable alternative to Microsoft. Suse Servers with OpenExchange, Suse workstations with Evolution and OpenOffice. They will also port their Novell management tools so Active Directory can be replaced.
Another good thing for Novell is that OpenExchange is compatible with Outlook, and Evolution with Exchange. This way they can guarantee an easy migration.
This will be a good thing for a more rapid Linux adoption, but this is not a good thing for free software (free as beer and Free as speech). I'm not sure, but I believe OpenExchange is not Free. You have to pay for the software, but I can't seem to find a license to check if the software is Free.
The Management tools will be proprietary. So they have an edge over other distributions. Let's just hope they keep Evolution Free. They own the majority of the IP of Evolution now so they are able to change the license for the parts written by Ximian.
Good for Novell, good for faster Linux adoption by companies. Bad for Free Software and Microsoft.
Candyban