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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'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.
Dude, Novell bought SuSe to destroy KDE so that GNOME can win.
GNOME FOREVER!
Maybe they will combine Ximian and SuSE into 2 different product offerings: SuSE, and SuSE Plus (for example). Regardless, it's clear that Novell is trying to realign themselves under Linux.
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.
.
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.
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,
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.
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...
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
That's an easy one to overcome. "Oh, Fedora is the new name for RedHat Linux. You know, just like how it was Windows NT, then 2000, then XP, and now Longhorn? Yea..."
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.
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.
Somehow, I do not think that we are seeing the big picture.
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.
To stop a $210 million friendly take-over of a private company? Not bloody likely unless it had been in a heavily regulated area (think arms manufacturer, nuclear technology or similar). The regulators involved are likely to do more than yawn - this is peanuts from a government point of view.
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.
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
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
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)
The biggest possibility is that they're going to move to Ximianized GNOME as the desktop. They'd be foolish to throw away a major asset (Ximian GNOME, which is far easier to use than even SuSE's KDE) just because some of their new developers were fans of KDE. I would expect YAST to see some major revisions, too.
Lots of people will want to deny this because they know that it would be a huge blow to the KDE project. I really can't blame them. But Sun and RedHat are both using GNOME now, and Novell seems to be apt to move in that direction, too. Desktop consolidation arrives in the corporate market. We'll see if this changes anything...
-Erwos
Plausible conjecture should not be misrepresented as proof positive.
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...
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.
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 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!
will the new company be NoSE or NOSE?
sorry...
Life is short; think quickly.
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....
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.
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.