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Novell/SUSE Prime for Aquisition?
Ho Kooshy Fly writes "Supposedly Novell/SUSE looks like a good buyout target now. The likes of the obvious, IBM and the less obvious Cisco might be interested in integrating in the new Novell/SUSE company into their portfolio." Lucent, AT&T, and HP are also mentioned as possible buyers, but it's important to remember that it's all still just speculation.
1 in 5
Not HP/ComDEC! That is the place where tech goes to die. Besides, they would rather spend their money on new GulfStream 5's.
IBM seems to be content NOT having an OS.
And face it, the only thing that could kill Suse quicker than Novell would be IBM marketing.
The opposite of progress is congress
I don't see why IBM would want the combination of them. SuSE by itself I can see, but why would IBM be more interested with Novell as part of the deal? IBM has Notes, so it doesn't need GroupWise.
--Ben
Suddenly, they'd hold all of Novell's rights vs. SCO. Since they sold SCO those rights to begin with, SCO could quickly wind up in a pickle... :]
Especially since Novell has those rights to direct SCO to do whatever it wants with respect to the contract between SCO & IBM.
In other words, IBM buying Novell would draw the noose more tightly around SCO's neck (okay, true, that's overkill, but...)
Just imagine: AT&T back in the Unix biz, and batling in court with SCO. That would be very interesting indeed. Probably not pretty for SCO, though.
Since Novell, as part of its sale of the UNIX licenses to SCO, retained the right to require SCO to "amend, supplement, modify or waive any right" under the license agreements (and if SCO did not comply, Novell could exercise those rights itself on SCO's behalf)....See http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=13 03_0_3_0_C
I'd think owning a combination of network/operating system technologies would be beneficial to an OEM that deals heavily in selling machines to businesses, particularly point-of-sale terminals.
Try not. Do or do not, there is no try.
-- Dr. Spock, stardate 2822-3.
Of the companies mentioned, IBM seems the only one likely to be able to do something with Novell/SuSE. But do they really need them? They've got plenty on their own and 1 merger is risky enough, merging with a recent merger (actually 2) would be pretty risky and likely to fail. Of the other companies mentioned, Cisco would be asking for trouble, stick to Network hardware, it's what made you rich and the others just don't need the trouble. I was excited to see Novell eat up Ximian and SuSE, I believe they'll be succesful, but adding one more company to the mix might be the straw that break the merger's back.
We need novell to have significant Linux client support. It should work to support both Linux and Windows clients to novell working together nicely. This way, companies could roll out Linux (SuSE) clients without windows licenses, and people could use them for accessing the internet, editing office documents, etc.
If there was a buy out of Novell, it would definately spell the end of Red Hat. Imagine how strong of a Linux powerhouse IBM or Cisco owning Ximian, Suse, and Novell would be. Both desktop and server would benifit immensely. A little side note: check out these two stock graphs of Novell and Red hat, on the day Suse was aquired. Redhat Novell
...but it's important to remember that it's all still just speculation.
You're new around here, aren't you?
I heavily disagree with the author's contention that Free Software will degrade the value of a portfolio. When combined with strong hardware offerings, I think the decreased TCO would actually increase a company's range of services or profit margins.
Playing Caldera's game, eh? I don't have a huge amount of respect for IBM, but I have some, and would think they're above that.
"Not HP/ComDEC! That is the place where tech goes to die..." Oh, I could not agree more, this would be certain death. Even Wall St knows that.
Daniel Connor
You mean AsSE? DON'T CLICK THAT LINK! It's something from the goatse archives!
This article is merely pure speculation. And nothing more. Unless that guy who runs Canopy still has a significant Novell share holding, and wants to get a bit more richer quickly, by somehow getting the speculation out there that Novell itself might be ripe for takeover.
As the article states, the only obvious candidate to take Novell over is IBM.
The reason I feel Novell wont be going anywhere soon is because you need these middle sized computer companies to exist. You can't have companies the size of Microsoft and little companies and nothing inbetween. Sure, IBM could afford to gobble up Novell, but then again so can Microsoft. Or other companies.
Besides, in my somewhat limited experience I have not seen company A purchase company B, only to be swallowed up whole by company C within weeks of these things happening.
It's a whole game of chess, except in this game there is something preventing a 'checkmate' (usually the government) and it is usually advantageous in a chess game to have all your pieces, not just your queen and your pawns.
Mark.
Other than the obvious anti-SCO move by taking Novell, I don't see that much for IBM. To me, it seems that IBM is in a better position by having Novell as a "friend" in this dispute rather than a subsidiary. I've seen the bit about Novell's contract with SCO regarding the sale, and it does put them in a great position. They could still exercise that right to the benifit of IBM without being purchased.
Sun is also an interesting bit-player in this drama too. Didn't they ink some deal with SCO regarding rights/licensing?...they could strengthen their hand by purchasing Novell.
Any move by MS to take Novell might be blocked on antitrust grounds. HP would be the best bet for action as an MS proxy, another wierd longshot proxy for MS might be someone like DELL. That's just speculation though, but the alignment is right and a deal like that couldn't be blocked outright on antitrust grounds.
How about SCO?...laugh...yeah, the've got LOTS of new money from MS, that might get the noose from around their necks. Do they have enough money to really buy their way out?
All this movement makes me really glad that the kernel is GPL. I've seen TOO many companies bought by MS just to put them out of business. I believe that this is what scares MS the most about Linux, they can't simply buy the company and shut it down.....
Whatever happens, it should be interesting for all of us to watch. We can be somewhat relieved that nobody can take our kernel's (and the rest of the work too) away from us.
IBM would be duplicating a lot of software effort if they were to purchase Novell and it's tech portfolio. For example NDS and ZenWorks would compete directly with Tivoli.
SuSE might be useful as they have global acceptance which may help to sell more Linux products and solutions to the global marketplace vs. RHES.
HP probably won't buy it (yet). If they do it will be to take SuSE for use as their Linux solution provider, and to put down Novell to garner further favor from Microsoft- who also power their midrange backoffice offerings. But HP is still cooling down from the Compaq merger. It's too soon to look at Novell while simultaneously keeping it's current investors happy (they should be focusing on ops as is).
Maybe it'll be Oracle, to use as another pawn in their game to beat everybody else (read: Microsoft) no matter what the cost.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Linux == Cancer (to MS). They'd have Novell spin SuSE and Ximian right back off... (Or would they pull a SCO?)
Please! IBM and HP buy a Linux company? 'Why buy a cow when milk is free' has been their attitude towards Linux for a while now. Besides, IBM will soon own a small share of Novell anyway--more than sufficient to do them good if there's anything to the stories of Novell having enough Unix IP rights left to protect any Linux with a Novell brand on it from SCO attacks.
As for the others, sorry, I keep an eye on all of them, and I haven't see any sign of any of them having any interest in getting into the OS business. AT&T & Lucent have their own problems to fix, and Cisco is finally coming around quite nicely by having stuck to their main business lines.
Steven
Oracle would be the best company to buy Novell/Suse and I'd buy Oracle stock right now if I were all of you. I highly doubt IBM would buy them, IBM would sooner buy Redhat.
The only way to fix the deficit is to tax sunlight.
to beat SCO. That's a done deal.
It may be, however, that IBM wants "the whole package". That is, Novell and SCO, and all their combined trademarks and patents. They'd have the whole Unix kit and kaboodle, in addition to some nice file system, network protocols, directory, client management etc. tech. to add to their portfolio.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I'm wondering if they are trying to posture themselves as an infrastructure company, a solutions brand, not a hardware company.
Novell and it's assets (particularly app servers, resource management and clustering stuff) would make that a possibility.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Both of these companies are more likely to buy Suse than IBM. IBM has nothing to gain by buying Novell/SUSE, IBM does not make money in that market, IBM is a more upscale enterprise based company and would buy Redhat before buying Novell/SUSE simply because IBM has no use for the Novell part of the picture or the Ximian part. I think Oracle would have the most to gain by buying Suse, I think Lucent is on a roll right now and could buy them too but really there arent many companies who have the money to buy them who actually think its profitable to do so.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
On the plus side (for them), it would greatly aid them in competing with Linux. By using their time honored strategy of embrace, extend, extinguish, they could basically come out with a Microsoft XP Linux, or something like that. The big downside would be that they would have to do some serious political lobbying to get approval for the merger.
I'd just like to point out that I predicted an IBM buyout of Novell/SUSE before anyone else did ;)
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GIT d? s: a-- C++++ UL++++ P++ L+++ E- W++ N o-- K- w--- O- M+ V PS+ P
I somehow doubt Lucent could afford to buy Novell, they aren't even profitable anymore. Their stock price is around 2 - 3 dollars. I know that not the only thing that matters, but it's a good inication that it isn't the best off company right now.
I think of all the companies which could buy Novell Cisco would be the best company to do it, they have the money, the strength to not be influenced by Microsoft, and they are the smartest most profitable company.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Not very powerful. Ximian would be canned because they dont profit. Suse would be streamlined and focus mostly on big business, this would leave small businesses to Redhat. Redhat would re-open Redhat network and focus on the small business.
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
IBM might like the idea but look if they do, Ximian is dead. I really hope they dont because IBM would have too much influence on the Linux community
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Open source not ready for desktop, IBM told UK government IBM Says its not ready
People don't exist to serve systems, systems exist to serve people.
Ouch. That would be tragic.
To lose Novell, SuSE, and Symbian in one step would be far too depressing.
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
$699 for unlimited, irrevocable rights to Linux.
None of this would in any way affect IBM's counterclaims against SCO, BTW...
Look at the name of the analyst - Laura Didio.
Maybe you remember her from her SCO kernel source code news?
IF theres a company that could stand to make it big with linux and try to revitalize their market, its SUN.
They would both make a lot of sence. AT&T in perticular I think would have more to gain. The phone companies are going TCP/IP. So AT&T getting their own distro would make a lot of sence.
Yeah, but is that not really abuse of the Slashdot forum?
I don't think this is supposed to be a soapbox..
Maurice W. Hilarius Voice: (778) 347-9907
There's a reason IBM didn't make their
own Linux distribution. If IBM were to
be in that business, lots of IBM patents
would get let out. See the GPL for details.
So, no way. SuSE would be toxic to IBM.
...and combine both distributions into one called OS/2!
Soviet Russia is claimed to be one also.
After reading all the posts here, people don't see the major problem with IBM buying Novell.
IBM is a very big and powerful company, and them "consolidating" is NOT a good thing. Do we really want just TWO companies running everything?
I for one LIKE competition and IBM has a history of being assholes. These guys may be opening up to Linux(and I think they're sincere), but they are still an "old world" company that relies on patents (look at their SCO countersuit).
Talk about Paranoia. Novell bought SuSE to strengthen their Linux offering. SuSE went from being an independent software company with a market cap in the $210 million range, to being part of a company with a market cap well above $2 billion.
Redhat is focusing on selling products that will make it money. So Redhat won't make boxed sets of their cheapest product anymore, but who were buying them anyway? You've always been able to get it in tons of books, magazines, on the net etc., and Fedora is taking over the mantle. So what you have is a situation where companies still get support if they pay for it, just as before, and consumers get a ditro, just as before, but the name will be different, and they'll have to go to some cheap CD packager to get CD's of it much like most people have been doing anyway.
Sun? Who cares about Sun except Sun itself?
All in all I see the Novell and Redhat events as good - it will likely help both companies, which will only mean better business penetration for Linux, and that will filter down to consumers eventually.
How much would it suck for linux if the assets of SuSe and Ximian were bought up and shut down by a certain Redmond software giant?
True genius is grasping a situation like a peice of fruit, and peircing it just right so that it drains dry.
Novell employees often mention their company has over 1 billion dollars in cash. This makes it hard for anybody to take them over and could be one of the reasons they have not been take over up to this point.
"...but it's important to remember that it's all still just speculation."
can that be added to the end of EVERY slashdot article?:)
Actually I don't think this means anything since the market has already priced this into their market cap (currently 2.8 billion).
Red Hat would survive because to many Red Hat IS Linux. There are many many companies out there that use and buy Red Hat specifically because they are independant from IBM et al. I've also seen no hints that IBM wants to be a Linux vendor. They are much happier to pimp other OS's and make their money being a service provider. IBM has no desire to repeat the DOS->WARP->FAILURE cycle.
IBM makes money the smart way. They service whatever OS's are on the market. That way if any particular OS become irrelavant they have nothing to fear and can just pick up where they left off.
Make no mistake. IBM is a big booster of Linux not because they are big believer in Free Software. They support Linux because that's what people want. If it wasn't Linux it just be some other OS.
People who mistakenly believe IBM is some great backer of Linux who are planning to see it through no matter what are Fools.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
I would have thought Fujitsu, possibly Apple or Sony. Nokia?
One word: patents
Suppose IBM were to distribute the normal
collection of GPL software as "IBM Linux".
It is likely that, buried in that pile of
code, an IBM-owned patent is used. By the
GPL, IBM's distribution of code using their
own patent would cause that patent to be
licensed to all.
IBM won't allow this to happen. Thus, IBM
won't ever be in the business of making
a Linux distribution.
Just look at who's predicting that Novell will be aquired. It's Laura Dido, the same analyst that said SCO had a case. Why should anyone believe her now anymore than they did on the SCO code thing?
When an IBM employed kernel hacker put
the full (modified) Linux source on IBM's
web site, IBM's lawyers stopped him ASAP.
Here's why:
To distribute Linux, the GPL must be
followed. The GPL has something to say
about patents. If IBM were to distribute
some code (even non-IBM code) that uses
an IBM patent, then IBM would have just
made that patent available to everybody.
Distributing the whole pile of Linux
software would be out of the question.
So there's no way IBM wants Novell+SuSE.
...not to many, just enough so that I make a grand or so if this comes off :o)
Apple wants to sell clusters to the scientific, creative,
...
and academic market -- witness Xserve, and the
decision to put Virginia Tech at the front of the
queue for 1100 G5s. Buying RedHat gives Apple a
(Linux) customer base in those machine rooms -- just
like buying Shake gave them a (Linux) customer
base in CG. And just like Apple Shake supports Linux,
but makes it financially advantagous to move to
OS X, RedHat-the-Apple-subsidiary could do
a similiar migration strategy, underpricing service
this time to win OS X market share instead of
application software as in the Shake case.
Note that in the analyst conference call last week,
Apple CFO Fred Anderson noted that part of the
reason Apple keeps a 4B+ cash reserve is to be
ready for a large aquisition that "changes the
rules of the game"
As IBM wants Linux to take over the world, the need to keep it somewhat at arms length. Big Blue will continue to dance with the penguin, but no one should expect IBM to invite Tux home to bed.
That's usually not true. In fact, a great many businesses have been bought out, with cash reserves "liberated" to pay off the debts incurred in the buyout. Some dot-coms were taken over and liquidated after their assets (notably cash from an IPO) became more than the market cap.
IBM owning Novell is less obvious, as Novell lost their claim to the UNIX rights, in the early parts of this bout. Nonetheless, Novell is no trivial force and is a well-known name in the markets SCO is aiming at (low-end business). IBM is better-known in the high-end of the spectrum.
From a muscle-flexing standpoint, things look very different. SCO pulls the licenses for IBM's AIX and SGI's IRIX. Both companies ignore it. IBM gorges of Novell and SuSE, barely noticing.
Which giant would you be the more scared of?
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)
Spare me, a bunch of analysts one of whom is Laura Didio speculating on the purchase of Novell? I know this is Slashdot and I know there are alot of rumors propogated from here but the simple fact remains that Novell isn't attractive yet, they have to produce a product. Minus their existing infrastructure and you still have the same Novell as a year ago.
Not only that but Gartner is usually off with things like this; infact Gartner is usually off with many things regarding Linux in specific. Laura Didio?? The Analyst who said Linux had stolen code in it?? Come on.. stuff like this needs not be on the frontpage. Sure slashdot used to be a rumor mill but at least the rumors make some sort of sense. This is tabloid nonsense.
IBM made a point a few years ago of emphasizing that they wanted to be a service company and work with all Linux distributions neutrally, not make their own. If they were to suddenly favor one distro so strongly, it would discard their neutrality, and I think that would hurt their current business model.
Infuriate left and right
Why hasn't anyone considered the possibility of Loki buying Novell out?
I for one would think that any other ending of this thriller would be utterly disappointing to the sophisticated Slashdot reader.
I think we are down to the $500,000,000 range now. Being a Novell employee I remember reading something about this.
Whats for Lunch? I would't be suprised to find in 6 months that the complete SuSE Engineerung department is sitting at home without a job. The Engineerung jobs have of course been transferred to a ultra low-cost far east country. Thats currently the only financial Engineerung the marketing and sales department can come up with. How sad.
Robert
Am I unjustly concerned that Microsoft could see this as a great oppurtunity to squash Linux on the desktop? Redhat continues with Fedora but closes down Desktop support in a year. This leaves a hole in desktop linux. Now imagine if Microsoft bought out Novell/Suse and swallowed the IP, disbanded Suse and reallocated the brains. There would go another large Linux Desktop player. What remains at that point? TurboLinux in the far east and Mandrake and Gentoo? Slackware, though great, is in a decline (sorry Patrick).
Add that to SCO and lessening Linux Desktop adoption (i'm sure companies are wearisome adopting Linux on the Desktop until it's clear that they don't have to transition back to Windows anytime soon).
Suse seemed to be one of the really strong common desktop distros... I'd hate to see it go.
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
For some reason I am reminded of that one Dilbert episode where the search for some company to merge with was compared to a desperate female's last ditch effort to get picked up a bar.
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
that Lucent, AT&T or HP acquire Suse.
I would much prefer see it go to IBM, at least IBM will most likely keep it alive and probably thriving. If IBM played it right they could inflict serious hurt on M$.
Didio said it! I wonder whether she did it on purpose or whether this wording was a gaffe. A judge involved in Microsoft's anti trust trial should listen to this.
More flexible than NDS in some ways, less integrated in others (well unless you have a whole Tivoli suite and not just components)
Or is there something unique to what Novell has that IBM doesn't have covered elsewhere.
Because despite IBM having overlapping tech, they won't take something on that could cause confusion for its customers. And Tivoli isn't going anywhere. So there might be some piece of Novell's tech that they'll integrate into it (and I don't think that hot piece is IPX, if you know what I mean)
Ideas?
Novell's QA and UI teams must be either a) non-existant or b) incompetent, because I've never had so much trouble with any software as I have had with Novell software. Their latest NetWare client breaks the "lock workstation" functionality in Win2k, and slows down systems to a crawl. GroupWise takes over all MAPI stuff on the computer, and is poorly written - you're lucky that Outlook will even work after you've installed the GroupWise client (that is, you're lucky if it'll even work with GroupWise, because after you install it you can't use Outlook for anything else but GroupWise as it completely hijacks MAPI). Oh, and the GroupWise client has a UI that makes me think of Windows 3.1. The latest NetWare server version went up and down 5 times a day for MONTHS until Novell could finally fix the problems. Personally, I think IBM would pass - it would take too much work to integrate the products, and IBM programmers would be lucky to figure out the crappy code they'd get from Novell.
What if MS funds SCO to buy Novel? Now that would be a shit storm. Or what if MS outright buys Novel?
Please tell me it can't happen so I can sleep.
Oh and by the way, there were a few countries in Europe that went to Linux, have their feeling on Linux changed now that Novel has bought SuSE.
He who said 1,000,000 monkeys on 1,000,000 typewriters would eventually type the great novel, never saw an AOL chat room
...HP bought NVidia, Redhat bought google, mozilla bought opera, MS bought diebold, MAC bought an orange, osnews.com bought slashdot.org, GNOME was bought by KDE only to be rebought by Havom Pennington, RMS (or is it PMS?) bought Linus and VIM in a megamerger, OpenSource(tm) was bought by SCO, .NET was bought by MONO who were bought by dotGnu, they were bought by Sun, who incidently bought GNU/HURD (RMS already ownz linus), Cisco has merged with motorolla, A massive byout by RIAA and MPAA of USGOV, and I bought a red pill to finally jack out.
I was recently at a Novell/IBM/VMware session in Omaha, NE last Thursday. Novell harped on nothing but their detication to Linux and how they are integrating Ximian with what they are offering. It appears they want to be one stop shop from client to servers. Also it appears they are accumulating quite the zoo (penguin, monkey, and chamelion). First, about Ximian. Red Carpet is here to stay. IBM uses it extensively in several of their deployments, and Novell will continue to fulfill those obligations. From the looks of it, Red Carpet is probably going to be on the Linux side what Zenworks is on the Windows side for desktop management. Mono is also going to be integrated, helping balance out dirXML. I did notice however that Gnome+Ximian additions is probably going to be the main desktop choice when Suse is fully integrated with Novell later on in 2004. KDE will still be supported, but will not be the preferred support choice. I found it very nice that Novell is doing support calls for Linux - any Linux - even if you aren't a Novell customer. Just have to pay up on the support calls - but the support will be there. I have found Novell tech support to be the best out of all the vendors I've had the (dis?)pleasure of talking with. For support for Suse and Redhat, it was repeated several times that both platforms will be supported equally. As for other distos, they said it was just a problem of having to code install routines for all the 150 or so products they have. They'll probably run, but just getting them installed is the hard part. Next I found it interesting that Novell is in the process of converting all their corporate workstations to running Linux this spring. This means moving all their management, Groupwise, Instant Messenger, etc to run on Linux. Novell has had several Linux products out for more than year or so. Linux Enterprise Services 2.0 is in beta, and was handed out on CD to try out. I think it can also be downloaded on their website (haven't checked though). One question was asked on SCO, the rep's response was that, "Novell is still asking that SCO give definite proof of their copyright and patent claims." The IBM reps that were there mostly harped on how good their hardware was in combo with VMware - basically marketing humdrum. The VMware stuff was interesting with their ESX and GSX products (such as migrating running virtual machines between physical boxes without bringing down the virtual machine) - but was also more marketing.
...but Novell has refused it all the times. The last time this was rumored (IIRC) was in '97 or so, when they alread had began to fall.
Seriously, I don't think they'll firt buy SuSE and then let someone grab them. Remember these guys are pretty fscking stubburn.
roy
Yes, it will most probably be IBM, and most probably be a gentle affair based on a growing partnership and sense of common purpose.
IT has come to its middle-age crisis point where some parties have more to lose than to win through further change. It's a defining moment when a young revolutionary becomes a reactionary dictator, but we're here.
On the side of stability, we have Microsoft, Intel, and HPaq. On the side of change, we have IBM, Nocel/Suse and the unwashed foss hordes. And in the middle, watching, we have Sun and a host of other players who still make too much money off Microsoft to abandon ship, but who can see the tidal wave coming.
The outcome is inevitable and I have gained many "troll" points by boring the patient Slashdot readership with my view of it: change is inevitable, driven by ever-cheaper technology both hard and soft, and those who try to resist change will simply be drowned by it.
In this case, it will be Microsoft that either embraces change (meaning specifically Linux and all it represents) or dies fighting it.
It is a defining moment in modern history. Enjoy!
Ceci n'est pas une signature
Besides, in my somewhat limited experience I have not seen company A purchase company B, only to be swallowed up whole by company C within weeks of these things happening.
When IBM bought Informix, it was only little (a few months at most - can't remember) after Informix bought Ardent Sotware (itself a young merger of VMark and Unidata)...
Wasn't that long ago!
It's an interesting thought, Novell being acquired by some successful IT giant up in the sky... but I doubt the fact they acquired SuSE and Ximian has anything to do Novell trying to position itself favorably for its own acquisition.
I just can't see Novell saying: "OK, we are going to buy SuSE and Ximian so that we can get acquired." It would devalue the company to do that - that kind of approach would minimize the percieved value of Novell and trivialize the somewhat major moves that Novell is making. Companies generally do what is in the best interests of the company; if someone acquires that company, they are only building on the good things that the company has done already. I sense an anti-Linux "Linux can't save you, your company is doomed because you are not as big as IBM, HP, or MS" sentiment. I am not sure this type of theorizing is much more than the typical pro-SCO, anti-Linux drivel. Sour grapes, perhaps.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but there is a lot more going on here than Novell struggling to have someone buy them out. I think that Novell is really doing some interesting things, and I kind of doubt that either the original intention or the desired outcome of what they are doing was to put themselves into a more favorable position of being acquired.
In general, everytime a technology is passed one more step up the food chain, it get obscured and lost more and more. Eventually the technology vanishes altogether. I'm not a big SuSE fan, but it sure would be a damn shame if XD were to become a merger casualty...
*Condense fact from the vapor of nuance*
As a recent Novell admin, I must say that Novell is one of the few companies, whose products, even though visciously confusing at times, have been a joy to use. I found NDS (eDirectory) to be an order of magnitue easier to configure and admin than AD or LDAP. Novell's NPDS (iPrint) is truly brilliant in the level of control it gives in printing workflow and Zenworks is an excellent tool that even works well with older Windows versions.
The things that Novell had going against it were Netware, which is an archaic pain on good days, even though it is very stable these days, and Novell's inability to adaquately market it's products in a clear manner.
Having all of Novell's goodies on Linux will be fantastic, and Novell would be idiots to sell out, especially if braindead analysts who do not deserve their jobs such as Laura Di(l)D(i)o say they should.
In fact the only thing that I worry about will be Novell's inability to market it's new self and products on Linux to PHB's who are notoriously dumb and will continue to believe that Novell is stuck somewhere around Netware4.1 for the next ten years in much the same fashion as those PHB's believe that the Mac is still sitting around System 7.5.
...is going on? First SuSE is sold to Novell and now Novell/SuSE will be sold again? Did I miss something?
The GNU toolchain is mostly developed by Red Hat employees. Look on the GCC and glibc mailing lists to see what I mean.
as much as i'd love to see AT&T or Lucent buy back the UNIX IP rights Novell retains ("Look, we gave you the UNIX thing, but you blew it. Sorry."), wouldn't they need, um, money to buy out another company? Lucent in particular seems laughable. i love the company, but they've got a ways to go before they're out of their existing hole enough to look at buying companies with quite substantial assets.
still, the irony would be rich...
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
never a better time to investigate the creators' newclear power, & planet/population rescue initiatives.
this stuff is unbreakable, wwworks on several (more than 3) dimensions, & there's never a liesense feechurn/cover charge to restrict yOUR progress.
the daze of the greed/fear/ego based felonious payper liesense ?pr? ?firm? hypenosys stock markup fraud execrable, is WANing into coolapps/the abyss, at the (increasing) speed of right.
talk about pressure? those fauxking foulcurrs on wall street of deceit/capitollist hill, are having a whoreabull time attempting to hide the news (buy use of phonIE scriptdead ?pr? ?firm? hypenosys) of their felonious payper liesense billyonerrors' latest softwar gangster hostage taking attempts, &/or the adolescent dictator megalomania of the georgewellian fuddites/walking dead perpetraitors of the greed/fear/ego based life0cide against humankind.
there's a real risk of overheating (peacing off) the main processor. you don't want that?
for each of the creators' innocents harmed, there is a badtoll that must/will be repaid by you/US, as the aforementioned walking dead will not be available to make reparations, when the big flash occurs.
the lights are coming up now. consultations are in order. you know where to look/who to trust? see you there? tell 'em robbIE?
Novell has products, and a name..
So they are purchasing something of 'value', not something they can get for 'free'.
And linux/bsd really isnt 'free' in the sence of compaines, it costs $ to develop to their needs...
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Not true- although RH does employee some gcc and glibc hackers, the most important ones don't work for RH. In fact, we've been in direct opposition with RH on various issues over the years (esp. the gcc 2.96 issue.)
It can go both ways. Sperry corporation had around $4B in liquid assets at one point, made the mistake of boasting about it, and got taken over by Burroughs a year or so later. One of the reasons Sperry shareholders OK'd a deal which arguably didn't make a lot of sense otherwise was that it liberated much of the cash pile for their benefit.
Slashdot, tool of the unscrupulous day-trader.
it's come up every couple of years for the past 10 at least
If you wish to know who will decide where the combined Suse Linux goes then look at the holdings of Safeguard Scientific (if that is the correct spelling). The whole merger between Cambridge Technology Partners and Novell was invented in the Safeguard boardroom as well.
In this light it might be interesting to know that HP was one of the largest customers of CTP mainly caused by introductions of Safeguard.
Cheers,
Loki
maybe the American lunar expedition did not leave Hollywood at all.
Try to stay with me. I belive that Novell/Suse will _NOT_ be purchased by anyone. Not IBM by the previous posts about their patent portfolio. I believe that with the Ximian and Suse purchases Novell is looking to position themselves between Microsoft and Sun. Novell will integrate NDS with a client and server version of Suse and then position Evolution as the perfered Groupwise client, thus becoming a direct competitor with Exchange Longhorn / Outlook. The Suse client side will be a competitor with Windows Longhorn Workstation and the Sun Madhatter desktop. IBM will continue to team with Novell and Novell will "recommend" IBM hardware in the server room and on the desktop. Thus having and end-to-end product line like Microsoft already has.
Windows Longhorn Server vs. Suse Server
Active directory vs. NDS/eDirectory
Exchange Longhorn vs. Groupwise/Suse OpenExchange
Outlook vs. Evolution
Windows Longhorn Workstation vs. Suse Desktop vs. Sun Madhatter Desktop
Any thoughts?
Chop