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Novell Makes More Open Source Moves
Roger Foss writes "Novell has announced it will release its cross platform iFolder file synchronization software as open source. This is pretty cool: far more transparent and easier to use than Unison or some of those friendly Rsync variants. iFolder does multi-master delta synchronization and is user friendly. The source software will be available at Novell's own Forge site and release under the GPL. This sure beats Novell's earlier open source efforts, when they released their proprietary IPX protocol stuff years ago. For those who want to try it, there's a live demo site that I doubt would withstand slashdotting."
Finally, mj01nir writes "According to Miguel de Icaza's web log, Chris Stone just announced that Novell will be moving the whole company to OpenOffice by the end of the year, and to Linux on the desktop a year after.
I was laughed at by some "consultants" that had formerly worked in my school district, when I started converting their Novell systems over to Linux. Now that it's done, and things work better than ever, Novell decides to convert itself over to Linux wholesale...who's laughing now?
Gessh...
Don't be too quick to discount it just yet. Aside from the places that just won't upgrade till hell freezes over, It appears you have a choice between a Netware kernel or a Linux kernel in their upcoming products.
Oddly enough I was talking about this to someone the other day and at the time based on other releases and info from Novell I had originally thought that Netware the OS would be quashed and would be reimplemented as a service layer on top of a Linux distro. I really didn't see having interchangeable kernels as the option.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
IBM is NOT porting MS Office to Linux. They are currently using it in conjuction with WINE. The ultimate goal would be for them to use OpenOffice.org as well.
xpx/spx is still faster on the LAN than TCP/IP and alot of orgainzations use it for internal traffic. And NetWare is on relaese 6.5, TCP/IP hase been in since 4.11
iFolder is a major gift to the Linux community and is an excellent sign to me that Novell is committed to Open Source Model not just the "we're on the Linux boat" fad. Until you've used iFolder and seen your files move from desktop to desktop with little to no effort on your part, you just can't understand. It's seamless, it's secure and it's reliable. I encourage all of you to give it a try! Thanks for a great product and thanks for believing in the OSS community Novell!
If you were to put a sniffer on my NetWare 5 network, you would see the File and Print services (and NCP services) are TCP/IP packets. The only thing that forces me to run IPX are the stupid JetDirect cards. But I digress.
Currently, the NetWare OS is a set of NLMs (NetWare Loadable Modules). This is what they talk about when they say the NetWare 'kernel'. I'm pretty sure it is C code and some Assembler.
The plan is that when you install NetWare 7, you will get your choice of 'kernels' - either the old NLM based one, or the new Linux 2.6 based one.
And, since all the NetWare services will be / can be running on Linux - those services can be integrated into a Linux distibution.
The most valuable Novell service is its eDirectory. They also have an application distribution product, ZENWorks; and of course their email system, GroupWise; a whole set of products that use the Directory for tailored access (BorderManager firewall, a web-portal product, biometric security, single-sign-on password management, iFolder file synchronization, and more).
So the 'integration' is perhaps better described as porting what they do to both platforms. Your choice of kernel - but you will still be running eDirectory and other Novell services.
Did I explain that well enough?
"The most sensible request of government we make is not, "Do something!" But "Quit it!"
I just attended a "computer professionals" meeting here in St. Louis, where a Novell rep. gave a presentation on Novell's product line and roadmap for the future.
.NLM modules written specifically for Netware as options. (EG. Novell shops could turn servers into such things as SQL database servers as well as just file/print servers, without resorting to purchasing additional boxes to do it.)
As I understand it, the next version of Netware is going to give users the option to install with a traditional Novell kernel at the core of it, or alternately, a Linux kernel.
We asked him why they didn't just "go all the way" and turn Netware into a "value added layer" on top of Linux, rather than bothering with continued support of the old Netware kernel.
Basically, he said that *could* happen in the distant (5+ years away) future - but currently, the old kernel is considered by many to be "robust" and "tried and true", so they'd be hesitant to switch to a Linux kernel in the short term future. Still too many enterprise customers with a "If it works, why change it?" mentality...
In any case, I think Linux may breathe some new life into the Novell Netware line - rather than phase it out. Novell seems interested in such things as the ability to plug in Linux-based additions to Netware, rather than having only
I wouldn't toss the CNE out as "worthless" just yet. It may enjoy a small resurgence in usefulness, if Novell plays their cards right.
He was actually referring to Ted Grammer, one of several voices in his head.
Besides, you're both guilty. His spelling was improper, and your grammar was incorrect: "us" should not be used here. Instead, one should use "one" as the indirect object.
Booyah!
The Political Programmer
You are partly correct, but there are a couple of points to make:
1) IPX/SPX is a routable protocol, so it is not limited to the LAN.
2) IPX/SPX is better than TCP/IP in mnay respects, but the Unix community was committed to a non-proprietory protocol.
3) Early versions of Windows used NetBIOS, which is no good for the routed world.
4) Short sighted managers figured since they have Microsoft on the desktop in front of them, doesn't it make sense to have a Microsoft Server?
I don't make predictions, and I never will.
Novell claims to have learned from past experience (which is admirable), yet they still want "very tight integration"? Isn't this what got Microsoft in trouble in the first place?
Sort of, but not really. Microsoft was convicted of using it's monopoly power to unfairly compete in the desktop market. They did this by bundling applications on their platform so as to give them an inherent advantage in market share terms. Novell is not a monopoly in any sense, and so does not have to play by the same rules. They are free to bundle away.
More power to them, I say.
No matter how many of my rights are taken away, somehow I still don't feel safe. -Frigid Monkey
Actually, Novell's "Groupwise" software really helps keep the whole server product viable - IMHO.
If you've ever used Groupwise in a Novell Netware environment, it's pretty comparable to what you can do with MS Outlook (and we all know how many people put up with costly, unreliable Exchange servers just because they "can't live without" their Outlook).
They also have lots of remote deployment/desktop upgrade type functionality.
So IMHO, they've got very strong, valid reasons to be considered instead of going the more popular Microsoft route (with SMS, Exchange/Outlook, etc.). They just haven't done the advertising needed to keep people aware of what they offer in the current version of Netware....
eDirectory hasn't been called NDS for a few years now,and eDirectory has been running on Linux/AIX/Solaris/HP-UX for a few years now. I beleive you can still get a 50k seat license for free. Although it is closed source, it is one of the best LDAP implementations avalible. Two large shops that are using eDirectory are the Star Alliance (a group of airlines) who uses it for customer tracking requireming a directory system for soem 300 million objects. The other big one I know of is CNN (take a look at the bottom of their page, powered by eDirectory). CNN did not allow for a fair comparison agianst the other directory systems, and they still won the contract, everytime you surf CNN their directory is updated.
Salvage is ok but Netapp .snapshot directories RULE! If you haven't used em before it's like having nearline storage of everything, and you can setup snapshot points just like backup jobs, but more frequent. As an example we had our Netapps doing hourly snapshots during the day, daily each night, weekly on friday, and monthly on the second sunday of the month. That way going back to a previous version of a file/directory was just a matter of going into the parent directories .snapshot directory and looking for the correct subdirectory based on date. Not only does it have all those cool features but ours used only ~13% of raw storage to do all that on a moderatly changing 3TB array. Backups are still necessary for disaster recovery but we never used it except to make sure it worked, basically everything could be recovered from snapshot.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Nice. So how come every year or two, our internal penetration testers crack some luser's PC, then use that to take advantage of the fact that the Netware clinet stores credentails in RAM IN THE CLEAR? Whiich means they own our network, due to synchonization between the Netware and NT passwords. Which hurts when the luser is also an admin of some sort.
"that's not encryption - it's a new perl script that I'm working on..." - from some Matrix parody
and there really isn't a simple console (text-mode) editor geared for DOS/Windows users available on Linux.
;)). I've also found the simpler dtach to be useful at times.
I assume you are looking for an interface with the basic CUA (Windows) keybindings? Unfortunately, AFAIK, full support for CUA seems to be virtually impossible in the generic case of remote terminals (due to ESCaping keycodes and the ancient keyboard limitations kept alive by terminal emulators -- e.g. this is the reason you have to hit ESC twice in mc to register a single ESC), but in the specific case of the Linux Console (which has direct access to hardware), this is possible.
Many editors have CUA bindings, though to varying degrees of success. e.g. Emacs or Jed. Unfortunately, some of the time it feels like a hack and a few might even require manually modifying Linux's keymappings.
Perhaps the closest I've found is SetEdit, which is based on a port of the TurboVision text-mode windowing library, which is very comfortable for me since I used to use the old DOS Borland IDE, which also happens to have an OSS Linux version called Rhide.
I love text-mode and I think a lot could be done to improve it in Linux; particularly, "fixing" the ancient terminal system and providing for modular non-linear behavior. Sometimes I don't want to deal with the 100MB+ required for X (not to mention GNOME & KDE for apps that are dependent upon them), but I'd like a non-linear interface.
Screen is a step in the right direction, though it is not (initially) very user-friendly (not using Windows/CUA keybindings
I don't know why more non-linear text mode applications aren't created. I've found a few that are made as independent ncurses apps, but, ideally, I think they should all use some standard text windowing environment. Recently, I noticed Twin which looks familiar (tvision?), but doesn't seem to be very actively used... and I don't know if it supports CUA keybindings.
Hope this helps.
One of the reasons IBM is porting office [rather than simply using the Lotus SmartSuite applications] is their aquisition of Rational, and all of Rational's project management / analysis / design tools.
Some of the current tools depend on MS Office templates & run Office applications. IBM would need the capability to read, edit or create documents with with full file format compatability for all the interum stages of conversion to platform agnostic tools. [have to be able to exchange files with folks still stuck in Windows]
Caution: Do not stare into laser with remaining eye.
Novell *boots* the netware kernell from a DOS-ish environment. Also, they have had an X-windows based GUI for BNetware for a few years now. Study up before you make a post like that, chump.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have backups to corrupt.
Novell's Client32 never has and never will transmit the password without encryption by default. The password stored in eDir is encrypted and so is the one used to compare sent by the client. cat
They are also porting their nss filesystem to linux (according to some of their guys here at Brainshare). This means salvage/undelete, trustees, and "higher resolution" file permissions on a file system that does not fragment. I do not know if it is journaled or not. This sounds like great news to me...