Novell Makes More Open Source Moves

cbnet2004 writes "In what can be considered a win for Linux, Novell has announced NetWare will cease to exist as a standalone product by the end of the year. However, the CEO says: 'We are still committed to it and it is not going away. Our new Open Enterprise Server offering will have two components to it: SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and NetWare. NetWare is here for a long time to come.'" Read on for more bits from Novell's BrainShare conference, including a planned company-wide move to Linux.

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.

Comments

Guess it's not the right time to become a CNE

[darthcamaro]

funny how things change, a few years ago I thought I had it made cause i had a CNE and now it's not worth crap....

Re:Guess it's not the right time to become a CNE

[PacoTaco]

The MCSE and other Microsoft certifications are signed by Bill Gates. I think it's pretty ironic, considering that he dropped out of college.

GNOME? C#?

[Vargasan]

Did anyone else notice that the iFolder project page only mentions GNOME?

iFolder: integrated file sharing in the GNOME, Windows, and OS X desktops.

Also, iFolder is written in C#. I guess that comes with the territory.

Development Status: 2 - Pre-Alpha
Environment: Win32 (MS Windows), Gnome
Intended Audience: Developers, End Users/Desktop, System Administrators
License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
Operating System: MacOS, Windows, Linux
Programming Language: C#
Topic: File Sharing, Gnome, Filesystems

Grammer tells us something....

[TheOtherKiwi]

...but I'm not sure what...

Novell has announced NetWare will cease to exist as a standalone product

Um, "cease to exist" means a lot more than "cease to exist as a standalone product" in fact, they are opposite meanings. The highlighting emphasises the negative...I think this is a great announcement that sends a confused message. Hey they are adopting Linux more strongly, thats good right? They are not dropping NetWare, thats good for current NetWare users.

The glass is half full...

Finally

[Macfox]

A brave move, but a welcomed one at that. It's going to be interesting next 12 months to see if Novell has made the right move.

Netware is a solid platform and proven its stability, where Windows has failed. On the other hand Novells 1st generation software hasn't always been the best.

Will the Netware zealots adopt the linux based services quick enough for Novell to cover its investment? Lets hope....Time will tell.

Re:Finally

[jmulvey]

Netware is a solid platform and proven its stability, where Windows has failed.

Not sure about that one, chief. File & Print services have become a commodity service. I mean, freaking Microsoft Exchange (a mail product) can do File services. Novell has stood still for way too long. I remember back in '97 getting my CNE for Novell 4.11. Today, NetWare 6 is practically the exact same system.

Novell has for too long denied the value of the application server. Now they are being forced to make choices because it has finally come down to do-or-die for them. Sure, it's good to see that the company, when finally scared witless can make the right decision.

But unfortunately, I think innovation is an area where Microsoft has simply kicked Novell's ass. And in this case Novell has nobody to blame but themselves for sitting on their hands.

Sure Novell still has superior File & Print capability, that isn't enough anymore to float a boat the size of Novell.

Novell's Direction

[corngrower]

Netware has had its heyday. When customers found out they needed TCP/IP to internetwork, the days of a strictly local area network, as NetWare were numbered.

With their purchases of Ximian and SuSE last year, it was pretty clear that Novell managment saw the need to take their company in a new direction. Novell chooses to embrace the new world. SCO tries to fight against it.

Stupid question probably

[modder]

Sorry, but I don't know much about netware. The article talks about a netware "kernel" version.

How do they "integrate" this with Linux, exactly? (or am I missing something.)

that's some good news

[Anonymous Coward]

with all the corporate support for OSS related projects, it is becoming a real contender on the server side against Microsoft. I wonder how much this eats into Microsoft's server sales they were counting on. Looks like all the "unix conversions" MS was counting on to continue their grow isn't going to happen. In fact looks they're gonna get hurt. The only real cash cow left for MS will be windows and office. Feel like the writing is on the way for the gradual and slow shift from world leader to just another player. MS won't die, but it will become less important as time goes on.

iFolder is really cool

[Degrees]

And the only thing missing was a Linux client, so this is good news.

It will be nice when the NetWare server gets full Linux compatiblity. Really, it will be a Linux server that supports NetWare services - but the distinction won't matter.

Personally, I would like to see the NetWare editor ported to Linux. I can't stand vi, and there really isn't a simple console (text-mode) editor geared for DOS/Windows users available on Linux. The NetWare EDIT program still fits the bill as arcane enough to not be yet-another-DOS-Edit clone, but does simple editing very easily. Cut-and-pastes between files, too. Its just a matter liking what you know.

That's it, Novell.

[Anonymous Coward]

I have gone from not caring about a single thing Novell has done to them being one of my favorite companies, ever.

Buying Suse and Ximian, moving to Linux as a desktop, with OpenOffice.org? Then cancelling their most popular product for Linux? They seem very, very committed to F/OSS.

This has got to be the first time I've ever said this about a company's reaction to Linux on slashdot, but they just, somehow, gained a customer, and a recommendation to friends.

Congrats Novell, you've won my support, and the support of the entire Linux community.

Nice

[BCW2]

I like Novell. In fact the rights and permissions are just like Unix or Linux: You have nothing until someone gives it to you.

Isn't M$ major flaw in that area? You have everything until someone takes it away.

A secure system or network is based on a sound philosophy. Notice the difference!

Re:Nice

[ejdmoo]

NTFS is not that way at all. Initial permissions are based on basically two things:
1. If you own the file, you get full control.
2. The rest of the permissions are *inherited* from their parent, assuming the parent is set up to propogate it's permissions. If you don't want to give everyone permissions to files in a certain folder, you have that folder set not to allow propogation.

The fact is that linux (well, more properly, the associated file systems) are very limited in their permissions. It is often desirable, in a proper setup, to have the right people get permissions automatically, without having to give it to them! NTFS has advanced features that do a good job of staying out of the way until you need them.

*duck*

Re:Nice

[askegg]

Yes, except that (in typical MS style) the ACL's are stamped onto EVERY folder and file. Making changes to file system security consumes vast amounts of CPU and thrashes the HDD. Plus, you can't assign secuity based on the AD structure (everyone is sales has read access to this directory). Only groups and users will do. Microsoft file system security os only a little better than Linux. Both still are missing very granular rights - try revoking permissions to list, read, rename, delete, copy or execute individually on these platforms.

Re:I was laughed at...

[BJZQ8]

No, they wouldn't have HAD to hire me...but the $100,000 a year the "consultants" were sucking from the school district was a bit of a large pill to swallow. I have saved them a huge amount of money converting to systems that don't need annual license updates, nor constant reboots, nor babbling Certified people to fix them.

Re:Are they hiring?

[RetiredMidn]

C'mon in, the water's fine!

I work at Novell; I have installed OpenOffice.org, uninstalled MSOffice, and my laptop dual-boots Suse and XP (only until I can eliminate the last few dependencies caused by my development requirements).

I am a Mac user at home, and I am so psyched that I am this close to a zero-Microsoft environment!

And Netware+Linux comes full circle

[JBMcB]

I think I still have a copy of Netware 3.11 for Redhat Linux laying around somewhere. It was pretty cool, booting Netware on top of linux, but Novell canned the effort for some reason, and then mars-nwe was born, then died.

This will be interesting...

Some people still run Novell networks

[DaveAtFraud]

... The ones who care about security.

I work for a comapny that makes a network monitoring product so my sample may be skewed. Regardless, a lot of people would probably be surprised how many networks still use Novell to handle their network logins, file sharing, etc. becuase its more secure than Windows. Some of this may be security through obscurity but the answer we consistently get when we ask people why they still run Netware is that its more secure.

Re:I still need convincing...

[voideng]

The Netware threading model is signficantly better than the Linux model. Apache on Netware using the same hardware will out perform Linux. The test we ran about 6 weeks ago was RH AS 2.1 vs Netware 6.0 both were running Apache 2.0.

NWFS

[runderwo]

When are we going to see some action on Jeff Merkey's NWFS driver? The legal status of that code has been up in the air for years now, and as each day goes by, it will become harder and harder to bring it back up to sync with a modern kernel.

I had to rescue data from a Novell fileserver that had become corrupt, and NWFS was invaluable in doing so. But, I had to compile an ancient kernel specifically for that purpose.

If Novell really is committed to Linux, perhaps they can shed some light on this murky topic.

Andre Hedrick's concerns

Netware Utils

Kernel patches for 2.4.15

just a post-war era scenario..

[huffer]

What if...
What if the Linux will be more and more used in the "big companies" and more and more business will rely on it, and not on M$ bloatware; 'cause this day seems to get closer and closer and maybe it's not just a dream to realy get rid of the evil software..

But when all the cash flow will rely on a open kernel, will anyone continue to develop the kernel with an open heart? Or we will end up with hackers' "strikes" and protests and slogans like "we will not develop for the rich to get richer!" stuff? Will this be possible? Will it be a good thing for the software comunity and for the world? (dern, I sound like camaiging for somebody :P)
But I'm just curious.. 'cause every action in this workd is driven by something.. Open source is driven by many wills, but one of them is to make software "free as in freedom". But I wonder what will happen' when this will collide with creating software to help the administration control us, etc.

It was just a thought..

Re:Are they hiring?

[RetiredMidn]

As a Mac user, are you proud of Novell's current support for Mac? Do you expect your opinion to change in the future?

Fair question, AC. As a Mac user/developer, Novell was, at best, barely relevant to me in the past. When I worked in a Mac-based office of a mostly-Wintel software house several years ago, the IT department's insistence on Novell servers was something of an annoyance, given their marginal Mac support.

Although Mac support is not the highest priority at Novell right now (although there have been some recent announcements in that direction), I can tell you that Novell's intranet has become much more Mac-friendly lately, if only as a by-product of embracing open standards (and open source) instead of Windows as the default desktop; Apple's (e.g., Safari's) moves in this direction are also a factor. Looking forward, I'm hopeful, if only because of the common *nix ground between the Mac and Linux; it's a far more comfortable fit than WIndows. We haven't quite reached the stage where I could justify a Mac as my development machine, but it's not inconceivable...

In case you're wondering, I'm currently doing Java development for Novell.

Group of One

[The Monster]

Then, to deny bob rights, add bob to the deny group

This is one of the MS Best Practice recommendations. Always assign permissions based on groups, even if that means creating a Group of One, which seems like extra work at first blush. But in the long run, it simplifies management.

The real-life example I give is the group "President of the United States of America", which is by definition a Group of One. When Bush was sworn in, rather than having whether to reassign all kinds of rights that Clinton had (nuke-you-lur launch codes [equal time: Carter, who was a nuclear engineer, pronounced it 'nuke-ee-ahh'] vs. ownership of NY home that qualified Hillary to run for Senate) it would just be a matter of adding Bush to the group and taking Clinton out of it, while leaving his other group memberships ("Husband of Hillary", "Member of Democratic Party",...) alone.