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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.

7 of 351 comments (clear)

  1. Guess it's not the right time to become a CNE by darthcamaro · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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....

  2. GNOME? C#? by Vargasan · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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

    --
    Putting the romance back into necromancer.
  3. Grammer tells us something.... by TheOtherKiwi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...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...

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    -- Sig meltdown immine...
  4. Finally by Macfox · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

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    Area51 - We are watching...
  5. Novell's Direction by corngrower · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  6. that's some good news by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.

  7. Re:Are they hiring? by RetiredMidn · · Score: 5, Interesting
    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!