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IBM Invests $50M in Novell, May Ship SUSE Linux
dave writes "Novell announced that it has finalized a $50 million investment from IBM, and that IBM can now begin shipping SUSE Linux on all IBM server platforms. Historically, IBM has been a 'Red Hat shop,' and one has to wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come."
Or, perhaps it's payback time. Novell were very supportive of IBM in the SCO debacle. Perhaps this is IBM saying thankyou. Wouldn't it be ironic if SCO's actions were what caused Linux to become an even stronger corporate presence
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
First they lost appreciation from personal users (Fedora affair), and now they lose support from big guys (IBM). I'd sell my Red Hat stock as soon as I could pick up the phone and contact my broker...
---
All my submissions to Slashdot rejected... and proud of it!
i am no longer in the IT world, so forgive my ignorance, but is IBM really that much of a player in the server market anymore? Also, don't they use PowerPC processors and AIX. Does SuSE have a PowerPC port? I thought it was purely Intel.
also, first post or some nonsense.
HP and Novell are putting SUSE on it's desktops and laptops.
> Historically, IBM has been a 'Red Hat shop,'
This would explain why we have been running SuSE on our mainframes for the last two years then.
IBM has had marketing agreements with Red Hat, SuSE and and TurboLinux for quite some time. It may favour Red Hat in the States, but it seems quite agnostic about which distribution to recommend to customers.
Sun is shipping it. IBM has been for a while, but now expanding. Heck, Novell might even become a player again!
Agile Artisans
I've had a few dealings with IBM regarding Linux in the past few years, and they've historically been pretty agnostic distribution-wise, with some slant towards SuSE on the mainframe, and Red Hat on the x86 platform (but I've heard friends of mine say that IBM pushed SuSE very aggressively on the x86 platform too).
Remember that the first industrial-strenght implementation of a Linux system on the mainframe has been a joint effor by SySE and IBM.
No, this is still Linux on the server
if Novell still owns UNIX and Linux is UNIX and SUSE is Linux, then Novell is free to do what they want with SUSE. if IBM uses SUSE then everyone can tell SCO to kiss the respective asses of all involved
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
This isn't the first time IBM gives SUSE a hand.
I'm a writer, a poet, a genius, I know it. I don't buy software, I grow it.
Pieces starting to come together I gather. And from what I see it shows a beautiful horizon with a dawn for Linux ... not the least thanks for Novell about its many wise & clever moves recently.
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IBM continues to produce Wintel PCs, and I believe at least a portion of our Linux offerings also run on Intel architecture, but there has been a PowerPC version of Linux for at least the past 7 years. I'm not certain what SuSE is running on, but I think it could be PowerPC.
"Novell might even become a player again!"
No, not Novell.
Those who will be players in the Linux world is IBM and HP.
IBM has been far from a "Red Hat shop" in the past. SuSE has had -- until the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 -- better mainframe support, and SuSE's Enterprise distros for the Power architecture (pSeries & iSeries) has also been better.
/. anyway; why clutter a good post up with verifiable facts). IBM has also had a relationship with Red Hat (Hardware Management Consoles for the partitionable pSeries boxes use a customized RH distro), so it's not like they've been *only* SuSE.
You've been able to get SuSE Enterprise for Power with your pSeries box for a while now (sorry, no time to look up specifics, and this is
Remember, at one time, in the not-to-distant past, IBM was a "partner" with 4 different Linux distributors: Red Hat, SuSE, TurboLinux, and (gasp) Caldera. So, you might as well say IBM's been a "SCO shop" for a while, too.....
We might really see a change in authority here, this article from the Salt Lake Tribune mentions that "benefited substantially from IBM's long-running relationship with SuSE." IBM has been in the race for a while, but it looks like all the big boys are now coming out to play. It'll be interesting to see what happens.
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The rumour a couple of years ago was that IBM had injected finance into SUSE in the background to prevent them going out of business. This was to prevent Red Hat becoming the de-facto standard for business use.
So. . . this should surprise no-one. IBM is omnipresent in Linux these days, but they have traditionally been the biggest force behind Suse (and now they are backing Novell).
My Guess As to Why? There are things that IBM can do hiding behind the names "Suse" and "Novell" that they cannot do as "IBM".
I don't think that one can describe IBM as purely a "Red Hat shop"; they've had offerings with SuSE in the past. But I'd say their primary motivation is probably just to keep their options open w/r/t OS suppliers. (And, of course, I'm sure it doesn't hurt that Novell is sticking it to SCO, and is a plausible annoyance to Microsoft.)
I mean, look how well things turned out for them the last time they had a single supplier.
I think this is a great move. I moved to SuSE before for a while before I went to gentoo (simply because it's easier to update) and the SuSE people just do things well. It's like those German cars. When I first sat in a BMW and saw that the rear-view mirrors adjusted automatically when reversing or the window-wipers altered the length of their pause depending on your speed I thought "Nice job guys. Well done."
I get the same feeling when using SuSE - nice things you never even thought of.
Anyone think this wasn't a message to Bill Gates?
IBM is a company, and a company sells what its customers want. If 6% of IBM's customer base wanted to use dr-dos, im sure IBM would find a means to deliver it. Thats all, theres nothing more to see here. ;). Both home and personal versions on 8.2 and 9.
Suse, for those that havent used it, is a fantastic distro btw... it was the first one to convince me to buy a boxed copy
Also, suse sells 3 foot inflatible penguins on their website, i paid 25 bucks for mine, and TRUST ME... it impresses the ladies.
-- Caldera started by disgruntled Novell employees
--MS finances Caldera/SCO to sue IBM
--IBM induces Novell to register UNIX copyrights (after waiting 10 years to get around to it).
--Novell Buys SuSe
--SCO sues Novell
--Now IBM pours money into Novell
I know Novell is a company with a glorious past, but, just as SCO is a MS puppet/proxy, I think Novell is getting pulled into being a minor sattelite orbiting IBM.
Man, this is better than a soap opera !
What about IBM's purported Blue Linux Desktop?- Article. Myth? Desktop-centric? SuSE derivative? :)
Harbinger of things to come is the latest phrase from the department of redundancy department.
A harbinger describes things to come, so this phrase is equal to "A fortelling of things to come of things to come". Not only that, but Merriam-Webster (my online dictionary of choice, since dictionary.com implemented annoying popups and banners that give people siezures) lists 2b (n. one that foreshadows what is to come) as a precursor to the modern definition (one that pioneers or initiates a major change). Not that "an initiator of major change to come" makes much more sense, as "initiator of major change" already implies something is to come.
~Will
sig?
They've really turned around the compnay in a really short amount of time. I mean Netware as a product was sort of dying out and they sold most of Unix (or the brooklyn bridge, its hard to tell). I thought they would just fade off into the sunset, or linger like a rotting corpse as a shell of its former glorious self( See Borland). Those executives should get a nobel prize in business. Wait, they don't give a nobel prize for buisness. I guess their huge salaries and bonuses will have to be enough. But, seriously they did a really good job.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Will this really impact anything except perhaps some stock prices? Red Hat have made a pretty risky move by only taking paying customers for their distro (although i appreciate that they have Fedora, it's a shame they basically split their business in two). Maybe you could say they bought the loss on themselves. But putting all the corporate deals and insentives behind, is this really going to affect the adoption of linux in the business and home user world?
Silly rabbit
This is the moment I have been waiting for.
Since the late 90's people have been saying "Linux will be ready for the desktop in a few years". I realised the epoch defining moment would be when the major PC manufacturers started ship Linux on the desktop in a big way.
Folks. This is it. The real battle has just begun.
... of things to come is the great beauty of Linux. You don't have to be tied to "one shop" as this whole industry is so used to doing. You have choice, so you have the potential for competition. IBM is simply being a good consumer. They learned their lessons from the past (when they were dependent upon Microsoft). Makes perfect buiness sense.
Linux will be a business where lots of people get to eat, but no one will get filthy rich -- and that isn't a bad thing.
It will be (to IBM) after IBM buy Novell!
--IBM buys Novell
Has to be said, how long until IBM buys out Novell? They haven't exactly done too well these last few years, and Novell has a whole host of patents and IP that would fit in niceley with IBM. Not only that, but if this farce with SCO doesn't get dismissed soon, they would then be the direct owners of those Unix remnants that Novell holds onto.
Novell is moving more and more into Linux, and there next version of Netware is to be Linux based, with no more stand alone netware products they just announced. Novell was once king, as was IBM in it's heydey. Between them they could well become king again.
This is a friendly note from the law office of Bezos & McBride (no relation, really) in representation of the SCO Corporation. SCO would like to inform you that it holds the trademark to the term "Year of Linux." Please cease and desist the use of the term without acknowledgement of the trademark. If you wish to continue using this term, please contact SCO to discuss licensing terms.
Thanks you,
Law Office of Bezos & McBride
D. McBride
J. Bezos
Ron Paul
A Harbinger was an English royal officer, a host-scout who would ride ahead of caravans to make preparations at the destination to ensure comfort for royal guests in the main procession. Harbinger in this sense just meant "host" and was derived from the German word for "harbor".
The phrase you criticize was coined when it made sense, much like every other colloquialism that doesn't make sense now.
Let me start by saying that this is not a troll, just an honest question.
Could someone please explain why one would drop all that money on an iSeries or zSeries just to run linux on it, rather than saving money by getting an x86 machine? If I'm buying an iSeries, it's because I want to run OS/400. Don't get me wrong, I think it's rather cool that it's even possible, but is it really necessary?
... is anyone else on the West Coast watching the sun come up and listening to Jimmy Cliff singing "I Can See Clearly Now", while pondering a great Linux future? I know I am.
Sign me up for a new IBM ThinkPad running SUSE Linux and Ximian Desktop 2!
If you look into the past you can predict future. IBM is not stupid. They do not want to create another Microsoft. They are going to play on two horses, one being RedHat and the other SuSe/Novell. This makes room for IBM to make A LOT of money by selling hardware. Do not worry in five years, there will still be RedHat and SuSe - both having around 30% of the market. IBM will make it so.
Also, suse sells 3 foot inflatible penguins on their website, i paid 25 bucks for mine, and TRUST ME... it impresses the ladies
;)
Wow!
Could you please send an ad of those to my email?
WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need
Year of Linux
Year of Linux
Year of Linux
So, sue me Bozo.... er, Bezos, et al.
Interestingly, from SuSe's FAQ:
Will there be a PPC edition of SUSE Linux 9.0?
Answer: no.
Although Suse once had a PPC port, it is clearly stagnant; this investment from IBM very likely means that it'll be revived, but that'll take a least some doing. Yellow Dog Linux remains the best choice to run Linux on your Mac, apparently, even the one with an IBM processor.
--
$tar -xvf
Server shmerver, when do I get to buy it on a Thinkpad?
The same thing happened with OS/2. Great OS, but the company would make you yank your own teeth out with rusty pliers before the would send it to you. Instead they would shove their own competition down your throte (that' "other" OS).
I would rather be ashes than dust!
Corporate customers love that warm feeling of having someone's ass at the other end of a FIXME button detonated.
Although you'd think that IBM would be more of a Red Hat supporter (would they really want support two distributions?), I think this investment probably started after the SCO fiasco launched and Novell and IBM were forced by need, to cooperate together. Novell is throwing in with Linux like IBM did a few years ago and it doesn't take make much sense to restrict the number of people working on Linux to just your own.
It's also a nice way of saying "$86M to SCO? Ok, $50M to Novell, asshats." Gorilla chess.
It's also a nice way of saying "$86M to SCO? Ok, $50M to Novell, asshats." Gorilla chess.
Ha! Nice way to describe it...
NOVELL has decided to go with KDE as desktop rather than GNOME.
Read more here. This is a direct quote from Novells Chris Stone.
Now nobody cares about success storys anymore. It runs and runs and runs...
Yesterday I went to CeBIT and the SuSE booth was in hall 1 right under Novell. (They pay extra to be in hall 1) Red Hat was stuck in the back of a hall and almost didn't notice them, they were just behind Iran's massive booth (Countries have booths to get people to invest in them)
n sects. JPG
Also Check out this image from a fourune cookie that SuSE was passing out:
http://www.kruczkowski.com/images/cebit04/i
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
SCO will get big mileage out of this in the public arena, claiming that Novell and IBM are conspiring to block its legal claims. SCO will also try a new legal attack against both companies, claiming they are conspiring against it to defuse SCO's legal arguments while economically benefitting from what SCO views as their contract- and IP-infringing activities.
Thoughts?
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Know the difference between noveLL and a book?
..for Mono, because Java won't be open sourced. Simple, isn't it?
Just if IBM releases Lotus Office as Open Source, M$ will fall deep.
It is now official - Netcraft has confirmed: Red Hat is dying. Yet another crippling bombshell hit the beleaguered Red Hat community when recently IDC confirmed that Red Hat accounts for less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of the latest Netcraft survey which plainly states that Red Hat has lost more market share, news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. Red Hat is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.
You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict Red Hat's future. The hand writing is on the wall: Red Hat faces a bleak future.
In fact there won't be any future at all for RH because Red Hat is dying. Things are looking very bad for Red Hat. As many of us are already aware,
RH continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.
Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.
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...one has to wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come.
No need to inject false drama here. Things have come. No wondering required. Next story please.
You may have heard Redhat called the Microsoft of Linux. This is a perception that is alive and well within IBM.
When I worked on the Linux Standards Base project, Redhat was very resistant to standardization. We'd open bug reports about LSB compliance issues, and they'd be hastily closed saying that Redhat wanted to do things their way. They ended up not participating in the UnitedLinux project, which was backed heavily by IBM and HP.
SuSE on the other hand was very involved with the LSB and UnitedLinux. They drove a bulk of the standardization efforts. They also have a very good support relationship with the IBM Linux developers.
So when it comes down to it, SuSE just wants IBM more than RH. They created a better working relationship. The only thing they really lacked was a strong North American presence. The merger with Novell solved that, and gave them a strong support and services arm to boot.
On a different note, does the slew of press releases over the past month concerning large-scale corporate marketing of Linux demonstrate that the big players don't take SCO/Caldera seriously any more as a threat?
Um, you mean the slew of press releases from IBM, Novell and SuSE? Caldera/SCO was in bed with each of them before going psycho; I don't think they took SCO's threats seriously to begin with, hence all the kicking and screaming from SCO.
By the way, were are the doggone SuSE ISO bittorrents? Isn't YaST free now? And wasn't it freely (as in beer...ly) distributable as a binary even before? What's the holdup?
Not really fair to mod the parent as redundant, given the number of interesting and insightful replies to it. Should at least be considered a bit 'interesting'.
No, No, NO!
How many times must I say this to people
It's not a finger, it's the finger!
--This message brought to you by the society for the encouragement of correctly used insults, gestures, and otherwiuse rude behaviour.
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
Red Hat will very likely lose it's #1 spot as far as sales in the commercial linux distro market(if they are even still #1). First, Red Hat hasn't exactly been friendly to the Linux community. They write kernel patches all the time for Red Hat and don't submit them to kernel.org That doesn't seem like very friendly community behavior to me.
#2) Their support contracts are outrageous. I've talked with people who work at various Universites and from what they've told me, Red Hat wouldn't give them any sort of discount as far support. The contract was so expensive there was no way they could buy it. Novell is the support contract and certification kings. Which brings me to point
#3) RHCE is worthless. OTOH, Novell is recommending LPIC alongside their own linux cert. LPIC attempts to be distribution neutral (except for package managers). RHCE is strictly Red Hat.
Novell is attempting to make Suse more open (with recent moves of open sourcing Yast and a lot of Novell software), while Red Hat is going the other direction. Red Hat has historically used a lot of software still considered beta and has been the buggiest linux distro out there.
It's Red Hat's own fault really. They have done very little in the past few years to keep customers. While Novell is doing A LOT for the community. They are going to not only snatch up Windows/Netware converts, but disgruntled Red Hat supports as well.
A big part of why you're seeing articles about Novell/IBM now relates to the new Linux for POS offering from IBM/Suse (article here and IBM website here).
IBM and Suse, as it's been noted repeatedly, have been partners for some time. SUSE has a much deeper market penetration in Europe than Red Hat, something we don't notice here in the states as easily.
Keep in mind IBM is not a distributor of linux, just a proponent.
If you would like to be a leader with a large following...drive slowly down a windy two-lane road
Not so, according to the IBM employee that's teaching the class I'm attending today. IBM has apparently always been a SuSE shop. RedHat is mostly only used for cluster management stations.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.
Hmm.. as I speculate IANAL and TTWAGOS...
IBM, Novell - Aligned on Suse - Expect this to remain, perhaps become a tight partnership!
Oracle & Redhat - Redhat divested itself somewhat of desktop and Oracle now develops on Redhat cluster - see Oracle buy Redhat in the near future!
The server environment is a hard market and the only 'profitable' one. Desktop may continue to be handled by Microsoft.. it may not. Not everyone wants M$ to have their hands in all aspects.. so if business can divest itself of M$ and do it's job without all the M$ frills... perhaps IBM/Novell/Oracle/Linux may become the new standard.
Personally I plan to switch to Linux on the desktop once I get my new gaming system (yes.. M$ based) together. My old system would still scream with Linux.
(1st sig) If this were a snappy sig, you'd be reading it right now. (2nd sig) I'm a karma whore. >Insert FUD here
Does this mean that HP will make the neccessary changes to Linux to enable it to be used on DRM enabled bioses? as a "Trusted" operating system ?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
The reason SUsE got the nod is that the've been tight with IBM since 2000.
They've earned the right by helping get Linux on BIG IRON.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
The biggest problem I've had over the past few months with Redhat is this:
Heaps of apps targeted and marketed towards the Redhat "platform".
Redhat has dropped support for old products... this means no security updates, which upsets corporate IT departments and PHBs. They all say "thou shall upgrade to a supported version"
However, the RH 8 platform is only two years old and unsupported.
Now if your apps are "supported only under Redhat 8", but your servers "must upgrade to a supported version", short of tedious technical assessments, Redhat has effectively killed the products you're using.
PHB's say "I knew we shouldn't have trusted this Linux crap! Now our apps are unsupported!"
Now... does the application developer target RH AS? Which has already crept to 2.1, or do they consider SuSE, Debian, or ditch Linux altogether?
I'm certain IBM has encountered this problem. There are apps on the IBM website which used to show Linux support for Redhat 8 and under, but now that RH8 is unsupported, the apps show no support for Linux at all.
IBM, a company which still provides support for OS/2, and will probably service your ball typewriter if you paid them enough, has to tell its customers "our supplier has dropped support."
Will IBM stick with Redhat?
Something is going to blow very, very soon. Redhat would be wise to offer support for prior versions... and NOW, and drop the BS version creep.
Their stellar stock performance over the past few months has come at the price of customer loyalty.
Robert Love works for Ximian. I just finished reading his blog; his 'Project Utopia' was still stuck in my brain.
Is this rock and roll, or a form of state control?
Way back in the NetWare 3 days, IBM resold Novell NetWare in a blue box. Also, IBM wrote and supported the later revisions of Novell's NetWare for SAA gateway.
I imagine that there are still plenty of people in both companies that have past business relationships. I'm sure that helps a lot when inking agreements like this.
Here's an interesting story on IBM's website that has some more background on the alliance:
http://www-1.ibm.com/linux/news/novell.shtml
- "When you want something with all your heart, the entire universe conspires to give it to you" -Paulo Coelho
Novel gets $50 million from IBM.
Cheering and confetti and balloons!
Except. .
IBM made it possible for the Nazis to trace Semitic bloodlines through the German population and 'cleanse' with pinpoint accuracy, thanks to IBM's punch card technology.
Of course, Germany has flipped to the 'Light' side in the current 'Force' war. Perhaps a megalithic corporation like IBM has as well.
Stranger things have happened. But I'm still wary. Sheesh. I'm always wary. I wonder if it's my brand of coffee. .
-FL
We wanted to license SuSE for a 16 processor machine. A commercial license for SuSE was $4000 (4x 4proc $1000 license), EDU license was much cheaper, $400. It took 2 weeks to PO a SuSE vendor who supported EDU pricing.
After installing the system with SuSE and running their update utility, the new kernel installed by the utility doesn't boot, even after contacting SuSE enterprise support, they had no answer, except to boot the old vulnerable kernel.
RedHat EL was $50, and we downloaded ISO's the same day we paid.
We arn't running SuSE anymore.
This will not be good for Red Hat, but that's the way things go with Karma. Red Hat has basically walked away from the very people that made it what it is (and please, don't give me the Fedora Project Bull Shit, that's as token as token gets). My prediction is that Red Hat will fade into the sunset, but we will not see it because they will be in Novell / SuSE and Big Blue's shadow.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
I second this motion. SuSE ISO bittorrents!
I highly doubt that SCO is an MS puppet. Sure, Microsoft wants to see Linux go down, but you forget, Caldera won some rediculouse money in a suit against microsoft too. They sued over unfair competition and used (of all things) their ownership of DR-DOS as leverage.
After winning their suit, they sold DR-DOS. Ironically, this was a Novell property before.
It may be an old topic, but I think it would be interesting to discuss Novell blunders. In the coarse of about 2 years, they bought Digital Research, Unix System Labs, and Word Perfect. Then about 2 years later, after loosing their shirt on all of them, they sold each at a large lose. They have been on another buying spree lately, Ximian and SUSE. Who will be next? with they screw this up too?
What you say could very well be correct, but they also invested money in Novell. That indicates a closer relationship than any other linux vendor.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
As a former RedHat (4.x, 5.x) and Mandrake (6.x, 7.x) user that made the leap to SuSE and never looked back, I love that fact that SuSE is getting a lot of attention lately. I jumped from RedHat kind of by accident when a friend, who was supposed to order RedHat 6.0 ordered Mandrake 6.0 instead. I later stopped liking RedHat because of their MS-like "we know what is best for you" attitude, and even more recently when they killed off the free base product in favor of an unsupported (by RH anyhow) Fedora project. I jumped from Mandrake because nothing - especially accelerated 3D - ever worked right for me with Mandrake.
My only complaint with SuSE had been that SuSE wasn't a US based company, and as a US citizen in a struggling economy that bugged me. I cheered when Novell bought SuSE. I cheered again when Novell announced that YaST would become open source (at least I believe that was the announcement) since that was always the biggest complaint I heard from other Linux users about why they wouldn't use SuSE. Now that IBM is jumping on the bandwagon I'm excited for the product all over again.
OK maybe HP laptops aren't as good as IBM Stinkpads. (I love stinkpads! My favorite laptops in the world!)
I think it'll happen eventually though. Maybe in another year. Wait for it....
How about evidence to the opposite:
http://www.it-analysis.com/article.php?articleid=
From the article (credits to Linux Today for the link):
Looks to me like IBM is strengthening its ties with BOTH vendors. Cheers to all involved.
IBM was deliberately breaking the law by selling equipment and support services to Hitler. So were many American companies, including the Bush family, for that matter. The people at the top knew what was going on, but they saw the dollar signs and shipped the goods anyway.
I'm surprised at the shock response this post is getting! Truth often hurts, but fighting it is futile and only makes one a champion of ignorance.
If I'm mistaken in my data, then certainly let me know! Otherwise people, quite griping.
-FL
It is now. Precisely this moment, when IBM tries to seize power from Linux.
This is scary, ibm owns a massive channel, if they move to their own controled distribution, it may be all too tempting to start to 'differentiate' their linux. And boom, here comes the UNIX WARS II, the War of the Unix Clone: Linux
We need to keep this blue boys on a short leash
NO SIG
They have never been helpful in getting anything other than SUSE SLES working on the boxen I have worked with. Where are they a RH Shop?
Oh for crying out loud - read the signals. Novell is doing everything but sending you a personal, handwritten letter with little hearts over the i's that they will discontinue NetWare and would love it if you could move with them to Linux. They're moving GroupWise til Linux. The NSS file system is coming along nicely. iFolder is on Linux and will become open source. eDirectory and other stuff is already there. MySQL, PHP, Perl etc etc was on Linux way before NetWare. So what exactly will you be missing after this -the ability to run NLMs? The less- -than stellar batch scripting language of NCF files?
So trust me - in spite of the "not abandoning NetWare but adding Linux" slogan customers are getting the signals. Novell will not develop NetWare much beyond v7 and everyone knows it.
Even if they pull of a NetWare that can run also run on the Linux kernel, it will only be to ease customers over to Linux.
If you're planning IT strategy 2-3 years ahead, you should plan on moving to Linux or something else. Yes your NetWare servers will last longer, but at some point you will no longer have the option to upgrade to a newer NetWare version.
Having said that, all of this really represents a great opportunity to look at using more open source and start teaching vendors what you expect in that respect.
You're right about IBM's attitude towards legacy products. But the Selectric is not a good example. First, IBM spun off the printer and typewriter business back in 91. Second, the Selectric typewriter, though out of production, is still widely used ("I need it to fill out forms!"), and you get "support" for it from any office supply store.
I've always hated the fickle part of the Linux community. The kind that always rooted for Red Hat to Fall even though they've given away the code to everything they've ever produced. Even back in the mid 90's you had these jackass's calling Red Hat the "Microsoft" of Linux soley because they were the most popular.
Now along comes Novell/Suse. Suse of course has specialized in proprietary restrictive distros. Only just recently has Yast been gpl'd. Novell of course has specialized in proprietary software for like 20 years. These are the company's that you want to lead Linux and OSS for the next 10 years? Let me tell you. Novell may finally allow ISO's of some low end form of Suse to be released but their main goal is combining their proprietary technologies with Suse. So now you'll see a Suse with a GPL Yast but proprietary NDS,Groupwise, Zenworks, Ximian connector etc. Novell btw also doesn't have the best track record for acquisitions and business management for the last 10 years. In fact they have a downright shitty track record. This is the mega-company that you want to "lead" linux for the next 10 years?
Good luck. Oh and Redhate sucks.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
It gets old. You talk about email clients, and someone will insist that you can get by with a plain text mailer -- MIME attachments are passing fad. You talk about off-the-shelf routers, and somebody will wonder why you don't just use an old laptop running BSD. You discuss the problems of providing reliable downloads, and someone will insist that BitTorrent, a tool you need to be a total hacker to use, is a universal solution.
And of course there's the dude who asks, "I have no trouble working with Fedora, why is it a problem for IBM?" Of course it doesn't even occur to him that Red Hat gets the same amount of revenue for Fedora as they get for SuSE. Which is to say, none.
Repeat after me: "OTHER PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT NEEDS FROM ME."
You're thinking of Lotus SmartSuite. Or, as it was more affectionately know, Bloatus LardSuite.
Yay! Operating System competition! ISn't it wonderful!
historically IBM has always been a Red Hat shop
Nonsense. IBM has always, when they've shipped Linux, shipped RedHat on some platforms (mostly x86-based, started to move to POWER) and SUSE on others (S/390 and zSeries, maybe some x86. SUSE used to have a PPC distro too).
I can imagine that one reason for this policy is that IBM learned with Microsoft the danger of handing an OS business to just one company.
-- Alastair
I wonder what you do for a living. Do you write bad software and then call people idiots when they can't figure it out?
As for your girlfriend -- but no, given your expressed attitude towards people in general and women in particular, it makes more sense for you to handle sexual issues single-handedly. Forgive the pun!
I am glad to hear others say this. I get tired of hearing that the Only distro is Debian, the only web browser is lynx, the only backup software is tar, the only ...[fill in the blank with the most text-based hard to use application].
Flexible bare-metal recovery for Linux/UNIX
At the risk of incurring negative karma, I'm surprised no one has mentioned the conspiracy theory where IBM is infusing Novell with dollars the same way M$ did for SCO.
This is a joke, folks.
buy novell stock, now!!!!!!!
I told you so.
Hmmm, remember(and i know they say it every year, but they seem to mean it this year) they said this is the year of linux on the desktop. They must have known. SuSe!
Think about the possibilities....
Macromedia Studio Mx for Suse, Halo2 for SuSe..................
Red Hat just signed a new deal with IBM which now makes Red Hat the first and currently only Linux Distro to be PRE-LOADED on ALL of IBM's systemss.
Both Red Hat and SUSE are available when you purchase an IBM system. But only Red Hat can now be PRE-LOADED on the systems out of the box. The deal also allows the customer to purchase Red Hat support at the same time directly from IBM.
First, IBM has never had a distro preference. It ships and supports Red Hat and SuSE, and I believe they also support TurboLinux.
Second, even with this deal, IBM is not any less distro agnostic. It simply sets the terms by which IBM ships the product.
Who didn't see this coming after RedHat slit their own throat by killing their free distro?
Novell buys Ximian and starts making top notch stuff and bundling it all together well. IBM was already somewhat invested in Novell. IBM (speaking from personal experience) does not care whos linux they use. They have internal mirrors for all common distrobutions and have proprietary software in java.
Why should they care? Let the market decide which is the most alluring, and sell that one.
Vendor impartiality is going to be back in black in a big way as MS loses more marketshare (due to related costs to insecurity from insurers, incidents, licenses, and development practices) and linux and linux compatable systems (Hi Sun Microsystems) finally start getting the enterprise implementations that people were talking about doing before the whole market started circling the bowl a few years ago.
Saddle up kids, the stampede is coming.
Maybe if IBM released it 3 years ago. Lotus SmartSuite is so outdated now that must people prefer OpenOffice.org over it.
Does half of Novell and IBM's staff know how to properly pronounce SuSE? I sure don't :(
Novell, IBM and HP unite efforts to put Linux on top
By Bob Mims
The Salt Lake Tribune
Novell on Wednesday reforged its alliances with IBM and Hewlett-Packard, strengthening its campaign to make Linux corporate America's operating system of choice in place of Microsoft's long-dominant Windows.
In announcements made Wednesday at the BrainShare 2004 Conference, Novell and IBM unveiled plans to ship Novell's SuSE Linux with Big Blue's entire line of computer network servers. The two also finalized IBM's previously announced plans to invest $50 million in Novell.
Dan Kusnetzky, IDC's vice president for system software, said Novell benefited substantially from IBM's long-running relationship with SuSE, the world's No. 2 Linux distributor behind RedHat. Novell acquired the formerly German-owned company last November for $210 million.
"IBM is loyal to those who are loyal to IBM," Kusnetzky said. "Furthermore, it's in IBM's best interest to facilitate a lively, growing and robust Linux market.
"If the Linux market continues to grow as it has in the past, IBM stands to gain a great deal of revenue by providing systems, peripheral devices, software and services for Linux," he added.
Jack Messman, Novell's chairman and chief executive, said the two companies' closer ties are indicative of "the momentum behind Linux in the marketplace" as a growing alternative to Microsoft.
"Novell is working with companies like IBM to deliver the powerful, fully supported SuSE Linux . . . on leading enterprise servers," he stated. "This marks a critical step in making Linux mainstream in the corporate data center."
Under the agreement, IBM will be able to preload SuSE Linux across its entire server lines. The companies also have extended IBM's existing agreement with formerly German-owned SuSE Linux, the world's No. 2 distributor of the OS, behind RedHat Inc.
Meantime, Novell's finalization of the previously announced $50 million investment by IBM was welcomed, though it was expected to reduce Novell's current quarterly earnings by 7 cents per share.
The investment is targeted at Novell's preferred shares, convertible to 8 million shares of common stock at a price of $6.25 each. With the deal, IBM reportedly gains about 2 percent ownership of Novell.
Wednesday also saw Novell unveil a new Linux-related pact with HP. The company already had a deal to load SuSE Linux onto its servers, but will now expand that bundling arrangement to its line of desktop computers -- a market where it consistently is No. 1 or 2 in worldwide sales.
That was a milestone for Novell and Linux, as the OS has up to now primarily made its biggest advances in the mainframe-server arena.
Investors reacted enthusiastically, driving Novell's stock price to $10.93 per share, up $1.17, or 12 percent, on the Nasdaq exchange. IBM shares rose 45 cents to $91.77, while HP tacked on 23 cents to end the day at $21.62.
Actually I never thought about that aspect - the legality. In fact I never knew that.
Good point.
"Fighting the underpants gnomes since 1998!" "Bruce Schneier knows the state of schroedinger's cat"
No, they gave MS -A- Finger, namely the one that they ripped from SCOX's still-living hand after SCOX raised that same finger to IBM.
Deckchair.com which was one of the first IBM customers to run DB2 (IBM's Database) on Linux. This was a Suse Instalation. I belive but stand corrected that this was the first comercial instalation of DB2 on Linux. Look it up in google deckcahir.com + ibm db2
You were spouting about Linux desktops at IBM in 2005. That is crap. IBM is making great strides in ditching microsoft, but you are talking out your ass.
Historically, IBM has been a 'Red Hat shop,' and one has to wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come."
IIRC, IBM has sold SuSE in its servers. I am sure zSeries mainframes used to come with SuSE
My heart is pure, but make no mistake, it's pure evil
Few years back when IBM first started looking into Linux as the means of support for mainframes and later zSeries they picked four Linux developers: Red Hat, SuSE, Turbolinux, and believe it or not Caldera. Out of those Caldera was out and behind in development, so they were counted out. Turbo and SuSE were the strongest and delivered timely products for S/390, AS400, RS6000. But Turbo had to close its US operations and laid off its staff in South San Francisco in July 2001 and 2002. So, naturally only SuSE and RH remained. But RH was far behind in development of mainframe products as compared to SuSE and Turbo, simply put Red Hat was not even a player among mainframe community who were already well versed with SuSE and Turbo. In other words IBM just naturally picked the best out there for their mainframes, that's all it is to it, they rewarded SuSE, because they got most consistent and best software development from them.
IP was invented for the sake of lawsuits.
Ransom Love?
So which is it my friend? He's either an RHCE or he's attending RHCE training. It sounds awfully like you're lying when you write the above contradictory statements.
No certs are not the be-all and end-all and most of the older admins that proved their worth and gained experience before the competition heated up don't need a cert to show that they are competent. However we find that that the RHCE is a good indication of a tested, practical level of competence. That doesn't mean the person is going to be as good as someone that doesn't have the cert but is competent, it's just a proof of a certain level of competence.
Our two best employees don't have RHCE but have been admins for 13 and 11 years.