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Novell Layoffs Coming This Month?
Roblimo writes "Multiple sources close to and inside Novell have told us the company expects to lay off between 10% and 15% of all employees by the end of October. '...shareholders have suggested that Novell divest itself of its consulting group and GroupWise division, while at the same time instituting personnel cuts across the board to bring expenses more in line with revenues,' writes business columnist Lauren Rudd at NewsForge, who also notes that '[Novell's] NetWare revenue stream continues to deteriorate, declining by $36 million in fiscal 2004, excluding the impact of favorable foreign exchange rates.'" NewsForge is part of the same family of companies as Slashdot.
So long Novell. Your once great networking empire has been squashed. Your great software will no longer be known to the world. Rest in peace.
Novell has been in a downward spiral ever since Eric Shmidt left to start Google. Netware 4 was the best freaking NOS on the planet. It was stable, it was light, and it's still compatible with most of Netware's product line to date.
Since then, Novell quality has been slipping. Netware 6.5 is absolutely abismal. It's bloated, it's slow, it's unstable, it's Windows NT. Not to mention, Novell raising prices of eDriectory licenses to the point where it's too expensive to license. Novell used to stand for fast, cheap, manageable software. Now they look like Microsoft, if it wasn't for the big red N on their startup screen I wouldn't know the difference.
eDirectory and Zenworks are all that is left of a once great company. While they are still two of the greatest products on the market, that will diminish in time. These layoffs are the first step. We saw it with Corel, now we see it with Novell. Once eDirectory slips, Red Hat may finally have their directory service off the ground and customers will have a path away from gawdawful active directory.
Novell, I once loved thee, take care of yourself.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
> Or in an EU country like France or Germany, where workers get to enjoy lifetime
> employment
You're an idiot.