Novell CEO Shakeup Puts Ron Hovsepian in Charge

jht writes "Arriving in my Inbox a few minutes ago (I'm a Novell Partner), was the announcement that effective immediately, CEO Jack Messman and CFO Joe Tibbetts are out of jobs at Novell. Existing president Ron Hovsepian was named CEO, and an interim CFO was named as well. Messman will stay on the board thru the end of October, though. A webcast of the conference call should be available shortly at www.novell.com/company/ir." ukhackster links to ZDNet's coverage of the shakeup, writing "It looks like [Messman's] been blamed for Novell's poor performance in the Linux space versus Red Hat. But can Linux ever be a real cash cow?"

Comments

Linux=CashCow

[infosec_spaz]

I agree with the guy up there...Linux is already a cash cow...Look at how many companies who make software that runs on Linux are very prosperous, and look at Novell...They have been around a long time, and they plan on being here much longer, hell, I love most of their software, it has a place, and as long as they keep up with the market, and know where to put the software, they will keep a strong customer base. That said, I know several companies who are already running their enterprise Linux, with Netware services and LOVE it!! Yes, Linux will continue to proliferate the enterprise, and as long as companies like Novell are pushing it, it will get there relatively fast.

Re:Linux=CashCow

[Lumpy]

The funny part is the number of nay-sayers here that have zero clue as to the amount of penetration that linux has.

Linux is absolutely number one in integrated items. Most mp3 players at the home component level to many pocket units run linux. most DVD players sold run linux, most PVR's run linux, Commercial security pvr's run linux, almost all SIP phones are linux based.... the list goes on and on and on.

IP security cameras, etc...

In the high end home automation and integration bix I find linux to be more prevalent than microsoft or QNX or other os types simply because of cost (Crestron is a MS whore with their embedded XP but most of their items are repackaged devices available with linux already in them... Adagio Music server for one example.)

This is ignoring the server room and workstations.... Linux is everywhere.

Software no longer a cash cow.

[LWATCDR]

This is a problem that the software industry has to learn to deal with.
Software doesn't wear out.
Microsoft knows this, that is why they are trying so hard at linking Windows to a single machine. When the computer dies or is replaced you buy a new copy of Windows. How many people have bought WindowsXP over and over?
How many people are still using Office2000 because it really is good enough?
It is getting to the point where new features are not worth cost of buying an upgrade.
In the end software companies will have to become service companies. Red Hat knows this, I think Novell knows this. It is the support contracts stupid. Give them the software but charge them for support.

SUSE is a has been distro

[supersnail]

I recently crashed the disk on my laptop while I was on the road. I needed the machine back again quickly so I got a new hard drive, couldnt get hold of the recovery disks easily so I popped down to the local computer store and had a choice of Mandriva or Suse.
Suse was more expensive but I had previous experience of version 6.0.
On the whole the experience is rather disapointing. The basic Linux stuff works just fine
but the suse extras particularly YAST can be a real pain.
e.g. You double click on an .rpm file and it fires up yast software install which is nice, except that yast cant find the file as it deals in package lists and not rpms.
e.g. It keeps shifting the ethernet and wireless adapters between eth0 and eth1 depending on what was
active last. So you need to keep amending your wireless signon script (which you will need as yast gets you a wireless connection but no DNS server.)

The web site is now just abysmal it is 90% support for Novell legacy products with the suse support hidden in nooks and crannys which is a pity as suse's online support used to be excellent.