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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?"
Can it? Is that a rhetorical question? Linux already is a cash cow, I think Redhat proved that long ago...
killall -HUP NovellCEO
I just don't know whether to feel sad for these guys, that they're taking the fall for something that they may not be in control of, or to feel happy that the top management has taken the hit rather than the lower ranks which is usually more common practice in corporate America.
I just don't know how to feel !! Help me Slashdot...
"Existing president Ron Hovsepian was names CEO"
Names?
Why don't the editors actually correct errors in these articles they post?
It just looks shoddy when articles are posted to inform and aren't even checked for basic grammar.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
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.
----- I have bad karma for a reason! -----
Until the SuSE team learns what the term "regression" means in the software QA/QC arena and
learns to do Regression Testing, so that the YaST2/Patch RPM debacle is eliminated in SuSE 10.1,
no, Linux will NEVER be a cash cow for them.
I've been a loyal SuSE Professional customer for years, buying the retail box at retail in a
CompUSA, just to make sure that both CompUSA and SuSE get the revenue from it and are encouraged
by retail sales. Yeah, I could download and burn the bits for next to nothing, but I am willing
to support a worthwhile competitor to Red Hat, just to keep everybody on their toes.
But for them to break the YOU functionality in SuSE 10.1 AND NOT FIX IT FOR FCS is INEXCUSEABLE !!
I worked for many years for a major UNIX supplier, and that sort of issue was called a
SHOWSTOPPER bug and it meant STOP THE SHOW.
The fact that they refused to include updated versions of stuff like hplip and k3b is also fairly
short-sighted and stupid, but accurately reflects a lackadaisical attitude about product quality.
of crap. Linux distros are already making money and growing. The real issue is wether a distro can become a monopoly like MS. And the answer is no. That can never occur due to the GPL.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
More on the shakeup.
We're seeing this more now (think Sun and SGI) -- companies that are underperforming making changes at the top in the hopes of generating new intitiatives and pumping up the stock price. It remains to be seen if all the bloodletting will lead to any marked improvement in the short term -- new execs have to deal with things as they are and try to untangle the mess left on their desk before they can move forward.
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
All I can say is that I've worked with both of these men in the past, and Ron is clearly a better choice to lead Novell. Ron brings something very unique to the table - a deep understanding of the technologies Novell is focusing on. Additionally, he has a very clear vision of how to execute on their corporate strategy.
If any of you had ever seen Messman speak at LinuxWorld, BrainShare, or other events, you should have recognized that he was just reading words off of a sheet of paper (or teleprompter). He didn't seem to exhibit even the most basic of understanding when it came to either major Novell product focus (Identity Management and Linux/Open Source). Additionally, he wasn't the best public speaker. Don't get me wrong, he was a great guy - just not the type of person to reinvent a company like Novell.
Novell has some great ideas, better products, and a cohesive strategy. Ron Hovsepian is the type of person to leverage these strengths and bring Novell back to the position of strength it once enjoyed.
Well at least Novell has a little focus on the desktop they stand half a chance of surviving. RedHat on the other
hand is gonna find themselves in serious trouble quickly I am thinking. When RedHat decided to take focus off their desktop to capitalize on the enterprise market it was a smart thing to do short term to generate more revenue. Now enter ubuntu, hell I don't know many admins or various desktop users that don't use ubuntu for their desktops. The net effect of that is I now prefer it as a serving platform also. RedHat sold their soul for quick money but it is going to kill them in the end. Same goes for Novell, you have to have a good strategy front to back.
Got Code?
Uhm..
1. Why should they do that? There are plenty of good open source or otherwise free compilers out there. I fail to see what Novell can gain by creating a compiler for any language that already exists (or creating a new language for that matter)
2. The embedded market is a good place to look for growth, but I don't think those devices will, in general, make good use of a directory server. If they jumped into providing embedded OS's, and could outcompete companies like montavista, could help their cashflow.
3. Never hurts to have a program running in as many places as possible, but I doubt they will do it since they are putting all their energy into linux.
4. They are in the state they are in for major tax breaks and so forth.
So let us address a few shall we:
1) Redhat, who I am pretty sure is the leading Linux distributor, does not have their own C/C++ compiler. The responsibility for a compiler does not really fall on the software makers so much as it should fall on the chip makers. Look at the vast majority of *nix systems with non-gcc compilers readily available. HP-UX, the main commercial compiler is available from HP, who either developed or help develop both the PA-RISC and Itanium chips their OS runs on. The same is true of Sun Solaris, though you can freely acquire Sun Studio 11 now to do the majority of this work for you, once again they are the ones with the chip, UltraSparc in this case. Repeat for AIX. There are also Intel based compilers available for their various chips on various platforms. None of the makers of the Operating Systems does not have some hand in the chips as well.
2) For all we know they are.
3) Sort of like 2, except let them work the bugs out in Linux first.
4) They do still have offices in Provo. They just learned that none of the good upper management and executive people wanted to live in a) One of the whitest and non-diverse areas in the country and b) The religious (and political, and social) conservative capital of the US. Your statement is insane. So every company based in Silicon Valley is just a moment away from death? Btw, I do not mean to sound like I am flaming on Utah, but it is a valid complaint that it is a tightly conservative area and not very diverse either (85% white, 9% hispanic).
"Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
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.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I think you meant to say "NDS for Symbian", not Sybian. Although it is much funnier your way.
"Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
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. .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.
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
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.
Old COBOL programmers never die. They just code in C.
I saw the comments re: v10.1, and yes that's a blot. It's only a minor one. I too buy SuSE, and have done so as long at least as long as I've been a /.er. ^_^
If Novell wants to do well, they could look at the Microsoft model for the Windows Logo Program. "Designed to Run SuSE Linux". What a concept. The day machines are sold to Mom and Dad running Linux is the day when it can be a cash cow.
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
I think you meant to say "NDS for Symbian", not Sybian...
Hmmmm... Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those. That'd be one noisy server room.
Hah hah, this is really funny. Hovsepian is such a shark, he's been manipulating people at all level for this purpose only. Not that Jack was any better (he was clueless about the product, direction and Linux) but the new CEO is only interested in his own carreer, not the company, nor its employees. Novell is even more borked now than it was after the Suse acquisition (an all time high). After the tumultuous Suse/Ximian in fighting (KDE vs Gnome, SLUX vs Groupwise vs Hula, Red Carpet vs whatever the Suse thingie is called, SUSE management vs Ximian management), it's a new year of failure for Novell. I hope Mono & Hula get out unscathed.
Novell still has a lot to offer. Just one example is Identity Manager, which synchronizes data between different kinds of systems in "real-time" (event driven). It can handle just about any type of directory service (eDir, AD, or LDAP) and any sort of database (Oracle, MSSQL, MySQL, Sybase, Postgres, etc.). It can synchronize accounts and passwords (bi-directionally with eDir, AD, and NT domains) to many systems, including various operating systems. Infoworld recently ranked it the best such solution available (and that was the older version). The product can also handle provisioning of resources automatically. The tools used to manage this very complex software make it about as simple and easy as it possibly could be. This sort of software is very beneficial to larger companies with many different types of systems that all need to be synchronized in some way.
Ouch! The truth hurts!
---
> It looks like [Messman's] been blamed for Novell's poor performance in the Linux space versus Red Hat.
Well, I'll bet they were hoping their GroupWise software being ported to Linux would have helped. And it would have, had they done it properly. I tried three times to get that damned thing running on SuSE Enterprise 9, and it's the biggest pain in the ass. I've set up Email servers before with no problem, this was absolutely horrid. At first I blamed the product in general, but after installing it on Windows 2003 I realized that it was actually incomplete! The NetWare client for it does not exist (at least on any of the CDs they gave us -- which were incomplete in & of themselves), and trying to actually manage the thing can be a huge pain in the ass.
They still sell it at full price and still charge $300 for a single support case... It's like MS taking Vista as it is now and selling it as a fully-working product. It is not, and I would have been highly pissed off had our software license not covered the GroupWise software for whichever of the three platforms (Lin, Win, NetWare) we ended up using.
So anyway, unless Messman forced the product out before it was done, it was not his fault. Of course, Novell does more than just Email servers, so this may be only a very small part of it.
where is the PR machine? sure, WE know novell has linux, and WE know why linux is good, but where the heck is the PR for this product?
the reason why microsoft does so well has nothing to with their distrobution or the actual product, it has everything to do with getting the product out there, SHOWING people why they should buy linux.
i mean god, sure, ive seen advertisements for novell suse in computer magazines, slashdot etc, but what about at football stadiums (microsoft have a advertisement at the melbourne cricket ground, our biggest stadium, stating "microsoft windows xp: be whatever you want, be loyal" etc..) and places like shops where people would just wonder what the pc product is that promises stability, easy use, and why do they have a lizard as a icon?
in other words, the reason why novell isnt doing well with selling linux is that they are targeting the wrong audience and need to get their name and brand out there, simple as that. microsoft have that downpat.