On Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:31:28 +0100, Orchid XP v8 wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>> Well, look at Novell's history - MS can't buy Novell (anti-trust
>> concerns).  Novell was in the networking business before Microsoft.
>> Market share did diminish, no doubt, once NT came onto the market (part
>> of the reason was bad management at Novell, part was anticompetitive
>> behaviour on MS' part).
> 
> Uh... didn't Novell almost go bankrupt? 

No.  Novell went from having a near monopoly position in the market to 
not having a near monopoly position in the market.

> And aren't they now a tiny
> minority company that most people have almost never heard of?

Ever hear of SUSE Linux?  That's a Novell product.  Go check in at the 
airport sometime and look at the login screen on the terminal - most 
likely, it's a Novell login dialog you'll see.  Star Alliance is but one 
of many very large customers Novell has.  We penned a deal with Pugeout 
to replace 20,000 desktops with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop because it 
was a better fit than Windows for those particular users (note that 
Pugeout has about 70K desktops; this is not a total desktop replacement).

>> So you're saying that because MS is in the server market, nobody should
>> ever try to make a server?  We do very well, thankyouverymuch....
> 
> Well, it's your funderal. ;-)

People have been saying that for damned near 20 years now.  If I had a 
nickel for every time someone said "Novell will be gone in 5 years", I 
could have retired.  Still here, still growing, currently expanding the 
development center in India (how can a "nearly bankrupt company" invest 
over $100 million in India over the next three years?  Huh? Or to be 
acquiring companies - Sitescape, Platespin, SuSE, eSecurity, Immunix, 
Ximian - and on and on and on.  Or to pursue litigation against Microsoft 
pertaining to antitrust violations?  Or to be seen by Microsoft to be 
enough of a threat to sign a partnership agreement *in spite of* the 
antitrust lawsuit?)

By your logic, nobody should ever have dared to compete with Standard 
Oil, or with AT&T in the US telecommunications industry.  Monopolies fall.

Novell has been *very* well known in the industry as a technology leader 
with totally crap marketing.  Microsoft's products as a general rule are 
technologically *years* behind.  Active Directory lags eDirectory by 
about 7 years of development - and as a poorly implemented copy of 
eDirectory it's pretty pathetic.

Jim

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