Novell gives Linux the nod

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Novell Inc. is working on a migration path that will make its services available on both a NetWare and a Linux kernel in order to broaden its enterprise appeal.

Novell CEO Jack Messman, attending his first

BrainShare conference after missing last year due to illness, said during a Monday keynote address that customers have asked the company to provide a Linux alternative for years. Linux won’t be available until the release of NetWare 7.0, which is probably another 18 months away, but Novell is sowing the seeds of open source growth with Netware 6.5.

The platform, due to be shipped this summer, will include Apache, MySQL, Perl, PHP and Tomcat. It will also ship with exteNd — Novell’s application server developed by SilverStream, which Novell bought last year — as well as a UDDI server and SOAP server.

Despite the emphasis on open source and mapping out a path that will take the company towards Linux support, Messman insisted that Novell isn’t about to dump NetWare. A decade ago, NetWare owned about 70 per cent of the network operating system market. That number has shrunk dramatically due to incursions from rivals like Microsoft.

“”It’s all about choice,”” said Messman. “”Customers do not have to abandon Netware to move to Linux. . . . Linux is an up and coming kernel that people want to take advantage of.””

He said that users were worried that there might not be a way to run Novell on Linux, given the operating system’s growing adoption by the enterprise market. Existing Novell customers will be given the option of moving from a NetWare kernel to Linux once it’s available, said Messman, but he was confident that most will remain on the company’s flagship product.

The Linux announcement received applause from the estimated 5,000 BrainShare attendees, but only a smattering compared to Novell’s decision to stay the course with NetWare. “”It makes me very nervous, but I think it’s important you see what we’re doing,”” said vice-chairman Chris Stone when he took the BrainShare stage. “”Thank God you clapped at Jack’s last five minutes.””

Stone later added during a press conference that “”the kernel isn’t the issue, it’s what you run on it . . . Over time we will continue to take the services that you’ve come to know on NetWare and make them run on multiple platforms.””

For IDC Canada Ltd. analyst Warren Shiau, the decision to embrace Linux was practically a fait accompli.

“”They would have had to do this sooner or later. Better sooner than later,”” said Shiau. “”It may end up being a way of ensuring customers that Novell has a future.””

Novell’s uphill battle against Windows isn’t getting any easier. Offering a Linux alternative is “”a way of getting around that . . . around partisan politics,”” he said.

The company is in the midst of a transformation that began two years ago when Novell bought prof

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Story

How the CTO can Maintain Cloud Momentum Across the Enterprise

Embracing cloud is easy for some individuals. But embedding widespread cloud adoption at the enterprise level is...

Related Tech News

Get ITBusiness Delivered

Our experienced team of journalists brings you engaging content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives delivered directly to your inbox.

Featured Tech Jobs