[antiRepublicrat]

One for the mill. Saved $900,000 on Microsoft licenses alone already, and they're only about halfway there.

[PAR35]

She says that the "The Open Zone" is the second most popular destination on their intranet.

They need to log that time against the conversion costs. That being said, the costs shouldn't be much higher than were required of corporate users when they had to convert from Word Perfect to Word when Novell bought Word Perfect and proceeded to run it into the ground.

[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping v2.0
Back up in y'all one mo' 'gain for the cause

Wanna be Penguified? On or off, hit me!

Got root?

[TomGuy]

Novell bought WordPerfect. At the time WP was the best wordprocessing software. Novell didn't update it, and allowed it to sink into near obscurity, as MS moved and promoted Word.

IIRC, Novell also bought PC Tools, an excellent DOS-based tuning utility program. PC Tools no longer exists.

Novell pushing Linux? Look out Linux!!!!

[Nick Danger]

It'll never work! They're all commies!

I tried that there linux once and my computer blew up and killed my dog.

It's not ready for prime time! The Chinese use it! Linus Torvalds is a commie!

To be safe, everyone should buy and install Microsoft® Windows.

mv shills/* /dev/null

[Billthedrill]

The downside is that their established base in the field consists of Novell file and print servers and Windows desktops. They've gone an amazing job of integrating Linux with Netware (OES is spooky-cool) but that's server side. What will make them or break them is penetration into the business office distribution, and that is a notoriously conservative market. It is also Microsoft's jugular vein, and Bill's boys won't be taking that lying down.

[Swordmaker]

A chink in the Microsoft Monolith PING...Novell switching from Microsoft to Linux... only peripherally associated with Macs but of interest in that switching is happening...

If you want on or off the Mac Ping list, Freepmail me.

[benjaminjjones]

I was a CNE for 7 years, kept up my certification continuously from 3.x (I think I started at 3.x) through 5.x.

Didn't take the 6.x test last year because I hadn't had any Novell clients for at least a year, they had all switched over to MS Servers.

Novell File & Print servers were great, they ran twice as fast on half the hardware, rarely crashed or had to be rebooted, and it didn't matter what desktop client you used.

Novell Directory Service (NDS) was a true innovation. The behind-the-scenes technical aspects blew me away when I went through the training. It took years for Microsoft to mimic (steal) NDS and come out with Active Directory.

I think what killed Novell was the email client, Groupwise. Outlook was just much better (at least that was the customer perception).

That plus Marketing. I used to get so pissed off when Microsoft was advertising like heck and I'd NEVER see a Novell ad.

Also, I think the top management was screwed up (I think they went through a couple of bleeped up CEOs).

Over 7 years, I figure I got my 6K initial training investment back (more if you count ongoing recertification training).

It just pisses off that I'm going to have to spend another 6K (or more now) to get my Microsoft certification (MCSE) in what I see as an inferior product.

It's going to be like going back to grammar school after a great summer vacation. Sucks to be me.

[xrp]

This is hardly a landmark story, or even newsworthy. Novell bought SuSe Linux, it's only natural that they'd do this. Novell Linux for the desktop is spectacular. I'd argue it is easier to use than MS Windows (I'm an IT pro).

Microsoft migrated hotmail.com off FreeBSD and onto Windows 2000 Server after they acquired them. Big whoop!

[SunkenCiv]

Longtime Microsoft partner Novell is migrating all of its own 6,000 Windows desktops to Linux.

---

---

Thanks for the "writing on the wall" ping. ;')

"gosh, I could have had a V8". ;') With a side of mixed metaphor.

[Golden Eagle]

Of course Novell could save some money by deploying their own product instead of an external one. That's like saying Microsoft can save money by deploying Windows internally instead of Unix. But Novell Linux ISN'T free for anyone else, something you forgot to mention.

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=711601

http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=679344