Underlying this: Should you have a specialized OS for servers, or a general purpose one? Every single line of code in Netware was written for the goal of fast, secure network services. Windows aims to do everything. I personally would have preferred that the market chose a specialized OS.

There are ramifications in having a general purpose system, like Windows. For one thing, the code becomes so monstrously bloated that checking for security flaws is difficult. For another, programs seeking permissions to do anything becomes a convoluted process.

Of course there are also advantages to a general purpose system: easier to learn, more flexible, and more applications.

The last-mentioned is often taken as a killer for Netware, but people fail to realize that the Novell designers had addressed this by about 2001. For example, platform-agnostic Java support built-in, popular open source server apps like MySQL, Apache, and Tomcat, and Novell Script For Netware, which was compatible with VBscript, and allowed the same programs to be written for Netware web apps too.

Sadly, Novell management didn't push these tactical developments and around about the same time began to give up on Netware.