Novell's systems management initiative appears to have overlooked NetWare

Editor's Note: We regret to let you know that starting in 2007, we will no longer be publishing the Novell NetWare Tips Newsletter. To reflect Novell's market direction, starting Jan. 3, you will begin receiving our Linux & Open Source newsletter, written by Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth and published every Monday and Wednesday. Coverage of Novell and its products will continue at NetworkWorld.com. If you would like to update your newsletter subscription or sign up for others, such as the Unified Communications Newsletter or Dave Kearns' Identity Management newsletter, please go to the Subscription Services link below.

Today, we have more of the fallout from the Novell-Microsoft deal which continues to dominate conversations about the networking company we want to love – and the one we love to hate. Backpedaling, “clarifications”, interviews and press releases are pouring out of Redmond and Waltham. But, as I said last week, we’re going to ignore that for now as we tie up the loose ends and get ready to turn the light off on the NetWare newsletter.

I do appreciate all the wonderful comments I’ve gotten from you in the past couple of weeks urging us to keep going. But I'm afraid the writing is on the wall and it’s written in indelible ink. And Novell supplied the pen.

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Editor's Note: We regret to let you know that starting in 2007, we will no longer be publishing the Novell NetWare Tips Newsletter. To reflect Novell's market direction, starting Jan. 3, you will begin receiving our Linux & Open Source newsletter, written by Network World Senior Editor Phil Hochmuth and published every Monday and Wednesday. Coverage of Novell and its products will continue at NetworkWorld.com. If you would like to update your newsletter subscription or sign up for others, such as the Unified Communications Newsletter or Dave Kearns' Identity Management newsletter, please go to the Subscription Services link below.

Today, we have more of the fallout from the Novell-Microsoft deal which continues to dominate conversations about the networking company we want to love – and the one we love to hate. Backpedaling, “clarifications”, interviews and press releases are pouring out of Redmond and Waltham. But, as I said last week, we’re going to ignore that for now as we tie up the loose ends and get ready to turn the light off on the NetWare newsletter.

I do appreciate all the wonderful comments I’ve gotten from you in the past couple of weeks urging us to keep going. But I'm afraid the writing is on the wall and it’s written in indelible ink. And Novell supplied the pen.

A press release crossed my desk last week which began: “Novell today announced the first offerings of its desktop-to-data center management initiative, including the availability of a comprehensive set of solutions which orchestrate the management of virtual machines, high-performance computing and other IT resources.” This announced Novell’s new and reworked ZENworks offerings, including:

* Novell ZENworks Orchestrator
* Novell ZENworks Virtual Machine Management
* Novell ZENworks HPC Management
* Novell ZENworks 7.5 Asset Management

That was good news, I guess. Certainly ZENworks has been a plus. The sad part, though, was the statement: “Systems management solutions from Novell provide open standards-based management that covers the entire enterprise IT environment, from Linux to Unix to Windows, and helps customers maximize the value of their technology infrastructure.” Evidently Novell believes that NetWare has no part in your “technology infrastructure.” We know it stopped selling it to you, but this is the first time I can remember it glibly overlooking the fact that you might still be running NetWare.

With the strong reaction against Novell from the open source community over the Microsoft deal, and with the bad taste that dropping NetWare has for those who’ve run with it so many years we have to wonder, seriously, about Novell’s viability. While the company has promised to support NetWare as long as someone is running it, that promise goes away should Novell disappear.

Maybe it’s time to look once again at a possible open source NetWare.

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