* Could Novell's download problems be more than just a technical glitch?
If you don’t have your own copy of the Open Enterprise Server public beta yet, I think I understand why.
You’ll remember that it was made available for download late in the afternoon (U.S. Eastern Standard Time) on Christmas Eve. By all rights, it should have been easy to download over that weekend, one of the quietest of the year on the Internet. But as one reader told me:
“I tried for over 8 days to download everything. I had multiple disconnects and incomplete downloads. It did not matter what time of the day, or from where (I tried several different connections, both work and home).”
There does seem to be problems with downloads from Novell from time to time. And more often than not. Certainly as compared to, say, Microsoft. I rarely have an interrupted download from Redmond while (at least with larger files) I frequently have this problem with Novell. And now I know it’s not just me. Actually, from traffic in the forums at support.novell.com I already knew it wasn’t just me.
Could it be another Steve Ballmer plot?
Generally speaking, Novell’s Web site is Internet Explorer friendly, while being difficult if not impossible – to use with other browsers such as Firefox or Opera. Novell just received more than $300 million from Microsoft to settle a lawsuit claiming Microsoft deliberately changed its operating systems (in the early 1990s) to cause problems with Novell’s client software. Late last fall, Novell again sued Microsoft claiming the Redmond company’s illegal actions thwarted the success of WordPerfect in the mid-90s when Novell owned it. Could it be possible that Microsoft, within Internet Explorer, is still doing its best to make Novell look bad?
No, I don’t think so. But I’m sure there are people out there who do. I’m sure I even know some of them. There are otherwise perfectly rational people in this world who believe that Bill Gates stays awake at night thinking of ways to beat down Novell (Marcus, you know who you are!). Truth be told, that might have been true 15 years ago, but Novell hasn’t been a threat to Microsoft for some time. It may be again though, especially if Open Enterprise Server is a hit, but it’ll be a while before we can judge.
It may also be a while before you can download your copy of the beta, but keep trying. This really will be a pleasant surprise for both the Novell and the SuSE Linux faithful. And it could be a potent weapon in the war for the server room.
