* Novell says Open Enterprise Server will be early, but it’s late
Novell sent out a press release last week announcing a ship date for the upcoming release of Open Enterprise Server. One line in the release really caught my eye (and it was only 8:15 in the morning, when it’s hard for anything except a pot of coffee to catch my eye!). I reread it a few times, then talked to Network World Senior Editor Deni Connor, who covers the Novell beat, to see if she was thinking the same way I was. She was.
The line in the press release was: “Novell announced today that the Open Enterprise Server product, which incorporates the best technologies from Novell’s leading open source and commercial networking platforms, is currently expected to ship in February 2005, ten months ahead of the original schedule.”
Let’s see, February 2005 plus 10 months gives December 2005, right? But at BrainShare in March, Novell had told everyone that OES would ship “by year-end.” That meant 2004, wouldn’t you think?
It wasn’t only Network World that was confused. I saw three headlines about the announcement last week.
One bought the line that the software was coming early:
Early release for Novell Open Enterprise Server
https://www.vnunet.com/news/1158649
One rightly called this a setback in dates:
Novell delays shipping Open Enterprise Server
https://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=134146
And one hedged:
Novell sets Open Enterprise Server release
https://news.zdnet.com/2110-9590_22-5406034.html
Novell’s explanation, according to spokesman Bruce Lowry, was: “When we first raised the concept of a dual-kernel product, back at BrainShare 2003, we said we’d shoot to do that in the normal NetWare upgrade cycle of 18 months between major releases. With NetWare 6.5 out in summer 2003, that put us on a late 2005 timeline.”
Actually, an 18-month cycle would still mean late 2004, not 2005. And for the past six months, since Brainshare 2004, late this year has been the target. There was important information in the press release. Why create controversy about something so easily checked as the announced ship date? Has Microsoft marketing taken over at Novell?
The important information was that the release would be delayed two months so that the newest Linux kernel, in SuSE 9.0, could be included as well as its first service pack. Bravo Novell.
Too often, we get an upgrade, update or new product to install and immediately have to find the service packs so that what we want to run is as up to date as possible. By rolling up the first service pack, Novell is close to assuring that the retail package of OES will be “up to date” for at least the first six months. You might need to add or change a driver or even download a module, but there’ll be no need to spend an afternoon reworking a brand-new installation to accommodate what could be a large service pack.
It would appear that someone at Novell has at least the inkling of a clue as to how network managers do their job. Let’s hope this person, whoever it is, stays around for a while.
