The future of NetWare

Is there a future in NetWare? I was planning to pursue a CNE, however, I’m not sure if it’s worth it.

I am currently a CNA in NetWare 5, upgrading to 6. We are a  NetWare shop, however, we may be switching to  Microsoft. My question is whether there’s a future in NetWare. I was planning to pursue a CNE, however, I’m not sure if it’s worth it.

– Via the Internet

A few weeks ago, had you asked me this question, I would have been hard pressed to give you good reasons for pursuing your CNE. Prior to the acquisition of SuSE by Novell, I couldn’t see a future for the company that made sense to me. With the acquisition, things are a little different. 

I taught one of the sessions at BrainShare 2004, “Installing SusE Linux for the first-time user”.  The sessions were booked to overflowing. In straw polls taken in my session and other Linux sessions, first-time attendees accounted for between 25% and 50% of attendees in that session; that’s higher than I can remember in a long time. What I’m trying to say is there is a future.

You now have two paths to choose from. You can certainly go for your CNE. NetWare isn’t going away anytime soon. Although some have said NetWare is going away, that isn’t the impression I got at BrainShare. With the SuSE acquisition, customers have the choice of implementing NetWare in the traditional manner or on top of Linux. Another option to consider is Novell’s Certified Linux Engineer. This will help you install/support Novell’s Open Enterprise Linux server due out later this year or early next year. It will also increase your comfort level on working with SuSE Linux, as well as some of the other Linux distributions you will find in the marketplace.

Having a Microsoft certification isn’t a bad thing. Although Microsoft may not be as open to admitting it as Novell is, there can be more than one OS in the computer room. Knowing how to properly implement a given OS is a good thing for you and the customer/company.  In that way, you can use a given OS best for a particular use.