First look at Nakoma

Last week, I got my first look at the next version of NetWare (the one code-named Nakoma), which I’ve talked about in previous newsletters (see editorial links, below). Much of what I’ve said is still valid, with one major change. The version codenamed “Hayden” that is intended for so-called “server blades” (see links), will not appear as a separate release. Instead, the functionality will be included in the Nakoma release.

Expect to see a public beta version of Nakoma available for download in mid-April (just in time for BrainShare) with eventual release early next fall. You will want to get the public beta when that’s available.

Over the next few weeks we’ll be talking about the major features of the new operating system, some of which are brand new while some are add-ins released since the advent of NetWare 6.0. There are also other features that have evolved from earlier NetWare that have either a new face, or a new focus. In any case there is a lot to consider.

Today though, I’d like to follow up on one of last week’s newsletters and talk about versioning and NetWare.

Nakoma will be called NetWare 6.5 and here’s the reasoning (as it was explained to me): Calling it NetWare 7 (or 7.0) would be bad because that would be a “dot zero” release to which people are slow to upgrade. Calling it NetWare 6.1 would imply that marketing is saying there’s not much difference from NetWare 6.0 (but try telling users that NetWare 5.1 is no big change from 5.0). So, Novell split the difference and is calling it 6.5. At least there are enough people around who remember the “IntranetWare” fiasco (when NetWare 4.11 was simultaneously released as IntranetWare), so there was no real consideration of changing the name.

And hopefully, Microsoft’s gyrations with “NT 6/.Net Server/Windows Server 2003” kept anyone from suggesting NetWare 2003 might be considered. Still, 6.5? Let me know how you feel about the whole versioning issue; what makes sense to you and what you’d like the vendors to do. Drop a note to versions@vquill.com and I’ll gather, collate and report back on your feelings.

In the meantime, I’ll be talking about the new features and how much easier your life is going to be. No, really, I mean it.