When reader Phil Remaker recently noticed that I had, many moons ago, been co-founder of Novell UK he commented:
Co-founder, Novell UK! Eeek! Did I send you my “Why Novell died” rant? Even if I did, here it is again. Context: A front page box on Network World appeared that said: “Does Novell Still Matter? See page 8” I wrote to the editor and said “I think that box answers its own question. Page 8, indeed.” And then they wrote back and asked me to elaborate on my opinion about Novell, and I coughed up the following hairball: ——————— I guess I should read the article. But to me, the answer was pure arrogance and hubris coupled with a lack of foresight and a lack of regard for their customers. And Microsoft crushed them like a bug. I LOATHED Novell. Net ware 3.x was their cash cow, and ‘they knew best.’ At the time, Net ware was the best way to do file and printer sharing with great speed on slow computers. Customers NEEDED it and customers bought it up. It was worlds ahead of the clunky NetBIOS of DOS. It was a server centric implementation instead of a peer to peer system, as in NetBIOS. Novell refused to recognize the importance of TCP/IP (despite buying Excelan) and refused to recognize Windows 95, sticking with their DOS/Win3.1 world. The Novell 32 client was buggy and intrusive, and their licensing process draconian. They didn’t see the opportunity/threat of the web, They totally missed IP, missed Windows 95, and didn’t see the NT server threat. They just bumbled along with their working business model raking in the cash as the world changed around them. With Net ware 4 they made this big X.500 directory push but insisted on using IPX and bastardized routing IPX junk like the OSPF-for-IPX nonsense (remember NLSP?). They shot for the corporate lock-in rather than giving customers what they wanted or needed. Novell knew best. Drink the Kool Aid! I could go on for days, and maybe I should. But the bottom line, for me was: – If you exceeded your Net ware licenses, life stopped. People could not log in, and you had to make a frantic push to buy more licenses, going through your purchasing department at their glacial speed. – If you exceeded your NT server licenses, you got a stern warning in your event log and you could push through purchasing at a more leisurely pace. But at least you didn’t have user impacting failures! That was pretty much a microcosm of the whole problem. The fact that Novell missed IP, missed Windows 95, missed the web, and didn’t see the NT server threat all showed lack or foresight, great arrogance and hostility towards their customers. They had a trapped customer base ready to jump ship when something “close enough” came along. And we all abandoned those jerks at Novell as soon as we could. NT server 4 got close enough and Windows 2000 with AD sealed the deal. And they were shocked! How could customer leave? They keep trying to reinvent themselves. Net ware 5 finally added IP support, but was way too little too late. By that time, the Windows SMB protocol had evolved to the point where it solved most file sharing needs well enough and was bundled with NT powered server under less painful licensing terms, both financially and in technical implementation. Dedicated filer appliances came in and blew the doors off Net ware. The application world that Novell wished for never materialized. Nobody bought into Net ware 4. I shed not a single tear to see Novell knocked down many notches. I’m amazed they still exist. Oh, and I almost forgot! When did Novell add a GUI for server management ON THE SERVER? They were locked in to 80×24 screens with a vengeance. I had jumped out of Novell long before they had decent GUI based server management on the server itself. Their religious position of sparing every cycle on the server ignored the fact that CPUs were getting radically more powerful by leaps and bounds. Microsoft saw and embraced that, Novell failed to. Summary: A series of stupid acts and failures to act conspired to kill Novell. They only think they are still alive. They have been dead and irrelevant for years, and quite deservedly so.
I commented “Hey, it was cool job at the time. Today I would rather stab myself in the eye than work for them.” And I mean that quite sincerely. When I was with Novell it was an amazing place to work — one of the most fun, exciting jobs I’ve had. But towards the end of my stint (perhaps around 1988-1989) it was obvious that big corporate thinking had landed like a dead hand and trapped in Novell’s famous and much criticized “not invented here” psychopathy in for good. That particular trait was fabulously illustrated by their acquisition and neglect of various products. DRDOS comes to mind (they could have let that one loose on the world for free and gained a ton of street cred) and their bizarre acquisition of WordPerfect which they obviously never had a clue of what to do with it (otherwise they would have done something more useful than simply letting it wither and effectively ceding its market to MS Word). Another thing that still amazes me is how Novell could have had the finest directory service bar none and somehow managed to loose the market to Active Directory, a clumsy, ugly, and over-engineered product by any rational standards. I think Phil is quite correct in all of his criticisms and maybe even a little overly kind when you consider that Novell’s arrogance and insularity led it directly to where it is today — a shadow of its former self and in bed with the enemy in what I still think is a bizarre and, as far as the Linux market is concerned, a somewhat unethical deal. Of course this isn’t RIP but the patient looks pretty desperate and it is just a matter of time.
