Novell plans to run its NetWare services -- such as eDirectory and Secure Identity Management -- on the Red Hat and SuSE Linux distributions. Novell currently has products that run on Linux, Unix, Windows and NetWare.
"NetWare will continue to exist with a large customer base, and we will continue to maintain it as long as customers want it," said Chris Stone, vice chairman at Novell. Stone said he thought NetWare support would continue for the foreseeable future, even if development does not. "There are still people using (the) VMS (operating system) and minicomputers. Just because development stops, doesn't mean people stop using it."
Novell also announced on Tuesday that it would be porting its entire GroupWise collaboration software, which significantly overlaps with Ximian's Evolution client, to Linux. The applications handle email, scheduling and contact information to keep employees organised. Although Novell intends to support both software packages, the eventual goal is to have only one, said Stone.
The moves indicate a major shift in strategy for Novell, which only a year ago positioned Linux as the enemy and didn't show up at LinuxWorld. Now company executives are saying open-source software is the future for the industry and their company.
"Novell is committed to becoming a strong participant in open source, and (Ximian's founders) are here to make sure we do," said Jack Messman, Novell's chief executive. The company announced it had bought Ximian the day before LinuxWorld opened.
Although company representatives haven't said that Novell will stop all development on the NetWare platform, they did say the company is looking to Linux as the future. The revenues from NetWare have declined 9 percent to 14 percent a quarter, said one representative, making the switch a no-brainer.
"Most of our development is going to be for Linux," Stone said.
Matthew Szulik, chief executive of Red Hat, was not surprised by Novell's about-face on Linux. "It is what it is," he said. "They see an opportunity to get into the Linux marketplace."
Red Hat announced on Monday that it was suing Unix software seller SCO and asking the courts for a declaratory judgment on whether Linux violates any of SCO's intellectual property. Red Hat has also pledged $1m to a legal fund for open-source software causes and has called for other companies that have benefited from the open-source community to pony up additional funds.
Talkback
6th August 2003
A recent news report coming out of the LinuxWorld Conference suggests that Novell is considering stopping development of NetWare. We’re not. Despite Novell’s firm and frequent statements concerning continued development and support for NetWare, discussion of Novell’s Linux strategy invariably leads to concern over Novell’s NetWare commitment. Let us put those concerns to rest.
As we’ve said repeatedly, Novell is not dropping NetWare, we’re adding Linux. Novell’s focus is on the customer, and the customer wants choice. As we stated in April of this year, and again yesterday at LinuxWorld, we will make Novell’s services available both on a NetWare kernel and a Linux kernel going forward. Novell has a large installed base of NetWare users, and we’ll continue to serve those customers as we’ve always done. NetWare 6.5, the latest version of NetWare with powerful new services for business continuity, open source, Web application services and "virtual office" capabilities, begins shipping next week. . We have also announced that NetWare 7.0 is in development, that it will run on both the NetWare and Linux kernels, and that we will have more to say on it when it is appropriate. This is hardly a sign of reduced commitment
NetWare is not going away. Period.
Jack Messman
Chairman, President and CEO
Novell, Inc.