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For the road bicycle racing team previously known as Novell, see Rabobank (cycling). Road bicycle racing is a popular Bicycle racing Sport held on roads (following the Geography of the area using Racing bicycles The Rabobank ( UCI Team Code RAB) is a professional Bicycle racing team sponsored by the Rabobank.
Novell Inc.
Type Public (NASDAQ: NOVL)
Founded Provo, Utah (1983)
Headquarters Waltham, MA, USA
Key people Ron Hovsepian, CEO and President
John Dragoon, Senior Vice President, CMO
Dana Russell, Senior Vice President, CFO
Industry Software
Products Novell eDirectory
Novell Open Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
Novell NetWare
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Novell GroupWise
Novell ZENworks
Novell Identity Manager
Novell Access Manager
Novell exteNd
Novell BorderManager
Revenue ▲US$932. The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American Stock exchange. Provo is a city in and the County seat One of the early centers of the Industrial Revolution in northern America Waltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States The Commonwealth of Massachusetts ( is a state located in the New England region of the northeastern United States. Ronald W Hovsepian or Ron Hovsepian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novell, Inc For other uses of this term see Industry (disambiguation An industry (from Latin industrius, "diligent industrious" In Marketing, a product is anything that can be offered to a Market that might satisfy a want or need Novell eDirectory (formerly called Novell Directory Services, NDS) is an X SUSE Linux distributions Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES is the successor product to Novell Inc SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc SUSE Linux distributions SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ( SLED) formerly Novell Linux Desktop, is a desktop -oriented Operating system supplied GroupWise is a Cross-platform Collaborative software product from Novell Inc Novell ZENworks, a suite of Software products developed and maintained by Novell Inc Novell Identity Manager (aka IDM) is Novell's implementation of Identity Management software Access Manager is access management product from Novell Inc, successor to the iChain product Novell exteNd, formerly known as SilverStream was a web application development suite from Novell that was discontinued in 2005 BorderManager is a multi purpose Network security application developed by Novell Inc In business revenue or revenues is Income that a company receives from its normal business activities usually from the sale of goods and services The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been 5 million (2007)[1]
Operating income ▼US$55. A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is a period used for calculating annual ("yearly" Financial statements in Businesses In financial and business Accounting, earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT is a measure of a firm's profitability that excludes interest and income tax expenses 8 million (2007)[1]
(-6. 0% operating margin[2])
Net income ▼US$44. In Business, operating margin, Operating Income Margin, Operating profit margin or Return on sales (ROS is the ratio of Operating income Net income is equal to the Income that a firm has after subtracting costs and Expenses from the total Revenue. 5 million (2007)[1]
(-4. 7% profit margin[2])
Employees 5,006 (2006)[2]
Website www.novell.com

Novell Inc. Profit margin, Net Margin, Net profit margin or Net Profit Ratio all refer to a measure of Profitability. Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. A website (alternatively web site or Web site, a back-construction from the Proper noun World Wide Web) is a collection of Web pages NASDAQ: NOVL is an American software corporation specializing in network operating systems such as Novell NetWare and SUSE Linux, secure identity management products, and application integration and collaboration solutions. The NASDAQ (acronym of National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American Stock exchange. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the A corporation is a separate legal entity usually used to conduct business NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc SUSE (ˈsuːsə German ˈzuːzə is a major retail Operating system, produced worldwide and supported by Novell Inc Together with WordPerfect, Novell was instrumental in making the Utah Valley a focus for high-technology software development. WordPerfect is a proprietary Word processing application At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the De facto Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. Today this area has many small companies whose employees have previously worked at Novell.

Contents

History

Novell owes its beginnings to the Eyring Research Institute (ERI) in Provo, Utah. Eyring Research Institute was founded as a non-profit organization on September 6 1972 Dennis Fairclough, Drew Major, Dale Neibaur and Kyle Powell left their employment with ERI and took with them the experience and technology necessary to start and support the development of Novell. Dennis Fairclough is Deputy Chair/Professor at the Computing & Networking Sciences Department at Utah Valley University. Drew Major (born June 17, 1956) was one of the founders of Novell and the lead architect and developer of NetWare operating system for over 15 years Dennis Fairclough was the member of the original team that started Novell Data Systems. Drew Major, Dale Neibaur and Kyle Powell went on to form SuperSet Software. Drew Major (born June 17, 1956) was one of the founders of Novell and the lead architect and developer of NetWare operating system for over 15 years (See also Subset for the uncapitalized use of the word "superset" in mathematics Dennis Fairclough was the original founder of Novell, when Ray Noorda came to Novell, who was dismissed in a route to build upon a new future for Novell. Dennis Fairclough is Deputy Chair/Professor at the Computing & Networking Sciences Department at Utah Valley University. Raymond John "Ray" Noorda ( June 19 1924 &ndash October 09 2006) was a U Drew Major, Dale Neibaur and Kyle Powell continued to supply support for Novell through their SuperSet Software Group. Drew Major (born June 17, 1956) was one of the founders of Novell and the lead architect and developer of NetWare operating system for over 15 years (See also Subset for the uncapitalized use of the word "superset" in mathematics

Dennis Fairclough, Drew Major, Dale Neibaur and Kyle Powell’s work on government contracts for the Intelligent Systems Technology Project at ERI transferred to Novell important insights from the ARPANET and related developing technologies, insights that would become the foundations of Novell. Drew Major (born June 17, 1956) was one of the founders of Novell and the lead architect and developer of NetWare operating system for over 15 years The ARPANET ( Advanced Research Projects Agency Network) developed by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense, was the world's first operational

ERI spawned many high-tech spin-offs, including WordPerfect, Novell, and Dynix in computers and some in the military and communication areas that have all benefited the world. WordPerfect is a proprietary Word processing application At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the De facto (The Life of Frank Carlyle Harmon, written by Cleo Harmon, wife of the Founder and the Secretary of the President at Eyring Research Institute, published 1999)

The company began in Provo, Utah as Novell Data Systems Inc. Eyring Research Institute was founded as a non-profit organization on September 6 1972 Provo is a city in and the County seat The State of Utah (ˈjuːtɔː or) is a western state of the United States. in 1979, a hardware manufacturer producing CP/M based systems. Hardware is a general term that refers to the physical artifacts of a Technology. Manufacturing (from Latin manu factura, "making by hand" is the use of tools and labor to make things for use or sale CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers is an Operating system originally created for Intel 8080 / 85 based Microcomputers by Gary Kildall It was co-founded by George Canova, Darin Field, and Jack Davis. Victor V. Vurpillat brought the deal to Pete Musser, Chairman of the Board, Safeguard Scientifics, Inc. Warren V "Pete" Musser, born in 1928 is the past Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Safeguard Scientifics Inc who provided the seed funding. The company initially did not do well, and both Davis and Canova left the firm. The Safeguard board then ordered Musser to shut Novell down. Musser contacted two Safeguard investors and investment bankers, Barry Rubenstein and Fred Dolin, who guaranteed to raise the necessary funds to continue the business as a software company. They, along with Jack Messman, interviewed and hired Raymond Noorda. Raymond John "Ray" Noorda ( June 19 1924 &ndash October 09 2006) was a U The required funding was accomplished through a rights offering to Safeguard shareholders, managed by the Cleveland brokerage house Prescott, Ball and Turben and guaranteed by Rubenstein and Dolin.

Etymology

The name for the company Novell was suggested by George Canova’s wife who mistakenly thought that “Novell” meant “new” in French. (In fact, the feminine singular of “new” in French is “nouvelle”).

NetWare

The first Novell product was a proprietary hardware server based on Motorola 6800 CPU supporting 6 MUX ports per board for a maximum of 4 boards per server using a star topology with twisted pair cabling. The 6800 is an 8-bit Microprocessor produced by Motorola and released shortly after the Intel 8080 in late 1974 In Electronics, a multiplexer or mux ( occasionally the term muldex is also found for a combination multiplexer-demultiplexer Star networks are one of the most common Computer network topologies. Twisted pair Cabling is a form of wiring in which two conductors (two halves of a single circuit) are wound together for the purposes of canceling out NIC was developed for the ISA bus architecture. Industry Standard Architecture (in practice almost always shortened to ISA) was a Computer bus standard for IBM compatible computers The server was using the first NOS called ShareNet. A network operating system (NOS is software that controls a network and its Message (e Later ShareNet was ported to run on the Intel platform and renamed NetWare. The first commercial release of NetWare was version 1. 5.

In January 1983, the company’s name was shortened to Novell Inc. , and Raymond Noorda became the head of the firm. Raymond John "Ray" Noorda ( June 19 1924 &ndash October 09 2006) was a U Also in 1983, the company introduced its most significant product, the multi-platform network operating system (NOS), Novell NetWare. In Computing, a platform describes some sort of Hardware architecture or Software framework (including Application frameworks, that allows A network operating system (NOS is software that controls a network and its Message (e NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc

Novell based its network protocol on XNS, and created its own standards from IDP and SPP, which it named IPX (Internetwork Packet eXchange) and SPX (Sequenced Packet eXchange). In computing, a protocol is a convention or standard that controls or enables the connection Communication, and Data transfer between two computing Xerox Network Services (commonly XNS) was a Protocol suite promulgated by Xerox, which provided Routing and packet delivery as well as higher Internetwork Packet Exchange ( IPX) is the OSI-model Network layer protocol in the IPX/SPX Protocol stack. IPX/SPX stands for Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequenced Packet Exchange. File and print services ran on the NetWare Core Protocol (NCP) over IPX, as did Routing Information Protocol (RIP) and Service Advertising Protocol (SAP). The NetWare Core Protocol ( NCP) is a network protocol used in some products from Novell Inc NetWare uses Novell DOS (formerly DR-DOS) as a boot loader. DR-DOS is a DOS -type Operating system for IBM PC - compatible Personal computers, originally developed by Gary Kildall Novell DOS is similar to MS-DOS and IBM PC-DOS, but no extra license for DOS is required; this came from the acquisition of Digital Research in 1991. MS-DOS (short for M icro' s' oft D isk O perating S ystem is an Operating system commercialized by Microsoft. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology IBM PC-DOS is a DOS operating system for the IBM Personal Computer, sold throughout the 1980s and 1990s Digital Research Inc (aka DR or DRI; originally Intergalactic Digital Research) was the company created by Dr Prior to this, Novell acquired Kanwal Rekhi’s company Excelan, a company which manufactured smart ethernet cards, and also commercialised the internet protocol TCP/IP, solidifying Novell’s presence in these niche areas. Kanwal Rekhi (born 1945 is an Indian-American Engineer, Businessman and Millionaire Philanthropist. Ethernet is a family of frame -based Computer networking technologies for Local area networks (LANs The Internet Protocol Suite (commonly TCP/IP) is the set of Communications protocols used for the Internet and other similar networks It was around this time also that Ed Tittel of HTML For Dummies notoriety became involved with Novell, taking up various positions within the newly acquired Excelan before being made national Marketing Manager for Novell, prior to taking up the post as Novell’s Director of Technical Marketing. Ed Tittel is an internet consultant with over 20 years experience in the computer industry HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure For Dummies is a prolific series of instructional books which are intended to present non-intimidating guides for readers new to the various topics covered

Novell did extremely well throughout the 1980s, acting aggressively to increase the market initially by selling the expensive ethernet cards at cost; by 1990, Novell had an almost monopolistic position in NOS for any business requiring a network. A Network card, Network Adapter, LAN Adapter or NIC (network interface card is a piece of Computer hardware designed to allow computers In Economics, a monopoly (from Greek monos, alone or single + polein, to sell exists when a specific individual or enterprise has sufficient

With this market leadership, Novell began to acquire and build services on top of its NetWare operating platform. These services extended NetWare’s capabilities with such products as NetWare for SAA, Novell Multi-Protocol Router, GroupWise and BorderManager. GroupWise is a Cross-platform Collaborative software product from Novell Inc BorderManager is a multi purpose Network security application developed by Novell Inc

Beyond NetWare

However, Novell was also diversifying, moving away from its smaller users to target large corporations (they later attempted to refocus with NetWare for Small Business), reducing investment in research and was slow to improve the product administration tools (the temporary saving grace being that their products typically needed little “tweaking” – they just ran).

In 1993, the company bought Unix System Laboratories from AT&T, giving them rights to the Unix operating system, apparently in an attempt to strike at Microsoft. Unix System Laboratories or USL was originally organized as part of Bell Labs in 1989 Before proposing a merge request please see Talk and see if the merger you propose has recently been made and Unix (officially trademarked as UNIX, sometimes also written as Unix with Small caps) is a computer Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer In 1994 Novell bought WordPerfect, as well as the Quattro Pro product from Borland. WordPerfect is a proprietary Word processing application At the height of its popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s it was the De facto Quattro Pro is a Spreadsheet program developed by Borland and now sold by Corel, most often as part of Corel's WordPerfect Office. Borland Software Corporation is a software company headquartered in Austin Texas. These acquisitions did not last: Novell assigned portions of their Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation in 1995, WordPerfect and Quattro Pro were sold together to Corel in 1996. Santa Cruz Operation ( SCO) was a Software company based in Santa Cruz California which was best known for selling three Unix variants for Corel Corporation is a Canadian Computer software company headquartered in Ottawa, Canada DR was also sold to Caldera Systems in 1996. The SCO Group Inc ( TSG, informally SCO;) is a software company formerly called Caldera Systems and Caldera International.

As Novell faced new competition, Noorda was pushed out in 1994, and he was followed by several CEOs who served short terms. One of Novell’s major innovations from this period was Novell Directory Services (NDS), now known as eDirectory. Novell eDirectory (formerly called Novell Directory Services, NDS) is an X Introduced with NetWare v4. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc 0. eDirectory replaced the old Bindery server and user management technology employed by NetWare v3. x and earlier.

In 1996, the company began a move into internet-enabled products, replacing reliance on the proprietary IPX protocol in favor of a native TCP/IP stack. The move was accelerated when Eric Schmidt became CEO in 1997 and then brought in Christopher Stone as his right hand man. Eric Emerson Schmidt (born in Washington DC) is Chairman and CEO of Google Inc The result was NetWare v5. 0, released in October of 1998, which leveraged and built upon eDirectory and introduced new functions, such as Novell Cluster Services (NCS, a replacement for SFT-III) and Novell Storage Services (NSS), a replacement for the Traditional/FAT filesystem used by earlier versions of NetWare. While NetWare v5. 0 introduced native TCP/IP support into the NOS, IPX was still supported, allowing for smooth transitions between environments and avoiding the “forklift upgrades” frequently required by competing environments. Similarly, the Traditional/FAT filesystem remained a supported filesystem option.

However, by 1999 Novell had lost its dominant market position, and was continually being out-marketed by Microsoft, which gained access to corporate data centres by bypassing technical staff and selling directly to corporate executives. Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer Microsoft worked to make NetWare look second place with Windows 2000 features such as Group Policy. Microsoft’s GUI was also more popular and more modern-seeming than the character-based Novell interfaces. With falling revenues, the company pushed hard at net services and platform interoperability. Products such as eDirectory and GroupWise were made multi-platform.

In October of 2000, Novell released a new product, dubbed DirXML, which was designed to synchronize data, often user information, between disparate directory and database systems. This product leveraged the speed and functionality of eDirectory to store information, and would later become the Novell Identity Manager product and form the foundation of a core product set within Novell. Novell Identity Manager (aka IDM) is Novell's implementation of Identity Management software

In July 2001, Novell acquired the consulting company Cambridge Technology Partners, to expand offerings into services. Novell Inc ( is a global Software Corporation based in the United States specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Novell felt that the ability to offer solutions (a combination of software and services) was key to satisfying customer demand. This change was strongly resisted within the firm’s software development culture as well as the finance organization which recommended against the merger. The CEO of CTP, Jack Messman, engineered the merger using his position as a board member of Novell since its inception. He soon became CEO of Novell as well. He then hired back Chris Stone as Vice Chairman/Office of the CEO to set the course for Novell's strategy into Open Source and Enterprise Linux.

In July 2002, Novell acquired SilverStream Software, a leader in Web services-oriented application development, but a laggard in the marketplace. The business area called Novell exteNd contains XML and Web Service tools based on J2EE. Novell exteNd, formerly known as SilverStream was a web application development suite from Novell that was discontinued in 2005 Don't change "Extensible" A Web service (also Web Service) is defined by the W3C as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction Java Platform Enterprise Edition or Java EE is a widely used platform for server programming in the Java programming language

Linux for Business

In August 2003, Novell acquired Ximian, a developer of open source Linux applications (Evolution, Red Carpet and Mono). Ximian was a company that provided Free software desktop applications for Linux and Unix based on the GNOME platform Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks Evolution or Novell Evolution (formerly Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell 's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official Personal information Red Carpet is a software management tool for Linux that was developed as part of the Ximian desktop Mono is a project led by Novell (formerly by Ximian) to create an Ecma standard compliant. This acquisition signaled Novell’s plans to move its collective product set onto a Linux kernel. Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like Operating systems These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and

In November 2003, Novell acquired SUSE, a developer of a leading Linux distribution, which led to a major shift of power in Linux distributions. SUSE (ˈsuːsə German ˈzuːzə is a major retail Operating system, produced worldwide and supported by Novell Inc A Linux distribution (also called GNU/Linux by distributions such as Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Mandriva and IBM also began to distribute Linux, and invested $50 million to show support of the SUSE acquisition. International Business Machines Corporation abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue", is a multinational Computer Technology Within the openSUSE project, Novell continues to develop SUSE Linux as base for its business products. SUSE Linux distributions openSUSE, (ˌoʊpɛnˈsuːzə is a general purpose Operating system developed by the OpenSUSE Project. SUSE Linux 10. 3 is available as Open Source only-Version (OSS Edition), which is freely downloadable and not a limited evaluation product. It is also available as boxed retail product with formal support.

In the summer of 2003, Novell released “Novell Enterprise Linux Services” (NELS), which ported some of the services traditionally associated with NetWare to SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server (SLES) version 8. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market

In November 2004, Novell released the Linux-based enterprise desktop Novell Linux Desktop v9. SUSE Linux distributions SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ( SLED) formerly Novell Linux Desktop, is a desktop -oriented Operating system supplied This product was based on Ximian Desktop and SUSE Linux Professional 9. 1. This was Novell’s first attempt to get into the enterprise desktop market.

The successor product to NetWare, Open Enterprise Server, was released in March of 2005. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc SUSE Linux distributions Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES is the successor product to Novell Inc OES offers all the services previously hosted by NetWare v6. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc 5, and added the choice of delivering those services using either a NetWare v6. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc 5 or SUSE Linux Enterprise Server v9 kernel. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market The release was aimed to persuade NetWare customers to move to Linux. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc

Stagnancy

From 2003 through 2005 Novell released many products across its portfolio, with the intention of arresting falling market share and to move away from dependencies on other Novell products, but the launches were not as successful as Novell had hoped for. In late 2004, Chris Stone left the company after an apparent control issue with then Chairman Jack Messman [2]. In an effort to cut costs, Novell announced a round of layoffs in late 2005. While revenue from its Linux business continued to grow, the growth was not fast enough to contain the fall in NetWare revenue. NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc This meant that while the company’s revenue was not falling rapidly, it was not growing either. Lack of clear direction or effective management meant that Novell took longer than expected to complete its restructuring.

In June 2006, chief executive Jack Messman and chief finance officer Joseph Tibbetts were fired, with Ronald Hovsepian, Novell’s president and chief operating officer, appointed chief executive, and Dana Russell, vice-president of finance and corporate controller, appointed interim CFO. Ronald W Hovsepian or Ron Hovsepian, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novell, Inc

Recent Developments

In April 2006, Novell acquired e-Security, Inc. , a leading provider in the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) space and developer of the Sentinel Security Event Manager. A Security Event Manager (SEM is a computerized tool used on enterprise data networks to centralize the storage and interpretation of logs or events generated by other software running In May 2006, it sold its consulting subsidiary Celerant Consulting to focus on its five core products portfolios: Data Center, Security and Identity Management, Resource Management, Desktop and Workgroup solutions.

The Data Center portfolio is based around SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), with accompanying virtualization, clustering, and security technologies. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market

The Desktop portfolio is similarly based around SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), along with related offerings for thin client devices and point of service (POS) devices. SUSE Linux distributions SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ( SLED) formerly Novell Linux Desktop, is a desktop -oriented Operating system supplied

The Workgroup portfolio provides a cross-platform and mixed-source suite of applications for office productivity such as Open Enterprise Server, GroupWise, OpenOffice, and Novell Storage Manager. SUSE Linux distributions Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES is the successor product to Novell Inc GroupWise is a Cross-platform Collaborative software product from Novell Inc OpenOfficeorg ( OOo or OOo) is a free Cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer

The Security and Identity Management portfolio provides a suite of products that leverage identity information stored and managed with Novell Identity Manager to manage access to networks, systems, and information. Novell Identity Manager (aka IDM) is Novell's implementation of Identity Management software Products include:

The Resource Management portfolio is primarily based around the ZENworks toolset, which provides application and patch management for servers, desktops, and handheld devices and asset management for Windows and Linux. Novell ZENworks, a suite of Software products developed and maintained by Novell Inc

Novell are founding members of the Open Invention Network, a group of companies that acquires patents, with the aim to protect free and open source software against the threat of patent infringement cases. The Open Invention Network (OIN is a company that acquires Patents and licenses them Royalty free to entities which in turn agree not to assert their

Your Linux is Ready

In August 2006 Novell released the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 (SLE 10) series of products. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server was the first enterprise class Linux server to offer virtualization based on the Xen hypervisor. Xen is a virtual machine monitor for IA-32, X86, X86-64, IA-64 and PowerPC 970 architectures SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (popularly known as SLED) featured a new user-friendly GUI and XGL-based 3D display capabilities. Xgl is an X server architecture designed to take advantage of modern graphics cards via their OpenGL drivers layered The release of SLE 10 was marketed with the phrase 'Your Linux is Ready', meant to convey that Novell’s Linux offerings were ready for the enterprise. In late September 2006 Novell announced a real time version of SLES called SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time (SLERT) based on technology from Concurrent Computer Corporation.

The future growth of Novell is largely dependent on how successful the SLE 10 products are in the market place.

Agreement with Microsoft

On 2006-11-02, Novell and Microsoft announced a joint patent agreement to cover their respective products. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1570 - A Tidal wave in the North Sea devastates the coast from Holland to Jutland, killing more than 1000 Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer [3][4] They also promised to work more closely together, in order to improve their software’s ability to work with other software, setting up a joint research facility to do this. Leaders from both companies purportedly hope this will lead to better compatibility between Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.org and better virtualization techniques. Microsoft Office is a set of interrelated desktop applications servers and services collectively referred to as an Office suite, for the Microsoft Windows and OpenOfficeorg ( OOo or OOo) is a free Cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said of the deal, “This set of agreements will really help bridge the divide between open-source and proprietary source software. Steve Anthony Ballmer (born March 24 1956 is an American Businessman. ”[5]

The deal involves upfront payment of $348 million from Microsoft to Novell for patent cooperation and SLES subscription. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market Novell will pay around $40 million to Microsoft over 5 years. [6]

One of the first results of this partnership was that Novell adapted the OpenXML/ODF Translator for use in OpenOffice.org. OpenOfficeorg ( OOo or OOo) is a free Cross-platform office application suite available for a number of different computer [7]

Initial reaction from members of the FOSS community over the patent protection was mostly critical, with expressions of concern that Novell had “sold out” and of doubt that the GPL would allow distribution of code, including the Linux kernel, under this exclusive agreement. Free and open source software, also F/OSS, FOSS, or FLOSS (for Free/Libre/Open Source Software) is software which is liberally licensed [8][9][10]

In a letter to the FOSS development community on November 9, Bradley M. Kuhn, CTO of the Software Freedom Law Center described the agreement as “worse than useless. Events 694 - Egica, a king of the Visigoths of Hispania, accuses Jews of aiding Muslims sentencing all Bradley M Kuhn (born in 1973 is a Free software activist from the United States. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC is an organization that provides legal representation and related services to protectand advance Free software / Open source ”[11] In a separate development the chairman of the SFLC, Eben Moglen, reported that Novell had offered cooperation with the SFLC to permit a confidential audit to determine the compliance of the agreement with the GPL (version 2). The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC is an organization that provides legal representation and related services to protectand advance Free software / Open source Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, [12] Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, said in November that changes coming with the version 3 of the GPL will preclude such deals. Richard Matthew Stallman (born March 16 1953 often abbreviated " rms " is an American software freedom activist The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement [13] When the final revision of the third version of the GPL license was decided, the deal between Microsoft and Novell was grandfathered in. A new clause will let companies like Novell distribute GPLv3 software even if they have made such patent partnerships in the past, as long as the partnership deal was made before March 28, 2007. Events 37 - Roman Emperor Caligula accepts the titles of the Principate, entitled to him by the Senate. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century.

On November 12, the Samba team expressed strong disapproval of Novell’s announcements on November 2 and asked Novell to reconsider. Events 764 - Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days Samba is a Free software re-implementation of SMB/CIFS networking protocol, originally developed by Australian Andrew Tridgell [14] The Samba team includes an employee of Novell, Jeremy Allison, who confirmed in a comment on Slashdot that the statement was agreed on by all members of the team,[15] and later quit his job at Novell in protest. Jeremy Allison is a Computer programmer famous for his contributions to the Free software community notably to Samba, a re-implementation of Slashdot, often abbreviated as /, is a technology-related news Website owned by SourceForge Inc [16]

In early February 2007, Reuters reported that the Free Software Foundation had announced that it was reviewing Novell’s right to sell Linux versions, and even may ban Novell from selling Linux, because of an agreement. The Free Software Foundation ( FSF) is a Non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the Free software movement [17] However Eben Moglen later said that he was quoted out of context. Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, [18] He was explaining that GPL version 3 will be designed to block similar deals in the future. Currently, Novell is not violating the GPL version 2, under which most of the software in a Linux distribution is licensed. [19] Almost all FSF software will transition to the new license, but it is unclear how many other projects (such as the Linux kernel) will adopt it. Linux is an operating system kernel used by a family of Unix-like Operating systems These are popularly termed Linux operating systems and [20]

On May 14, 2007, Microsoft licensing chief Horacio Gutierrez said on Fortune that Linux and associated free software violated 235 patents owned by Microsoft. Events 1264 - Battle of Lewes: Henry III of England is captured in France making Simon de Montfort the Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Fortune is a Global Business Magazine published by Time Inc's Fortune|Money Group Linux (commonly pronounced ˈlɪnəks [21] Some thought that Microsoft wanted to make other open-source software vendors follow Novell’s lead. [22] However, this move prompted a comment on ZDNet, by Mary Jo Foley, that this "ended any illusion that Microsoft planned to try to build bridges with the open-source community. In 1991 Ziff Davis Publishing Company brought together a small diverse set of online forums and information services (most notably "PC MagNet" under the name "[23]

On October 2007, IP Innovation LLC, a company specialized in patent enforcement, filed a suit for patent infringement against Red Hat and Novell. In Computing, Red Hat Inc ( is a company dedicated to Free and open source software, and a major Linux distribution vendor [24][25][26] However, IP Innovation LLC is a subsidiary of a company that was a accused of being a patent troll,[27] there have also been accusations [24][25] of a strong connection between this company and Microsoft. Patent troll is a pejorative term used for a person or company that enforces its Patents against one or more alleged infringers in a manner considered unduly

See also: Software patents and free software

Support Ecosystem

Novell has a wide array of web-based and phone-based support options for its customers. Opposition to Software patents is widespread in the Free software community. The Novell support website [3] was named one of the “Ten Best Web Support Sites” in [2003] by the Association of Support Professionals (ASP). [4] In [2003], Novell received an Outstanding Website Award in the WebAward Competition [5] for their Cool Solutions website with a searchable database of advice, tools and problem fixes submitted by users from all over the world.

Novell also hosts support forums [6] covering all of their products including SUSE Linux Enterprise, GroupWise, ZENworks and NetWare. SUSE (ˈsuːsə German ˈzuːzə is a major retail Operating system, produced worldwide and supported by Novell Inc GroupWise is a Cross-platform Collaborative software product from Novell Inc Novell ZENworks, a suite of Software products developed and maintained by Novell Inc NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc Novell offers users both HTTP and NNTP access to the support forums and a search option [7]. Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP) is a Communications protocol for the transfer of information on the Internet. The Network News Transfer Protocol or NNTP is an Internet application protocol used primarily for reading Whilst Novell encourages the use of these forums, it does not officially monitor these forums. The forums are maintained by SysOps [8] that have a demonstrated competency with the various products and volunteer their time to try and help the wider community.

Novell maintains a number of wikis [9] with up-to-date information on a number of its products. For instance, as new NetWare service packs are released the NetWare wiki [10] is updated with tips and known issues with the service packs. In some cases, the service packs themselves will have their own wiki with information added from feedback provided in the support forums.

Acquisitions

Certification

Novell is one of the first computer companies to provide certification to its products. Ximian was a company that provided Free software desktop applications for Linux and Unix based on the GNOME platform SUSE (ˈsuːsə German ˈzuːzə is a major retail Operating system, produced worldwide and supported by Novell Inc PlateSpin is a subsidiary of Novell headquartered in Toronto, Canada. They include:

Products

Criticism

In November of 2006, the Microsoft and Novell software corporations announced a controversial partnership involving, among other things, patent protection for some customers of Novell under certain conditions. For other uses of the CNA term please see the disambiguation page Certified Novell Engineer ( CNE) is a certification which is designed to show that an individual possesses in-depth knowledge and skills related to administration and troubleshooting Access Manager is access management product from Novell Inc, successor to the iChain product Novell eDirectory (formerly called Novell Directory Services, NDS) is an X Evolution or Novell Evolution (formerly Ximian Evolution, prior to Novell 's 2003 acquisition of Ximian) is the official Personal information GroupWise is a Cross-platform Collaborative software product from Novell Inc Novell Identity Manager (aka IDM) is Novell's implementation of Identity Management software Novell NetMail is an ISP -grade E-Mail package by Novell Inc It is designed to deliver scalable messaging and calendaring services using Internet-standard NetWare is a Network operating system developed by Novell Inc SUSE Linux distributions Novell Open Enterprise Server (OES is the successor product to Novell Inc Novell ZENworks, a suite of Software products developed and maintained by Novell Inc SUSE Linux Enterprise Server ( SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market SUSE Linux distributions SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop ( SLED) formerly Novell Linux Desktop, is a desktop -oriented Operating system supplied Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational Computer technology Corporation, which rose to dominate the Home computer [28] See above: Novell's patent agreement with Microsoft

References

  1. ^ a b c NOVL Stock Report. Novell Inc ( is a global Software Corporation based in the United States specializing in enterprise operating systems such as SUSE Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar Inc ( is an investment research company based in Chicago, Illinois, USA. Retrieved on 2006-07-05. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England.
  2. ^ a b c NOVL: Company Overview. Reuters. This article is primarily about Reuters prior to its 2008 merger with Thomson Retrieved on 2006-07-05. Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 1295 - Scotland and France form an alliance the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England.
  3. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2006/nov06/11-02MSNovellPR.mspx
  4. ^ Steve Ballmer: Microsoft and Novell Collaboration Announcement
  5. ^ Microsoft makes Linux pact with Novell - CNET News.com
  6. ^ Novell gets $348 million from Microsoft
  7. ^ http://download.novell.com/SummaryFree.jsp?buildid=ESrjfdE4U58%7E
  8. ^ Groklaw - Novell Sells Out
  9. ^ Groklaw - The Morning After - Reactions to Novell-MS - Updated 2xs
  10. ^ Various responses to Microsoft/Novell [LWN.net]
  11. ^ Bradley M. Kuhn's Letter to the FOSS Development Community Regarding Microsoft's Patent Promise - Software Freedom Law Center
  12. ^ Novell opens legal books to GPL pundits - vnunet.com
  13. ^ GPLv3 - Transcript of Richard Stallman from the fifth international GPLv3 conference, Tokyo, Japan; 2006-11-21
  14. ^ Samba Team Asks Novell to Reconsider
  15. ^ Samba Team Urges Novell To Reconsider
  16. ^ Groklaw - Jeremy Allison Has Resigned from Novell to Protest MS Patent Deal
  17. ^ [1] see quote from Eben Moglen, the Foundation’s general counsel : “The community of people wants to do anything they can to interfere with this deal and all deals like it. Eben Moglen is a professor of law and legal history at Columbia University, and is the founder Director-Counsel and Chairman of Software Freedom Law Center, They have every reason to be deeply concerned that this is the beginning of a significant patent aggression by Microsoft”.
  18. ^ http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6837365670.html Linux-Watch
  19. ^ Linux.com :: Is Novell losing Linux? No, it's just bad reporting
  20. ^ "Kernel developers declare GPLv3 dangerous", Linux.com, 2006-09-22. Linuxcom is the name of a site owned by SourceForge Inc (formerly VA Software and dedicated to providing news and services to the free and open source software community Year 2006 ( MMVI) was a Common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. Events 66 - Emperor Nero creates the Legion I Italica. 1236 - The Lithuanians Retrieved on 2007-03-26. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1026 - Pope John XIX crowns Conrad II as Holy Roman Emperor.  
  21. ^ Microsoft claims software like Linux violates its patents - May 28, 2007
  22. ^ Microsoft inks more Novell-like patent-infringement deals | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
  23. ^ GPLv3 the impetus for Microsoft’s latest Linux attack campaign | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com
  24. ^ a b Berlind, David (2007-10-11). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed First patent suit against Linux has a Kevin Bacon-esque connection to Microsoft. zdnet. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.  “LLC is a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation. . . This past July Acacia hired Jonathan Taub away from his job as Director, Strategic Alliances for the Mobile and Embedded Devices (MED) division at Microsoft and then, just last week, it hired Brad Brunell away from his job at Microsoft where, among other jobs, he served as General Manager, Intellectual Property Licensing. ”
  25. ^ a b Patent Infringement Lawsuit Filed Against Red Hat & Novell – Just Like Ballmer Predicted. groklaw (2007-10-11). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1138 - A massive earthquake struck Aleppo, Syria. 1531 - Huldrych Zwingli is killed Retrieved on 2007-10-12. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
  26. ^ The U. S. patent 5,072,412 concerns the desktop User Interface, see here
  27. ^ A Deeper Look at Acacia (2007-08-13). Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 3114 BC - According to the Lounsbury correlation the start of the Maya calendar. Retrieved on 2007-10-12. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 539 BC - The army of Cyrus the Great of Persia takes Babylon.
  28. ^ Ars Technica article on the Microsoft-Novell patent deal.

See also

External links

SUSE Linux (ˈsuːsə is a major Operating system. The developer rights are owned by Novell Inc SUSE Linux distributions openSUSE, (ˌoʊpɛnˈsuːzə is a general purpose Operating system developed by the OpenSUSE Project. SCO v Novell is a lawsuit brought by the SCO Group against Novell. Open source is a development methodology which offers practical accessibility to a product's source (goods and knowledge
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