Novell to acquire SuSE Linux

dahamsta

Novell to acquire SuSE Linux
Last modified: November 4, 2003, 5:30 AM PST
By Stephen Shankland
Staff Writer, CNET News.com

just in Longtime Microsoft foe Novell has signed an agreement to acquire SuSE Linux for $210 million in cash, while IBM, the most powerful backer of the open-source operating system, will take a $50 million investment in Novell, the companies said Tuesday.

The move could boost the fortunes of SuSE, the No. 2 seller of Linux, increase the competitive pressure on No. 1 Red Hat, and provides a new direction for Novell's ongoing rivalry with Microsoft.

The move is the second Linux acquisition for the Provo, Utah-based company, which bought desktop Linux software specialist Ximian in August. Though Ximian gave Novell software for using Linux on desktop computers, SuSE is strongest with software for Linux on servers, the networked machines that handle chores such as hosting Web sites and routing e-mail.

Red Alert

Personally I think it'll be excellent - with RedHat saying that there'll be no more desktop / standard editions that'll make Suse very attractive for europeans.

Also I think it'll be great 'cos SCO will get a major ass kicking from the Novell/IBM lawyers!

niallb

Novell are just putting their money where their mouth is.
Well done.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33770.html

Today’s acquisition follows Novell's August purchase of Ximian, a developer in Linux server management and desktop products, and further demonstrates Novell's commitment to Linux and the open source development model, the company said.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/33760.html

Red Hat maintenance and support for Red Hat linux 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 and 8.0 will end as of 31st December 2003, and for Red Hat 9 as of 30th April 2004. "Red Hat does not plan to release another product in the Red Hat Linux line,"

So it's very dead, very soon, and Red Hat is now about Red Hat Enterprise and... Fedora.


The move is a sensible one from the company's point of view because it provides a clear answer to the 'what do we do about the bit that doesn't work' question. It could perhaps have been done a little less brutally, and people who bought RH8 or RH9 both surely have good reason to be sore about how swiftly the support is vapourising (RH8 in particular - a year ago this looked like a product line with a future and a roadmap), but there really was no easy way to do it. A more honest way, probably...

logic1

Merged.

.logic.

secret_squirrel

Must admit to having mixed feelings about Suse/Novell. Its good news for SUSE the company but given Novell's past failures and quite frankly its rather lackluster performance at defending its turf from MS in the past, I cant see it as being particularly good for Suses distro's.

Suse IMHO seemed to have a good idea of where they were going and were really making a go of the various commercial implementations of their distro. And they have (had?) a very good shot at a Desktop Linux now RedHat cleared out of that arena.
Who can tell what will happen now Novell are calling the shots? Im afraid this will turn Suse into another corporate dinosaur.

Much better if IBM had just given the $50m straight to SUSE

Capt'n Midnight

Novell have a long history of Stable Fileservers & networking.
Combining this with Linux could be a winner if they get the marketing / licencing right..

One of the reasons why Novell lost out to Microsoft was the application server apps - I think one or two may be avaibable on Linux

Red Alert

Given SuSE's proven record it can only be good.

On a technical level - Novell's systems speak for themselves. There are many NetWare 4 servers still running and a handful of legacy NetWare 3 systems still around.

Novell's stability seems to be legendary - the only unsatisfactory installation so far is UCD's network and the fault is clearly the buffoons running the network and not Novell. My dad's had nothing but praise about the Netware system in his office.

Bring on Novell - we might even defeat M$.

Capt'n Midnight

I did an NT course a while back - the Instructor had lost his Novell server - he had bought the house next door to use as an office and eventually found it behind some filing cabinets.. (BNC cable)

secret_squirrel

Originally posted by Red Alert
On a technical level - Novell's systems speak for themselves. There are many NetWare 4 servers still running and a handful of legacy NetWare 3 systems still around.

Im not denying netware is a great piece of software, but even there MS have managed to make massive inroads into Novells market share. I can remember when Netware was the only Corporate Network Infrastructure of choice.

And Novells Applications certainly dont live up to Netwares quality - I have the misfortune to use Groupwise (shudder) every day.

I cant remember Novell producing a major innovation for the last 5 years - maybe more.

To me it seems to be taking one of the most innovative Linux Co's and shackling it to a IT dinosaur whose best days are behind it.

And as for Novell getting its marketing right? If they had ever managed that they wouldnt have fallen from the dominant force in networking to the Second string player they are now.

commuterised

I think these days Novell want to be known for more than Netware,
what about the Zenworks suite, Small Buisiness Server and GroupWise. Novell have a lot of very cool products if you'd just take the time to look...

secret_squirrel

as I already mentioned commuterised I work at a groupwise site, and its one of the most bug ridden pieces of software I've ever used - it crashes at the drop of a hat. Now some of that is down to our barely literate tech monkeys but most of it seems to be the product.

We are also a Netware, and Zenworks site - and whilst Netware itself seems bullet proof (although they had problems installing the cluster servers - is that why they call it a clusterf**k? ), Zenworks also seems to lack a certain something.

The point Im making is Suse is on the cutting edge of commercial Linux developement and has now been bought by a company who have demostrated a distinct lack of innovation in recent years. And in my admittedly bitter and twisted opinion when an American company buys a european one, its always the Europeans who are first to go during 'restructuring' - I predict this happening to SUSE sooner rather than later.

Red Alert

Apparently the idea of purchasing Ximian was to replace/integrate Ximian's Red Carpet system into the ZenWorks suite.

Have to admit my assertions were based generally on NetWare. I don't like ZENWorks a lot, my pet hate being NAL.

commuterised

Originally posted by secret_squirrel
as I already mentioned commuterised I work at a groupwise site, and its one of the most bug ridden pieces of software I've ever used - it crashes at the drop of a hat. Now some of that is down to our barely literate tech monkeys but most of it seems to be the product.

I also work at a GroupWise site (and numerous other Novell products)... and have rarely any problems, less in fact that when I worked in MS environments.

but anyway.. lets wait and see what comes out of this. I'm hoping it's good things.