Cheap shot by Microsoft in PC Mag!
I picked up the Sep 1/99 edition of PC Mag and at the front I noticed an ad with the following text:
"I mean, I'm a CNE. Leaving NetWare was a nervous experience for me. But now, every server we have is running on Windows NT. And it's exceeded my expections, especially with file and print, which is critical to us as a law firm. Our print server is handling 30 million pages a year, and we never have to touch it. So I'd say it's been wildly successful."
Eric Schmidt, Director of Information Services, Bricker and Eckler LLP on switching to Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 for Novell Netware
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WHAT?? Eric Schmidt!!?? As many of you know, there is also an Eric Schmidt who is CEO of Novell. Coincidence?? I think not! Imagine what would happen if Novell had an ad where some IT manager who happened to be named William Gates had a testimony touting the conversion from Windows NT to Novell! There would be a major uproar and lawsuits from Microsoft. I hope that Novell keeps the high ground and doesn't react stupidly to this crudeness.
Many of Microsoft's advertising has been bold and innovative but I think Microsoft has sunk to a new low and this only shows that Novell is really a threat with NDS. The way I see it, if Windows 2000 is finalized today, it won't we readily available for a couple of months, that makes it somewhere in the October time frame. Now, which large corporation is going to upgrade to Windows 2000 a couple of months just before the turn of the millenium?? So at the earliest, I think Microsoft will delay Windows 2000 till sometime early next year and by that time, Novell will likely have its next version of NDS available.
Just a side note, Microsoft recently had a challenge which it would have a beta version of Windows 2000 in its network and asked hackers to crash it. Well, no need, because it crashed on its own but according to Microsoft this was due to lightning bringing down the server. Yeah, right.
Ken |
