Salah, thank you.
While the exchange between Joe and I got a little heated, I'm sure there never was any real ill-will on the part of either of us.
While it is technically correct that I am a VAR, in the sense that I am authorized to sell Novell products (as well as being authorized by Microsoft, Netscape, and a few others) that is not really my business. I, and my employees, are primarily network consultants. We work for larger companies doing upgrades, migrations, special projects, and staff supplementation. The vast majority of the work we do is related to Novell products, simply because that is by far the largest installed base among our clients (and that is not changing anytime soon!).
We also work on NT application servers, Netscape server products, email and groupware systems, LANs and WANs, and some Unix. Basically, we'll do whatever a customer asks us to do if we have enough knowledge about it to do a reasonable job, and the price is right.
So, my perspective on Novell and it's products (and competition) come from working with them daily in real-world enterprise environments, not from regurgitating marketing materials. If some of my "pronouncements" sound like marketing "hype" from Novell, it might be because Novell actually does have a pretty good understanding of enterprise networking, and it's products fit real-life requirements pretty well.
I think the next year or two will bear this out. As you've indicated, nothing much is going to happen with the public perception of this company (and probably it's stock) for a while.
Jerry |
