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Technology Stocks : Novell (NOVL) dirt cheap, good buy? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27685)	8/12/1999 2:18:00 PM
From: PJ Strifas	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

I think you are 100% right Paul. This seems to be AOL's trump card in it's Messaging War with MSFT. By going NDS, they are in effect saying that Active Directory is not what we want. Perhaps it's not a total shun of AD because of whatever technological misgivings it will have but it's more a political decision as you state. You are correct in assuming that MSFT has alot to gain by getting people entangled with Active Directory in the way they were forced to develop for the Win32 platform. MSFT can only see the writing on the wall right now...the platform is dying and there is no successor in sight. Enter the "Instant Messanging War" - MSFT knows it's important. This is a smart move by AOL. MSFT's ability to squash "opponents" is diminishing because too many people also know the HISTORY of how MSFT does this. By knowing and understanding the history of how MSFT became such a monopoly, you can choose NOT to repeat it. Seems like AOL did just that.... Also, with the internet, the world's dependance on Windows is lessening. What will take it's place? Perhaps a more uniform "platform" from which we can all create the user environment we need/want instead of it being dictated to us by some monopolistic company. As Fredrick has said so eloquently in the past, it's all about freedom. If Applications Service Providers (ASPs) can allow me access to programs I need/want and deliver them via a directory-enabled "browser", the whole world shifts dynamically. But that's another discussion :) Novell becomes a huge benefactor in this "Messaging War". They get an application (AOL's Instant Messanger which is co-branded by Lotus, Netscape and others) which will become NDS-enabled with digitalme hooks. They get instant access into AOL's 17 million user base for digitalme to shine. Our concerns about Novell getting digitalme into the hands of end-users should be quelled at this point. Anyone can see the dynamic shift from Novell sitting on their hands to Novell leading the way?? Perhaps I'm too much the optimist here but I see this as day of record. This move can only reap rewards in the next 6-12 months. At BrainShare '99, Novell had this demonstation of digitalme. One of the applications it used for this demo was something called Whenever!. This app mimicked ICQ and AOL's Instant Messanger in that it has similar characteristics. I don't think getting Whenever! technology into AOL's Instant Messanger is something that will take too long. In fact, depending on how far along Novell is on the "back-end" digitalme stuff will tell how long before we see client solutions. Instant Messanging is the tip of the iceberg...but a rather nice tip I may say :) Peter J Strifas

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27685)	8/12/1999 2:45:00 PM
From: p friend	Respond to of 42771

"Do I see a digitalme billing system in AOL's ecommerce future?" Could we elaborate on this statement? There is a great deal of potential in this for Novell and for other cyber payment software / service providers. This is going to make an enormous change in the value of and ability to easily transact ecommerce for all internet users.

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27685)	8/12/1999 3:26:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

It is indeed a very smart move. Forced to a corner Case proved to be a very smart man. Hats off to Case: it is not easy to stand up to MSFT and Case, defying all the odds, has been doing just that for sometime now. Schmidt is simply brilliant. The right man, with the right technology, at the right time. If I had any doubts about the feasibility of "Do I see a digitalme billing system in AOL's ecommerce future?" it was because AOL now owns NSCP.. The way it is now NDS will become a standard and FWIW it will take years for MSFT to catch up. (MSFT will just have to seriously come to terms with the idea of technological innovation, that Gates has been promoting recently..) The messaging war is leaving MSFT in the dust. The whole MSFT portal business has never made much sense to me. It lacks direction, strategy and has been plagued by mistakes, technical problems, brownian motion changes of direction, key people leaving, you name it. You can have all the money you want and still loose. Gates himself proved it to others in his younger years.. Back to NOVL I think this is huge, great, fantastic. This confirms to me why I've made a huge personal investment in NOVL. What we see today is a metaphor of how much Schmidt's NOVL can achieve. NOVL should be considered from now on a concept stock. Cheers! QED Victor

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (27685)	8/12/1999 3:33:00 PM
From: ToySoldier	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul, I think you have hit a lot of the assumptions square on. Too many companies have been burned by trusting their great "industry leading ideas/products" on MSFT's proprietary technologies. MSFT has clearly set its reputation in the industry as being a company that cannot be trusted with a Partner's great ideas. AOL has watch the browser, disk compression, messaging, multi-user NT, and countless other great ideas from "so-called" MSFT partners get destroyed by MSFT's dirty plays in the industry. AOL, IBM, NOVL, Oracle, Sun, and many of the other major players know that the only way to stop this MSFT trick is to come together and develop an industry accepted non-MSFT open set of standards. I still predict that MSFT's glory days are ending because all their land-mines in the industry have now been marked and the industry players will now set a path to avoid being damaged by their next trick. They can't be trusted as a partner. We all have seen that. Good observation Paul! Toy