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

To: vinod Khurana who wrote (19026)	12/10/1997 4:43:00 PM
From: Frederick Smart	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Vinod: If you and others on this thread ask - eg. the "free copies" - I strongly think you will receive. Novell is opening up and breaking down old barriers. Here in Chicago I can say they are much more aggressive than ever before - a new kick in the pants, perhaps, but I think the greater story is that they really have the competitive edge with NDS, BoarderManager, Managewise, their plans with Java, Netware 5.0, etc. They've had great press today from Internet World in NY - FastCache increases ISP server performance 700%; partnershipping with Oracle on a new Internet and data sharing applications, etc. I met today with the head of IS at a leading NT-friendly exchange. They have Netware in the background - aiming to migrate off in 12 months. After I walked through, NDS for NT, BoarderManager and all the Java-related stuff Novell is coming out with in ver. 5.0, I can say these guys were very intrigued. Point for point they acknowledged many of the shortcomings of NT: headaches in administration, security, scalability, etc. - but the value of having one common application platform is still extremely compelling. Now that they are into sorting out all the extra costs and layers of supporting this "thick-client" strategy the opportunity is there to get them to integrate NDS - NOW - BoarderManager as they learn more about Novell's pure-Java-on-the server platform in 5.0. Migrations to NT 4.0 have been going on for only the past 1 1/2 years and in every case I can follow - Netware is still humming along in the background even as the complexity and cost of administrating these networks has mushroomed . Novell is hitting all these accounts - major exchanges and brokerage firms with some very compelling reasons to stay the course. As for Java - it's definitely a high priority everywhere. Even these executives had to admit they are not at all sure which way things will fall - toward Sun or MS. You know where I stand on this and Novell is just beginning to hit the Java radar screen for many companies. Look forward to following your progress with your own experience. Hey, I still need an acknowledgement back on Ford and MCI. Good Luck!

To: vinod Khurana who wrote (19026)	12/12/1997 1:19:00 AM
From: Scott C. Lemon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Hello vinod, I am writing this, in response to your plea, as someone who will try to correct this specific situation. And I believe that I can put together the resources to do so. > Paul, I agree that overtime, performance issues regarding JAVA apps > will improve. That's the beauty of technology...it only gets > better. I also agree with this. I think that developers will start to better understand the benefits of CORBA, and distributed objects, and will start to better understand how to distribute processing in a networked environment. I believe that this, coupled with improvements in the JVMs, will make Java a viable and attractive solution. (P.S. So as not to mislead investors here, we should really point out that the performance issues that you are seeing have nothing to do with Java, the programming language, but rather with the Java Virtual Machines that are currently available. Companies that produce products or technologies to improve this area (the JVM) are the ones to watch!) > I have sent in my request to NOVL for a beta copy of their NetWare > 5.0. Can't wait to get hold of it and try it out on our network. I look forward to hearing your comments! I'm already starting to work with the next release and I'm truely looking forward to the release of NetWare 5! > No matter what, I still consider myself one of those NOVL > loyalists. Question is, how many more like me are there out there > ?....hopefully enough to push this stock thru the roof once and for > all. Ah, there are more than you think. And more of them are starting to speak up! ;-) > Regardless of my like for NetWare, this company's (which is the 2nd > or 3rd largest NetWare shop in Canada) aim is to migrate towards > NT. This is where I would like to answer your plea! Although my Canadian contacts indicate that the biggest NetWare shops are now all NetWare v4 sites, I am very interested in doing my best to assist in your plight. I know that you are somewhat secretive about your identity (via e-mail) and your company, but if you would like to e-mail me with the information I would be glad to immediately begin to organize a better effort with your company. > Marketing at Novell Canada has to one way or another entice this > company to migrate to NetWare 5.0 if they don't want to see the > 400+ odd NetWare 3.11 servers move to NT which is bound to > happen by the year 2000 (since there is no Y2K patch available). > Novell still has time. I have seen many a company start to step in this direction, and so I again offer to personally take up the challenge and try to address your issues. > I wish they would send me enough NetWare 4.x liceneses so that I > can distribute them to the appropriate departments free of charge. > Get them hooked to NetWare 4.x and hopefully everything else will > follow. Although many shareholders might not agree with your idea of giving away free software, I would be glad to work with you and your company to look at what would be necessary to get a good pilot going and see what we could do! > I don't mind getting a copy of Managewise either so that we can > monitor the servers over the WAN and show the Telecom department > that it is just as good as HP's OpenView ?. Again, I am here offering to help. Please drop me an e-mail and I will immediately get the ball rolling! I look forward to hearing from you! > V.K > > P.S If this sounds like a plea, it is. I support NOVL and do hope > they succeed even though I call this stock the mother of all dogs. > After all, that's how it has been behaving over the last three > years. And I would like to do what I can! Scott C. Lemon