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

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21103)	3/14/1998 2:46:00 PM
From: AJ Lake	Respond to of 42771

Toysoldier: Your thesis may be "right," but Carlos is "correct" in his assertion. When your clients are sold on NT before you walk in the door, it's difficult for any vendor to disregard a ready-made sale in favor of doing what's "right" by selling them NetWare. The irony of the "respected" Gartner Group's study on TCO costs against the backdrop of their pointed recommendation to Herman Miller (Fortune 500 office furniture) that they convert entirely from NetWare to NT is laughable. Novell did too little too late to refute Gartner's recommendation and Herman made the decision. This conversion is well under way and is running into the "I told you so's" from those who knew better. Perhaps Gartner's "study" was based partially on Herman Miller's experience thus far. Think they'll credit Herman for the trouble? In any case, I'm sure this conversion has been a boon to their local economy! I'm sure it was for the Gartner Group. With this kind of able assistance, Microsoft will in fact be denting Novell's large account base in a neighborhood near you. Regards, AJ

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21103)	3/15/1998 1:27:00 PM
From: Carlos Leyva	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Toy Soldier, You have listed all the technical reasons why this is true and Novell probably has a strong, maybe even compelling story to tell, however is the market buying it? If the market is buying it and Novell is starting to due damage with the story from a marketing perspective then it should challenge in this space. However, if the market is not buying it then regardless of the technical merits Novell should move on, concentrate on NDS, concentrate on coexisting, concentrate on significant value add on top of NT etc. The NT freight train is gaining strength regardless of how good it is technically. Microsoft will continue to freeze the market until NT is as capable/superior to the competition. It is doing the same thing with respect to all the Unix vendors, most of which have conceded that NT will dominate the enterprise, it is only a question of when (i.e. NT = MVS in the next five years). Will some companies that drink this juice experience pain? Absolutely. Try running a terabyte Data Warehouse or SAP implementation on NT today. It is an absolute disaster and abortion! Is this slowing down the NT in the enterprise train? Absolutely NOT. Will Unix go away? Absolutely NOT. Will it become increasingly less important. Absolutely. I agree with you on the technical merits, however you are totally underestimating the power of the drones... Carlos