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

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21483)	3/31/1998 9:33:00 AM
From: SirAlexx	Respond to of 42771

ToySoldier; that was a great summary of the reasons to be long NOVL!

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21483)	3/31/1998 2:27:00 PM
From: Bob Howarth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

NT 4 is not Y2K compliant? Could you be more specific? Thanks.

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21483)	3/31/1998 7:47:00 PM
From: Jim McCormack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Toy Soldier - A re post for on Forced Y2K Upgrades.... If you force people to upgrade to gain compliance you will be sued by the same law firms who sue for shareholder class action law suits.... That is not a very good strategy and it will not work. I can't see any enthusiasm for upgrading existing file and print services from Y2K compliant software - Novell is dealing with it's own success - the 4.11 and 3.12 solution are just too good - no need to upgrade. I see the 5.0 release as an instant replay of the 4.X - very weak.... Meantime things look grim.... We will see when earnings come out.... Jim To: Joe Antol (20244 ) From: Jim McCormack Monday, Feb 23 1998 9:20PM EST Reply # of 21487 Year 2000 and Novell - The Lighter Side.... Below is a preview of what lies ahead for Novell. We debated the Year 2000 issue late last year in great detail. Novell had promised that they would release patches for Netware to bring it into compliance. They did so only for 3.12 and 4.11 leaving 3.11 and 4.10 users out in the cold. They have to upgrade to achieve compliance. That's a gun to folks head - That will lead to suits like the one against Symantec referenced below. Food for thought - Leave it to the lawyers! Man this year 2000 stuff is going to be fun! Hey I didn't say it made sense - did I? I guess this means if we own any old non Y2k software we get free upgrades to the new compliant versions if the lawyers win this battle. Gosh - I don't know who to root for - I got lots of old stuff. Jim Symantec Responds to Y2K Lawsuit By Darryl K. Taft Cupertino, Calif. 7:20 p.m. EST Mon., Feb. 23, 1998 .............. Symantec Corp. responded to the class action lawsuit filed against the company regarding Year 2000 issues by saying that its latest version of its Norton Antivirus software is a significant upgrade. Last week, the law firm of Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP filed suit against Symantec claiming Year 2000 defects in the company's Norton Antivirus software. The suit, filed in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Santa Clara, alleges breach of implied warranty and related claims in connection with allegedly defective computer software developed and sold by Symantec. According to the suit, the defects concern the inability of the Norton Antivirus software -- prior to Version 4.0, which was introduced in September 1997 -- to recognize and process dates starting in the year 2000. In contrast to many other software companies, which are correcting Year 2000 problems and providing those corrections free of charge to their customers, the suit alleges that Symantec is improperly requiring customers to pay fees to purchase upgrades from earlier versions to Version 4.0 in order to remedy the defect. However, Symantec, which is still reviewing the lawsuit, said the new features and innovations in Norton Antivirus 4.0 command a premium. "We've added significant new capabilities (to Norton Antivirus 4.0) including our BloodHound technology, the ability to automatically update the technology over the Internet and many other new features," said Enrique Salem, Symantec vice president and chief technical officer. "So this is a significant new upgrade to the product." Salem added that Symantec's "corporate customers who are spending time thinking about this Year 2000 issue, the ones that have purchased maintenance agreements with Symantec, are entitled to receive this new version of the product."

To: ToySoldier who wrote (21483)	3/31/1998 8:36:00 PM
From: Jim McCormack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Toy Soldier - You Read the Report yet? Unless you read something I didn't the Gartner Report had Zero to do with NT being compliant - it said and I quote: " We advise caution in implementing NT Server v.5.0 due to the number of new functions and the lack of available skills for NT Server v.5.0, but mainly because of the conflict of staff resources with those needed to prepare for 2000" They never say anything in the report about NT 4.0 other then the lines of code that make up the Core... Where is all this NT 4.0 is not compliant coming from? NT has been Compliant since first release. You are in the business... who told you this? You gotta be kidding - NT not compliant - Huh! Give me a link that says NT 4.0 is not compliant. The links you gave indicate Microsoft states "All 32 bit products are" I'll race you - I get one that says it is conclusively and you get one that says it ain't.... Jim Gartner Report Windows NT v.5.0 vs. Year 2000: Stop Where You Are February 24, 1998 Distributed Computing Platform (DCP) Research Note Strategic Planning E. Thompson Windows NT v.5.0 vs. Year 2000: Stop Where You Are Given the contingencies required for 2000, we advise users to avoid adoption of Windows NT version 5.0 until mid-2000. Core Topic Hardware & Operating Systems: Windows NT-Based Executive and deployment Issues Key Issue How will users acquire, manage and dispose of Windows NT-related assets and know they have the best deal? Strategic Planning Assumptions Windows NT version 5.0 will become generally available in 2Q99 (0.7 probability).Windows NT version 5.0 Service Pack Release 1 will be delivered in 4Q99 (0.7 probability). Windows NT version 5.0 Service Pack Release 2 will be delivered in 1H2000 (0.7probability). Windows NT version 5.0 and the year 2000 crisis will provide a conflict of interests in 1999. As beta testing progresses, the expectations for NT v.5.0 are being raised by both Microsoft and the press. Many IT organizations are defining desktop and server infrastructure projects for 1998/1999 with NT v.5.0 as an integral component. We advise caution in implementing NT Server v.5.0 due to the number of new functions and the lack of available skills for NT Server v.5.0, but mainly because of the conflict of staff resources with those needed to prepare for 2000. Many organizations have defined year 2000 policies that mandate no new applications and infrastructure deployments in the six months before and after midnight on December 31, 1999. The objective is clearly to stabilize the operational environment to better handle expected but unidentified additional year 2000 complications. Although the objective will not always be workable, as essential modifications to the infrastructure are required, the basic tenet of the policy is in direct conflict with the deployment of a new desktop, NOS and application server OS. NT Server v.5.0 is set to deliver more than 30 million lines of code, up from 8 million in the core of v.4.0 and 5 million in v.3.5.1 (see Note 1). Although Microsoft's testing procedures are maturing and beta testing is more extensive - 6,000 organizations were involved in Beta 1 and at least 200,000 users will be involved in Beta 2 - we do not expect the NT v.5.0 launch release to be trouble free. Therefore, even Type A users should experiment with NT v.5.0 but wait until the first service pack has been proved to be stable before widespread deployment. We anticipate that NT v.5.0 Service Pack Release 1 will be delivered in 4Q99 (0.7 probability). Given the year 2000 policy objectives stated above and the implementation time scales of six to nine months required for large organizations to upgrade OSs, this provides a clear conflict of resource interests for the IT organization. Note 1 Lines of Code in Versions of NT Server (Estimates) Core NT v.3.51 (no IIS): 5 million NT v.3.51 + IIS: 8 million Core NT v.4.0: 8 million NT v.4.0 w/bundled IIS: 12 million NT v.4.0 EE (IIS, MQS, TS): 16 million NT v.5 Beta 1: 27 million NT v.5 Beta 2: 30 million Final NT v.5 Gold: 31 million For more-conservative user organizations, we advise waiting until Service Pack Release 2 is proved stable. NT Server v.5.0 Service Pack Release 2 will be delivered in 1H2000 (0.7 probability). In organizations with significant year 2000 exposure or with conservative infrastructure goals, the position is even clearer: wait until after 2000 and until any remaining year 2000 problems (if any) have been identified. This decision provides three additional benefits: the IT organization gains an extended evaluation period for NT v.5.0; the option of skipping NT Server v.5.0 and waiting for the release of v.5.x, which should be more tenable; and internal support skills for the new OS can be developed.