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

To: Pruguy who wrote (22848)	6/22/1998 11:10:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 42771

LanTimes June 22 1998 From the Opinion Column No fight in this battle By Jeremiah Caron he Novell NetWare 5.0 vs. Microsoft Windows NT 5.0 battle that's supposedly about to get underway is absolutely nothing of the sort. I submit that although there is certainly tons of server software money on the table, NetWare and NT are likely to play nice and earn their own stacks. The following is a new take on what's as old a maxim as maxims get in the network/IS world: NetWare is the file and print server of choice--it's big, it's burly, it's bad, and it's, well, kind of dim--what we gently refer to as a slow learner. NT Server, conversely, is for applications processing. It's quick and nimble and also pretty good at math. It wears glasses. But it's dainty, a tad on the fey side. So it is, and so it shall be for the foreseeable future. Market analysts fall all over themselves telling us in the press about the NT surge: It's moving boxes far more quickly than NetWare and, for sure, Unix. In Keystone Kops fashion, the Microsoft marketing machine falls all over the already fallen-over analysts to tell us the same thing. Time and time again, however, my conversations with networking professionals reveal that NT cannot really be gaining its business at NetWare's expense. This is not to dispute the numbers (heavens no!). Distributed applications processing is very "in" now, and so middle tiers of server technology are required in increasing numbers. NT is getting the lion's share of that. But the "Buy NT" voices bellowing from on high have stopped for now. The IS managers I have talked to recently all put on hold any plans they may have had to rip out NetWare, either departmentally or companywide. Why? No compelling technological reason. So why are myriad Web sites and other trade rags still on this "NetWare vs. NT" nonsense? Well, the musclehead got some sensitivity training. NetWare 5.0 runs IP natively (a very politically correct thing to do), it offers memory protection, and it provides a supposedly powerful Java virtual machine to support Java-based server applications. OK, I can't name one either, but it does put NetWare in a position the company could never even think of before: supporting applications and not just opening and closing files as fast as all get-out. Meanwhile, Windows NT 5.0 (I feel like I've been writing about it for my entire 12-year professional technology career) is getting shot up with a whole bunch of stuff designed to make it more, uh, "robust." Think of Rocky Balboa slugging down those raw eggs in Philly. Think of NT juiced on Active Directory steroids. But it's all posturing, on both sides. Dear Novell: We are a very long way from Java-based networked applications nirvana. In the meantime, you better upgrade a lot of people to 5.0 to keep the revenue flowing. Dear Microsoft: NT 5.0 better be 100 percent, absolutely perfect when it ships, or nobody is going to buy it. In fact, nobody may buy it anyway until it proves itself on the shop floor. If you want to see a real fight, you're better off going to the local bar and pouring beer on the pool table

To: Pruguy who wrote (22848)	6/22/1998 11:12:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 42771

LanTimes June 22 1998 From News Brief Getting down to basics By P.J. Connoly ovell's attempts to position NetWare 5.0 as a Java application server gained more credibility last month when it completed the acquisition of HiTecSoft Corp.'s NetBasic 7.0 for Java. NetBasic 7.0 is a component-based scripting language that lets developers use Java and Beans components on the server without the overhead associated with Java code. NetBasic 7.0 for Java does this through its UCS (Universal Component System), which also lets developers use a variety of languages for development, including Basic, JavaScript, Perl, REXX, and Python. On its product Web site HiTecSoft claims to offer a "kinder, gentler syntax" than Java. NetBasic 7.0 could clear the way for growth of NetWare as a platform for Web services by making it easier to access NetWare-based resources. Developers can design dynamic HTML pages or intranet applications that access NetWare boxes using the native APIs to take advantage of NetWare's performance. NetBasic 7.0 interfaces with the Novonyx Fast Track Web server, yet it is compatible with Microsoft Visual Basic Script. It helps that NetBasic has a long history with Novell: The company estimates that more than a million copies of NetBasic 6.0 have been distributed as part of the standard IntranetWare bundle. Although few sites have embraced NetBasic, the Java enhancements in version 7.0 may change that if NetWare 5.0 succeeds as a Web server platform. Contact HiTecSoft at (602) 970-1025, fax (602) 970-6623; www.hitecsoft.com.