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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22864)	6/23/1998 5:29:00 PM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul: This is not my field (software), but isn't this article (opinion) by John Taschek, sort of like preaching to the choir (Eric Schmidt), and probably 1 year plus late to being relevant here? Would it even make sense for Schmidt to make some sort of deal with the group that left Novell to develop "Wolf Mtn.-like clustering software, come back under some kind of arrangement? Or are all the bridges burned by the past NOVL CEO's? Just curious, as I wouldn't think that Schmidt would let go of a good thing that easily, especially something that would support the progress of NT, and especially highly scalable, highly available Java applications. Or is Novell doing the same thing under their Provo lab as we speak? Regards, QuadK Wide Angle How Novell messed up a good thing By John Taschek 06.22.98 Whether Novell's NetWare 5.0 is a great product or simply an upgrade remains to be seen. One thing is sure, though: While mapping its course for the future, Novell has obliterated one set of directions that would have given it a clear lead in two crucial areas -- a highly scalable file system andperformance-based clustering. Many of the facts have been spun around so many times by jaded ex-employees and dispensers of corporate legal mumbo-jumbo that it's impossible to know what really happened. But as far as I can tell, Novell lost a true edge when it closed its Wolf Mountain clustering project and then sued the engineers who left the company and further developed the technology. If you ask Novell officials, they'll say they have clustering and have had it for quite a while. But ask them where this technology came from, and they acknowledge it came from Vinca. Vinca's StandbyServer is perhaps the best in the industry, but it delivers only a solution for high availability. Akin to Microsoft's Wolfpack, in which a backup server takes over if the primary fails, StandbyServer is not made for clustering (although it does offer some performance benefits through disk mirroring). (See StandbyServer review.) But while companies need high-availability clustering, the company that first delivers high performance along with high availability will be the true innovator. What Novell needs now is to have a blitzing-fast 64-bit version of its operating system. However, it may need to completely rewrite NetWare to get the threaded JVM it needs and to solve Java's problems with trash collection. Novell then needs to educate developers on how to develop Java network applications. Novell's history here is pathetic. Round after round of application development woes practically killed the NOS as an application server. Novell's lawsuits have shattered Timpanogas, which has only three employees now. They are developing technology components that will form what Merkey calls VNDI -- Virtual Network Disk Interface, a storage-area network solution that provides infinite storage capacity using network technology. Merkey is also working on aspects of technology to create his own operating system. He's extremely careful (read: scared to death) about following the court-imposed guidelines and is working only in nonprohibited areas. Whatever he is able to complete, though, won't be for Novell -- his technology will be his own or for Novell's competition, Windows NT. Wouldn't a highly available, highly scalable network OS that ran Java applications really fast have been intensely interesting? John Taschek can be reached at john_taschek@zd.com.

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22864)	6/26/1998 10:42:00 AM
From: Spartex	Respond to of 42771

Paul: BTW, NOVL volume this morning is suspiciously quiet (255K in 70 minutes of trading). Is the the quiet before the next storm, or just fund managers focusing on companies that are reporting earnings in July? Either way, yesterday's volume was still strong, and on a percentage basis, NOVL keeps up with MSFT volume. Regards, QuadK

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22864)	6/26/1998 11:14:00 AM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul: Do you follow Novell posts on yahoo thread at all? A very interesting group of people that talk about the strengths and weaknesses in NT and Netware products. Here's one example: <- Previous Next -> Message 9038 of 9039 Reply Remember IBM. dsack4 Jun 26 1998 11:04AM EDT I have 14 years of experience in the real world. Managing networks for a living. I have used both Novells and Microsofts products. Microsoft in time will fall prey to the same problems that happened to IBM a few years ago. As Novell had. If I were to convert my network to NT (Not There) I would need to add 30% to my staff and increase my hardware requirements %50 to accomplish the same thing I am doing today. Microsoft has it's place in the market as does Novell, Unix, Linux, OS/2 and the Mac. Will Novells market share erode? Sure it will. No one can control %70-%80 of the market forever and the same forces that have eroded Novells marketshare will erode Microsofts in time. Microsofts corporate arrogance has already begun to show. In regards to my job security, I am currently earning more than ever and am in line for a %30-%35 increase in pay partially becuase I have leveraged Novell's technology to reduce TCO while increasing corporate capabilties. This would not be possible utilizing NT