Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22919)	6/26/1998 11:56:00 AM
From: Spartex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Paul: You guys were right about Novell needing to ram the PR campaign down MSFT's throat a year ago, but since thats history, what is speaking for Netware now is the failures in scalability and stability of those companies listening to MSFT's pitch on NT as "the" one NOS product for all solutions. The failure of NT (action) has spoken much louder than any words Novell could have done against the marketing machine gorilla (MSFT). What Schmidt did (re: personally visiting his large customer base) was a "common sense" yet critical business move to shore up their existing customer base prior to Netware 5.0 release, while he directs Novell into more interesting and forward-looking internet-intranet and network management product areas. (BorderManager, ZenWorks, NDS for NT, Metadirectories, Java on Netware), as well as trying to grab the small business end of NOS that is still quite wide open per that IBD article posted here a few weeks ago. <<As to Schmidt's deal with MSFT: Did he really get a committment for MSFT to "go with" NDS on NT with no Netware or is Gates just stringing him along until he announces an EARLIER RELEASE of NT5?>> No one knows whats going on behind the scenes between Gates and Schmidt, but I doubt Schmidt would throw the baby out with the bath water. Regards, QuadK

To: Paul Fiondella who wrote (22919)	6/26/1998 1:04:00 PM
From: Bearded One	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

As to Schmidt's deal with MSFT: Did he really get a committment for MSFT to "go with" NDS on NT with no Netware or is Gates just stringing him along until he announces an EARLIER RELEASE of NT5? NT5 is supposedly over 30 million lines of code. Consider that programming on this scale has never been attempted. Consider that it took 6 years to get from NT 1.0 to NT 4 and they are doubling the size of NT4. Now also consider that NT5 has to be backwardly compatible, which means they have to live with many of the design errors of the previous NTs. Now consider the latest "beta" added a ton of new functionality, which makes it an Alpha in reality. Now also consider that Microsoft has undergone massive hiring to get programmers to work on this project-- many with no true professional experience. I have had the distinct pleasure of trying to debug someone's code who they shanghied for this project and know whereof I speak in this matter. Finally, consider that Microsoft has never released a directory services system. Now, do you really think that NT 5 is going to be early? My prediction for NT5 is mid 2000 for a reasonable release at the earliest. There is a chance that a major design flaw will show up in the next year or so which will push it back to 2001. There is an outside chance that the whole thing will collapse of its own weight and they'll instead come out with an NT 4.5.