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

To: EPS who wrote (23145)	7/20/1998 5:00:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Documents Show Novell Had Microsoft on Its Mind Microsoft filed a handful of Novell documents in a Utah federal court lawsuit to buttress its demand for more. The internal memos offer a glimpse into Novell's strategy on Microsoft between 1992 and 1994. -- Novell hired London law firm Lovell White Durrant to assess its legal options against Microsoft's marketing tactics. In a February 1992 memo, the law firm said the ''most effective remedy'' likely would be based on the European Commission's (EC) competition rules. Its preliminary recommendation was to launch a ''two-pronged attack,'' filing a complaint with the commission and pursuing a lawsuit. Collecting evidence of anti-competitive behavior would be crucial, it added, but no steps that might alert Microsoft should be taken. Novell filed a complaint with the EC in 1993. -- While assessing possible evidence, the law firm points to a January 1992 letter faxed from Microsoft sales representative Ellen Taylor in England to customer Diamond Trading. Taylor wrote that the letter was to confirm Microsoft was ''unable to supply you Windows as a single product.'' Windows was available only in a package with MS-DOS, version 5, she wrote. Novell has seized on the letter as evidence Microsoft was tying the two products to prevent customers from buying competing operating systems, such as its DR-DOS. But Microsoft attorneys argue the fax is misleading. Diamond Trading was later sent a correction, and Microsoft officers have testified there was no such tying policy, lawyer James Jardine has explained in court. Microsoft founder Bill Gates addressed the Diamond Trading fax in his deposition, and ''he said it was a mistake,'' Jardine said. -- After the Federal Trade Commission deadlocked on whether to file a complaint against Microsoft, Washington, D.C., attorney Sturgis M. Sobin outlined insider strategies for bringing up another vote in a February 1993 memo. There were rumors that a commissioner, ''one of the two votes against us,'' was leaving, he said. Sobin said he raised the idea of a private Novell suit, but the response from FTC staff was ''still negative.'' A Novell suit ''would probably take much of the wind out of the sails'' of an FTC action, he was told. -- Four months later, Sobin sent a memo to one of Novell's in-house lawyers, asking her to get an affidavit from a computer hardware manufacturer to help ''swing a third vote'' on the FTC. Sobin was seeking a statement to support Novell's arguments that companies were decreasing their purchases of Novell's software because they were concerned it was incompatible with Microsoft's products. -- After another FTC vote ended in a second deadlock, Novell general counsel David Bradford wrote a memo on Aug. 2, 1993, summarizing comments he was providing to the media. Bradford said he was telling reporters that Novell had not ruled out a lawsuit, but added, ''Novell believes that this is an industry-wide issue and that pitting Novell against Microsoft in a narrow legal dispute may not bring about the broad-based remedies the industry is seeking.'' -- In the same memo, Bradford said he is confirming that Microsoft had offered to buy Novell. Other court documents claim the offers were made in late 1989, abandoned over antitrust concerns, and then again in July 1991, after Novell announced it was acquiring Digital Research Inc. (DRI) and its operating system, DR-DOS. There was an offer in writing dated Feb. 12, 1992, Bradford noted. ''Think of the competitive implications of a combined Novell/Microsoft corporation,'' Bradford mused in his memo. ''There would be one network operating system, one DOS operating system, and an undeniable ability to leverage monopolies in both operating system markets to dominate the software applications field.'' The Novell board was concerned the merger would run into opposition from the government and IBM, Bradford said, but added: ''Gates stated that he knew how to handle both.'' Bradford added he was not telling the media of Novell's subsequent suspicions that the offer was actually a move to slow its integration of DRI and development of DR-DOS. Bradford speculated Gates proposed the deal because it had ''no real possibility'' of government approval. ''. . . The government would turn the transaction down,'' Bradford wrote. ''The government would then be in a position of saying they took strong action against Microsoft and the FTC would back away from the remainder of their investigation.'' Microsoft denies similar allegations in its answer to Caldera's suit. -- Sheila R. McCann

To: EPS who wrote (23145)	7/20/1998 8:38:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

New Life for DOS? Jesse Berst, Editorial Director ZDNet AnchorDesk What if I told you that I knew what would be the most talked-about operating system in 1999? What if I told you it would be DOS? The same aging operating system that preceded Windows. That's been all but abandoned by Microsoft. Put down that phone! You can't just call a mental hospital and tell them to haul somebody in. And I'm not as crazy as I sound. Consider this. Since 1997, Orem, UT-based Caldera, Inc. has sold 3,000,000 copies of DR-DOS -- an MS-DOS compatible operating system acquired from Digital Research by way of Novell. And repositioned DR-DOS for a market at least 10 times larger than the personal computing world. I am referring to the market for small devices that connect to a network -- to an intranet or to the Internet itself. Examples include smart phones, set-top boxes, personal digital assistants, cash registers, factory automation, process control, avionics, handhelds, kiosks, pay-at-the-pump, airline entertainment, security panels, photocopiers, fax machines, game machines, calculators, medical and laboratory measurement, palmtops, organizers and network computers. Starting to see why this market could explode in the next five years? Consider what Caldera has added to DR-DOS. A graphical Web browser that can run on a 40 Mhz 386 with just 4 MB of RAM ODI-based networking Multitasking TCP/IP, HTTP and FTP POP3 and SMTP Year 2000 support Power management Compression (can turn a 4 MB Flash ROM into 8 MB) This is not your father's disk operating system! Features like these explain why DR-DOS has real benefits to hardware and software makers who want to attack the "embedded systems" market. It's a tremendously compact way to access the Internet, especially when compared with Windows CE. And it's a robust, tested system with hundreds of proven tools and thousands of experienced programmers. With this in mind, here are four areas where DR-DOS has a chance. In order of likelihood: Refurbished computers. Older 386 and 286 computers still use DOS. Caldera's DR-DOS can give them a browser so they can be used to surf the Net. Bonus: Some great games still run on DOS. This is an obvious, easy market for DR-DOS, but not one that has growth potential. Embedded systems. DR-DOS has lots of advantages here, but it also has dozens of competitors. Company executives claim they will soon announce "big-name" partnerships for set-top boxes, smart phones and airline entertainment. We'll see. Thin client computing. Since it can run a browser in 4MB, a DR-DOS-based device could be the ultimate low-cost network computer, costing as little as $100. Caldera is working to add support for both Java and Windows Terminal Server. In theory, DR-DOS-based terminals could display Java and Windows apps running on the server. Handheld systems. To win in this market, Caldera would have to convince OEMs not to move to Windows CE. The company's only realistic chance is at the very low end, where its low memory requirements can save money. In the PC world, Windows NT 5.0 will be the story of 1999. But there's another market that -- in the long term -- may be even more important than personal computing. In that space, the operating system of the year could prove to be a revamped, reconstituted version of venerable old DOS. Okay, now you've heard me out. Now you can call me crazy if you want. Use the TalkBack button below and I'll post some of your responses beneath this article. And jump over to my Berst Alerts forum where a discussion is already underway.

To: EPS who wrote (23145)	7/20/1998 8:40:00 PM
From: EPS	Respond to of 42771

We'll always have OS add-ons By Michael Surkan July 20, 1998 Microsoft treads on thin ice any time it adds functions to its operating system that make products by third-party vendors obsolete. After all, the software giant wouldn't want to be seen as a big bully, would it? However, an interesting thing about third-party operating system add-ons is that they make everyone wonder why the features weren't there in the first place. A collection of Windows NT directory service management-enhancement utilities has emerged that vividly illustrates this point. Products such as Mission Critical Software's Enterprise Administrator and Entevo's DirectManage don't even add extra functions to the Windows domain security architecture. However, by more fully exploiting the existing Windows NT Active Directory Services Interface programming calls, they add sophisticated functions that had been available only on hierarchical directory services. This begs the question: Why couldn't Microsoft have made these capabilities available in standard NT administration tools? It's easy to see why other NT add-ons, such as Novell's NDS for NT or NetVision's Synchronicity, will need to stay separate from the OS--they actually change the NT domain system's architecture to enhance standard NT Domain Directory Services. Yet products such as DirectManager and FastLane's Phoenix can simplify NT administrators' workloads. I'm sure that most IT professionals would be grateful if Microsoft incorporated many of those products' features into NT 5.0. Getting it right the first time Who knows? If Microsoft had improved the NT User Manager in its service pack several years ago, many of the complaints with its limited domain directory service might have been muted. Most likely, NT 5.0 will provide a new set of administrative challenges. Active Directory, with its true hierarchical and extendible structure, eliminates many domain nightmares. However, it remains to be seen how flexible and intuitive the new Microsoft Management Console snap-ins will be. Let's hope that Microsoft will take a page from DirectManage and provide a single drill-down directory interface for all network objects, from which all administrative tasks can be performed. NT 4.x makes a mess of administrative tasks by requiring different applications for any of a dozen basic jobs. In the short term, there will be a place for third-party management utilities as companies continue to struggle with NT 4.x domains during transitions to Active Directory. I suspect these add-ons will continue to thrive, albeit in metamorphosed forms. The demise of more small software vendors as Microsoft adds new features to the NT operating system is sad, but ultimately we all gain with an improved product. The successful third-party developers will be forced to make the gut-wrenching decision either to sell out to Redmond or switch their products to fix new system deficiencies (of which there will never be a shortage). To be fair, other operating systems have run into the same problems as Windows NT in which add-on vendors became subject to the whim of the OS maker. Take, for example, Novell's purchase of NetBasic from Hitecsoft. But such a fate is better than that of FastLane (which now makes NT administration add-ons), because the Banyan VINES OS it supported has failed to take root. What third-party NOS administrative tools do you use? Contact me at michael_ surkan@zd.com.

To: EPS who wrote (23145)	7/20/1998 8:41:00 PM
From: EPS	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 42771

Comments?? Entevo Beats NT To Punch By Joe McGarvey Start-up Entevo Corp. today plans to add a network management package designed to provide enterprises with many of the advanced administration features expected to be found in Active Directory, the next-generation directory service scheduled to ship with the new version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system. The DirectManage software suite is intended to solve many of the management shortcomings -- such as the inability to view the assets of all available resources at the same time -- of Windows NT and provide enterprises with a head start toward the adoption of Active Directory. A directory service is a central repository of information about the users, applications and equipment attached to a corporate network. Windows NT 5.0 is scheduled to ship at the end of this year, although analysts don't expect delivery until first quarter 1999. Entevo's (www.entevo.com), DirectManage is due in June, with pricing starting at $19 per user.