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

To: Spartex who wrote (25693)	2/26/1999 8:11:00 PM
From: Phil Jacobson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42771

Another thought on the conference call: One of the NOVL execs said that his recent experience is that multinational corps now realize they can get better value and function by looking for multi-vendor approaches to network solutions, ie, generally they are no longer looking for single-source vendors. I noted this because it's contrary to how my company views the market and to how we're positioning products. I asked our Marketing Communications guy and he gave me a really interesting reply. He said that the NOVL comment wasn't real, ie, what they are really saying is, "Companies are telling us that they don't want to put all of their eggs in the NT basket...so vendors like us still have a future." He thought NOVL was either engaging in wishful thinking, or this is a reality that is only specific to NOVL because of problems people have with MSFT, or it's simply an attempt to confuse investors more than a reflection of reality. Thoughts?

To: Spartex who wrote (25693)	2/27/1999 4:07:00 PM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 42771

Microsoft Faces Competition From Linux in 4 Years, Study Says Bloomberg News February 26, 1999, 3:25 p.m. PT Microsoft Faces Competition From Linux in 4 Years, Study Says Redmond, Washington, Feb. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Windows NT operating system faces the possibility of serious competition from the Linux system in four years, according to a study by First Albany Corp. and the META Group. Linux, a freely available system that's beginning to be commercialized, will take until at least 2003 to overcome ''very compelling weaknesses,'' the study said. Foremost is the ''Linux culture'' which rebuffs standardization of various features. Reliable support services also are lacking. Microsoft, the No. 1 software maker, has warned internally that Linux poses a ''significant'' revenue threat to its Windows NT system for corporate networks because of greater reliability and significantly cheaper prices. In a memo written last year, two company engineers said Linux systems have ''long-term credibility'' that surpasses that of many competitors. ''Linux is essentially free, though packaged versions, which include documentation and support tools, are sold by several companies,'' the First Albany-META study said. ''META Group's clients have reported strong reliability for Linux.'' Still the study noted weaknesses, including problems with menus, graphics, and the software that manages the computer system. Novell Linux will pose a greater threat to Novell Inc.'s NetWare operating system, the study said. META expects Novell to respond by embracing Linux as a secondary platform. Novell already has licensed NetWare for Linux to Caldera Inc., a software company based in Orem, Utah. Linux is a version of the Unix computer operating system written by Linus Torvalds, a Finnish programmer, in 1991. Companies such as Red Hat bundle the original Linux code with related software to form a system that sells for $1,600, compared with $10,000 for a comparable Windows NT system. Windows NT is Microsoft's corporate-networking system aimed at making inroads into areas of complex computing previously dominated by Unix systems made by companies such as Sun Microsystems Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Co. The next update, Windows 2000, is designed to compete even more directly for Unix business and is expected to be unveiled in the second half of the year. Shares of Microsoft fell 3 3/8 to 150 1/8.