novell

Happy endings

Writing a novel can seem like an overwhelming process. All those characters and details to keep track of, not to mention finding the proper structure and pacing. Many would-be novelists just don't know where to begin. MyNovel breaks the novel-writing process into manageable pieces, giving writers a clear idea of how to proceed through each step of the writing process.

The program's interface is attractive and intuitive, with a layout that's similar to Office 2007 products. Although the program's Help file is well-written and thorough, most users should have little reason to visit it. MyNovel guides … Read more

Judge prevents SCO from selling off assets

A bankruptcy court judge has denied a request by the SCO Group to sell off part of its business, a move that could have helped it pursue court cases against Novell and IBM.

SCO, which has been in bankruptcy court since 2007, had proposed to sell off most of its Unix business assets to a company called Unxis, the latest in a series of proposals aimed at allowing the company to exit bankruptcy and continue its high-profile Unix litigation.

IBM and Novell, on the other hand, had requested that SCO's assets be liquidated, effectively putting an end to the … Read more

Novell makes Linux easy with SUSE Studio

Microsoft, for all its faults, has significantly lowered the bar to IT development, offering tools like Visual Studio that help make average developers more productive. Linux, on the contrary, has been supercharged with powerful capabilities, but has often required significant experience to harness that power.

Enter Novell's SUSE Studio Online, a cool new way to develop software and virtual appliances online. I wrote about SUSE Studio Online back in January 2009 when it was still in alpha stage, but Novell has now officially released this tool that "enables ISVs to customize a fully supported, mission-critical operating system and … Read more

Open-source allies woo U.S. government

Several open-source software companies and many other allies have banded together in a consortium called Open Source for America to try to persuade the U.S. government to use more of the collaboratively developed software, to participate in its development, and help its practitioners work with the government better.

The group includes more than 70 companies, academic institutions, organizations, and individuals. Among them are Linux sellers Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical; software sellers Sun Microsystems, its would-be acquirer Oracle, Mozilla, SugarCRM, Alfresco Software, Pentaho, Revolution Computing, Zmanda, EnterpriseDB, and Yahoo's Zimbra; and open-source allies including Advanced Micro Devices and … Read more

Microsoft's Linux contribution: Thank Novell?

Microsoft's move to offer several Linux drivers owes a lot to a key programmer at Novell.

Linux veteran--and Novell fellow--Greg Kroah-Hartman suggested to Microsoft about four months ago that the company release the three drivers to be part of Linux under the GNU General Public License (GPL) terms that govern Linux code. Kroah-Hartman, who helps oversee the inclusion of drivers into Linux, said he worked within his company to find the right contacts at Microsoft.

"They reacted well," Kroah-Hartman said in a telephone interview on Tuesday. "They were open to it. It just took a … Read more

Red Hat: From manic acquisitions to focused execution

Red Hat is at the top of its game right now, delivering quarter after quarter of impressive performance despite (or, perhaps, because of) a global recession. But it wasn't always thus. Despite a meteoric initial public offering in 1999, Red Hat spent years fumbling about for a winning game plan, dabbling in technologies that took it far beyond its core competence in operating systems.

Small wonder, then, that Red Hat today hasn't risen to the bait to move beyond its core competence.

In fact, it may well have been the burden of its IPO that set Red Hat … Read more

Mono promise is nice, Microsoft. What about Linux?

Microsoft has divided opinion in the open-source world for years with its love/mostly hate relationship with open source. While the company has seemingly warmed up to open source in the past two years, its continued patent club has hung over projects like Linux. On Monday Microsoft sheathed the club for the open-source Mono project, but arguably needs to go much further to justify celebrations.

Despite Microsoft's patent claims against open source over the years, it has chosen a few favorites to exclude from the taint of infringement, Mono chief among them. Mono enables .Net applications to run on … Read more

Will 'good enough' virtualization topple VMware?

Could VMware be the next Novell? That's the question Gartner managing vice president and chief of research for Infrastructure David Cappuccio asks in a provocative post, one that bears further discussion. While VMware is at the top of its game, there are several historical analogs between VMware and Novell.

I'll let you read Cappuccio's excellent post for his full argument, but the crux of it is that in the face of dominant but pricey technology, many buyers will turn to "good enough" to fill their needs. For Novell, that competition to its 90 percent market … Read more

Will Novell, Dell turn to open-source M&A to grow?

Novell was recently rumored to be shopping itself around for a buyer. The new rumors? That it's doing some shopping of its own. In this, Novell isn't alone, with Dell also looking to pick up companies that can expand its product lines, as both look to grow despite CIOs' decreasing willingness to spend. Open source may factor into both companies' M&A strategies.

As reported in Daily News & Analysis, Novell CFO Dana Russell has said the company is "interested in making acquisition in the high-growth businesses like identity security and compliance management software, data centre … Read more

Novell not for sale, but perhaps should be

Last week rumors swirled that Novell was planning to put some or all of its assets on the auction block. The rumors derived from J.P. Morgan analyst John DiFucci's misinterpretation of Novell CFO Dana Russell's comments, suggesting that Novell "entertained the possibility of breaking out some parts of or selling the entire company, in order to maximize shareholder value given the current depressed valuation levels."

Novell has since denied the implication that it's for sale. But it shouldn't be so hasty.

As The Register's Timothy Prickett Morgan suggests, a company should "… Read more