WHITE PAPERS SPONSORED PROFILES JOB BOARD WEBINAR CENTER FREE SOFTWARE BZ RESEARCH ALMSHAREPOINT EVENTS CALENDAR PRINT/PDF EDITION PRINT/PDF BACK ISSUES

SUBSCRIBE TODAY CUSTOMER SERVICE EDITORIAL CALENDAR EDITORIAL BEATS GUEST VIEW GUIDE SD TIMES 100 GUIDE EVENTS CALENDAR ADVERTISING ARTICLE REPRINTS REPORT A BUG SITE MAP

ABOUT US BZ MEDIA NEWS BZ RESEARCH NEWS ON MONDAY SPTECHREPORT SPTECHWEB SPTECHCON IPHONE/IPAD DEVCON ANDROID DEVCON PRIVACY POLICY CONTACT US

HOME >> ZEICHICK'S TAKE

Zeichick’s Take: Novell is gone, and yes, it matters. Here’s why

By Alan Zeichick

April 28, 2011 — Novell is now part of Attachmate. Should you care? Yes.

The deal closed on Wednesday, April 27: “Novell, Inc., the leader in intelligent workload management, today announced that it has completed its previously announced merger, whereby Attachmate Corporation acquired Novell for $6.10 per share in cash. Novell is now a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group, the parent company of Attachmate Corporation."

Novell means lots of different things to different people. To me, the word “Novell” will always followed by “NetWare,” just as surely as “Lotus” is followed by “1-2-3.” (Yes, Alan is a dinosaur.)

To its more contemporary followers, Novell means two big open-source projects: SUSE Linux and Mono, an open-source implementation of the Microsoft .NET Framework and Common Language Runtime.

There are lots of other Novell products, to be sure: ZENworks, data center management tools, GroupWise, etc. See the big long list here.

However, the only two that truly matter, from the software development perspective at least, are SUSE Linux and Mono.

SUSE is one of the Big Two enterprise-class distributions, along with Red Hat. (There are oodles of consumer-facing distros, like Ubuntu.) When it came to running on large hardware, I’ve always considered SUSE to be the de facto leader. Given that Attachmate serves the same large enterprise customer base, I’m confident that SUSE will continue to evolve as a strong platform.

Mono is a concern. First, I’m not sure if Mono has a sustainable business model—or that it even has a business model at all. Second, Microsoft was a key behind-the-scenes player in Attachmate’s acquisition of Novell—see my comments from last November. It’s not in Microsoft’s best interest for Mono to exist. After all, if you can run .NET applications on Linux, you’re not locked into buying Windows Server.

My prediction: Under Attachmate, SUSE will flourish, and Mono will wither. I expect Mono to suffer intentional neglect, rather than a bold stroke, until it weakens, loses relevance and fades away.

It’s a depressing thought, almost as depressing as Overstock.com purchasing the naming rights to the stadium used by the Oakland A’s baseball team and the Oakland Raiders football team. The idea of visiting "Overstock.com Coliseum" is somewhat nauseating.

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times. Read his blog at ztrek.blogspot.com.

Related Search Term(s): Attachmate, Mono, Novell, SUSE Linux

Share this link: http://sdt.bz/35480

Most Read Latest News Blog Resources

Apache adopts new top-level cloud project
Deltacloud seeks to create a standard RESTful API for interfacing with cloud providers, from Eucalyptus to OpenStack

T-Mobile's CIO talks up optimizing employee organization
Erez Yarkoni describes how his company gets thousands of developers to work together, efficiently

PaaS is the word on everyone’s mind
PaaSes are gaining interest from enterprises, but how should they be implemented?

Venture capitalists keep the U.S. tech industry afloat
Despite a sagging economy, software development still sees more employment and higher salaries

T-Mobile's CIO talks up optimizing employee organization
Erez Yarkoni describes how his company gets thousands of developers to work together, efficiently

Apache adopts new top-level cloud project
Deltacloud seeks to create a standard RESTful API for interfacing with cloud providers, from Eucalyptus to OpenStack

Venture capitalists keep the U.S. tech industry afloat
Despite a sagging economy, software development still sees more employment and higher salaries

Business Software Alliance warns of governments interfering with the cloud
Countries are capable of disrupting business with protectionist attitudes and confusing laws

The problem with perfection
"The perfect is the enemy of the good," Voltaire said, or nearly said. He could have been talking about software development.

Let's get real about women in tech
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that it exists.

Lots of news from Apple
Apple is regaining a place of central importance in the technology world that it hasn't held since the 1970s. Here's what's new.

Book Giveaway! Pro jQuery by Adam Freeman
Looking to learn more about jQuery? Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a digital copy!

Go from Hack to Counterattack Nowadays, software developers – like you – must implement some type of protection in order to ensure that you are being fully paid for the u...

Read a Quick Guide to HTML5 HTML5 is considered the single biggest leap forward in Web technology of the last generation — but with people pointing to everything from s...

The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...

Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...

Technorati

Digg

Slashdot

Facebook

Friendfeed

Twitter

del.icio.us

Visual Studio Mono add-on brings .NET apps to Linux, Mac OS X This new tool facilitates cross-platform development by enabling development and testing of Visual Studio applications

Novell’s Mono Project all but cancelled by new owner Attachmate Instead, Miguel de Icaza has founded Xamarin to keep Mono going

Mono 2.0 released with .NET 2.0 compatibility After years of work, Mono 2.0 comes with a debugger and an implementation of Language Integrated Query from .NET 3.5. Future plans for the project include enhancements to the existing CLI and a facsimile of WCF.

Comments

04/28/2011 09:48:34 PM EST

It will actually be O.co Coliseum. I'm guessing pronounced "Oh Coe" or "Oh dot Coe." Oh Coe Coliseum doesn't sound THAT bad, better than Network Associates, 3Com, or Monster.

United StatesNaw She Ating

04/29/2011 08:51:07 AM EST

You got it wrong. It is Microsoft’s best interest for Mono to exist. Why do you think Microsoft has been injecting cash to Novell for a long time, helping them in Mono and ultimately subsidizing the sale ? Mono helps validate .NET as a viable development platform in the eyes of many, and that ultimately helps MS.

United Statesjhonybgood

04/29/2011 10:27:24 AM EST

As long as Microsoft can offer better .Net development tools (Visual Studio) than what is available on Linux and Mac OS (MonoDevelop), people will buy Windows and Visual Studio for .Net, web, Mac and iOS development. If Mono goes away, these people will buy Macs for Mac and iOS development instead. I think the whole "Microsoft hates open source" idea is getting really old. It might have been true one day, but the world isn't flat anymore.

United StatesLouis Salin

05/16/2011 05:06:21 PM EST

Sad to see Novell fade into posterity. The company had a brilliant start in Utah, where its brains and soul were always centered, and somehow lost its way by moving its money and leadership to Silicon Valley. It's brilliant fouding scientists and entrepreneurs should be lauded and remembered. Its failure to build on its powerful network franchise should be studied in business schools.

United StatesJon Cohen

Add comment

Name*
Email*
Country

Comment

Visual Studio Mono add-on brings .NET apps to Linux, Mac OS X
This new tool facilitates cross-platform development by enabling development and testing of Visual Studio applications Read More...

News on Monday
more>>
SharePoint Tech Report
more>>

Download Current Issue
FEBRUARY 2012 PDF ISSUE

Need Back Issues?
DOWNLOAD HERE

Want to subscribe?

The problem with perfection
"The perfect is the enemy of the good," Voltaire said, or nearly said. He could have been talking about software development.
02/22/2012 11:13 AM EST

Let's get real about women in tech
The first step in solving a problem is admitting that it exists.
02/19/2012 04:16 AM EST

Lots of news from Apple
Apple is regaining a place of central importance in the technology world that it hasn't held since the 1970s. Here's what's new.
02/18/2012 07:10 PM EST

Book Giveaway! Pro jQuery by Adam Freeman
Looking to learn more about jQuery? Like us on Facebook for a chance to win a digital copy!
02/16/2012 10:58 AM EST

Literate programming: It's not going to happen.
Literate programming is an idealistic notion that has been rendered obsolete by modern source code editors and good programming practices.
02/15/2012 06:13 PM EST

Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
02/09/2012 02:16 PM EST