Novell Still Runs Windows

daria42 writes "Despite Novell's internal migration to Suse and OpenOffice.org, the company admitted today that up to 3000 of its 5000 workers still had dual-boot installations with Microsoft Windows. These users are likely to be migrated to pure Linux boot systems in the next year or so." From the article: "Hovsepian's remarks indicate Novell will have at most a few months' experience as a complete Linux and open source desktop shop behind it when, according to the vendor's predictions, the software starts taking off in the mainstream." Update: 04/11 13:25 GMT by J : At the closing OSCON session, August 5, 2005, Miguel de Icaza talked about Novell's progress. My notes read: "novell's moving 5500 employees from windows to linux. first stage, office->openoffice, is complete. second stage, windows->linux, is 50% complete, proj. 80% by Nov."

Obvious?

[minginqunt]

Since a fair wodge of Novell's money comes from selling Windows software, I comfortably predict that this won't happen any time soon.

Windows? Duh!

[Anonymous Coward]

I work for Novell, and of course I have a windows machine. I develop software that has to run on Linux, OS X and Windows. All of our developers are in the same boat. If they don't have Windows code, they have NetWare code that needs to be built on Windows. Very few developers don't have code that needs a Win32 box either for development or for testing.

But ask me what machine I use to read my email, surf the web, write code, etc. It's my Linux box. And most of the developers on my team are the same way. And Novell as a company has been WAY better than anywhere else I have worked about having every business app I need on Linux supported by the IT department, and I even used to work for a company whose main business was their Linux distro (no, it wasn't SuSE).

Re:Zenworks or what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just use LDAP, or even NIS.

Re:Inspector Clouseau strikes again

[truthsearch]

I know you're trolling but you're obviously not very knowledgeable in business. It doesn't have to be the year of Linux for Novell to make millions. And guess what? We still haven't had "the year of Linux" and Novell is making millions! In the last year they've signed with a few governments. That alone is enough to drive the company for years. They have plenty of customers. In the last years they've had bigger problems with management than linux, IMO.

Novell internal use of Linux and Windows

[ezs]

Disclaimer - I work for Novell.

The migration away from Windows and Microsoft Office was always a phased approach.

Office --> Open Office first (Novell is now standardised across the company on OpenOffice 2.0)

Windows --> Linux workstations for those that can; based on business function, application needs and the 'savviness' of the user

Right now I'd say that a large proportion of development, test and technical people are using Novell Linux Desktop as their primary desktop. I can see this just by working with people in meetings.

I can't comment on the overall number of people using single boot Linux, dual boot or just Windows; all I can share is what I see - lots of people using Linux on a daily basis.

The next phase is 'filling the gaps' - seeing how knowledge workers and those with specific applications can move. The release of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 in mid-year should help with a lot of these issues.

Remember - just like any project choose the visible, realistic goals - that's what Novell's IS&T team have done.

Re:Zenworks or what?

[ezs]

AD and policies - hahaha.

Novell uses Novell ZENworks Linux Management internally to provide updates and patches to servers and desktops running Linux.

http://www.novell.com/products/zenworks/linuxmanag ement [novell.com] for details.

Re:Makes sense.

[jbolden]

Well yeah like Peoplesoft, Oracle financials, JD Edwards.... The problem for those guys is Excel Macros not their core apps.

Re:Novell Still Doesn't get it

[jojo1835]

You havent seen the latest bundle. It's called the Open Workgroup Suite, and it includes SLES, Open Enterprise Server (Linux version, but there is also pricing for the NetWare version), GroupWise, ZEN Suite (manage Windoze and Linux workstations and servers), SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and support for OpenOffice.org on Windows (so you can have a mixed deployment). The pricing on it hasn't been announced, but it's in the $100 - $150 / user ballpark.

Check it out here http://www.novell.com/products/openworkgroupsuite/ [novell.com]

For my money, that's way cheaper than a MSFT solution, plus it's got a ton of open components in there.

TT

Re:Novell Still Doesn't get it

[ezs]

Go look at the Novell Open Workgroup Suite - http://www.novell.com/products/openworkgroupsuite/ [novell.com]

Quote from the pricing and announcement:

"The Novell Open Workgroup Suite includes the Linux* version of Novell Open Enterprise Server, Novell GroupWise® for Linux, Novell ZENworks® Suite, SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop and the popular OpenOffice.org. Pricing is $110 per device/user for a perpetual license and $75 annually for software maintenance."