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Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet)
cnet takes a
look at Novell's disappointing first quarter earnings. "Novell
now plans to cut prices aggressively to increase its market share,
according to [CEO Ron] Hovsepian. Part of the problem, however, is that
Novell isn't really an open-source company, and it doesn't pretend to be
one. Most of its revenue comes from proprietary software, and that software
didn't deliver in the first quarter. "
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Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 27, 2009 22:53 UTC (Fri) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link] It would seem easier to build a business model from the ground up using Open Source (think Red Hat) rather than add Open Source to an existing proprietary software business (Novell). Also, I don't see the value in having the biggest proprietary software company (Microsoft) giving another company $millions for "patent covenants" (or for whatever the money was spent) merely for the purpose of "fighting" Red Hat (from Mr. Asay's article). Of course, Microsoft has made it their mission to "fight" everyone else on the planet, and this is merely their attempt to tackle Linux. Novell's failure in the Linux software business might be because of Microsoft's involvement, but by now my personal feelings are eroding any objective analysis in this matter...
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 28, 2009 1:01 UTC (Sat) by bluefoxicy (guest, #25366) [Link]
> Of course, Microsoft has made it their mission to "fight"
> everyone else on the planet,
And they haven't lost their ass yet why?!
Because people are stupid Posted Feb 28, 2009 11:03 UTC (Sat) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link] And they haven't lost their ass yet why?! Microsoft kills the companies one after another. And for years victims believe the same tale again and again: Microsoft offers "help", company accepts it and later it's killed. Why companies and people directing it are so stupid is beyond me. Perhaps because Microsoft does not try to kill all their partners at once and sometimes even helps them to make money for a time?
Because people are stupid Posted Feb 28, 2009 11:47 UTC (Sat) by sdbrady (guest, #56894) [Link]
I think you need only look at the way that Jerry Yang was criticised for not wanting Microsoft's 'help'...
Because people are greedy Posted Feb 28, 2009 11:50 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (subscriber, #15091) [Link] Not all companies that have been offered "help" have failed; many of those "dealing with the devil" have made obscene amounts of money for extended periods of time, and a few are making money to this day (Quicken, Adobe, even Apple).So, one explanation for companies believing Microsoft tales is plain and simple greed. Once Microsoft decides that their revenue stream is tempting they will go for it, often with malicious tactics; but even so they have not been able to outcompete every company out there. The fate of those frontally opposing Microsoft (Netscape, Sun) is often worse.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 28, 2009 1:59 UTC (Sat) by vy0123 (guest, #56296) [Link]
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 28, 2009 5:37 UTC (Sat) by gdt (subscriber, #6284) [Link] Cooperation easily explained: they're both fighting for a slice of VMware's revenue and "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". As we've seen, the agreement doesn't prevent Microsoft from also pursuing other activities which may harm Red Hat, such as Microsoft trying to "monetise" its FAT long filename handling patents.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Mar 1, 2009 19:54 UTC (Sun) by pboddie (subscriber, #50784) [Link] Cooperation easily explained: they're both fighting for a slice of VMware's revenue and "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". It's not even that sophisticated. It was implied in reports that a bunch of customers told them that they're quite happy to run, for example, VMware products to virtualise various operating systems, particularly Windows and RHEL, if there was no other way of doing so in a "certified" fashion. Heads were thus banged together to enable those customers to stick with the Microsoft and Red Hat roadmaps.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Mar 1, 2009 20:57 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
The idea that competition in business is this sort of do-or-die, cutthroat or 'war' were you battling for life and death is kinda delusional.
The capitalistic system, for it to work properly, your dealing with as much as cooperation as competition.
For example Redhat (or Novel) vs Microsoft Windows.
These spend most of their time competing. They are natural enemies and are aiming after the same markets and same customers.
However the reality is also the fact that the majority of their customers run mixed networks. They depend on both operating systems and work at making systems using both OSes work together. Like it or not one of the big reasons that Linux is so successful as a operating system is because it's able to work very well with Microsoft Windows. It integrates and is much easier to use in a existing Windows infrastructure then most any other non-Windows OS.
By working together Windows and Redhat are able to boost the value they can offer their customers without actually sacrificing anything in the way of competition...
For example:
If Redhat is able to work with Microsoft and convince them to help with supporting Paravirtualized drivers to improve performance of Windows-on-KVM in exchange for supporting running Redhat in Microsoft's VM stuff... does this make Redhat more or less attractive to a customer?
Well if Redhat-Microsoft engaged in cutthroat and refused to work together so that Redhat ran like shit and was hard to install in Microsoft's VM and you had a huge I/O performance penalty for running Windows-on-KVM... does this make Redhat more or less attractive?
So by working together Microsoft and Redhat can make themselves more competitive even though they would love to put each other out of business. Depending on which business can take this partnership and run with it and provide the best customer experience and value then either one can win huge.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 28, 2009 9:26 UTC (Sat) by tzafrir (subscriber, #11501) [Link]
The article seems to be based mostly on an El-Reg article and also borrowing terminology from there ("piper"). Nice work.
Some raw figures: the Linux sales of Novell are expanding. Most other devisions have sales declining.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Feb 28, 2009 23:53 UTC (Sat) by BrucePerens (guest, #2510) [Link] Some raw figures: the Linux sales of Novell are expanding. Most other devisions have sales declining. Whatever made you think that was a "raw figure"?
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Mar 1, 2009 18:06 UTC (Sun) by cyperpunks (subscriber, #39406) [Link]
MS gives Novel lots of money, Novell can then cut prices to fight Red Hat out of business. Clever.
Novell puts Linux on sale as earnings disappoint (cnet) Posted Mar 1, 2009 22:30 UTC (Sun) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
I think the problem is here is that Novell has pretty much used up all the money that Microsoft is going to give them. They've gotten about 199 of the potential 240 million dollars and the last 40 or so isn't going to come any time soon and Microsoft is not in a hurry to give it to them.
Meanwhile demand for Novell's proprietary stuff is drying up. Customers are migrating away from NDS and to Active Directory and don't really want to deal with Novell's groupware offerings either.
So what is happenning is that Novell is falling back to were they were before the Microsoft-Novell agreement with very little long term benefit and are entering into a world were people are either migrating away from proprietary software on the Linux side of things and the economy is in a slump with people being very conservative with their pocketbooks.
It's not even 2012 yet Posted Mar 2, 2009 7:45 UTC (Mon) by fritsd (guest, #43411) [Link] From Patent Cooperation Agreement - Microsoft & Novell Interoperability CollaborationMicrosoft, on behalf of itself and its Subsidiaries (collectively Microsoft), hereby covenants not to sue Novells Customers and Novells Subsidiaries Customers for infringement under Covered Patents of Microsoft (...)next paragraph: For specific copies of Covered Products distributed by Novell for Revenue before the end of the Term, the foregoing covenant shall apply as to all Covered Patents, including Captured Patents. For specific copies of Covered Products distributed by Novell for Revenue after the end of the Term, the foregoing covenant shall apply only as to Captured Patents.(emphasis mine) at the end: Term means the period beginning on the Effective Date and ending on January 1, 2012, unless (and for so long as) extended pursuant to Section 7.6, provided that, notwithstanding the foregoing, the Term will end on the date of termination of this Agreement.
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