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Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com)
News.com has
picked up a rumor that Sun Microsystems is toying with the idea of
buying Novell. ""With our balance sheet, we're considering all our
options," Sun Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Schwartz said in an
interview Sunday regarding the possibility of acquiring Novell. "What would
owning the operating system on which IBM is dependent be worth? History
would suggest we look to Microsoft for comparisons.""
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Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 18:23 UTC (Mon) by csm1975 (subscriber, #15864) [Link] "What would owning the operating system on which IBM is dependent be worth? History would suggest we look to Microsoft for comparisons."
Bwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahaha! "Owning the operating system..."
/me reaches for cluebat
Not quite as clueless as you might think Posted Aug 2, 2004 19:34 UTC (Mon) by AnswerGuy (subscriber, #1256) [Link] S.u.S.E. is an OS that can be "owned."
Yes, Linux, the kernel, and the GNU, BSD, MIT, XFree/X.org, KDE and GNOME, and many other components that comprise S.u.S.E. are free projects and can't be "owned." However, Sun could make IBM squirm a bit if IBM is forced to migrate back towards Red Hat (which they've been trying to cast off like it was a mill stone around their neck) or to some dark horse third option.
Clearly IBM has not wanted to create a new Microsoft (been there, done that!) in Red Hat. They've also avoided creating their own distribution (though they clearly have the resources to do so).
While I agree that this would not provide Sun with any significant leverage (not enough to justify the actual purchase, I'd imagine) --- but they can make IBM squirm if they play the rumor mill right.
From what I gather JDS (Java Desktop System) is basically a re-branded S.u.S.E. with some Sun Java work crammed into it. Buying Novell to ensure their access to advances on that system (pursuant to delivering those millions of copies to the Chinese that were hyped several months ago) might make some sense. (However the LiveCD demo/evaluation of JDS that I saw was built around Morphix --- a KNOPPIX derivative; so their branding and cramming apparently isn't that difficult to apply).
JimD
Not quite as clueless as you might think Posted Aug 2, 2004 19:44 UTC (Mon) by nhasan (subscriber, #1699) [Link] I think you need to update yourself Jim. Its not called S.u.S.E for abouta year now. Its SUSE. :)
Not quite as clueless as you might think Posted Aug 2, 2004 22:17 UTC (Mon) by lakeland (subscriber, #1157) [Link] Pity, I was quite fond of 'SuSE' myself. It just looked a littledifferent :-)
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 18:31 UTC (Mon) by dcoutts (subscriber, #5387) [Link] The Register has a nice article making fun of the rumours.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 19:00 UTC (Mon) by msmelov (guest, #11243) [Link] As if it would be that difficult for IBM to start its own version ofGNU/Linux.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 19:17 UTC (Mon) by gomadtroll (guest, #11239) [Link] Actually they could start their own version of Suse.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 20:00 UTC (Mon) by JoeBuck (subscriber, #2330) [Link] If Schwartz were correct that a Novell owned by Sun would be harmful to IBM's interests, IBM would simply outbid Sun and buy it themselves. IBM has deeper pockets than Sun. All this assumes that Novell is interested in being acquired. Hostile takeovers of software companies don't work, as what you need to buy is the talented people at the company, and if they are hostile they just leave. The only exception is if the purpose of the hostile takeover is to destroy the takeover target, as in the case of Oracle vs. Peoplesoft.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 21:19 UTC (Mon) by southey (subscriber, #9466) [Link] Well, IBM 'invested' a sizable sum in Novell and then Novell brought SUSE. So yes, it would be harmful to IBM in losing any benefit of that money. If IBM wanted to buy Novell would have already done it. Heck, it would be rather more amusing to see SCO reaction if IBM or even Sun brought Novell.
Given IBM's ties with SUSE, IBM could have brought SUSE rather than let Novell get it.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 3, 2004 9:30 UTC (Tue) by rjw (guest, #10415) [Link] You do realise that there is no 'r' in bought, don't you?
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 2, 2004 21:47 UTC (Mon) by josh_stern (guest, #4868) [Link] I agree with the gist of the above, but we may be wearing Linux-orientedblinders that are obscuring our view in this case. Sun has clearly had a chance to seriously consider and ultimately reject the Linux part of Novell's business model on many occasions over the last six years. At all of those times, they could have expanded their business in that direction at much lower cost than what it would take to acquire Novell. This says to me that the chief attraction to a Novell purchase for Sun would be the ongoing relationships with the current Netware clients, who represent a huge pool of loyal, paying enterprise customers that don't switch platforms without a huge reason. Sun is clearly thinking about the future service and software revenues from those people primarily, and not about "owning" SuSE or Ximian.
Please NO-o-o-o-o-o! Posted Aug 2, 2004 19:17 UTC (Mon) by havoc (guest, #2261) [Link] Please don't "Cobalt" SUSE LINUX! No! I just can't bear the thought!
understand their thinking before you make fun of them Posted Aug 2, 2004 23:18 UTC (Mon) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] from their point of view the only flaw in the SCO cases is that SCO didn't buy everything from Novell that they thought they did. If they really did get the copyrights from Novell then they would 'own Unix' and be able to impose a surcharge on all linux users.
now we all know that this isn't the only flaw in the SCO case, it's just one of many, but for people that don't understand the real issues all they would see is that SCO doesn't have standing to sue, but only becouse novell cut their legs out from under them. so if they buy novell then they get everything.
understand their thinking before you make fun of them Posted Aug 4, 2004 2:04 UTC (Wed) by set (guest, #4788) [Link] What leads you to think that SCOG would have anything on Linuxregardless of whether they have copyright on some of 'Unix'? So far there has not been presented any credible evidence of any sort of infringement, even though the court has ordered SCOG to respond to IBM's discovery requests for such. In fact, IBM is requesting that the court issue a judgement that states that there are no copyright issues, and SCOG hasnt shown anything so far that contradicts that. (And they still claim to own the copyrights to 'Unix'...)
understand their thinking before you make fun of them Posted Aug 5, 2004 3:41 UTC (Thu) by dlang (subscriber, #313) [Link] I'm not saying that they would. I'm saying that the folks at Sun who are thinking this way think that they would.
Sun mulls buying Novell (News.com) Posted Aug 6, 2004 16:45 UTC (Fri) by stock (subscriber, #5849) [Link] SuSe 9.x is rather disappointing for me.
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