Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise Linux Technology Company SUSE LINUX

[Rick Meeker]

Jonathan,

Please bare in mind that Corel Linux wasn't a very strong distribution, and
frankly, it wasn't very good either.  A few years ago, Novell, like many
other companies, took an interest in Linux.  It's apparent that after
today's press release, this has been in Novell's plans for a while - not
acquiring SuSE specifically, but acquiring a major Linux distro with a
strong following.  Novell's purchase of Corel Linux was a mistake.  To
suggest that Novell bought Corel Linux with the intent to run it into the
ground is absolutely ludicrous.  Novell, didn't run it into the ground,
Corel did a very good job of that itself due to its total lack of vision and
its lack of popularity in the Linux market.  Novell purchased Corel Linux
because it had been run into the ground by Corel; thus, Novell viewed this
as an opportunity to squeeze into the Linux market. . . CHEAPLY.  Frankly,
Novell got exactly what it paid for - NOTHING.  This was Novell's mistake.

This time around, Novell was a little more wise about its strategy.  Instead
of being so pessimistic, Jonathan, try to be optimistic.  Novell will
actually have a major desktop offering in addition to its server products.
I guarantee that this has Micro$oft shaking in its boots.  Think about the
strategic positioning here: Oracle is converting to an all-Linux shop, and
it will be working very hard on converting its database offering completely
AWAY from Windows; Novell will be positioned as a Linux distributor in
addition to its other offerings that already exist; SUN and openoffice.org
have a strong office productivity suite that is more than capable of
replacing M$ Office; and Microsoft loses more and more market share every
day - server market share, and hopefully desktop market share in the near
future.

Right now, the outlook on life couldn't be sweeter.

Just my two cents,
Rick Meeker
Network Administrator, Novell & Linux

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Jonathan Hutchins
Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 4:41 PM
To: kclug at kclug.org
Subject: Re: Novell Announces Agreement to Acquire Leading Enterprise
Linux Technology Company SUSE LINUX

Actually, I'm basing my opinions regarding Novell's acquisition of SUSE
Linux
on what they did with Corell Linux - and that wasn't a decade ago.

Let's see Novell do something different.  That would be nice.