Novell Inc, which launched its Directory Services for NT earlier this week (CI No 3,264), says that current versions require, at minimum, a run-time version of IntranetWare in order to operate. The run-time version comes with the product, and can be installed straight out of the box, it says. But as system and network requirements increase, users will have to install the full version of IntranetWare, at their own expense. Novell has clarified that NDS for NT does not require Netware clients or Netware 32 and says that it will have a fully platform-independent release of NDS for NT in the first half of next year. But next year will also see the widescale availability of Microsoft Corp’s NT 5.0, which will have Microsoft’s own directory services offering, ActiveDirectory, integrated within it. Novell maintains that NDS for NT delivers now what Microsoft hopes to offer with ActiveDirectory when and if it appears. Microsoft, meanwhile, points out that the beta version of NT 5.0 has already been shipped to a large number of developers, and that the Active Directory Services Interfaces API was released back in February. ADSI enables developers to write applications integrated with NT 4.0 Directory Services that will automatically work with NT 5.0. Some 550 applications now use Directory Services, up from 130 eight months ago, says Microsoft.
