Coming off the back of its quartus horriblis Novell Inc CEO Eric Schmidt yesterday re-iterated his company’s commitment to all things Java, object and internet by writing a check out to the $100m Java Fund created by venture capital firm Kliener Perkins Caufield & Byers and ten corporates to finance Java startups. Despite its continuing losses Novell is sitting on more than $1bn cash and Schmidt said the check – which makes Novell the fund’s eleventh corporate member, though we guess it’ll have to up its $100m billing now – is made out for as much as they [the board] will let me. The company will also be part of the Java convergence initiative announced yesterday by Sun Microsystems, IBM and Netscape Communications to help defend against the fragmentation of Java which Microsoft Corp is encouraging. Novell’s name was missing from yesterday’s roster only because the agreement wasn’t finally struck until close to the announcement which didn’t give Novell enough time to get its collateral together. Schmidt sees the war of words over Java between Microsoft and Sun and their respective supporters as a soap opera being played out in the industry where every inflammatory remark made by Microsoft helps create another of the speed bumps it’s keen to put in Java’s path. Like his former employer, Sun CEO Scott McNealy, Schmidt thinks Microsoft’s antics will make no difference in the long term and that Java will succeed. He expects speed, compatibility and the Microsoft issues will each fall away in time.
Not for sale
Schmidt said Novell’s first native IP internet protocol-based release of NetWare, code-named Moab and likely be productized as NetWare 5, will ship in beta form by year-end. Production implementations will roll out over the following six months, making investment bank Morgan Stanley’s assessment of the product’s delivery schedule look much closer to the mark than Novell has been saying until now. Moab removes the dependency on Novell’s proprietary IPX networking protocol. Once Novell gets to what’s effectively first base in the internet world we’ll be able to better determine what kind of a product strategy and company Schmidt can create from the rather adrift entity he took charge of. The jury’s still out on how much damage the delay in moving to an IP-based architecture has done. One problem is that 55% of Novell’s installed base is still running the NetWare 3.x code which can’t take advantage of the NDS NetWare Directory Services so crucial to the company’s future as it moves from a network operating system to a directory-based technology framework. While a significant number of users appear reluctant to upgrade up to NetWare 4 Schmidt says the company still hasn’t decided whether it will further enhance the NetWare 3.x code base with new releases. One option under consideration is fitting a lightweight version of NDS to NetWare 3.x. It’s got NDS for Windows NT in the wings for October; it’s reportedly up and running in the labs without a NetWare server. And of IBM Corp’s widely reported, but so-far unconfirmed interest in Novell? The company is not for sale, says Schmidt. In its $90m quarter just ended in which it cleared further inventory from the channel – compared with revenue of $365m a year ago – Novell shed 1,000 employees, 18% of its total headcount which is expected to save it around $25m a quarter. A chief operating officer is being recruited.
