The Utah-based company’s attempt to dominate Linux desktop and server operating system markets, courtesy of its acquisitions of Ximian Inc and SuSE Linux AG, will remind many in the industry of the dominant position the company once held with NetWare, and the potential it once had following its 1993 acquisition of AT&T’s Unix business.
The company’s success with NetWare, and its short ownership of Unix, has given it plenty of experience in building operating system market dominance, learning from both its successes failures.
The company’s three-step move into Linux was a carefully scheduled plan that saw the launch of Linux network services software, followed by the acquisitions of Ximian and SuSE.
With the acquisition of Linux desktop specialist Ximian already closed and the closure of the SuSE deal due early in the new year, Novell is in the process of working out how it can make the best use of its new assets.
While the company sees opportunities for transferring some of its NetWare technologies to Linux, it is adamant that it has no plans to merge the two.
Neither will the company’s adoption of Linux would mean the end of NetWare – the product will be available as long as customers want it.
While Novell will be learning from its history to ensure that it does not repeat mistakes of the past in focusing on enterprise Linux, had it paid more attention to internal developments back in the early 90s it could have avoided some of the problems currently facing Linux, particularly SCO Group Inc’s [SCOX] plans to derail its acquisition of SuSE.
SCO claims that Unix System V code has been copied into Linux and that this means that Novell will be in breach a of non-compete agreement it signed with the Santa Cruz Operation when it sold the Unix code in 1995. Santa Cruz Operation later sold the Unix code to Caldera, which became SCO Group.
It begs the question as to how different the operating system market would now be had Novell kept hold of both Caldera and the Unix System V code. Certainly a lot less complicated than it is at the moment.
Novell has more pressing challenges than wondering what might have been, however. The first target is a return to profitability, helped by services and Linux revenue growth. The next is to stabilize the NetWare business and stop it leaking users.
This will be followed by the ultimate aim: putting the assets acquired into practice and getting Novell growing again.
This article was based on material originally published by ComputerWire.
