Posted on 11/08/2005 5:21:55 AM PST by Golden Eagle
For big companies that want to use the Linux operating system and get business-level support, there are only two main options: Red Hat Inc. and Novell. And one of those looked shaky last week.
After two years of refocusing, reinvention, and restructuring, Novell is reducing its staff by 10% to save money and suggesting that a change in CEO may be on the horizon. It's all part of trying to deliver on the growth promised when the company staked its future on open-source software in 2003. Novell's profits were up substantially between fiscal 2003 and 2004. But profits have slipped in recent quarters as the company struggles to make gains with its open-source and identity-management technology strategies, while also trying to make its aging NetWare networking platform relevant again.
Novell's cost cutting, which includes dismissing about 600 employees and cutting research-and-development spending, is expected to save the company more than $110 million annually. Roughly half of the layoffs are taking place in North America, while the rest will be spread across the company's worldwide offices.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Ping
To those that like to anonymously add insulting keywords to this post: obviously I've been predicting this all along, and since you were one of those insisting that a "service only" economy is somehow better than a "sales and service" economy, man up and admit it.
It's amazing that a Business can't be a profit center by giving it away, who'd a thunk!? Blackbird.
Kid's will be kid's. Blackbird.
Somehow SuSE Linux was growing and was successful. It was also very good and I used it. Then Novell acquired it and I knew what will be coming. Cutting costs, layoffs and the end of a great distribution.
Modern crop of management has tendency to ruin good things for the sake of short term profit and bonuses.
Odder still are people who volunteer their time and effort so a public company like RedHat, or IBM for that matter, can make a larger profit.
Not to worry. RedChina will be more than happy to supply the necessary programming talent in the future to strip away even those profits.
Thanks. Let me clean this coffee off my monitor now.
I've migrated to Slax, and look forward to their next update which will be based on the latest Slackware release.
Don't lose any sleep over Novell dropping out of the Linux world. Novell has been remarkably lucky to be around into the 21st century. With some very smart techies and way too few decent businessmen - Novell, like DEC, has lurched from one business disaster to the next all due to incompetent, inbred management.
IBM invests well over $100M per year in Linux development, the worldwide Linux development community invests between $500M and $1B in total on Linux each year - there is more than enough Linux development going on to keep it viable. Even Microsoft gets revenue from it. Don't kid yourself, even if Linux is 'free', there is plenty of money being made off of Linus Torvalds' little 'gift' to the IT world. Only the most naive think Open Source code means no one isn't raking in a nice profit.
So then its your position that this ahs more to do with Suse being OSS and less to do with Novell management? To put it another way are you saying that OSS software can not make a profit?
Ummm NO, there are not only two main options... Ever hear of IBM?
"Don't lose any sleep over Novell dropping out of the Linux world. Novell has been remarkably lucky to be around into the 21st century. With some very smart techies and way too few decent businessmen "
For part of my career I was a Netware/Groupwise administrator. Novell software was top shelf stuff about 10 years ago. But, they lost focus, lost direction. Once they started bleeding, it was too late. The tech talent jumped ship and what was left was incompetent management with inadequate tech talent.
I don't understand why tech companies refuse to focus on what they do well, and constantly look to expand. Novell wanted to "take over the world" by putting NDS on everything. They ignored their core competency, and failed.
But, this is Free Republic, so I'm compelled to say: < sarcasm> it was the lazy incompetent programmers who wanted to unionize. Management is always right, and if those lousy workers had put in their 80 hours a week, the plan would have worked. Too bad Novell didn't offshore, that would have worked! / < sarcasm>
"Ummm NO, there are not only two main options... Ever hear of IBM?"
You don't seriously consider AIX linux do you?
I do not lose sleep over Novell. I lose sleep over Novell acquiring and downsizing my favored Linux distribution.
Typical predatory freemarketeering business practice. Take over good product, cut costs, get bonuses, wreck, outsource [dump] remains and run.
IBM also supports Linux and in a huge way..
Well said. Management can do not wrong. Keep repeating it.
Heh. I'll be the first one to admit that I'm speaking out of my butt on this topic.
Linux on servers--absolutely necessary, but no need to go with a big company since you can always hire some guru as a network administrator.
Linux on networked/adminstrated desktops for non-developers--absolute failure. Linux isn't a desktop OS and will never be.
Linux on networked/administrated desktops for developers--Don't know how practical it is. You'd have to have a huge company, or have very special developer requirements, or else you could simply hand everyone SSH accounts.
No and Yes. In fact I can show you emails to Corporate types that were hell bent on going from MS to a Novell platform, and my argumnets that it was a losing porposition. It cost me my last IT position, wasn't smart politics on my part, but I was right. As for giving away software, and somehow you can make a profit from that, only in LaLaLand. That in no way states that an OSS can't make a profit, just that you can't give it away and do so. Didn't the dotcom era teach people anything? Blackbird.
I thought IBM was dropping AIX in favor of Linux. Am I wrong?
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