After watching the opening keynote of Brainshare 2005, it becomes even more clear that the NetWare kernel is on its way out the door. Support for the NetWare kernel will probably be the same as support for IPX... Novell will do it until the end of time, simply because it needs to. But that doesn't stop it from pushing Linux very hard. All of the product announcements Messman made were Linux oriented in some form. Not a one was Netware-kernel oriented. The speaker that followed Messman was the director of Open Source Development, which just underscored the Linux focus.
Is this the writing on the powerpoint slides?
Novell will continue to develop the current web-based applications that run on NetWare (iManager, NetStorage, VirtualOffice, etc) in the Open Enterprise line. However, partners will develop more and more for Linux since that is a much simpler environment to develop to. One thing that was very telling to me, was the following statement made by Nessman:
Backup is one of those things that really is a mission critical thing. I've already ranted about running backups on NetWare (which is different from backing up NetWare), so I'll save you that rant. This is telling that Novell believes that Linux is strong enough to do mainline backup. It is also telling that Novell didn't think that NetWare was strong enough for that. I was right! Pardon this moment of vindication.
So it looks like the NetWare kernel will still be continued, but it will not be Novell's preferred platform to develop to. The non-Novell products that support NetWare kernel will dry up over the next five years in favor of Linux as a platform.
Is this the writing on the powerpoint slides?
Novell will continue to develop the current web-based applications that run on NetWare (iManager, NetStorage, VirtualOffice, etc) in the Open Enterprise line. However, partners will develop more and more for Linux since that is a much simpler environment to develop to. One thing that was very telling to me, was the following statement made by Nessman:
All of Novell's Windows based backups have been moved to Linux.
Backup is one of those things that really is a mission critical thing. I've already ranted about running backups on NetWare (which is different from backing up NetWare), so I'll save you that rant. This is telling that Novell believes that Linux is strong enough to do mainline backup. It is also telling that Novell didn't think that NetWare was strong enough for that. I was right! Pardon this moment of vindication.
So it looks like the NetWare kernel will still be continued, but it will not be Novell's preferred platform to develop to. The non-Novell products that support NetWare kernel will dry up over the next five years in favor of Linux as a platform.