When Novell purchased SuSE Linux a few years back everybody thought this was Novell’s way to become relevant again. For those of you who weren’t around, there was a time when Netware ruled the market. That was until Microsoft attacked with their Windows NT product and crushed Netware like so many other competitors.

Netware however managed to hang on. Those who used it, loved it and either chose to stay with it until they couldn’t hang on any longer. The idea of a Netware resurgence just wasn’t in the cards. Challenging Microsoft has proven fatal for many companies, that is until a man named Linus wrote that infamous email asking for help with his little personal project. That project became Linux, and for once there seemed to be a real chance to break the Microsoft monopoly. In fact, while publicly bashing Linux, Microsoft used Linux and the Open Source movement in their defense against the anti-trust suits that were brought against them.

Getting back to Novell, many people saw the SuSE acquisition as the end of Netware. With a new OS in town, they old one’s time seemed limited. At Novell’s Brainshare 2005 the message was, Netware is not dead! Netware will not die! Long live Netware! The Brainshare technical sessions that year were full of disgruntled Netware admins trying to learn Linux, all the while bitching and griping about how much better Netware is. They saw the writing on the wall. They new that Netware was dead. With Novell porting all their Netware apps to Linux and calling it Open Enterprise Server is was obvious. Contrary to the keynote, Netware was dead. If you go to the Netware website today, there is NO MENTION of Netware on the homepage. You have to go to the “N” section of their product list to find it.

OK, so Netware’s dead. What next?

To be continued….