On 5/10/05, L. Mark Stone
No disagreement in principle from me. I just expected more "1+1=3" offerings from Novell/SuSE in the past year. And the one "1+1=3" offering I tried to use I found would work only for new, not existing clients. I think they could have done a better job there. Plus, SLES9 unit sales were not up as much as I think anyone expected/hoped, given the backing of Novell's sales force, IBM's support, and all the free publicity from the acquisition.
It would have been nice, but I think Novell's target for the first couple of years was to reassure their netware customer base and make sure that the baby doesnt get thrown out with the bathwater, from what I heared about the brainshare last month thats been done. Now I expect to see a stronger push on the linux market, especially as longwait's release edges closer. NLD10 will likely include all the goodies in 9.3 with extra polish, as well as whatever else Miggy and his merry men come up with in the meantime; although I still maintain that Beagle, although rather clever, is nothing like BFS. As for the SLES9 situation, there have been a number of reasonably big government projects using it, the biggest problem I'm seeing with it is that RH captured the market and hold it with the training schemes. Until the Novell certification schemes gain parity with RH's, the pointy haired ones are going to stick with what they know, regardless of quality, features or tools. Best, Ben