On 11/11/06, Kai Ponte <kai@perfectreign.com> wrote:
We used to run NetWare and ZENworks but like everyone else in the industry we migrated away from NetWare becuase Novell are run but a bunch of idiots who like to screw over their best products.
Funny, I just found out that my retirement association is running eDirectory and has no plans to ever go to AD. Meanwhile, my department is working overtime to migrate from domains to AD.
Don't get me stated on Novell and NetWare. NetWare always was the better product. I think Novell got shafted when they lost business to MS when NT came out. I always was on the side of Drew Major on that one. A GUI has no place on a server. However, people wanted a nice GUI back then. Before my time. However, I was there when Novell lost NetWare 4.x and 5.x business to MS Windows 2000. And Novell pretty much got that they deserve. They were a bunch of snobby a-holes completely out of touch with reality. They really did drop the ball on NetWare somewhere between 5.1 and 6.x. MS came in strong with Windows 2000 server and it was a much better product than Win NT server. And seemed to have gone through leaps and bounds compared to NetWare which kind of seemed the same old thing. MS came in also with the heavy discounts. We told our Novell reps. They said, "oh thats really interesting". They came back and incresed their prices by 25%. Some die hards groups stuck it out with NetWare only to be pleasantly treated to Novell's NetWare client for Windows problems on the windows desktops (lots of MS conspiracy theories on that one) up the yazoo while other groups bit the bullet and became a windows shop and had zilch problems. When the two talked, the NetWare shops happily moved to Win 2003 to get the zilch problems at more than 50% off from what it cost to stay with NetWare. When NetWare was pretty much grasping for it's last breathe of air, Novell used to have Novell Small Business Server with 5 cals, which they gave away for free to partners to push out to SME's. It included the entire NetWare based line. ZEN, groupw, border manager, VOffice the works. I deployed a few of those. You know, it is a much better and robust product than windows based SBS and their windows client has been fixed up, but by then it was too bloody late. The damage was done beyond repair. -- jjgitties, "*We* need to convince OpenSUSE to fork, or let 'em die. To bad, it is a wonderful Distro. But their parent company is NOT our friend."