On Monday 17 April 2006 04:53 pm, Chuck Davis wrote:
On 4/17/06, Chuck Davis
wrote: This whole discussion is nonsense. What is the motive?
Rather than nonsense, it makes total sense. I see Oracle buying Novell over Red Hat or any another distro. Here's why (similar things to what I mentioned on /. this morning)... 1. Novell has a World-Class enterprise server management product - ZenWorks - which has some name-recognition and a decent customer base. 2. Novell and Oracle are already partnering on the Accelerator service (http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?id=572) so are familiar with each other. "Oracle and Novell share a common vision of providing a low-cost, high-performance computing platform for world-class enterprise data centers", said Dave O'Neill, group vice president, Oracle Technology Business Unit. "In combination with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell, we provide our customers with grid infrastructure including Oracle Database 10g, Oracle Real Application Clusters, Oracle Application Server 10g and Oracle Grid Control to support the demands of a modern business." 3. Novell has a still active base of people - a few of whom I know - who are running NetWare and are putting that together with databases such as Oracle and others. 4. Novell has SUSE Linux and is very active in developing both Gnome (with the traitor Miguel De Icaza on the payroll) and KDE. In addition, they've got GroupWise and Evolution. Plus, SUSE is recognized both on the desktop (by us geeks) and on the server. Look at IBM and HP, who both certify running SLES on their high-end servers and even Mainframes. (My ex-employer had SLES running next to MVS and Z/OS on the z890 mainframe.) 5. Novell is in a less-than-optimal situation. They are floundering a bit trying to get a foothold in the enterprise market. That shows a company ripe for the picking. Novell's stock is hovering between $5 and $8 a share. (Aside from today's bump.) This in comparison to the leader - Red Hat - who probably doesn't even want to be bought. Their stock is in the high $20's a share, even with today's drop due to the news. 6. Novell has a Chameleon named Geeko. 'nuff said. <snip>
One other thought. IF it turns out Novell actually holds the copyrights to Unix THAT could be a motvie for buying Novell since Solaris is the 64 bit platform of choice for Oracle. Oracle has a vested interest in making sure MS doesn't buy Unix by picking up the pieces of either a decimated SCO or weakened Novell. Only time will tell.
Hehe - that's an interesting point.
Ultimately the GNOME boys in charge at Novell are going to kill SUSE Linux as we've come to love it anyway.
Do tell us how you REALLY feel, Chuck. Don't hold back, now... :P -- kai - www.perfectreign.com www.livebeans.com - the new NetBeans community 43...for those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.