Novell Enters the "Hall of the Walking Dead"

During my daily scan of the newswires and other information sources I came across some coverage of Novell's Brainshare conference and I just reminisced about when Novell was the king of the hill. 

At the risk of dating myself, back in the early 1990's Novell was the big thing. Yes, bigger than Microsoft. They dominated a market for network operating systems and many folks (myself included) scrambled to get a CNE (Certified NetWare Engineer) because that was the path to prosperity. I actually owe my first networking consulting job to my ability to converse about NetWare, so I have fond memories of those days.

Those days are long gone. How the mighty have fallen.

NetworkWorld ran a story today called "Does Novell Still Have Mindshare?" Read it here. The answer is clearly no. Ever since Microsoft turned its target on dominating the network operating system world with a small product called Windows NT, Novell has constantly been marginalized. They've gone through more reincarnations than Shirley MacLaine, and now are trying to be an Open Source and Identity Management (IDM) software provider. But to say anything besides that they've failed miserably in everything they've tried since NetWare is to obscure the truth.

This week they announced a new IDM suite at their annual conference of irrelevance and some stuff they are doing with the Linux desktop. Guess these guys have delusions of grandeur that they will take back the desktop from Microsoft. Get me some of the stuff they are smoking.

The sad thing is everything I've heard about their technology has been positive. The directory is still strong, the management stuff works, and the IDM products leverage everything to provide a strong offering. But it doesn't matter because it's still Novell.

So Novell now officially joins the "Hall of the Walking Dead" with 3Com. These are the players of long ago that still have lots of money, but such tarnished brands that no self-respecting end user would make any of them a key part of the infrastructure. They buy some stuff and try new things, but the end result always seems the same. Mediocrity. Irrelevance. Failure.

Speaking of a lot of money, Novell still has $1.7 BILLION dollars. They'll be able to walk aimlessly for a long long time. One man's opinion is that they (and their shareholders) would be much better served by giving up the ghost. Sell the technology assets to a vendor that could actually use them and distribute the cash to shareholders. 

Yes, it's harsh. But would you put your reputation and career on the line and make a huge commitment to Novell today? Not a chance. That's what I thought.