Update on Novell’s Internal Linux Move

Two days ago, I’d wondered about Novell’s Internal Linux Move, on the sidelines of an article about such an announcement by IBM. In an interview with ZDNet UK, Novell’s MD in the UK told readers to watch out for announcements on that front at Novell’s Brainshare 2004 Convention in March last year.

Today, I hit pay dirt. Here’s an April 2004 interview with Novell’s CIO, Debra Anderson, (interestingly enough, also by ZDNet UK), which focusses almost entirely on this internal migration. Debra admits that a significant motivation for the migration was perception - Novell wanted to be seen as “eating its own dog food” - something that Microsoft is very proud of. Also, the migration strategy seemed to be to first use OpenOffice across the organisation - on Windows - and only later migrate fully to Linux. Novell also won’t be upgrading any Windows desktops they already have:

How is it working out winding up the Microsoft licences you do have – are they making that an easy thing for you to do?

It’s interesting you ask that — we just concluded our licences in March. That was our annual contract with Microsoft and we terminated the Microsoft OS and Office enterprise licence.

That was across the entire organisation?

What that means is that for all the OSes I have, I do not have upgrade rights. Now I still have perpetual use for the set number of Microsoft Office clients I purchased

I also stumbled upon a couple of March 2004 articles from Brainshare 2004 on - where else - ZDNet UK! Here’s an interview with Jack Messman himself ( Novell’s chief executive and chairman, for those not in the know). Jack also was in a particularly bombastic mood, declaring “We don’t need no stinkin’ Windows“! Remember, all of this was at Brainshare 2004, held at Salt Lake City between March 21-25 2004. It’s been over three quarters of a year since then. If Novell had indeed made significant progress on their promises, we’d be hearing from them a lot more than the stony silence we’re getting on this issue.

If IBM and Novell, the current flagbearers for Linux in the Enterprise, have both faltered on their own Linux migrations, they’re going to find it very hard to convince customers to do the same, either on the desktop or in the datacentre. There had better be some soundbites at Brainshare 2005 - March 20-25 2005.

Microsoft makes a big show of inviting customers to their Redmond campus to show off their internal usage of the latest in their product line. Gates devoted a large chunk of an entire chapter in his landmark “Business @ The Speed Of Thought” to this claim. Paul Thurrot, professional apologist for Microsoft, often touches upon this in his reports on his website. (Hey, to be fair, I admire his zealousness, and I recommend his website to all Windows enthusiasts!) It’s time IBM and Novell woke up to the need to not only do the Right Thing, but also to be seen doing so.

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Update on Novell’s Internal Linux Move

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