Two weeks after Novell released software that lets users run its stack of computing services on either the NetWare or Linux kernel, members of the NetWare faithful cited widely varying plans for migrating their servers to Linux.

Some attendees at the software vendor's BrainShare user conference here said they're in no rush to move to SUSE Linux, the distribution of the open-source operating system that Novell acquired in January 2004. But others are starting to dabble with Linux, and some are eager to take the plunge right away.

"Once Novell was behind (Linux), it was an easy decision," said Roger Fenner, infrastructure services manager at Comair Holdings. "I not only trust the Linux platform, but I really trust Novell's handling of the Linux platform."

Comair beta-tested Novell's new Open Enterprise Server (OES) software and began running it in production on one file server, using Linux, shortly after the product's March 10 release. Fenner said that Comair's IT team will soon begin making plans to migrate all of the company's 20 NetWare servers to Linux.

But W.W. Grainger, a distributor of facilities maintenance products, is content for now to move some of its Unix-based application servers to SUSE Linux. Migrating the company's NetWare servers to Linux isn't a high priority, said Dave Zeck, group manager of applications administrative services.

'Spot' treatment

Darin Field, an IT programmer/analyst at Saskatchewan Government Insurance, said the Canadian insurer will probably stay on NetWare when it moves to OES in about two years. In the meantime, Field said, he expects to deploy Linux in "little spots" to test it out.

Novell has no further plans to release NetWare as a stand-alone product, said Ed Anderson, the company's vice president of platforms product marketing. But it will continue to update and support the NetWare kernel as part of OES, Anderson added.

Statistics compiled by IDC show that NetWare's worldwide market share dropped from 13 percent in 2001 to 10.7 percent in 2002 and 8.1 percent in 2003. Figures haven't been released for 2004, but NetWare shipments likely declined again, said IDC analyst Dan Kusnetzky.

Novell isn't relying solely on OES and SUSE Linux to offset the decline in NetWare sales. At BrainShare, the company said that next month it plans to ship a new version of its ZENworks suite, which will let users manage Windows desktops from Linux servers.

Novell plans to upgrade its GroupWise messaging software this summer, and it's also pushing its so-called identity-driven computing offerings.

"It's a little bit of a seed and harvest strategy," said Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "You get the SUSE base to grow, and you can upsell them on some of the other products."

Novell appears to be making headway courting some users of rival Red Hat's Linux distribution. A retail chain based outside the U.S. that has more than 600 servers running Red Hat Linux plans to shift those systems to SUSE Linux by the end of June in order to reduce the number of vendors it has to deal with, said an IT manager there who asked not to be named.

He added that the retailer will eventually migrate its GroupWise servers and some network-edge servers from NetWare to SUSE Linux as part of a move from Dell systems to fault-tolerant IBM hardware. But first the applications have to become available for Linux on systems based on IBM's Power 5 processors, he said.

Novell CEO predicts backlash against Microsoft

With NetWare usage continuing to decline, Novell made Linux and "identity-driven computing" the focal points at last week's BrainShare user conference. In an interview with Computerworld, Jack Messman, Novell's chairman and CEO, spoke about the software vendor's strategy and its efforts to court Windows users.

CW: It has been about 14 months since Novell acquired SUSE Linux. In what ways has the acquisition helped the most?

JM: It allowed us to change the strategy of the company to focus on Linux and identity. We (already) had the identity products in the house. But we weren't being very successful knocking on doors and trying to talk about identity.

And now with Linux, we get in the door to talk about Linux, and then we tell them about our identity products and they say, "Oh, I didn't know you did that." A lot of people had sort of written Novell off because they didn't know where the NetWare product-line migration was going to take us.

CW: You just released Open Enterprise Server, which combines NetWare and Linux. How's the battle to offset the decline in NetWare revenue going?

JM: Our (total) revenue's been flat, and that is a combination of the NetWare revenues going down and the other products growing. We've been able to offset the NetWare decline. But with the OES product, if we can get that decline to zero or starting to grow (again), then we'll see a significant upside in our revenue growth rates.

CW: Many NetWare users migrated their file and print workloads to Windows. Do you think that you can get any of those customers back?

JM: Yeah. The market went through a period where they wanted best of breed, and they knew that if they bought a best-of-breed product, they had to integrate it themselves. Then they got to the point where good enough was OK. And of course, many of the Microsoft things were good enough.

I think that this Linux thing is going to catch on. There's going to be a backlash against Microsoft. I think people are tired of the high prices, the licensing arrangements, the heavy handedness. And they want choice. I mean, choice is a very valuable commodity. In many cases today, we're finding that we are being used -- we being Linux, not just Novell -- by customers to get Microsoft to the bargaining table to talk about price.

But you need to get them to convert, too. That's true, ultimately, but some of them will convert. Many people say, "Well, I don't want to switch from Windows to Linux. That's a migration. I don't want to do a migration." What they don't understand is down the road, they're going to have to migrate from Windows to Longhorn, and that might be a bigger migration than going from Windows to Linux.

CW: What about the rumors that have resurfaced about Novell being an acquisition target?

JM: If somebody wants to make our shareholders a bid, then they have the right to do that. But we're not out actively looking to sell the company, not at this point. I mean, look at what we've got. We've got two good strategies going here.

CW: Novell's number-two executive, Chris Stone, left in November, and now Chief Technology Officer Alan Nugent is departing. What happened there?

JM: It would be unfair to comment on a personal matter with Chris Stone or Alan. I like both those guys, but for whatever reasons, we had to part, and I can't say anything, by agreement with them.