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Welcome to virtuallinux.org. You are currently reading the article "Novell vows to keep fighting Microsoft 'juggernaut'". All articles on virtuallinux.org pertain to the ongoing assult on the worlds greatest Operating system. Continue on reading about "Novell vows to keep fighting Microsoft 'juggernaut'"
Novell vows to keep fighting Microsoft 'juggernaut'
Posted on Friday, February 16 2007 @ 10:57:24 EST by linuxwiz |
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SYDNEY, Australia--Novell will continue its march against Microsoft
and the Vista operating system despite a recent alliance with the
software giant.
"We're excited by the muted reaction to Vista," Ron Hovsepian, Novell's
chief executive, told the media at a meeting here Thursday. "We're going to attack (Microsoft) vigorously and go after their footprint as much as we can."
Microsoft's Vista was five years in the making, so the code behind it
is very complex, Hovsepian said, whereas open source is more nimble and
flexible. "And we have got to take advantage of that."
Despite Novell's commitment to attack the market on its own terms, Hovsepian acknowledges that there are benefits to its alliance with the software giant. The two companies signed the pact in November and fleshed out details of it this week.
The reality is you can't escape the "Microsoft juggernaut" in the
marketplace, so you have to work with them to get your foot in the
door, Hovsepian said. When you talk to customers, he said, most will
say "I hate Microsoft." Yet those same customers say 60 percent of
their servers run on Windows--not Linux, which Novell backs.
"The closer you get to the customer…you increase the chance of
migrating footprints to Linux," Hovsepian said. "We want to compete
with Microsoft…and then we'll work together once a customer decides
which platform (to run)…It ensures longevity for Novell in the
marketplace."
Linux is a $500 million market, he noted, and growing at the expense of
Unix consolidation. "We have not taken enough from Microsoft," he said.
One significant customer that Novell has taken from Microsoft, however,
is French automaker
PSA Peugeot Citroen. Novell is replacing Peugeot's
Windows systems with 20,000 Suse Linux desktops and 2,500 servers.
The Peugeot win was considerable.
Yet market share issues still played a role in Novell's decision to
join hands with longtime bitter enemy Microsoft, despite Novell's
claims that it was purely customer driven.
"It was not a deal that Novell had to make," Hovsepian said. However,
it was definitely made to create more market momentum; and it was a
deal that seemed to resonate with the customers, he added.
"We did not sign a patent cross-license agreement with Microsoft. That
has been one of the confusion points out there. What we agreed to was
you will not sue our customers and we will not sue your customers for
any of our products," Hovsepian said.
"That is what we agreed to--a covenant not to sue our customers. That
is where some of the confusion and rhetoric has been generated in the
marketplace. So are we really clear? Microsoft can sue us, and we can
sue Microsoft tomorrow."
The threat of legal action, real or otherwise, had hindered Linux deals in the marketplace, according to Hovsepian.
He said that Novell had lost Linux deals with four Fortune 500
customers to Microsoft over concerns about intellectual property.
Looking at the losses beforehand, he said, the deal with Microsoft
"makes sense."
The pact with Microsoft has certainly helped in the three months
following the signing, Hovsepian said. The software maker has honored
its contractual commitments by hiring sales staff and dedicating money
to marketing. The companies are also working together on an
interoperability lab.
More importantly for Novell, "big wins" have started to roll in,
further justifying Novell's decision to enter into an agreement on
"coopetition," or a blend of cooperation and competition, with its foe.
Novell claims that about 35,000 Suse Linux support certificates have
been sold since the deal was signed.
Yet Hovsepian remains wary. He marks the progress every day. "I have to, because it's a big deal for Novell," he said.
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