from the Linux Journal Suit Watch column:
Back to Novell. I've known the company for a long time, since nearly the beginning. I even consulted for them for a while. I think Novell gets scant credit for a number of huge innovations, starting with changing the network conversation from an argument between proprietary locked-in silos to an agreement around the need for a roster of interoperable services, including file, print, security, directory, management, messaging and so on.The Novell people responsible for changing that conversation, Craig and Judith Burton, are two of my best friends. In fact, we became friends because I was an extreme fan of the jujitsu moves they put on everybody else in the market at that time. It was amazing to watch. Remember Digital's OmniNet? Wang's WangNet? 3Com's 3Server? IBM's Token Ring? Ungermann-Bass' NetOne? How about Microsoft's MSNet? Remember the whole debate between fat and thin Ethernet cabling? Or the various expensive proprietary forms of wiring IBM wanted you to buy to replace whatever it was your company already had spent hundreds of thousands to pull through your buildings? No?
Thank Novell. They blew all that up. They played rope-a-dope with everybody else in the category, and when it was over Novell was King Network Rat, in spades. Nobody else even was in the game.
Then, somewhere along in there, Novell CEO Ray Noorda turned into Captain Ahab and Bill Gates became his Great White Whale. Ray wanted to kill Microsoft. For that he bought WordPerfect, so he could compete in office suites. He bought UNIX from AT&T and rebranded it UnixWare, so he could compete in operating systems. He bought Digital Research so he could get DR-DOS and needle Microsoft about ripping it off. Worst of all, he got rid of Craig and Judith. When he retired, he left a company with a roster of moribund acquisitions and a huge legacy business that continues to sustain it to this day.
