Andrew Libby

New England

SE

In some respects I think it makes sense for Sun, Novell has a lot to offer. Between Ximian and Suse there is a lot to gain, plus I believe they package Suse on some of their machines. They would gain back some credibility with the Linux community. They would also now have a real Directory, and could start competing with Microsoft in that area. Which is interesting considering how Sun wants to compete with .Net and Novell is building Onenet. The addition of both Red Carpet and Zenworks should be very interesting to Sun. How long do you think it would take them to be deploying updates for Solaris via Red Carpet...

However, I don't think it's worth dropping several billion to try and piss off IBM. That would require a lot of work at Sun and I don't know if they really want to tackle it. There isn't a way that this deal benefits Novell, so I don't see them going for it. I think it's just more FUD by Sun as part of their sleeping arrangement with Microsoft and SCO. If it actually happens Netware dies, Suse might survive (Sun is afraid of Linux), and some stuff will be taken from Novells other offerings.

If they are serious it will be to take a competitor out, and take some of the things the competitor has to improve their own offerings. Novell and Suse will be gobbled up, and that would be a major loss. Considering how Sun has been doing recently if this goes down then it will be bungled horribly.

But that's my 2 cents
Andy