novels

Novell: Virtualization not for all servers

Not all servers can or should be virtualized, according to Novell cloud chief Moiz Kohari. He urges cloud service providers to focus on making their heterogenous set-ups work as one.

Kohari told ZDNet Asia that virtualization has yet to overcome input/output latency issues at the hypervisor level, as compared with provisioned servers. As a result, he said, virtualization is not the best choice in cases where service providers and businesses need to ensure as little latency as possible--for example, in a stock exchange environment.

With adoption hovering at 20 percent, according to Gartner--though some put it at 5 percent--server … Read more

iPad might breathe life into digital comics

One of the key features of the new Apple iPad is the introduction of Apple's new iBooks application, which promises to be both an e-book reader and a storefront for digital books. This obviously leads to a comparison between the iPad and that other famous e-book reader, the Amazon Kindle. But it seems to me that the only real advantage the iPad might have over the Kindle is that it's in color, which doesn't make much of a difference with simple black-and-white text.

But what about books that depend on color, art, and illustration? Indeed, what about … Read more

Free Linux training to help you get a job

Research shows the demand for Linux talent is on the rise with some firms reporting a 50 percent increase in Linux-related jobs just in the last year. This is certainly good news if you already know how to work with Linux, and perhaps better news if you are looking for a new technical role.

The nonprofit Linux Foundation is looking to help meet this need with an expanded training program that includes a free Webinar series hosted by leading technical talent from the Linux kernel community and expanded classes in new locations around the world.

There are many Linux training … Read more

Novell slapped for impersonating Red Hat

It's no secret that Novell would dearly love to trade market share with Red Hat in the Linux market. Red Hat, however, isn't happy with at least one of Novell's chosen strategies for getting there:

Cloning.

As its white papers allege, Novell thinks it can offer high-quality support for SUSE Linux, the Linux distribution it owns and ships, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), the Linux distribution that it...doesn't. The company has been offering a migration plan from RHEL to SUSE since at least November 2008, but it recently raised the ire of Red Hat … Read more

Commercial open source had very good 2009

2009 was very good for open-source businesses. Sure, there was the very public news of Red Hat's gravity-defying year, along with Novell's SUSE Linux business climbing each quarter, but what of the still-private open-source companies?

It turns out they had much to celebrate, too.

Not every open-source company publicized its progress, but several did:

SugarCRM announced a "record year in terms of revenue, subscriptions and users, adding over 2,000 commercial customers" to bring its total customer base to over 6,000 organizations scattered across 75 different countries. (Disclosure: I am an advisor to the company.) … Read more

Red Hat's Q3 earnings defy gravity

Someone needs to let the folks in Raleigh know we're in a down economy still. While much of the tech market lingers in the doldrums, Red Hat announced another strong earnings report for its fiscal third quarter 2010.

Here are some of the headline numbers:

Revenue of $194 million, an 18 percent increase year-over-year. Subscription revenue topped $164 million, up 21 percent year-over-year (and 85 percent of the company's revenue). Deferred revenue climbed 23 percent year-over-year to hit $619 million. All 25 accounts up for renewal in the quarter renewed, and at 120 percent of value.

Small wonder, … Read more

Ready, set, write!

Scrivener is an excellent, idiosyncratic app for creating and managing complex writing projects, whether you're trying to write a novel, play, TV show, or magazine feature. No simple word processor, Scrivener is a full authoring tool, using a metaphorical "three-ring binder" interface that helps you organize draft text and research documents into a simple system for writing, revising, and rearranging text.

While the basics of Scrivener's interface are intuitive--the system of folders, documents, and index cards on a virtual corkboard--you'll need to invest some time and effort to fully understand all of its features, including … Read more

Novell cuts 3 percent of its workforce, plus benefits

Linux jobs in the United States are booming, up 6 percent since January, according to data from Dice.com. This will come as small consolation to Novell employees, however, which weathered another round of layoffs at the Waltham, Mass.-based company.

According to several sources within the company, and confirmed by Novell's public-relations director, Ian Bruce, Novell last week laid off 100 to 130 people of its roughly 3,900 global employees.

While my sources indicated that the Workgroup division was particularly hard-hit, Bruce told me that the cuts came "across the company, both geographically and productwise."… Read more

Is this how Novell treats its customers?

Technology companies are generally quick to publicly announce and highlight their customer wins. But in what strikes me as a first, Novell has publicized a customer loss, announcing to the world that the City of Los Angeles dropped it for Google Apps, including Gmail, Google Calendar, and Google Docs.

Who at Novell could have possibly thought this was a good idea?

Google recently announced the City of Los Angeles as its latest high-profile customer win for Google Apps, one that reflects growing momentum for the cloud-computing giant's enterprise business. Until Novell's announcement, I had no idea that Los … Read more