Novell for Sale? Wall Street Journal says so...

This hit the NCCI channel yesterday.  Apparently Novell is getting ready to accept bids to buy up the company.  What?!?  Our beloved Novell is for sale?  Why not just go with the flow and sanctify the old rumor mill by having IBM buy up Novell?

Anyway, to quote the Wall Street Journal:

Novell Inc., which has put itself on the block, plans to accept bids from potential acquirers this week, people familiar with the matter say, kicking off a process that will likely result in a sale of the software company.

While this week is the deadline for interested parties to submit bids, the auction is expected to take longer. A group of finalists will likely be picked from this round of bidders, with final offers due later, the people familiar with the matter said.

Novell spokesman Ian Bruce declined to comment. 

So what is Novell hiding?  They should comment one way or the other.  My boss is already "concerned" about Novell's "viability" (may be a weak attempt to see if I'll cut and run) and is looking at the possibility of moving to all MS - without knowing/realizing the full costs involved in doing so.  While MS on the resume makes for more job ops, I still prefer stuff that works right - and no IT company seems to be able to provide that any more.

In the meantime, GroupWise 8.01 HP1 continues to surprise me with odd issues due to bad code.  Odd memory errors, and really strange things like when clicking on the "Discussion Thread" tab while in a message pops up messages from more than a year that aren't related in any way.

Novell Community Rocks! On-Demand Training does too.

I went off on my once a month trip to get allergy shots and came back to a nice surprise on my desk.  A very kind and generous friend has shipped me a fun new Novell toy in the form of an RC Tesla complete with Novell and KIS logos on them.  KIS is a Platinum Partner of Novell and my friend Allan was at BrainShare this year, so I'm sure he's behind the fun toy.

Besides the fact that the Novell community is rather self-supporting, there is a new push to adopt an Open Horizons format for NUI in some regions.  Norm O'Neal is the force behind this push and behind NUGI (Novell User Group Indiana).  Keep your eyes open if you're in the MidWest for some news on this as wheels are churning in the background at this point.

I've been using the On-demand training offered by Novell for some time now and haven't really talked about it much.  It's actually really effective training, and if you're like me, you have access for free.  It's almost the same as being in the classroom, and for those of us with no Novell classes locally available it is the only training option.  The big benefit is being able to go through the training at your own pace, on your equipment, and on your schedule.  And I can usually listen to the lecture while addressing fires at work without impacting my training too much.  When you have a chance, check it out.  Too bad Microsoft doesn't have something of similar quality that I could mooch.

I'll post pictures of my new toy as soon as I take some.  And I'll be posting things about Teaming 2.1 in the next few weeks.