I responded to David Kearns latest newsletter with the following:

I’m not sure who the “krazy kiwi” is, but I disagree with some of his points.

1. What sort of considerable adjustments? Linux runs eDirectory/NCP/groupwise. It’s not up to NetWare in terms of performance, but there are leaps between OES Linux and OES Linux SP2.
2. Netware has serious memory issues which keep it from being an application server. That’s a huge segment of the server OS market NetWare can’t deal with well.
3. Agreed. But then again, NetWare is a niche platform, while Linux is a jack of all trades.
4. The loyal customers aren’t being ignored. Novell is going to support Netware for years. However, if Novell keeps on going with NetWare as its flagship product, you can kiss the support for NetWare goodbye because Novell will fall of the map.
5. Novell training leaned heavily on eDirectory and generalized network design. The same principals hold true for OES Linux. Plus, NetWare continues to have a place in the server room.
6. The speed is due to many variables. But NSS runs on OES Linux. And they compare fairly well up to a point. Check out the following site for further info: http://myweb.facstaff.wwu.edu/~riedesg/sysadmin1138/2006/09/results-conclusions.html
7. Novell only has enough engineering talent to develop for one NOS. It doesn’t make sense for the company to develop for a product with flagging support and an architecture that would badly need an overhaul.
8. Not sure what that means, Novell hasn’t pushed OES Linux as something innovative as far as the services go. They’re pretty much in parallel with OES NetWare.
9. It’s not cheaper. I believe most license agreements use the two flavors of OES interchangeably.
10. Yes, it does, for certain operations.

Let me mention that I really like NetWare. It just keeps on chugging. But as the requirements for software, storage, and performance keep going up, I don’t believe NetWare is built for the long haul. It would have to be gutted. Why redo the work when a framework is already there for the taking(rather using). I’m happy with the NetWare services running on the linux kernel. They just need to keep improving OES.

I might be off base with some of my points, but I typed this up quickly while downloading VMWare. It’s time to start testing GroupWise 6.5 to GroupWise 7 upgrades.