Microsoft, Novell Wrangle over NetWare Migration

Wow 3.3 Million customers from Novell to Microsoft … maybe this says something about the uptake of SuSe or Linux in general ?

… Just as the Novell BrainShare conference gets under way, Microsoft is claiming that it has migrated 3.3 million customers off NetWare and onto Windows over the past two years.

The software giant, based in Redmond, Wash., has also launched a new program to lure customers in the education and state and local government sectors off NetWare and onto Windows.

This battle underscores the larger war going on between the two companies for customers. Microsoft is aggressively trying to lure NetWare customers on to its proprietary Windows platform, while Novell is trying to convince them to move to its Open Enterprise Server, which it says protects the prior investment they made in NetWare while extending the freedom and flexibility of Linux.

This is not the first time that Microsoft has released figures for migration off Novell’s NetWare and onto Windows during BrainShare, with the apparent goal of diverting attention away from Novell’s conference news.

Last year during BrainShare, Microsoft announced with its partner Quest Software that they had successfully migrated more than 1.5 million Novell NetWare users to Microsoft Windows Server 2003. …


Read on : eWeek.com