A Novell executive Wednesday told eWEEK that the Provo, Utah, company has no plans of cutting NetWare development in favor of Linux, as some reports had indicated.
Chris Stone, vice chairman of the company, said NetWare will continue in maintenance mode, comments Novell officials said were taken out of context.
"Were into Linux, thats why were here," said a Novell executive, who asked not to be identified. "Thats why we bought Ximian. And we said that with Version 7.0 youll have a choice of either upgrading to the NetWare base or moving to Linux. But with $400 million of our revenue in NetWare, that would be ridiculous for us to abandon development on it."
Bruce Lowry, top spokesman for Novell, said, "The bottom line is no. The whole thing with Linux is an additive thing. Were not dumping NetWare, were adding Linux."
"We have also announced that NetWare 7.0 is in development, that it will run on both the NetWare and Linux kernels, and that we will have more to say on it when it is appropriate. This is hardly a sign of reduced commitment. NetWare is not going away. Period," Messman said in his statement.