Although Novell’s Linux and identity management businesses grew about 25 to 30 percent during the company’s most recent quarter, Wall Street isn’t impressed. Shares in Novell are slumping today because Novell’s long-term outlook isn’t too compelling.
All the hype and momentum from the Novell-Microsoft Linux partnership appears gone. Apparently, investors and customers alike are beginning to realize that Red Hat, rather than Novell, is the Linux market leader.
How big is Red Hat’s lead? The VAR Guy spoke to a major integrator that supports both Red Hat and Novell SuSE Linux. According to this source, Red Hat Linux outsells Novell’s SuSE Linux on North American servers by a margin of at least 4 to 1, and in some cases, 9 to 1.
But let’s not bury Novell. Competition in the Linux market is a good thing. And Novell’s Linux sales continue to grow — just not as fast as Wall Street would like.
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