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The section on Netware's current status goes on about their decline and seemingly only indicated it was because of Microsofts marketing. To me this section reeks of a "poor loser" mentality and excuses of a pro Netware author. It also goes on to say how subjective remarks like the Windows alternative was less reliable and more expensive.
I think an improvement would be to actually give MS some credit as the market really changed when Windows 2000 with its own directory service (Active Directory) with also the option of running the new Exchange 2000 that was integrated with AD (unlike Exchange 5.5) which gave potential clients some very good reasons for considering switching. I was the IT manager at a college and I know switching from Netware/Notes to AD/Exchange was a very refreshing change for us - which was also cheaper (albeit at educational pricing) to purchase and maintain.
djambalawa (talk) 03:17, 13 February 2009 (UTC)
This part makes no sense. NDS was a great, easy to use tool. I've worked with a lot of NetWare instalations, and people complain about a lot of things, but not NDS. It was a painless upgrade from bindery, and much more useful. Much better than NT Domains. I'm removing this part190.10.22.214 21:30, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
IIRC NDS was the very best thing Novell has ever made. And it still is, now called eDirectory, abbrev. eDir. Very scalabe and reliable. IMHO still today much more robust and scalable product related with AD or the Domain model. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.63.70.206 (talk) 09:04, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
I think may be worthy to consider that NDS was being viewed by some (at least when it comes to forced upgrade) as an unnecessary over-complication (as it already was mentioned that small businesses resisted NDS, so this probably should be moved under the strategy section.) Thus regarding to this, someone probably should add information about Netware Migration Agent for including bindery servers under NDS.
Frankly, I think this is more of an important issue than trivial things like "new users preferred GUI," which again doesn't make much sense considering that the console part is dealt by netops anyway and users who "preferred GUI" probably didn't install servers. If anything, there seemed to be a sentiment against the newer Java based ConsoleOne and GUI Nwadmin and a nostalgia for SYSCON and NETADMIN (In the 9th edition of Upgrading and Repairing PCs I believe it was mentioned that it was really a shame Netware moved from a text sufficient server to one that required graphics.) Furthermore, does anyone have any evidence of DOS partition being a real issue? If you CAN install a Netware server then creating a DOS partition probably isn't an issue. I have even seen Netware 5 packaged with bootdisks that do this for you.
the section on the technical reasons for NetWare's decline is too lengthy, and too pedantic. There are numerous technical reasons which could be advanced for the rise and fall of any product. You don't need to mention them all. Maybe some people thought "SYS" was confusing as a default mapped drive - maybe, but who cares? It's too trivial. That section should be shortened, and the point about the difficulty of drives being resized cut out altogether. This article is not the place to go into such details. 210.48.84.234 06:31, 24 April 2007 (UTC)retroguy
The closing statement in this article makes a conclusion and has an almost accusatory tone, yet there are no supporting references. I have added a peer review request regarding this.
The offending statement was removed some time ago.
As I recall, shortly after Novell's acquisition of Ximian and SuSE, they announced on their web site that 6.x would be the last version of NetWare. No proof, but can anyone corroborate this? -- Enigmatick 22:50, 23 August 2006 (UTC)
NetWare v4.x, released in 1995, does not support TCP/IP for NCP communications. It does support TCP/IP for services such as FTP, LPR/LPD and the NetWare HTTPD webserver. Novell created NetWare/IP, called NWIP, which could encapsulate IPX into TCP/IP packets and provided a bridge from IPX to TCP/IP for clients. NetWare v4.x is an obsolete and elderly version of NetWare, and was EOLed in 2000. The current product is OES-NetWare.
Novell has stated that NetWare v6.5 is end-of-the-line for "traditional" NetWare. The NetWare product line has been succeeded by Open Enterprise Server, which offers the same services atop either a NetWare or a Linux kernel.
Novell has stated that only the Linux kernel would be enhanced and developed and that NetWare "upgrades" are a move to Linux, not newer versions of NetWare. For example, the following will only run on the Linux kernel of OES and will never run on the NetWare kernel:
- Multiple instances ("virtual directories") of eDirectory v8.8 - iFolder 3.x - JVM 1.5x and above - 64-bit support - Future "versions" of NetWare will run as a "virtual machine" on XEN on Linux
In line with the above section referring to the Linux kernel, while "OES NetWare" really refers to "NetWare as included with Open Enterprise Server," it is not yet another NetWare version, nor does it represent further development of the NetWare platform. This section - particularly referring to OES 2.0 - implies that NetWare was moved to a 64-bit kernel (or an entire 64-bit archtecture) which is wholly inaccurate. NetWare as included with OES is 32-bit NetWare 6.5, no more, no less. OES has the ability to run it virtualized - as a 32-bit guest on a 32-bit or 64-bit hypervisor - but still as 32-bit. Likewise, iFolder 3.x never shipped as a NetWare component; iFolder 3.x was only ever available under the OES Linux kernel, again, as referenced above.
In short, the entire OES section should come out except as it pertains to the virtualization of NetWare 6.5 and the included licensing for NetWare with OES. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beckysdad (talk • contribs) 03:45, 12 February 2019 (UTC)
How about describing the present product first, and the history later?
In the Early Years section, there is this comment: "Prior to the 80286 CPU, servers were based on either the Intel 8086/8088 or Motorola 68000 8-bit processors that were limited to 640k RAM and lacked pre-emptive multi-tasking". The 68000 is neither 8-bit, nor limited to 640kb ram. Don't want to edit myself, as unsure if this error is due to confusion between the 68000 and the 6800 or if someone's assumed the attributes of the 8086/8088 apply to the 68k too.
Also, being pedantic, the 8086/8088 aren't limited to 640kb of RAM, rather the original IBM PC architecture imposed this limit.
Davidprior 21:28, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
Does anyone have access/links to articles regarding the origins of SuperNOS/Gemini? Specifically, during the period around 1992-1993, even prior to the Unix deal, there was a lot of noise from Novell about moving NetWare's services to a stable app server kernel. I remember this clearly because the kernel that was being discussed was the first time I'd ever heard the name "Linux" (it's truly ironic that that failed decision has now come full circle...) I want to add some info about this, but without citations it's going get serious scrutiny/criticism. EJSawyer 05:53, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
Nothing is said about the lack of compilers, materials and support for developing for the Netware platform. It has improved greatly but was an extremely closed group. Administrators were prisoner to the few apps available from 3rd parties.
"Novell servers could be assembled using any brand system with an Intel 80286 or higher CPU, any MFM, RLL, ESDI, or SCSI hard drive and any 8-bit or 16-bit network adapter, subject to availability of suitable drivers."
Great, but what is MFM, RLL, and ESDI??? Now I googled them all and found out, but us younger folks have no idea what these mean without further explanation. Perhaps they should be explained or at least be given a link to follow. I would even say you could change this to avoid using these terms at all. I won't change it due to my lack of knowledge of 80's computer equipment and Netware, but maybe someone should look at it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.93.155.35 (talk) 14:42, 9 May 2007 (UTC).
MFM and RLL are different VERY old ways to "talk" to the precedors of the later IDE disks. IIRC the encoding of data on the physical disk was done in totally different way. The controllers for RLL and MFM disks were different an 100% incompatible, there I'm sure.
Basically this might be a CITE from a NetWare 2.2 whitepaper. This should be moved to some "museum / history section", as in these days it WAS remarkeble that an OS was supporting any available disk type on the market. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.63.70.206 (talk) 09:01, 27 September 2007 (UTC)
It lists the strategic mistakes as starting around 1995, and then in the next sentence lists FreeBSD and Linux as viable alternatives. FreeBSD 4 didn't rear it's ugly head until 2000 (according to wiki), and I am not entirely convinced linux was all the rage in 1995 either. I don't know that the article intends to say that these OSes were popular in 1995, but the wording is unclear. 69.143.88.44 (talk) 06:13, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
Even if you decide to run NetWare 6.5 without a bootable DOS partition, the DOS partition will still be created and the OS loads files from that partition during boot. BTW, is there a list over all released versions of NetWare?
Ximalas (talk) 08:11, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
I'm not so sure that I remember anybody complaining about the DOS partition at all. I honestly don't believe it was an overbearing factor. --210.185.71.34 (talk) 05:20, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
Late adoption of a GUI and a more publicly accepted programing environment were probably the two biggest failures. Java capability came along in version 5 and by then the Windows environment was embeded on every school kids desktop. If you were learning how to program it was windows that you were programming, not NLMs (Netware Loadable Modules). Writing for Windows95 was not too much different to writting for Windown NT. Subsequently Microsoft, like Linux later, had itself armies of programmers developing meaningful applications for their server platform to run. On the other hand, with only a few exceptions, Novell was left to develop its own applications for Netware servers. Jave popularity came eventually but Windows and Linux could run that too, so as I see it, Java provided no strategic advantage to Novell. --210.185.71.34 (talk) 05:20, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
The artice suggests that Netware is a Network Operating System. However the Network Operating System article itself says that it is not. So what is it? --210.185.71.34 (talk) 05:41, 9 June 2009 (UTC)
what is netware —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.97.96.37 (talk) 14:42, 17 July 2009 (UTC)
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Please see the bold or in the following passage:
".. long name support (standard filenames were limited to 8 characters plus a three letter extension, matching MS-DOS) or Macintosh style files."
or / for? --Vssun (talk) 11:50, 17 August 2012 (UTC)
See the section NetWare 4.1x and NetWare for Small Business: Novell begins to recover. I think the section title is inappropriate as the section following the above one (NetWare 5.x) says that NetWare 5 was released during a time when NetWare market share dropped precipitously. --Vssun (talk) 08:09, 20 August 2012 (UTC)
1.) It would be nice to have a table of versions like wikipedia has for Linux and MS Software. There were differences from Netware/286 and Netware 2.15; Netware 3.0, 3.1, 3.11 (support for 4.0), 3.12 (supported 4.11), 3.2; Netware 4.0, 4.02, 4.1, 4.11, 4.12, 4.2; etc. 2.) Note no native IP support in release 4.0; IPX encapsulated in IP until 4.2 3.) Java console in 5 was very slow 4.) Artisoft Lantastic but also ("LAN Manager client" or "MS Client" then) Workgroup Add-on for MSDOS and Banion Vines 5.) I added Novell's sale, "Novell, Inc." implies a robust independent company. Attachmate split Netware and SUSE Linux divisions (strongly supported by IBM; IBM devices like cash registers use SUSE images). Fate of Netware and support of Netware users is not guaranteed. 6.) No note of Novell Small Business Server; the redirect comes here with no information but the Microsoft Small Business Server has its own article. Like MS SBS had lower cost of entry. Shjacks45 (talk) 13:32, 27 June 2013 (UTC)
Note: This is about a recent reverted edit to a redirect that targets NetWare
To editor Matthiaspaul: I was the one who added to the rcat text: "or it might be an old section header anchored within the new header to prevent link breaks," with this edit less than a month ago. Before that, it just read, "to an anchored part of a page on the subject, other than a section." And I was wrong to change that sentence. The category's caveat is clear – it is only for anchors that are not in or near section headers. Before I just tweaked that caveat, its previous wording was, "Caveat: This category and its template are not meant to tag ((Anchors))
located within or at (just before or after) a section title of an article. Use ((R to section)) for such links to Anchors." So again, I was wrong to change the text at R to anchor that allowed it to include section-header anchors. Those types of anchor redirects should be tagged with R to section, but not with R to anchor. That is why I reverted my previous edit at the R to anchor template, and that is why I made the edit to this redirect, ".vlm", that targets a section of this NetWare article. So please revert your revert of my self-revert and let's make things right again. – Paine Ellsworth CLIMAX! 00:03, 12 March 2014 (UTC)
PS. Thank you for restoring the Redr template on the redirect. Now we just need to use R to section rather than R to anchor. This redirect targets a section header, so R to section is the correct rcat to use. PS added by – Paine Ellsworth CLIMAX!
((r to renamed section))
?Which one was early NetWare running on? The article says 68000 in one place and 6800 in another. They're not at all the same thing. -- 89.182.220.207 (talk) 11:12, 22 April 2014 (UTC)
I've just done some edits, adding some references, and moving some material about to keep the story a bit clearer. More needs to be done though... Snori (talk) 07:42, 3 September 2014 (UTC)
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One thing this article fails to mention is the size of the client footprint. In the days of the DOS operating system (which includes Windows until 3.0), the available memory was a paltry 640K. Novell had a massive advantage here with a client footprint of about 60K, Microsoft LanManager was 120K with minimum features or 200K with full features. 120/200K meant that there wasn't enough room for other applications to run rendering LanManager as useless. This was the primary reason why Novell established such a dominant position in the early days. This dominance made them arrogant and they didn't innovate sufficiently to stay competitive in the post DOS memory era. the one innovation they did create was NDS which was a great concept and product and they could have done more with it.
In the section about NetWare v4, there was a statement:
The upgrade was not without its flaws – initially NetWare 4 could not coexist with earlier versions on the same network because of incompatibilities.
That is not correct. I personally ran a mixed NetWare v3/v4 environment.
139.138.6.121 (talk) 07:38, 4 July 2021 (UTC)