Novell is adding open-source capabilities to NetWare but has effectively conceded that its once-dominant network operating system will no longer compete with Windows or Linux.

Chris Stone, Novell vice chairman, said the company would increasingly focus on directories. "There are two main platforms that will exist in five years' time: Microsoft and Linux," Stone said. "There is a perception that [NetWare] is a legacy environment. Do [we] throw money and technology into that environment, or do [we] take the value and put it into others?"

The firm will make tools such as the Apache Web server and Tomcat and JBoss application servers available with NetWare 6.5 this month. And in the next 18 months Novell will offer file-and-print and other elements of NetWare as services that can run on Linux.

Some users welcomed the latest moves. Alan MacDonald, network service manager at Stirling Council, said, "If Novell is making its stuff more open, that's great."

Paul Gardner of the Novell Users Association, said, "People are not likely to consider NetWare in a new environment when Microsoft has all the [marketing] clout and Linux is [so] cost-effective."

A source close to Novell said the firm has focused on services since it acquired Cambridge Technology Partners in 2001: "From what I hear, the Cambridge set has taken over. They're more concerned with the consulting side and a number of people wonder if they still understand software."

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