Oracle to buy Novell?

I’m not quite sure how I feel about this.

That would make two of my former employers swallowed up by Oracle (PeopleSoft and Novell). At first glance, I didn’t like the thought of Larry Ellison having any type of influence in Happy Valley. But as I considered this more and more, I realized that it might be a really good move for Novell employees.

For years, Novell has been known for mis-steps in the computer industry. With the resources Novell has had in the past and the intellectual property it has aquired, it should be a very profittable and powerful company. But rather than power and prestige, Novell has become known as a magnet for bad aquisitions and extremely poor management.

When I first started there (Sept 2001), the first thing my wife said was something to the affect of, “Well we will just try this job out for a while until they lay you off.” It’s just something you expect when you work at Novell. It used to be an annual thing. Everyone would just expect that come annual end of year financials reports, there would be a layoff to bring costs more in line with revenue. Interestingly enough, many get re-hired.

There’s another side to this story that I am probably more interested in than what happens in the community. It’s the fact that with Oracle backing/owning Linux (SUSE Linux to be specific — which I use at home and work) it will (hopefully) grow by leaps and bounds and even more resources will be dedicated to improving the operating system. I’m all for that!

I guess we will see what happens. Usually if Larry Ellison mentions it, he’s considering it. And if he wants it, he usually gets it. No matter how long it takes.