Novell problems and why you should probably stick with Active Directory

Working for an institution that amazingly loves Novell, that is the old guys love Novell while us young guys would love to see it go away, I have learned a thing or two. Novell is buggy, unreliable, horrible, and hates change. Some companies should go the way of the dinosaurs and just go extinct. Novell was founded in 1979 as Novell Data Systems Inc. they started as a computer manufacturer and DOS maker. Novell has acquired many consulting firms and software firms over the years and even made a few deals with Microsoft. This is great and for a company to stick around this long is also amazing, there are only a few software companies that can maintain for so many years. Novell’s background isn’t the problem, Novell is Novell’s problem.
Let’s get a few things straight first, I in no way and a complete fan of any OS or software company, nor have I ever worked for one. My personal experiences and troubleshooting is what gives me these perspectives. I have only dealt with Novell since Windows 2k but have worked with it through XP, 2000 and now Windows 7.

Some of our main problems have stemmed from Novell authentication and hindered our use of other devices like the Fortinet. Novell Zen Works Imaging engine, worked for maybe a full 24 hours before one of the admins had to rebuild it. After rebuilding it every day for about two weeks we’ve decided to use Closezilla (http://Clonezilla.org). Novell’s authentication errors have caused many of our PCs to take close to 30 mins to log in. Our software/hardware inventory program was at its greatest time 2 weeks behind in reporting. Novell’s Windows 7 client is a joke and hardly works, if it works at all. Imaging Windows 7 computers has been fun but when I install the Novell client it becomes a headache.

I will give in and say our Novell Tree structure isn’t the greatest, but a lot of the problems with it could have been prevented if Novell wasn’t so horrible. Changing our tree or fixing the current issues are such a hassle that no one wants to take the challenge of correcting them.

Personally my feelings are that AD is a much better utility and much easier to manage. Active directory is just so much better when it comes to creating and deleting anything. Novell is all over the place when it comes to file placement. Active Directory is a little smarter more intelligent, itll put files together instead of all over the disk or shares.

I would love to see Novell go the way of the dinosaur or the way of the Ford Pinto rather.