Novell software 4 or 5

[Dustin Decker]

On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

> Those that do tend to harbor an unhealthy IT culture - using Novel is an
> indicitave symptom.
> 
> I'm serious about this - it's one of those litmus tests you can apply to see
> if a company is serious about keeping their IT infrastructure up, or if
> they're just limping along on "it was good enough ten years ago, we've
> always used that".

This could very well be an indication that massive bucks were spent on
Novell some time ago, they like it, and intend to continue using it
without spending even _more_ money right now.  Particularly in the
economic climate we're in, knocking someone for being so thrifty is sort
of "penny wise, pound foolish" if you ask me.

Besides - if it ain't broke, why would you need to fix it?

As for calling those who run Novell (spelled with two L's by the way) 
unhealthy... I guess that's relative, but I'd argue you point for point.  
Bottom line, there is a question that must ALWAYS be asked when 
implementing a system... any system.  "What do you expect it to do?"  If 
the Novell folks ask themselves this question, the answer is the same 
today as it was last week/month/year, then why would you expect them to 
upgrade?  Just because they can?

Don't get me wrong - I'm a hard core geek and I like technology.  But
implementing technology merely for technology's sake is a waste of time
and money in the business world.  Most clients don't appreciate this sort
of behavior - they want you to "make it do XYZ".  

My $.02 on this one...
D.

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