🚀 go-pugleaf

 >I am doing research into Novell.  In your opinion, will Windows 95 present a
 >real threat to Novell?  Is Novell positioned well for the next generation of
 >networking products?  Who is their major competitor?  Do you have any
 >information on their groupware and e-mail products?

	Certainly Windows 95 is no threat to Novell.  Windows NT does seek to
compete, but I suspect it will not be a serious challenge.  It seems to me that
Novell's real strength is in its local network server (and transport) operating
system.  As long as networks remain focused on local servers, Novell will reign
supreme, I suspect.  The real challenge will come if the market shifts either down
(toward peer networks) or up (toward integrated wide area networks, particularly
over the Internet).  For what Netware does, nothing else even comes close.  It is
both very stable and very low maintenance.  Not only that, but it permits an
enormous range of computers to communicate, everything from DOS and OS/2-
based PCs to Macs to Unix boxes, requiring a minimum of workstation resources.
At one time, its closest competition was Banyan Vines.  Although frequently
hailed as a superior product, Banyan was apparently never able to produce
a redirector shell as efficient (and as small) as Netx.  These days, IBM and
Microsoft are trying to compete at the high end, while Lantastic is doing a bang-
up job on the peer level.

	As you might tell, I have been using Netware for a long time.  I started
with 2.0a, and migrated to 2.2.  Both of these were absolutely rock-solid.  Never
a second's trouble.  My network was able to run for months with no down time.
I then tried 4.0, which was a disaster (fortunately, I never installed it). 4.01 was
much better, and 4.02 better still.  While still not as rock solid as 2.2, they are
more versatile.  4.1 is supposed to be better yet (we shall see very shortly).