but by having a better product.

Doesn't work.

I mean, SIMPLY having a better product.

Look at Novell Netware versus NT. NT's not yet even come close to the performance that Netware gives you. Yes, if you buy the BIGGEST HONKING BOX you can get your hands on, you might get by... But you don't need anywhere near that big a box for Netware.

Did it mean anything for Netware? Nope.

People ripped out NW 3.x (which for a feature set at least NT was at least comparable, if nowhere near in performance) and stuck in NT, sacrificing stablity and the mentioned performance, for the "benefit" of having "one server" (apps and file/print)... despite the fact that with any amount of users, you had to have *seperate* NT servers, *anyway*.

They ripped out NW 4.x, ignoring the benefits that NDS gave.

NW 5.0 hasn't done all that much - despite having a (I played with it, not seriously, I'm going on PR) real robust memory management system, and being suitable for app serving (which golly, by then didn't matter, cause you have seperate servers for that)...

Better, by itself, doesn't matter.

For several years, Linux has been able to do (IMO) anything that an NT server could - with less hardware, or faster on the same hardware. Has it made a real difference? Nope.

Oh, sure, some of us have put them up, small offices, etc... But have offices with lots of users ripped NT out and replaced?

Novell was done in by the Microsoft PR machine, and the lemming desires of PHB to have clones running the machines, etc. etc. etc. Grrrrrr.

No. I can't start that rant now. No No No..

Anyway.. :)

Addison