A view from Brainshare 2008

FOSSA Reflections

Novell's Free (FOSSA) project describes an overarching vision for using Novell's services and software to manage the data center. I find it interesting that Novell once again capitalizes on open source terminology and methods – "FOSS" literally lies at the center of Novell's acronym. A fossa is also a small, agile cat-like carnivore; Novell consciously gave FOSSA this name because it, too, sees itself as a smart, agile animal in the data center space. But ironically, the fossa is also an endangered animal that lives by killing other animals, which might lead some to see parallels with Novell's market position and its use of open source.

Is Novell the fossa of the open source space? It is a smaller, sleek, and rare animal in the data center jungle. Of course, the fossa is also known to reach maturity slowly, and the same can be said of Novell's position in the marketplace.

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