Novell, Utah and the Libertarian Party

Some new news out today was about Novell completing its sale to Attachmate. Wow, the end of an era...

Novell really does have a special place in my heart - NetWare was the first network operating system I learned, way back in the version 2.15c days. Anyone remember those? Then I moved on to v2.2, 3.12, 4.0 and then 4.1. I obtained my first IT certification - the CNE - that was all about NetWare. I even wrote/sold my own patch management application for NetWare before patch management was cool.

Another great thing about Novell was their BrainShare conference. I see that they've moved it from March to October; glad I got my skiing in when I did! Going to BrainShare every year I not only got to know NetWare like the back of my hand but I also discovered the beauty of Utah - in particular its microbreweries and its snow skiing. Absolutely lovely.

To my final point, I was having lunch with a close friend recently who shared my Novell bigotry back in the day and shares my love for limited government right now. We were talking politics and about how the Tea Party mindset consists of regular guys like him and me who are fed up with Republican and Democrat politicians alike so keenly focused on government expansion and intrusion into our lives. I told him the Tea Party mantra used to be called the Libertarian Party. The Tea Party, like Microsoft, rose out of nowhere and grabbed all the attention. I told my friend how sad it is that the Libertarian Party, like Novell, has consistently failed to market itself as a viable option and, thus, we are where we are today. Just damn.

Novell, Libertarian Party or whatever - lots of excellent products and great ideas are/were out there for the taking. Logic sales but who's buying...?