Novell chairman and chief executive officer Jack Messman
has issued a written apology after angering members of the Linux
community when he called Linux "an immature operating
system".Messman made his original remarks last
week when he described Novell's decision to use Linux as the
migration path of the future for its flagship NetWare network
operating system.
While charting the company's direction with
Linux in the interview, Messman called it "immature" because it
"hasn't had somebody like Novell worrying about making it robust,
reliable and scalable for very much time".
Now, Messman has had a change of heart about
his remarks. In a posting on the Linux Weekly News Web site,
Messman said he regretted some of his remarks.
"Let me clarify some of the comments I've made
around Novell's move to put NetWare services on the Linux kernel;
and let me apologise for my choice of words in the phrase 'immature
operating system'," he said in the posting.
"Clearly Novell wouldn't be taking this bold
step if we didn't feel Linux was a solid operating system with
tremendous momentum in the marketplace. In fact, we believe Linux
is quite stable and scalable. If we didn't, we would not commit to
using it with our NetWare 7.0 release.
"We certainly recognise the value Linux is
providing today to customers around the globe," he wrote.
"In fact, the strategy Novell announced this
week was the outgrowth of what we've been hearing from many of
those customers. Simply put, Linux will continue to grow with or
without Novell.
"Novell wouldn't be spending the tremendous
time, money and resources to make this strategy a reality if we
didn't believe in the present and future of Linux," he wrote.
Messman said his company endorsed the
structure of the open-source community, and valued the talents seen
in the community of developers who have been working on Linux.
"We are not experts here, we need your help,"
he said. "We want to work in close co-operation with the open
source community to further the growth of Linux. By doing this, we
can add even more value for developers and ultimately our
customers."
A Novell spokesman said Messman's apology came
after company officials realised that the CEO's remarks "didn't
reflect Novell's real position on our support of Linux".