InformationWeek

NetWare For OS/2, Unix, And Windows

Windows NT is not the only choice for nondedicated NetWare servers

By James E. Gaskin
Issue date: July 24, 1995

If you're looking for a nondedicated Novell NetWare server, you have more choices than Microsoft Windows NT. One option is NetWare 4.1 on IBM OS/2. The same software that powers a dedicated NetWare server also will run as a nondedicated NetWare server under OS/2.

Unlike the faux-NetWare offered by Microsoft and Beame & Whiteside, NetWare for OS/2 is the real thing. All client and server utilities, NLMs (NetWare Loadable Modules), client software, and third-party products wor k with NetWare for OS/2. In addition, because NetWare for OS/2 is NetWare version 4.1, it provides the PC LAN world's best directory services.

Contrast this with the two products reviewed here--no NLM support, NetWare 3.x support, and few NetWare client utilities. Despite Microsoft's wishes, NetWare has not stagnated at version 3.x; NetWare 4.1 offers more features, better management and security, and fuller directory services than earlier versions. These features are not available from Microsoft or Beame & Whiteside, but they are standard with NetWare for OS/2.

NetWare For Unix
Another option is NetWare for Unix. Since 1989, Novell has licensed the NetWare source code to more than two dozen Unix vendors. NetWare for Unix, originally labeled Portable NetWare, places a full NetWare server on a Unix host. NetWare for Unix includes all client utilities but does not support NLMs.

With Novell's stated intention to mesh NetWare and UnixWare, the NetWare for Unix program is running out of ste am. All the released products are for NetWare 3.x. NetWare 4.x code has been made available to Unix vendors, but no licensee has released products based on NetWare 4.1 code.

Rumors of nondedicated NetWare servers from Novell, running on Microsoft Windows 3.1 and Windows 95 systems, have been floating about for more than a year. Although I hear these are full NetWare file servers in the same mode as NetWare for OS/2, it's questionable whether the software will ever be released as products. Novell undertook development for a few large NetWare customers who demanded the servers for their own branch-office needs.

James E. Gaskin is VP of Gaskin Computer Services in Dallas. He can be reached via electronic mail at jgaskin@mcimail.com

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