[bit.listserv.novell] NOVELL NETWARE vs BANYAN VINES

MEGALOIK@GRPATVX1.BITNET (01/30/90)

Hello,

  Does anybody know VINES/386 ?
It is  a  software  intergrates  your  department's  PC  LANs  with each other
and with valuable resources.

  We are supposed to  select  between Novell  Netware  ver 2.15   and Vines/386
ver  4.00 and  we  have  some  problems  because  the  above operating  systems
have comparable capabilities.
I would be grateful if you  would  send  me  some  elements  which   argue with
the first or  the  second,  or  some  pointers  to  resources  that  will  help
me. These will be important for further software and hardware order in our site.

  I would appreciate any help. Thank you in advance.

____________________________________________________________
|  Vassilis Megalooikonomou :  Systems Administrator        |
| C o m p u t e r   T e c h n o l o g y   I n s t i t u t e |
____________________________________________________________|
|  E-mail : (EARN/BITNET)   MEGALOIK@GRPATVX1.BITNET        |
-------------------------------------------------------------

INDJPK@UBVMS.BITNET (02/02/90)

Hello,

  Does anybody know VINES/386 ?
It is  a  software  intergrates  your  department's  PC  LANs  with each other
and with valuable resources.

  We are supposed to  select  between Novell  Netware  ver 2.15   and Vines/386
ver  4.00 and  we  have  some  problems  because  the  above operating  systems
have comparable capabilities.
I would be grateful if you  would  send  me  some  elements  which   argue with
the first or  the  second,  or  some  pointers  to  resources  that  will  help
me. These will be important for further software and hardware order in our site.

  I would appreciate any help. Thank you in advance.

____________________________________________________________
|  Vassilis Megalooikonomou :  Systems Administrator        |
| C o m p u t e r   T e c h n o l o g y   I n s t i t u t e |
____________________________________________________________|
|  E-mail : (EARN/BITNET)   MEGALOIK@GRPATVX1.BITNET        |
-------------------------------------------------------------

*****************************REPLY*********************************************

  Hi,

   Last year, before we got our Novell LANs I had contact with Banyan about
there Vines product. I went to seminars where they had demo machines set up
with a server and a few workstations as well as a dial up connection to there
corporate network. I was VERY impressed with the network connection
capabilities of VINES. I got them to loan us a full VINES/386 package (I
supplied the server and workstations) to evaluate it on our campus network.
I set up the server with little difficulty. I found there support to be
excelent and the documentation to be clear and easy to follow. I was also
impressed with STREET TALK, VINES's distibuted global naming database. It
allowed a user to find and use services without needing to know where it was
located on the network including other servers. Users did not have to log into
other servers to use the services on remote servers. We also used FTP's
PC/TCP which they resell and support. It also worked well. In fact all the
options worked as adveratised.

   Now for the drawbacks. At that time there was no such thing as a boot prom
for VINES, which we found to be usefull for or student labs. Also there was
no way to limit a user from using as much disk space as he liked (disk quotas).

   Banyan has an educational pricing program as well. They offer 40% off for
quantity and 3 or more is 50% for universities. Also the list is much less
than NOVELL 386.

   Now I'm sure your asking yourself why we have NOVELL. At that time our
school got a grant from NOVELL. So that is what they chose to go with. Now
it appears we will be "paying the price" for NETWARE. I don't want to give
you the wrong impression. There are things I like about Novell. If it wasn't
for this forum I don't know what I'd do for support. We do things around here
that vendors shake there heads at. We recently were paid a visit from NOVELL.
They gave a presentation of PORTABLE NETWARE and 386. I liked the long term
direction they have but when asking about TCP/IP they answered with OSI. I
have needs now that can't always wait for OSI to become a standard. So for
now we are with NETWARE 286. This summer we are planning to upgrade to some
386 server software. Which??? I can't say at this point. I want to see more
on NOVELL's new naming service just announced. As for the recent discussion
about dumping one vendor for another, we've done it many times with word
processors so why not a NOS.

  If you would like direct contacts at Banyan you can mail me directly, as
this probably is not the proper place.


                        Jim Kiser
                        SUNY @ Buffalo
                        IN%"INDJPK@UBVMSC.CC.BUFFALO.EDU"

brian@XLNVAX.EXCELAN.COM (Brian Meek) (02/02/90)

[stuff deleted]
> We recently were paid a visit from NOVELL.
> They gave a presentation of PORTABLE NETWARE and 386. I liked the long term
> direction they have but when asking about TCP/IP they answered with OSI. I
> have needs now that can't always wait for OSI to become a standard. So for
> now we are with NETWARE 286. This summer we are planning to upgrade to some
> 386 server software. Which??? I can't say at this point. I want to see more
> on NOVELL's new naming service just announced. As for the recent discussion
> about dumping one vendor for another, we've done it many times with word
> processors so why not a NOS.
>
>   If you would like direct contacts at Banyan you can mail me directly, as
> this probably is not the proper place.
>
>                         Jim Kiser
>                         SUNY @ Buffalo
>                         IN%"INDJPK@UBVMSC.CC.BUFFALO.EDU"

Our (Novell's) purchase of Excelan last year emphasizes to me that we are
committed to both TCP/IP and OSI technologies as reality dictates.  I'm
sorry the folks who visited you recently gave you the impression that our
current emphasis is OSI _rather_ than TCP/IP.  The consensus here at Novell,
San Jose's marketing office is that TCP/IP is very critical to today's market
and that it will continue to be critical in the future even as we see OSI
implemented on a wider scale (personally, I'd wager that all of our direct
descendants and likely theirs as well could make a career in the TCP/IP
networking arena).  But rather than fuel that popular debate on this forum,
I'll close by saying that engineering projects are currently underway to add
both technologies to the NetWare product line in a big, big way.

In fact, most all of the Excelan and Kinetics products that are designed
to integrate TCP/IP and NetWare are now selling better than ever under the
Novell label.

brian
____________________________________________________________________________
         Brian Meek             Novell - 2180 Fortune Dr. San Jose, CA 95131
Internet Mail: brian@novell.COM                        Phone: (408) 473-8375
   CompuServe: 76702,346                                 FAX: (408) 433-0775
     - Opinions expressed are my own, not necessarily Novell's... etc. -