If you remember back to the end of last year, several editors

here at TechRepublic offered their list of the top headlines you wouldn’t see


in 2006. I pitched in with my Top


5 Pick and I’m happy to announce that I was absolutely wrong on one count:

3) Novell returns to profitability

This

one pains me because I’ve long been a Novell and NetWare fan. The problem is

NetWare market share is dropping like a rock at the same time Novell is trying

to sell a free operating system that has a version dominated by RedHat. Novell

has a solid record of selling operating systems to business and understanding

networking in general, but so far it hasn’t been able to turn this reputation

into profits. Being squeezed by Microsoft, RedHat, and The March Of Progress,

Novell is in a whole world of hurt. I hope this one turns out to be wrong.

 

Turns out that Novell just announced that they returned

to profitability in the last quarter. It wasn’t by much – only 1 cent per

share. And the revenue wasn’t huge, only $278 million, but even so, a profit is

a profit.

It’s worrisome that Novell turned a profit on lower revenue

than a year before. Their revenue has been dropping slowly now for years which

is a scary prospect. But at least a return to profitability is a step in the

right direction.

So, like I said at the end of last year, I was hoping that

prediction was wrong. As a longtime Novell fan, I’m more than happy to shout a

Mea Culpa on that one.

 I’m still right
about Vista missing its ship date however…