Open Source Blog

First off, I should state that the numbers were available all the time on page 13 of this PDF which I overlooked, although some additional explanation was helpful.

So, according to Novell:

"Linux Platform Products as reported in FY 2006 are SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Linux products and services as reported in FY2005 included SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, SUSE Linux Professional, Novell Linux Desktop, ZENworks Linux Management (Red Carpet), and Technical Support Services related to Linux. Linux Platform Products went from $9.2892 million in Q4 FY2005 to $13.017 million in Q$ FY2006, hence the 32% increase."

That all makes sense, and it's good to see that Novell has settled on a revenue figure that represents the SLES/D business and nothing else. It began to do this in 2005 by announcing SLES figures, before reverting to "other Linux product and services" and "Linux Platform Products and other open source products".

With the Linux Platform Products categorization, it's now possible to get a better idea of Novell's Linux revenue performance, and it's a picture of slow improvement:

Q105 $8.5m
Q205 $8.6m
Q305 $8.9m
Q405 $9.3m
Q106 $10.4m
Q206 $10.3m
Q306 $11.6m
Q406 $13.0m

It's heading in the right direction, but it's not exactly setting the world alight, and with Linux revenue only accounting for 5.3% of Novell's total revenue in the fourth quarter (4.7% for the fiscal year) it is not fast enough growth to offset the demise of Novell's NetWare business.

That business shrunk $19.4m year-over-year in the fourth quarter, while Novell's combined Linux and Open Enterprise Server revenues were up just $4.3m year-over-year.

I mentioned yesterday that Novell was no longer breaking out numbers for OES, and must admit I was wrong, it's just not focusing attention on them the way it once was. As Novell points out:

"Revenue was $48 million ($47,660 million) in Q4 FY2006, vs. $47 million ($46,540 million) in Q4 FY2005."

That's just a 2.4% rise, compared with a decline in NetWare revenue of 69.9%. I must admit that when I wrote that Novell's statement “combined revenue from Open Enterprise Server and NetWare-related products declined 25 percent from the year ago period” suggested they had something to hide I was focusing on OES, rather than NetWare, but the figures tell a different story.