Novell lets loose Tarantula

Novell is gearing up to spread its dominance of the network operating system market to incorporate intranets with a software bundle code-named Tarantula.

To be announced at the Internet World conference in late April, the Tarantula bundle will include software, licensed yesterday from desktop and Web utility vendor Quarterdeck, that makes it easier to connect NetWare clients to corporate intranets, a Novell spokesperson said.

With Quarterdeck's IWare Connect software, NetWare clients will be able to communicate with their internal Web servers over Novell's own IPX (Internet Packet eXchange) protocol. Until now, this could be achieved only by installing a separate TCP-IP stack on every desktop so that the client could understand the IP networking protocol that intranets use. Relieved of this burdensome step, NetWare LAN administrators will be much freer to build intranets that include their existing users, according to Novell.

In addition to this critical connectivity software, the Tarantula suite will also include Novell's NetWare WebServer, Netscape Navigator 2.0, and an assortment of Web publishing tools, spokesman Ken Montgomery said. The suite is set to ship in April, but the company has not yet specified pricing.

Yesterday's announcement of a licensing deal with Quarterdeck comes less than two weeks after Novell broadly outlined its plans for linking its 50 million NetWare users to Internet-based technologies at its BrainShare conference for NetWare developers.

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