Surfing the High Tech Wave:
A History of Novell 1980-1990
by
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IIn 1983 a failed business in a small Utah town is turned around. Six years later that business is ranked in the Fortune 1000 and the small Utah town becomes the center of a major computer technology.
A young college drop-out, a middle-aged former “beauty technician”, and a near-retirement former “company man” become millionaires virtually overnight and lead the creation a major high-tech industry.
A technological innovation so profound that it changes the way the world communicates, yet so esoteric that most people never notice it, is developed in about six months by four young free-lancers trying to put themselves through graduate school.
For sheer amazement, spectacle, drama, and comedy, no work of fiction can surpass the history of Novell, Inc., the Provo, Utah, company that rode the crest of a billion-dollar industry. Novell’s story is a story of stupendous success—of wealth and power, of victory and conquest, and the realization of the dreams of hundreds of individuals. It is also the story of stupendous failure—of fortunes lost, of the mighty overthrown, of scandal and defeat and treachery. It is a story of human beings who risked all, lost all, gained all, and built a business, day in and day out, that has literally changed the world. It is the legend of red-blooded all-American heroes civilizing a high tech frontier in the 1980s—a legend brought to life by real people.
The story of Novell fascinates on many different levels. It is a study of business enterprise, of people who saw a market opportunity and set out to exploit it. It is a lesson in business management—how managers faced first the challenge of business failure, then the greater challenge of dealing with a concept that grew a million-fold in success in ten years. It is a revealing illustration of how new technology is created, marketed, and sold.
Most interesting of all, Novell’s story is a tale of the human spirit—of people, like people everywhere, who cherish visions and hopes of what they might become, of what they might achieve, and who embark together on a journey of self-fulfillment. It is a story of how these people helped and hurt each other in pursuit of their common and private goals. It is a rich sample of the human experience. Novell’s story is an adventure story, as thrilling in its way as any ever told or lived.
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About the Book
A crackling good story!
To go from a struggling startup with negative sales
to a billion-dollar company with seventy-percent market share …
To go from going bust making printers and computers
to making history selling an industry-standard operating system …
To go from having six presidents in one year
to making dozens of millionaires …
About the Author
In Roger’s words, “More than most people, I’ve ‘been there and done that.’ And while I was doing it, I was taking notes.”
Roger is a careful observer of the human condition, technology, and history, and this is what he writes about. He was a soldier in Vietnam in the sixties, an engineering student at MIT in the seventies, a personal-computer pioneer in the eighties, and a writer, traveler, and teacher in the nineties. He has visited twenty countries and worked in five. He has worked in five industries with both superstar and falling star companies. He's seen a lot.
Other Fun Facts about Roger
• Helped engineer the Space Shuttle
• Climbed 4,000 meter peaks in the Colorado Rockies and bicycled from Boston to Minnesota
• Is a nephew of Margaret Bourke-White, photographer for Life magazine
• Has a commercial pilot's license with an IFR rating
• Was one of the first hundred people to play Dungeons and Dragons