In September 1989, Novell released NetWare 386 V3.0, the first in a long line of 32-bit network operating systems. At the time, Novell’s mainstay was NetWare 2.15, a system designed to run on 286-based machines.
NetWare 386, as the name suggests, required at least a 386 processor. It was a major redesign of the NetWare OS intended to take advantage of (then) high end 32-bit hardware. Whereas NetWare 2.x was linked from object modules during installation (much like commercial UNIX implementations), NetWare 386 utilized modules (NLMs, or NetWare Loadable Modules) which could be loaded and unloaded at run-time.
↫ Michal Necasek
NetWare 386 or 3.0 was a very limited release, with very few copies sold before it was superseded by newer versions. As such, it was considered lost to time, since it was only sold to large corporations – for a massive almost 8000 dollar price tag – who obviously didn’t care about software preservation. There are no original disks left, but a recent “warez” release has made the software available once again.
As always, pirates save the day.
We had NetWare in our high school lab, and later upgraded to NW 4.0 instead of Windows NT. I think that kept on for a while, but NW 5.0 migrations was … a disaster. (Or was it the 6.0? Whichever went to Java and massive resource needs)
Somewhere in that period I ran into a “diskette” containing NetWare Lite (?) the peer to peer version of it. I could use it outside of the lab, without our server. (Like Windows 95’s Workgroups). It actually worked well, especially for older systems. But that too was lost in time.
I wonder how the world would have been if Novell did not make series of strategic mistakes. If they could undercut Windows NT for hardware needs and actual features, I would not expect many shops to jump ship.
But at the end of their life, even a basic Linux installation was more appealing that whatever they offered.
Netware had my most favourite command even to this day: fire phasers