Company remains mum on open source plans.
Directory software allows systems administrators to manage and control far-flung networks of users from their own desktops. NDS has been available since 1993, but until last year it was used solely for networks running NetWare. NetWare, which had been the apple of Novell's eye for many years, has seen its market share gradually eroded by competing operating systems such as Windows NT and Linux. A new survey by Evans Marketing Services reports that the number of companies using Linux on servers increased 95 percent in the last six months of 1999. NetWare is still the company's breadwinner, but in light of current operating system trends, Novell sees NDS eDirectory as its future.