Raymond Noorda

Infobox Person
name = Raymond Noorda

Early life

Noorda was born in Ogden, Utah, the third son of Dutch immigrants Bertus Noorda and Alida Margaretha van den Berg. He attended Weber State College in Ogden. During World War II, he served in the U.S. Navy for two years as an electronics technician, working with radar systems. He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Utah in 1949. Noorda married Lewena (Tye) Taylor on August 04 1950 and worked for General Electric from graduation until 1971, after which he worked at a number of California companies.

Personal life

Noorda was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). [ [http://famousmormons.net/bus03.html Famous Mormons in Business ] ] Noorda married Lewena Taylor in 1950. They were later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. [http://www.desnews.com/cgi-bin/cqcgi_plus/@plus.env?CQ_SESSION_KEY=YULXBZSALEBH&CQ_CUR_DOCUMENT=3&CQ_TEXT_MAIN=YES Deseret News Obituary for Noorda] ]

Among the positions that Noorda held in the LDS Church were counselor in a branch presidency and counselor in a stake Sunday school presidency.

Novell

In 1983, Noorda assembled the SuperSet team whose members included Drew Major, Dale Niebaur and Kyle Powell. The team was originally assigned to create a CP/M disk sharing system, but instead came up with a successful file sharing system for the newly introduced IBM-compatible PC. This Network operating system was later called Novell NetWare.

Under Noorda's watch, Novell acquired several companies and products with the goal of countering Microsoft's rapid spread into new markets, including Digital Research, Unix System Laboratories, WordPerfect, and Borland's Quattro Pro. Microsoft CEO Bill Gates claimed that Noorda had a "tremendous vendetta" against Microsoft and had supported the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigations of Microsoft in the early 1990s that led to a consent decree restricting its operating system licensing practices. [cite journal
last=Lewyn
first=Mark
coauthors=and Richard Brandt
date=1993-09-27
title=Novell vs. Microsoft: What's Behind the Hate
journal=BusinessWeek]

Noorda ran Novell until 1993.

Later career

Up to his death, Noorda owned the Canopy Group. One of its holdings, Caldera Systems, purchased the Unix assets in 1995 from the Santa Cruz Operation, which had acquired them from Novell. In 1996, it also acquired the Digital Research assets from Novell and immediately brought a lawsuit against Microsoft that largely duplicated the claims that the FTC and Department of Justice had pursued in the early 1990s. The lawsuit was ultimately settled in 2000 with a $275 million payment to Caldera.

Noorda received honorary doctorates from the University of Utah in 1994 and Weber State University in 1995. As a consequence of age and associated health issues (Alzheimer's disease and heart disease), Noorda did not participate in the day-to-day management of Canopy's affairs after 1998. [ [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20050222001026429 Groklaw - Canopy's Motion to Remove Yarro As Director and Memo - as text ] ]

Noorda had four sons and one daughter. His daughter committed suicide in 2005. [ [http://opensource.sys-con.com/node/48789 Noorda's Daughter Commits Suicide] ] Noorda died October 09 2006 at his home in Orem, Utah, at the age of 82.

Notes

References

* [http://www.nndb.com/people/536/000108212/ biographical details] NNDB bio
* [http://www.sltrib.com/ci_4465776 Ray Noorda, computer pioneer, dies at 82] (Salt Lake Tribune, Monday 9 October 2006)
* [http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20061009005914&newsLang=en Technology Pioneer Ray Noorda Dies] (Canopy press release)
* [http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9370964474.html Good-bye Mr. Noorda] (Stephen J. Vaughn-Nichols, "Linux-Watch")
* [http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1945744.ece obituary] in The Independent (UK) by Marcus Williamson

External links

* [http://www.canopy.com/raynoorda/ Raymond John Noorda] (canopy.com)
* [http://www.whiteworld.com/novstory/surf00.htm Surfing a High Tech Wave: A story of Novell's Early Years 1980-1990]