I intended to move to Linux desktop some time ago but have not had the time to do it. Most of my programming runs on Windoze clients so have been constrained.
Similarly I have a Linux (Suse) server running which is destined to take over from a Netware one. Have been struggling today to mount a Netware volume on the Linux box - still not there!
Never touched Windoze Server except for bailing out misguided friends.
I have an old Suse on a laptop but that is lying on its side somewhere unloved.
The more I know about a system (and can modify it) the better. So it's Linux for me by preference.
Is it really old Netware (like V5), as i think it was from V6 that Novell changed from their custom kernel to SUSE.
I'm a bit rusty with NetWare now, not really supported in a professional capacity since 2000, but reckon you'll still need the NetWare client on the SUSE client.
NetWare, for all its superiority at the time, lost out to Windows once Microsoft got its act together with its DS. Novell rested on its laurels for too long imho, far too slow to make the jump to IP (proper IP, not the encapsulated bodges in pre v5) - corporations (Novell's bread and butter) started to dump it due to the costs on running ipx on routers and wan links.
I used to support the word's largest NDS tree, so had good links back to Novell. Seems they were too buearocratic and slow to act dynamically to the changing requirements, or fix flaws. I had an open fault with them about Netware 4's (halfarsed) IP stack leaking memory constantly. Never fixed. Solution, remove IP.