“Ray was like a Super Hero. He wasn’t wearing the cape and everything else, but he was always fighting the big fight for everyday people,” says Darl McBride in our conversation. Ray Noorda passed away on Monday, October 9, 2006, leaving behind a great legacy for the technology community. Best known as the “Father of Network Computing,” he drove Novell from 17 employees to more than 12,000. Noorda also pioneered technology “coopetition” – alliances of technology competitors that develop common standards to grow the overall market for their products.

At Rocky Mountain Voices, we had the chance to talk with Ray’s friends and colleagues about his legacy. Drew Major talks about how Ray funded Novell out of his own pocket, created coopetition and competed with Bill Gates. Darl McBride shares the lessons he learned from Ray on being a CEO. Ron Heinz tells us that he had to bunk with Ray in Washington, D.C. to save money, even after he was already successful. Ty Mattingly discusses Ray’s work ethic, including his 6:30 am start time. Ransom Love talks about starting the Linux movement at Caldera with Ray and David Bradford pays tribute to Ray as arguably the key definer of the technology movement in Utah.

Tags: Novell, Ray Noorda
 
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