Well, it seems that old Novell is not doing so hot in the third quarter. And while they can always make a recovery later, Novell has got to be feeling the heat from other OSS developers out there.

Novell Inc. (Nasdaq:NOVL - news), which provides networking software and update services for
Linux, reported a 91 percent drop in quarterly profit on Thursday as revenue fell slightly.

Novell’s shares fell 2.6 percent in after-hours trade after the company reported a profit of $2 million, or nil per share, in the third fiscal quarter ended July 31, compared with a profit of $24 million, or 6 cents per share, in the year-ago period, which included a one-time gain on a legal settlement.

Revenue fell to $290 million from $305 million.

Novell, a longtime competitor of Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq:MSFT - news), is expanding in the Linux update and support services market along with Red Hat Inc. (Nasdaq:RHAT - news) to tap into the growth of Linux. [Read the rest]