'I couldn't believe how many organizations were still on Novell. It just shocked me,' said Pulliam, who oversees mostly Microsoft software, from Windows Server and Active Directory to manage the college's files to Outlook and Exchange for e-mail for its 60,000-plus students. Even today, the college is, according to Pulliam and another source, the only institution of higher learning in Utah's tight-knit education community not using Novell NetWare. 'Sure, NetWare is functional. But where are you going to go with it?'

That is a question Novell's remaining base of customers have long pondered. Until recently, Novell had few good answers. But last year, it released Open Enterprise Server, the successor to NetWare that lets businesses manage large networks on top of either a NetWare or Suse Linux kernel. And last week at its annual BrainShare conference, Novell announced support for existing NetWare 6.5 users until 2015. It also announced a strategy of bringing together disparate products into a single suite based around Suse Linux that will serve as an alternative to Microsoft's Windows-based lineup.

But is the effort too little, too late? Some say so, pointing out how even in its native Utah, Novell has lost customers to Microsoft.

Besides Salt Lake Community College, leading Utah organizations that have migrated from Novell to Microsoft include motivational products maker, Franklin Covey Co. and sports equipment maker LifeTime Products Inc. According to sources, Zions Bank and even the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are considering a migration from Novell to Microsoft software.

Utah's largest hospital operator, Intermountain Healthcare, moved from GroupWise to Exchange in 2004 because of issues with GroupWise's reliability and lack of features. 'Our executives would come back from golfing with their buddies and ask me why they couldn't get a Blackberry,' said Kyle Andersen, director of enterprise systems for Intermountain. 'The next five-minute discussion would become very painful.'