As mentioned, Novell is a NETWORK Operating System, not a desktop operating system with a strap-on server process. It was build (from day one...almost twenty years ago) to be for network services exculsively. Because it was built from scratch to be a Network Operating System, it's optimized for network services, initially file service and printer service. The new version 6.something, also includes FTP, DHCP, DNS, WEB, Directory, proxy services....pretty much the whole banana.
What has always been the nice thing about Novell's NOS is that the client machine receives its services as if delivered by a server native to that environment. For example, A *NIX box thinks it's attaching to another *NIX box for NFS shares, a McIntosh thinks it's attaching to an Apple server (whatever they call it these days), Winderz has its own built-in client, or you can use the Novell's "Novell client for Windows," which offers some additional performance. All of these different protocol sets can be served out of ONE server. You can change virtually every configurable option on a Novell server WITHOUT HAVING TO REBOOT (includes hot-swap NICs, if the hardware supports it).
Also, since the NOS is dedicated to service, and optimized for service, a much smaller hardware platform can support a much larger client base faster then a comparable Windows box (usually several orders of magnitude). Like, a P3/500/512K Novell box will smoke a dual P3/gig/gig Windows server every day of the week. When Version 3 came out (a long time ago) Novell demonstrated it on the roll-out by hooking 1000 (one thousand) PCs to a single 386/33 server...every PC was pushing or getting data off the server....You'd be hard-pressed to find any "PC-Size" server (today) running NT, WIN2K, or XP that can do 500 concurrent sessions, let alone 1000. NTFS still sucks as a NOS file system...
Unfortunately, there are other issues. Not the least of which is that Novell has never had much of a marketing department. The spongy-headed IT/IS management that flocked to the MS bandwagon (because it's easier/cheaper to find GUIHead Rodent Ranchers than decent Novell Admins), and hosts of other depressing issues....Novell is superior to any MS server platform for nearly all typical functions. *NIX is still a better DB machine, IMHO, for anything/everything else...if it can be done in Novell or *NIX, either of those platforms will offer better reliability, better performance, better longivity than MS server platforms (maybe the Enterprise stuff is OK, but that's not the "typical" environment).
Anyway...that's my two cents worth. Now I'm depressed...
Scott
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