Slashdot Mirror

kris writes "German c't magazine has a story about SUSE (english site: suse.com) reporting a larger turnover that RedHat (26.6 Mio. DM == 15 Mio US$ vs. RedHat with 11 Mio. US$). Suse also reported earnings, while RedHat reported a loss of $130,000 during the same time." kris has translated the article below if you want. Else use babelfish. Here is a rough translation of the article:

Suse: We are the largest.

As a reaction to the IPO of RedHat, which requires the company to disclose its earnings, german Linux distributor Suse has disclosed their own numbers. While RedHat reported a turnover of $11M between March 1998 and February 1999, Suse reported a turnover of almost $15M (Deutschmark 26.6 M) between 01-Apr-1998 and 31-Mar-1999. Like RedHat, most of this is due to their distribution sales (Deutschmark 17.4M). Unlike RedHat, who lost $130.000 during this time, Suse was able to report earnings of an undisclosed amount during this time.

Both companies employ approx. 130 people each at the time and are growing rapidly: In 1Q1999 Suse reported a turnover of Deutschmark 9.5M, an increase of 230% compared to the year before. Since the funding of SUSE Inc. in the USA, german Distributor Suse is focusing more and more on the international market. CEO Roland Dyroff reported a larger than proportional growth of the US daugther. He did not want to answer direct questions about an IPO, though. "

nicedreaM writes "Found this link: SuSE will be introducing a new cluster system called SALT (SuSE Advanced Linux Technology). Also they'll be releasing an Alpha distribution."

UU7 wrote in to say that SuSE 6 international is now out for those of us who haven't mastered the German language. I know CowboyNeal will be snagging it.

gman has started a new site, linuxhardware.net in an effort to create help newbies learn and share information about Linux and Hardware. nickm an insane link designed to bring arts and culture to the Unix community. Apparently Dogman has created a hilarious page entitled "Installing a network PostScript printer on a Sun workstation running SunOS As illustrated through interpretive dance. Whoever said learning can't be fun never saw this. Or maybe they did and just created a mental block so they didn't have to think about that guy dancing. Jerome ALET sent us a link to the Linux Slogans Database Matthew Astley wrote in to where you can buy 25x25mm self-adhesive domed plastic badges featuring Tux to attach to your computer case in that little logo spot. The Phly sent in links to a new Bible for Linux page is up. jgalun wrote in to send us a link to a Washington Post that comapres Sys Admin Salaries average system admin salaries, in which they note that Mac sys admins seem to make very little. Hmm, wonder why...Also noted is that Linux sys admins had the greatest pay raises last year. More to come, hopefully! darius sent us a link to the new apple ad campaign which features the one, the only, HAL 9000. BigZaphod wriote in to announce a new games site:Legions. And rounding in to the more tasteless part of the quickies, kweiheri sent us an great parody of realdoll.com- except this one is (ahem) realhamster.com. What is this world coming to? GraZZ wrote in to send us an amusing parody of Star Wars and the Starr Thing.

L-ViS wrote in to say that SuSE 6.0 has entered beta testing and can be downloaded over at the SuSE FTP Site .

Jim Gleason writes "Does the idea of hiking the castle-laden hills, caves and medieval hamlets of the German countryside appeal to you? Does the thought of excellent beer preserve your good mood for days? Do you think that Linux rules? Well, Electric Lichen L.L.C. is organizing a week-long trip called Linuxbierwanderung, "The Linux Beer Hike." Scheduled for August 1999, Linux users will hike the hills of northern Bavaria to learn Linux on their laptop computers and visit the local brewpubs. Experts in Linux and the Bavarian outdoors will teach classes to the hikers during the day and enjoy the local pub scene in the evening. " People can subscribe to the mailing list via the Web Page which is also archived. Linux, Beer, and Nature. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Jim Gleason writes "Does the idea of hiking the castle-laden hills, caves and medieval hamlets of the German countryside appeal to you? Does the thought of excellent beer preserve your good mood for days? Do you think that Linux rules? Well, Electric Lichen L.L.C. is organizing a week-long trip called Linuxbierwanderung, "The Linux Beer Hike." Scheduled for August 1999, Linux users will hike the hills of northern Bavaria to learn Linux on their laptop computers and visit the local brewpubs. Experts in Linux and the Bavarian outdoors will teach classes to the hikers during the day and enjoy the local pub scene in the evening. " People can subscribe to the mailing list via the Web Page which is also archived. Linux, Beer, and Nature. 2 out of 3 ain't bad.

David Sifry writes "SuSE and LinuxCare just announced a new Corporate Support and Training Program for Linux. The press release can be found here. SuSE also announced a partnership with Muster Learning Architects to provide corporate training programs. "

Nick Moffitt from SuSE has written in with pre-show report from the Linux Pavillion at this the falls Comdex. Things are almost ready to go out there. Hit the link below to read what he has to say. Update: 11/16 07:59 by CT : Kit Cosper of Linux-hw wrote in to send us a link to a page of Pictures from the show. The following was written by Slashdot reader Nick Moffitt

Well, we just got the SuSE booth up and connected to the net, so I felt I'd send in a brief note about how COMDEX is going. First of all, the Linux buzz here is BIG. We're in the Sands convention center, in the "Linux Pavillion". The Sands is basically just a big parking garage with cheap carpet laid down, and we're all dodging little electric scooters and forklifts labeled with teamster insignia.

Things should calm down a bit once the laborers finish hauling all the equipment around, although we all expect a big crowd once the show starts tomorrow. It's quite startling, but Linux is the premiere attraction in the Sands! There are huge signs all over the convention center that say "This way to the LINUX Pavillion: Linux in the limelight!". I'd send an image, but everyone's been too busy with convention setup to go look for a digital camera.

All the big names are here: VA Research, Linux hardware Solutions, Red Hat, Caldera, SSC, Pacific HighTech (makers of TurboLinux), and, of course, SuSE. I stopped by the SSC booth and picked up a tin of those Penguin brand caffeinated peppermints. I've been munching on them for the past ten minutes, and it certainly shows as my typing rate has increased dramatically. These things will soon

At any rate, the Linux Pavillion looks nearly finished, and the booths are all really sharp. I'll be sending more info as the convention progresses. Nick Moffitt
SysAdmin
SuSE, Inc.

Nick Moffitt from SuSE has written in with pre-show report from the Linux Pavillion at this the falls Comdex. Things are almost ready to go out there. Hit the link below to read what he has to say. Update: 11/16 07:59 by CT : Kit Cosper of Linux-hw wrote in to send us a link to a page of Pictures from the show. The following was written by Slashdot reader Nick Moffitt

Well, we just got the SuSE booth up and connected to the net, so I felt I'd send in a brief note about how COMDEX is going. First of all, the Linux buzz here is BIG. We're in the Sands convention center, in the "Linux Pavillion". The Sands is basically just a big parking garage with cheap carpet laid down, and we're all dodging little electric scooters and forklifts labeled with teamster insignia.

Things should calm down a bit once the laborers finish hauling all the equipment around, although we all expect a big crowd once the show starts tomorrow. It's quite startling, but Linux is the premiere attraction in the Sands! There are huge signs all over the convention center that say "This way to the LINUX Pavillion: Linux in the limelight!". I'd send an image, but everyone's been too busy with convention setup to go look for a digital camera.

All the big names are here: VA Research, Linux hardware Solutions, Red Hat, Caldera, SSC, Pacific HighTech (makers of TurboLinux), and, of course, SuSE. I stopped by the SSC booth and picked up a tin of those Penguin brand caffeinated peppermints. I've been munching on them for the past ten minutes, and it certainly shows as my typing rate has increased dramatically. These things will soon

At any rate, the Linux Pavillion looks nearly finished, and the booths are all really sharp. I'll be sending more info as the convention progresses. Nick Moffitt
SysAdmin
SuSE, Inc.

An Anonymous reader writes "S.u.S.E., Inc. announced today that the shipment of Linux Office Suite 99 will be delayed. Originally scheduled to ship during the week of October 12, S.u.S.E. now expects the Linux Office Suite to ship closer to the end of October.

Joe Hamelin writes "S.u.S.E. 5.3 is now out. Get it at suse.org, the Seattle Mirror. Lots of new X config stuff and gimp 1.0 in the release. S.u.S.E. has been so easy to install and maintain that I hesitate to switch. It's reliable too.. all slashdot gifs are served from a S.u.S.E. box. " Last time I tried S.u.S.E, the install seemed a little wierd, but I think I might try it again soon. Anyway, S.u.S.E's official web site is here, and if any of the S.u.S.E folks are reading this, what the heck is zuse.suse.de?

Patrik Nordebo writes "SuSE has released an X Server supporting the Matrox Millenium G200 (the Mystique G200 isn't mentioned). It's available at SuSE's ftp site. It seems Matrox are willing to work with the Linux community... I wonder if they'd release the 3D specs for a Mesa dirver, as well? "

Morten has written in with an excellent summary of the Wine project, and an updated status report. This is definately a critical project and deserves attention. Click below to read what he has to say about it. the following is a feature written by Morten Wine, The Windows Emulator Actually, Wine is two things at the same time. First of all, it is a binary emulator that will let you run your Window 3.1/95/98/NT binaries without having to have a copy of Windows on your computer. You will require the DLLs your program uses, but Wine intends to supply replacements for all the standard ones.

When used this way, Wine loads your program and jumps to its entry point. Wine then intercepts all calls to the system DLLs and substitues suitable X-Windows calls. Assuming that we can substitute calls that are efficient, your program should run at regular speed. Moreover, we can integrate Windows programs and regular programs such that cut-and-paste operations work as expected.

(Other projects -- such as Bochs and to a certain extent Dosemu -- want to give you Windows running in an emulated PC. We wish them luck, but for this particular purpose we don't think that is the right way to go. They will have to pay Microsoft for that Windows copy and the integration between programs will suffer.)

Wine, The Windows API Implementation Secondly, Wine is an implementation of the Windows API allowing you to compile Windows programs into Unix binaries -- if you have the source code, of course. Thus, Wine (Winelib, actually) is a GUI toolkit, but since we don't intend anyone to develop directly for it, we don't see it as competing with GTK, Motif, Qt, and you name it.

We hope that Winelib can help transfer usable, free Windows programs into the Linux world with only little work. We also hope that developers -- who might want to spend the money doing a real port -- could use Wine as a quick way of entering the Linux world with their already-written programs.

Status Wine already runs your favourites: FreeCell, Solitaire, WinMine, and MSHearts. (Hey, that was 90% of the reason to use Windows already -- way to go, :-) MS Words and Excel are close to being useful; for some versions and people, they already are. Success has been reported for the Power Point viewer, but Power Point proper still needs some work. Also, the Forte Agent news reader is reported to be functioning well enough to be useful. More information can be found right here.

Since many programs are build with toolkits like MFC, we believe we are "close" to getting a lot of programs working. Time will tell.

Problems There are three major problems in the Wine development: The Windows API is really, really big. Wine is thus a large scale operation. Luckily we can proceed one function at a time. Much of Windows is undocumented -- and programs depend on undocumented stuff. This is by far the worst problem. Implementation of some system call can be quite difficult when you have no clue what it does. In my humble opinion, the US Department of Justice should have demanded full disclosure of all documentation regarding all function calls ever called by a Microsoft application. (Recall that Explorer clearly was an application at the time it came out. The "integrated part of the OS" mumbo jumbo came later.) There really is no good reason why Microsoft's application writers should have such information denied competitors. Lack of Windows API knowledge. Many of the Wine developers don't know what they are doing, yours truthfully included. We have some Microsoft documentation, some books, lots of Unix experience. Then we start coding. This would work better if Microsoft's documentation was correct and complete, but it certainly isn't. Wine Development The Wine project operates a bit differently from other Linux projects. Developers tend to come and go. We live in USENET space although nowadays we also have the Wine HeadQuarters. (Sorry. We're not a multi-million enterprise; the /. effect will probably kick in sooner rather than later.) New versions come out biweekly and are edited by our fearless leader, Alexandre Julliard.

(PLUG type=shameless)Please help with Wine: test your favourite applications, regardless of whether Linux alternatives exist. Tell us what breaks and how. Better yet, send us patches for bugs and missing functions. Is it worth it? Well, read what Linus says about Wine:

Wine, on the other hand, is in my personal opinion one of the most important linux projects currently under development. The ability to seamlessly run windows binaries among linux applications (all showing on the screen at the same time, with cut-and-paste working between them and eventually even maybe some kind of drag-and-drop setup) would be a huge advantage, mainly because windows has what linux lacks: end-user applications.

Other benefits from participating in the Wine project:

• You will get the occasional junk email about alcoholic fluids made from grapes.
• The resident comp.emulators.ms-windows.wine troll will tell you that you are a member of one of the world's secret communist parties -- I kid you not! Their main activity seems to hinder Wine development, if our source can be trusted.
• "No, I am not playing games -- I am performing valuable testing of Wine."

Thank you for you time.

-- Morten Welinder, terra@diku.dk. A member of, but not speaking on behalf of the Wine team.

vasquez was the first to tell us that X inside, now Xi Graphics, the makers of Accelerated X, will be releasing a new Linux distribution targeted at Fortune 500 companies. As they already sell and support their own commercial software to the above companies, they know what level of support to provide, and how not to get sued. What's funny is that they were asked to do this by the said companies... what's wrong with Redhat? Suse? Dld? Caldera? Maybe Xig will produce updates at a slower rate. Let's hope they also contribute to all Linuxes, like Redhat, Caldera and Suse have done.

The Butler Group (UK) has published a technical paper pointing out that NT 4.0 cannot be considered an enterprise solution because it lacks the directory services that Netware provides. However, despite Unix's scalability and robustness, it costs too much in expertise, hardware and software, so the main battle will be played out between Novell and Microsoft. But NT also has its disadvantages: skills shortage, and general robustness. Since the report costs money, you can get the low-down in this Register Article.

Samba provides SMB support, there's also AppleTalk support, so is there any Netware support for Linux other than through DosEmu.

Max Lingua writes " a new (development) version of dosemu is avaible from S.u.S.E. at suse.com And - what's more - Hans Larmen (one of the project developer) has mailed me letting me know that a know stable (even) version should be out in the fist quarter of this year."