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Gateway Forges Partnership With SuSE
Zardus writes "According to Forbes, Gateway has named SuSE a "strategic partner" and will be offering SuSE Linux on all of their servers. I always thought SuSE would be a nice name for a cow, but I guess I'll have to settle with it being the OS of a spotted server." The article notes: "SuSE has long sought a greater presence in the United States, where rival Red Hat has taken the lead in selling Linux server software to businesses."
This is good news for Linux in general, good to hear this. Wonder if the "Windows Tax" will still apply like it did with IBM, tho?
I for one have been waiting quite awhie to see a major vendor endorse another distro besides RedHat. Variety helps everyone, as does competition, and I don't see how a choice between linux distros hurts Linux or the vendor.
Good Show
Too bad that Gateway is just about the last vendor I would buy a server from. Maybe I'm just replying on some prejudices of mine, but does gateway make decent server hardware?
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
has been dying for a long time now, their hayday was '96, '97, they needed a partner like this to help them going. This is definetly a good business move on the part of Gateway.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Gateway sells servers?
One thing's for sure - I've never seen a Gateway in a server room at any place I've worked. Dell, sure- but Gateway?
Oh, SuSE-Moo.....
Oh, SuSE-MOO !
Oh, SuSE-Moo, baby I love you.
SuSE-Moo.
As Novell agreed to acquire Suse how will this affect that agreement? Doesn't this mean that Gateway will be offering Novell Suse Linux on their servers?
libertarianswag.com
For those of you that aren't familiar with the U.S. market, Gateway is practically dead in the computer space. Dell has taken over anything they once had. Gateway is now focusing on selling plasma televisions and home entertainment in a last bid to survive.
I thought gateway had been relegated to cheap PCs and consumer electronics. Had no idea they were even still in the server space, which begs the question. In this day and age - who is buying business servers from Gateway? If Gateway had ANY sense (and I've recommended this to Sun as well), they would sell personal home servers. Today's 'connected' home is full of a lot of devices that people want to share data and yet most people are heating their homes trying to use full PCs for the task. Gateway should at the very least look up the old Qube design and turn that into a home server design. Something small, relatively quiet, and light on power consumption that can stream video, audio, etc to all of the 'connected' devices that Gateway makes. But alas I'm sure they'll try to jump on the Linux bandwagon with everyone else, after-the-fact and sell servers to the few companies who would still buy a business server from Gateway (unless I'm just not seeing their servers when I visit companies or something).
While Dell is making the big bucks Gateway has been laying off people. This is why they are interested in expanding into electronic products like Flatpanel displays(gateway displays are inexpensive but not hdtv) and into cameras and mp3 players. This company is in serious decline. Although their laptops get good props from Cnet and pcworld. Getting into servers only makes sense since they HAVE to diversify.
Wooohoooo! I'm happy to see Linux taking a stronger foothold. It's too bad that they aren't putting Linux on desktops though.
If Linux is preloaded on a computer, people might actually prefer it to Windows. Asians do.
Buy a Gateway server, and get your choice of:
1) Epson America Stylus(R) color Inkjet
OR
2) Gateway Brand 1.2 megapixel digital camera
*Plus*
Free UPS ground
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
"Gateway recommends Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP" right at the top of the screen.
Since the original came from Reuters anyway, why no link to Reuters instead of For-bees, eh?
Follow the source to its destination.
All Ad hominem replies happily ignored as the sender shall be deemed to lack the faculties to comprehend the equation.
You don't even need to RTFA on this one to see that they are offering SuSE on all of their servers.
How the hell did you type all that in 6 minutes? Your words/min would be over 90. If you took 3 minutes to read the story, you'd have to being doing over 180.
Are among the most atrocius pieces of hardware I have ever encountered. Frequent hardware failures, performance issues that stagger the mind... I stay away from them at all costs. Oh incidentally, their enterprise support sucks as well. You would do better to get your hardware from the mom and pop store down the street, let alone Dell, HP/CPQ, or IBM.
How does Gateway square it's no AMD policy with SuSe's 64-bit x86 Linux versions? Will Gateway once again be forced to supply a decent processor?
None of the things you mentioned are going to be problems for John Q. Everyman for the following reasons:
1. Gateway is installing SuSE Linux on servers, not desktops and laptops.
2. Unless Grandma runs her own big-iron Web server or Folding@Home project, she'll never see SuSE Linux on a Gateway PC (at least not yet).
3. Linux IS fantastic for geeks. And it's fantastic for John Q. Everyman as well. Distros like Mandrake 9.2 make it easy for Linux newbies to get into the market; a Linux newbie does not start with Gentoo!
4. You don't need to recompile the kernel to watch DivX movies. You just need a new version of mplayer.
All in all, sir, this is a very articulate, well-written, yet very trollish post.
SCREW THE ADS! http://adblock.mozdev.org/ Proud user of teh Fox of Fire - Registered Linux User #289618
VA Linux wasn't able to make a profit selling linux servers... I don't know why Gateway would. I think of Gateway as a PC for a first-time buyer, inexpensive, but higher quality than an HP, Compaq, or eMachines.
I think there's more to this story than is currently being revealed.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
Actually, it's not pre-written by much. My other account subscribes, so I saw it 15 minutes early and it took me about 5 minutes to write.
-Fux da P
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Man. What are they doing??? Gateway hasn't any server market, or products to speak of, and their other offerings are only consumer grade crap (albeit decently priced consumer grade crap).
This is the last company SuSE should have aligned themselves with if their intent was to win any corporate clients.
Nude Dax?! Where?!
Everywhere on the Gateway pages there is still written:"Gateway recommends Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP", but maybe things change a bit. Unfortunately if you have a look at the category "Operating Systems" on their website you can still only choose between
XP Home Upgrade
XP Professional Upgrade
XP Home
and my favorite OS:
Microsoft Plus! For Windows XP
...and I wouldn't get too excited. We've had LOTS of "strategic partnerships" that never did squat. A couple of big ones with AOL and Transmeta quickly come to mind.
Although most of us are used to Gateway as a home-consumer seller, I think the idea here is to get some l00t out of the many businesses that are embracing Linux for it's stability. Gateway hasn't been doing too well recently. falling stock
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I don't know if they stopped selling them for a while or not, but... My first job (besides mowing lawns...) was as an assistant admin on a ~60 PC lan running 2 novell servers, the older one, a 486 was a Gateway. We had 400 days of uptime on that thing once, had to shut it down due to construction in the area...
It is a real shame that gateway started selling crap after that... I could see the work getting shoddier and shoddier with each batch of new machines that arrived for a while... Some of them had to have their cases modded to accept a network card (the back wall of the bock was not perpendicular to the motherboard), returning defective components became a very frequent occurance... A couple of P266s got every part replaced except for the case and power suply over a 2 month period...
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
This is an absolutely no way off-topic. The mods are smoking the cheap $3 crack again. This post is highly insightful, and tastefully written, to boot.
. . . and has nothing to do with the original news post.
I remember when legal used to mean lawful, now it means some kind of loophole. - Leo Kessler
While our competitors talk around the issue of freedom by discussing the "possible benefits" of "OpenSource techniques" and "Linux-based software", the hardware vendors should be shouting "Free Software" from the rooftops.
With Free Software, the price restrictions drop, and computers become more useful. Hardware vendors don't have to worry if the OS will support their new video card etc. They can hack together their own support.
So anyone can compete, and the software vendors don't hold any controlling cards. I can see why software companies don't get Free Software. They'd have to change their entrenched business models. But hardware companies should be shouting "Users should expect Free Software", and funding FSF, etc.
some people just don't know a good thing when they see it.
Expert in software patents or patent law? Contribute to the ESP wiki!
There has got to be something significant with the timing of all of this... Novell gets SuSE and Ximian, Gateway starts offering SuSE... I really would not be surprised if there's something going on at Compaq/HP/Dell to turn the tables and apply serious pressure on Microsoft. Forget about pricing, I have a feeling that those guys would rather see a much larger disconnect between the OS and components like the Browser, Media Player, and *ESPECIALLY* MSN IM.
Slightly offtopic perhaps, but is SuSE publically traded? Symbol and exchange?
"The number of Unix installations has grown to ten, with more expected." (Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd ed.; june 1972)
From what I've seen of the desktop market, this could be a bad thing for linux midshare. I have extensive experience in delivering desktop solutions, for a major consultant, so I know what I'm talking about here, and one thing desktop users want, is security. And not in the h4x0r sense -
they want to know what they're using, and that it's the same as everyone else's. The more different distributions there are, the more confusing it id for the end users, and the less cohesive linux's brand image becomes. We all know linux is better, but the end users don't care about that. We need to grow the dominant Linux brand (Red Hat), and encourage innovation at RH. Lots of small, competing linuxes is a waste of effort - divide and conquer anyone?
You need help.
Black holes are where the Matrix raised SIGFPE
And they were amongst the best I've ever worked with. Unfortunately, they stopped trading in the UK a while back, or I might have had more machines from them. Don't know if they've gone downhill in terms of qualtiy since then, but if they haven't this is surely a good partnership.
OK, it's a poor attempt at humor, but then it is Monday morning...
If you cross a chameleon with a cow, do you get cow that changes it spots when it senses danger?
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
I enjoyed your post even though you should have RTFA, but I was left with one burning question:
Are you shocked or not?
SCO.com uses Linux
I've known for weeks but had one of those crazy NDA's preventing from talking. I tried to get the Gateway guys to go to Debian. I even have ISO's ready to go! Oh well. Maybe next vendor! :-)
The truth is usually just an excuse for lack of imagination.
Gateway already offers RedHat.
Gateway has less than 1% of the US server market.
But there have been rumblings that Gateway wants to move up in the world. A partnership with IBM should be beneficial, and might explain the Linux movement.
Speaking of music, am I the only one who thought that SuSE was supposed to be pronounced like the famous march composer John Philip Sousa?
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
How many more companies have to embrace Linux before people realise its here to stay?
:)
It seems there is an emerging force behind linux now, and pretty soon there will only be a couple of large companies left behind. Those players that Microsoft has all but wiped out know that if they are going to survive, they have to put their money behind Open Source, Any new proprietary Office/Server Space software doesnt stand a chance against Open Source, or The beast of redmond. So what Microsoft kills creates a new seed planted in the beds of Open Source. Redmond are rapidly digging their own grave and in it will be planted the seeds of an open and free world
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
If they used this as a jingle, they would owe Kenny Loggins some royalties for his old hit song.
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Nope, there will never be typos, dupes, or unread submissions.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Gatewat sold many Athlon XPs in their systems. I have had to service my fair share of them.
C +A ccessories_316441/PC+Components_316805/CPUs+_A1_+M icroprocessors_316806/2414462_ProdDetail
And if you go to their site they even sell the opteron.
http://accessories.gateway.com/AccessoryStore/P
Gateway said it was dropping AMD from all of its Governement and business lines. So they could a smaller number of suppliers and focus their efforts on trying to save the company. Keeping Intel was the logical choice. it makes sense not to support two chip architectures with two different types of chipsets and motherboards to deal with. There is cost in keeping enough of both chips in stock, keeping enough of both motherboards in stock, taking two types of support calls, producing two sets of documentation, and verifying and testing two types of parts.
As for the Opteron, who knows, maybe they will offer a new box.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
I'll be impressed when they announce they are shipping systems with Linux installed as the DESKTOP enviroment, sans any M$ products.
When I clicked on the gateway link, out of morbid curiosity, I got this at the very top of the first page I saw,
"Gateway recommends Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP"
Not that I would ever buy a pre-built computer or recomend that anyone buy one, but I'm not seeing too much headway being made in the final conflict for the desktop.
I suppose this is still better than nothing, perhaps it's a start.
The only way we're going to save Linux is to get it off Grandma's computer.
Do you believe in the principles of Open Source, or not?
Yeah, that was a little over the top, but the point is that OSS principles don't depend on the expertise of the user nor the skill level of an individual developer to work. In fact, you want users of all skill levels and backgrounds. How else can you make it better?
Either Linux can take the scrutiny of Grandma and be improved by it, or Microsoft, SCO, and the RIAA have already won.
--
sigs, as if you care.
Went searching for a place to buy older computer parts for an old server I've been working on. A friend pointed me to a 'repair' shop that supposedly would buy massive containers of computer parts, find what works, and sell it cheap. This place was no where near any commercial streets or buildings, behind a fence, in someones house. We walked up, and this weird lady with freaky eyes peered at me and was like "Who are you?" I said what my friend told me and they said "We only service Gateway computers here". I looked over and saw a laptop LCD sitting on a dirty plastic table that usually would have a umbrella standing in the center of it. Past that was a rusty old garage with computer parts stacked in it. They kept questioning who I was.. We decided to leave.
shows where your stuff goes when being repaired.
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
Am waiting for a real partnership between Gateway & SuSE, not one of these bogus 'forged' partnerships.
Must be another Microsoft success story. That's what happens when you do M$'s monkey dance.
Don't expect this to stay server bound. Almost ALL problems with new PCs are due to software issues, the kind of issues you have when you try to close off the source so you can screw your competition by breaking their codes. Any maker's quality would improve by simply ditching the software that breaks it.
Welcome to the free world Gateway, I hope you are not too late to save yourself. You might do better by going further to make up for lost time.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
They will change from a holstein to a jersey. If the chameleon blood is particularly powerful, it may morph into an angus.
Slackware, what else when it must be secure, stable, and easy?
People don't need Microsoft and do better with honest specs, hardware and software.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
From 1990 to today, every Gateway owner I've known has had to call tech support at least once. Single user home PC purchases, large institutional buys, it hasn't mattered; something was always wrong enough to require a call to Gateway.
sigs, as if you care.
According to the article.... "Gateway, which currently offers Microsoft Corp.'s (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people) server software and Red Hat Inc.'s (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people) version of Linux..." Mmm, Redhat seems to have been acquired by Microsoft... Microsoft is taking some pretty drastic measures to compete with Novell...
if you really want to get people to buy these gateways with suse installed, appeal to most teenagers, who are obsessed with almost everything japanese, just say "Japan uses linux"
;P
voila, instant user base
Suse is most like "Suuuuy!", which is heard in commonly in Arkansas and will be Ark. native Britney Spears' nickname in 10 years...Oink oink.
Zardus wrote:
>I always thought SuSE would be a nice name for a cow.
Maybe it would make a better name for a cat? Remember Dr Seuss wrote "The Cat in the Hat". It's been made into a movie with Mike Myers: http://www.thecatinthehat.com/
SuSE: A cat in a hat
Fedora: A cat in a red hat
My local Gateway Country store has signs all over the outside about their plasma TV's and nothing else. I didn't even know they still sold computers.
Gateway recommends Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP
Yes, it is a problem for Free Software fans because they would give up the opportunity to make a profit. Some of this money they might choose to put into developing more Free Software. It would, therefore, injure the community to restrict people to non-commercial distribution.
No, we would lose a valuable freedom we already have with Free Software. As I explained, commercial distribution is a valuable freedom we should not bargain away. As GNU/Linux distributions go, SuSE is the odd one out here--there are plenty of worthwhile distributions that ship nothing but Free Software. I can see why you might not value this freedom, you don't leverage it yourself. But consider that with other programs you use you are benefitting from others who do leverage this freedom: Red Hat and IBM's Linux kernal contributions, Red Hat's GNOME and KDE artwork, and Mozilla represent a little bit of the Free Software developed in part with commercial funding.
There are resellers who have just the opposite experience with SuSE's software.
Digital Citizen
So is it pronounced like "Seuss" (as in "Cat in the Hat" by Dr. Seuss), or is it pronounced like "Suzy" with a soft "S" instead of a "Z"?
A few years ago, we bought some ALR servers just after Gateway bought out ALR and re-badged the cases. These machines were P2-300 with AMI Megaraid array controllers and redundant power supplies. They're still going string today, although quite underpowered by todays standards. After having bought many more Gateway desktops over the years, I have come to the conclusion that modern Gateway boxes are absolute junk nowdays, and their tech support is a bunch of consescending, bubblegum-smacking teenagers who can barely read the owners manuals and their stupid tech support scripted dialog charts. Utterly useless they are to solve any problems. I will not be buying anything from them ever again.
Moo-hahaha...
SOO'-zeh is most correct pronounciation... but you should pronounce it kinda like "Sousa" (As in John Philip Sousa's last name).
That's close enough.
considering I used to work for a company that was exclusively gateway and novell! Seriously, the Old-school businesses have only bought 1 upgrade from the likes of Dell...And I haven't been very impressed with trying to get support for out-of-warranty stuff [i.e. parts!] out of them. Gateway has definately got some room to manuver here...mostly, the MS/Intel/Dell triangle has destroyed the corperate PC marketplace! Fortunately there is some compteition left for selling the PC boxen...hence gateway will look for whatever edge they think they can get!
In other words, you want to form a beowulf cluster of beowulf IRC trolls! Hahaha, I kill me.
You just ran accross the "profesionals"...people like that are the ONLY places to get anything more than 3 years old from anymore...I have Dells still under [or just out of] that pricey 3 year waranty that Dell won't even get you parts for anymore! Welcome to the "real" computer world...not the nice shiny things!
I recently bought a new Gateway laptop and use it on a daily basis- perhaps 50+ hours a week. It's rock solid, and have had no problems with it. The price for it was a couple hundred lower than the big bulky Dell comparative laptop with same specs, and it shipped pretty much instantly on order. It's too bad the laptops aren't catching on more to help this company out of $$$ problems.
Scott
(Btw- the Mandrake 9.2 install on this Gateway model 400vtx went just fine. Only problem was getting the video to 1024x768- it's that intel cheap "Extreme" graphics thing.)
but I'll be suprised if they don't. I hope Gateway's interest in SuSE keeps Novell financially interested in keeping it alive on both the server and workstation sides.
Visit the best Liberal Blog: DU
RedHat was always first on the support level because they did extensive testing and certified hardware as being functional in Linux. This takes a huge load off of vendors, such as Gateway, because they can check off their hardware against the list then guarantee their customers when they sell them a Linux box it will be compatible with Linux.
Not just vendor support, but customer support, too.
Remember that Red Hat absorbed (and still runs, last I looked) Cygnus: a company that existed to provide support for GNU software - for a fee.
Purchasers of hardware with Red Hat pre-installed can expect that, if they have complex trouble, they can always go to Red Hat and buy enough service to get the problem solved.
This gives them a nice comfy feeling about the product. And it also unloads the tough software support problems from the hardware vendor (even if he DIDN'T include a basic support contract with the install to unload the software-related powerup questions to Red Hat's phone banks.)
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
nice.
Nobody is suggesting we judge a company by just one thing they do. No matter how well it works, non-free software is not a contribution to our community. Free software is a contribution to our community. So it's sad that they don't take the step to make their installer free. But I'm glad they help the development of other free software and distribute free software as well.
Digital Citizen
I'd bet that an Opteron box would be in the works. Even if it's just a rebadged box desigend by someone else. I'd bet this way because they'll probably do anything to differentiate themselves from Dell - and score a few sales at the same time! Really, they don't have a whole lot to loose in the server market, what's their marketshare there? 0%?
The computer vendors are working on slim enough margins while selling Windows boxes. There is very little possibility a vendor has enough cash to pring the programmers on board to "hack together thrir own support."
The software has to be supported by the maker of the software.
open mind: teaching computers the stuff
Count yourself lucky you could get that piece of crap to work at all, I couldn't.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Suse 9 is like the crem of the crop..
S e_ Linux_9.0_Complete_5_CDs.torrent
I am a debian user at heart but suse was able to go beyond. Grab a copy now with bittorrent (google bittorrent to learn why it kicks ass for speed!)
http://www.super-serv.com/~supr/torrents/450/Su
Got this link from suprnova.org