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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."
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.
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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.
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.
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.
All of them are. When you buy a laptop, you're usually buying a design from a Taiwanese ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) that Dell, Gateway, etc. decided to stamp their name on. ODMs design a lot of concepts; American companies round out the specs and provide sales and "support" for them. The co-branded printers, cameras, etc. all work on this model. Dell and Gateway have been introducing a lot of new products because PC margins are razor-thin and most families who have a PC are not very inclined to replace it.
Incidentally, Gateway's plasma TV was so successful that more companies are jumping onto the bandwagon.
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Gateway bought ALR a while back. ALR made amazing multi-processor servers on x86 hardware. In fact they even had a 6-way pentium pro 200 server back in the day that was wicked-cool. :-)
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.
My hometown is Sioux City, Iowa, manufacturing center for Gateway computers, so I might be a little biased, but...
Them seem to be getting better. As I understand it, the story goes like this:
A few years ago, Ted Waitt, founder of Gateway computers, retired. The board selected a new CEO, who proceeded to cut corners and the like until Gateway was known for crappy PCs. The board kicked him out and since Waitt's stock options were now in the toilet, he agreed to come back and fix the whole mess. Since then, Gateway seems to be improving.
Hopefully, they can earn back a place of trust in consumer and corporate minds.
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My shop (a gov't agency) is an all GW shop. I prefer Dell for my server, but the Gateways have been stable the two years I've been here. Only probs I've had were a drive failure in a raid 5 array and a tape drive transport mechanism jam DURING A CRITICAL RESTORE. Can't blame either of these problems on Gateway. So, to answer the question, seems to be decent hardware to me, except they make it too complicated to get the cover off of a tower server (keep telling the boss we need to go rack).
"It's a dog eat dog world out there, and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear."- Norm (from Cheers)
Nope. The price is the same it has been for a couple of years: $40. The $80 price is for the "Pro" version, which is double the price when there was no Pro version. Maybe more than double -- seems like SuSE Linux was $30 in 1999, and they even had some rebates for a couple of years.
I couldn't get Red Hat 5 to run on my box in 1999 because it had an SiS video card. SuSE 6.2 had a patched version of X Window System that worked for me. Though I missed some great features in Red Hat, I've been very pleased with the increasing maturity of SuSE Linux.
SuSE's download server appears to be throttled for free access users. Sometimes I can't even get a full YaST update, and it is sloooow too. I'm still living in 56K land, but the server only allows about a third of that, and it gets slower as the connection ages. SuSE offers better service for a fee -- something around $5 a month, I think, for a basic upgrade, more for business folks who need more and better.
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.