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."

Comments

Finally another Linux partner

[Krondor]

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

Re:Finally another Linux partner

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe you haven't heard, but IBM has been a hardware vendor for some time now. The might even have a better reputation than Gateway.

Re:Finally another Linux partner

[ElGuapoGolf]

So...

Let me get this straight. Suse provides you with the code to their installer. Suse allows you to modify their installer as long as you don't resell it. And this is a problem.

Holy crap, we would be lucky if everyone else did that. So they won't let you *resell their installer*. Big friggin deal. It's a great piece of work, works really well, and I've never had a major problem with SUSE. Since I can not say the same for Redhat, guess which one I use.

Re:Finally another Linux partner

[Krondor]

.. I'd prefer they use Debian or Slackware or Gentoo or Mandrake or some other fully free Linux.

Of course! Who wouldn't prefer that? However, you have to look at it from the Vendor support level. 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.

The problem right now is that a lot of Vendors (excluding IBM) don't generally make their components. They buy a motherboard from MSI, a sound card from Creative, etc.. How are they to know if it is Linux compatible (and what degree of compatibility as some people's definitions seem different), without extensive product testing?

Vendors such as SuSe, RedHat, and Debian (to an extent) do heavy testing and certification of Hardware. Face it SuSe and RedHat are "Enterprise Grade" in their testing processes. Gentoo will likely never be supported as it is constantly evolving to bleeding edge updates maintained by tons of packagers who generally aren't directly employeed by Gentoo.

Debian is different in the size of its userbase, but Debian also does not have the resources for the kind of testing corportate Linux entities can muster. It will likely never have these facilities due to the community nature of the project, but instead relies on user testimony. Ex. "I use this it works". A vendor is going to need something a little more solid then testimony.

Mandrake might have a shot if they could ever become profitable enough to put out some rigourous testing, though you could probably use RedHat's results fairly confidently with Mandrake (or any other Linux distro).

Perhaps what is needed is a Hardware compatibility group that can test and verify hardware compatibility with various Linux distros, Kernel versions, etc..

So to close, I still do not see how being able to choose between RedHat or Suse hurts Linux more then just being stuck with RedHat or nothing. You could argue that Vendors should just carry different Linux distros and not certify that they work, but I'm sure Gateway's legal team would feel queasy at that notion. Keep in mind companies are paranoid of brand association (Gateway sold this so they obviously endorse it).

Re:Huh?

[donnyspi]

Yeah they are trying to expand their business and get away from just selling desktops. You can get gateway printers, digital cameras, etc. I wonder how many of these products are really made by someone else with the name "Gateway" stamped on them.

Gateway actually sells servers?

[PierceLabs]

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).

How's about pointing us to Reuters Instead?

[!Squalus]

Since the original came from Reuters anyway, why no link to Reuters instead of For-bees, eh?

Follow the source to its destination.

Too good to be true...

[Vario]

Gateway was long know as the company completely focused on the mainstream with Windows/Intel, so these are very cool news for SuSE.

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

Used to work for Gateway...

[Anonymous Coward]

...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.

This confused me (hardware and Free Software)

[ciaran_o_riordan]

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.

Re:This confused me (hardware and Free Software)

[Enry]

It's already been tried. See the parent company of /.

Re:Too bad their website says

[Coward the Anonymous]

Yeah, for their desktops.

I don't know many people recommending XP for servers.

The SuSE deal is for servers.

The Free World against SCO & Microsoft.

[polyp2000]

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 :)

Re:Linux needs this like Tux needs aftershave

[RealProgrammer]

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?

• Grandma: "I clicked on the little button thingy, and it said something about needing a root."
• RealProgrammer: "Oh, that must mean it was asking for the root password. In this system, only the user named "root" can do things that affect other users. Here's the password to type, and I'll fix it."
• RealProgrammer leads a world-wide development effort to make a Grandma-friendly And Still Secure Enough Environment (GASSEE). Grandma is a beta tester. She soon learns that some popular, feature-rich, overbloated environments are better than others, and that she likes the ones that let her look under the hood and scratch code on the bare metal. She also likes the idea of giving back to the community, and since she has a lot of free time she takes over management of the GASSEE project, developing a lean and clean 3D X server and tools to manage XF86Config.

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.
--

the tables ARE turned.

[twitter]

Dell has shown that you can defy M$ and still make money. What's M$ going to do to Dell for selling Red Hat, break their boxes? The bluff has been called, breaking hardware only makes M$ look bad so the threat to vendors like Gateway is no longer an issue. If you spit out enough hardware M$ can't break you without ruining themselves - and they have already ruined themselves trying. Walmart's Lindows, Gateway and others will come to the party. Hardware makers themselves will be able to come soon. Microsoft's power was illusory all along, now it's broken.

People don't need Microsoft and do better with honest specs, hardware and software.

Re:And up jump the price!

[rsax]

"In other news today, SuSe's distribution of the increasingly popular Linux operating system is now selling at an all-time high of $80, how about that for free..."

This isn't today's news. SuSE 9.0 Professional was being sold for $79.95 when it got released so I don't know if you actually meant to try to tie this into today's SuSE/Gateway news or if it was a mistake on your part but again, no controversy here. And the other thing is if you're so concerned about the price why don't you buy the personal version for $39.95? The Professional box comes with 5 CDs, 1 DVD and 2 printed manuals with 90 days installation support. The personal just includes the CDs. If you don't want to do that either then do a FTP install. No one said that a Linux vendor has to ship you CDs for free. If you don't like the price then don't buy it, the OS is still free.

I don't know about anyone else here but I would prefer is SuSE kept charging for the Personal and Professional versions. Atleast that gives them the chance to make *some* money of the "free" versions rather than ditch it all together and re-brand it a la Fedora.

Re:Cool

[Jetson]

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?

GateWay Canada used to sell machines with RedHat preinstalled. As I recall, the price was almost identical to the price with Windows installed. They also absolutely refused to sell the machine without any OS (I prefer Debian and don't want to pay for RedHat, either). All of this suggests that they are paying a Windows tax and will pass it on to you regardless of what OS you want.