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Novell Announces SUSE Linux 9.1
ravydavygravy writes "Novell today released details of the next incarnation of its linux products, Suse 9.1, based on the 2.6 kernel. It will come in both 32 and 64-bit versions, and includes a LiveCD version, to help people convince their Windows-loving friends to make the switch. It'll ship with Gnome 2.4.2 and KDE 3.2.1, as well as demo versions of the text processing application Textmaker and the spreadsheet application Planmaker (from Softmaker - but do we really need another office suite?). Samba 3 will also feature in the default setup."
can it run Linux(TM)?
I wonder whether corporations as big as Novell can survive in a "world without information boundaries". I'd expect that in such a world, networks of smaller (much more nible) companies will rule.
The hardest part is figuring out what you want.
You are given a choice of a dozen text editors, several office suites, and about 8 or so window managers. Takes a full day to figure out which of the 5000 odd software packages to install, an hour or less to actually do it.
My rights don't need management.
I just bought SuSE 9.0! Is there some way to upgrade without shelling out another eighty bucks for a box set?
"SUSE LINUX 9.1 will be available at http://store.suse.com and from bookstores and software suppliers on May 6. The recommended retail price of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal (two CDs, installation guide, 30 days of installation support) is $29.95. SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional (five CDs, two double-sided DVDs, user guide and administration guide, 90 days of installation support) is $89.95. The update edition of SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional is $59.95."
libertarianswag.com
I wonder whether corporations as big as Novell can survive in a "world without information boundaries". I'd expect that in such a world, networks of smaller (much more nible) companies will rule.
I'm not sure what that phrase means other than being marketing fluff. No information boundries would me no infomation security, right?
You can follow news leading up to the release, as well as blogs of members of the SuSE community as 9.1 approaches at Planet SuSE
Listening for the sound of the coming rain...
Considering that Novell also owns Ximian, it would be interesting to find out if the SuSE Mono packages are provided/installed.
When will distros include support for installing to the increasingly-popular SATA RAID controllers? The stable driver just needs to be built into the install kernel. Yes, I could install to standard IDE, then rebuild the kernel, then move the data, but when can I just type 'boot cdrom' and be done with it?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Are they allowing you to download the ISOs yet? That's what it'll take for me to use it. I've wanted to try it for a long time, but could never get it.
Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
The other day I installed SuSE on my machine I'm building for my four year old. I bought the professional version of it for $80 at Best Buy, and was blown away. It was the easiet install of any OS period.
The two manuals are beautiful. It comes with six cd's and a DVD with everything the six dics have. Talk about going out of your way for the customer.
Josh
Its a Linux distribution worth paying for.
I used to have SuSE 8.0 (back in 2002) and it was the best KDE 3.0 based distribution out there. It even supported my TV card (which took ages for the other distributions to support).
So, if you are new to linux, or you want a good working Linux distribution for office work and business, get SuSE. Its not expensive (about 40 pounds, which is less than an OEM windows xp in the UK), plus you get full printed manuals (RTFM has never been so easy), comes withs stickers (I still have a SuSE sticker on my gentoo box) and more.
I'm so glad Linux has gotten to the point where we can say "Do we really need another office suite?" :-)
Nice one, also promoting other packages, like that litle office suite. I like that.
Wel i'm e EURO, what did you expect LOL
Nou that SuSe is big busniness: I hope they won't forget the roots of Free Software and stay true to GPL so GNU/Linux isn't bogged down by a lot off non-free software!
SCO is gonna jump on this one so fast...Trouble is, they don't know what they're talking about. Doesn't stop their FUD campaign though...
When all is said and done, nothing changes...
"...providing the only significant retail Linux products on the market. " Really? I thought I saw others floating around my local CompUSA...
If you're not part of the solution, you are part of the precipitate
>Planmaker (from Softmaker - but do we really need another office suite?).
Why not a new office suite? Should we just "settle" for an M$ OFFICE clone and be done with it? Could it be possible that someone might have a new innovative product that is better? Should we just stifle all thoughts about a better product?
He is the best sailor who can steer within fewest points of the wind, and exact a motive power out of the greatest obsta
Part of the SuSE experiance that it is a "complete linux distribution in the box". Unlike just ISO distributed distros, such as Debian, it comes with so much more. The wonderful box artwork, the thick printed manuals, the fun stickers, the support, the propreitery software and drivers (full flash and java support out off the box) and more.
SuSE demands only the best, and thats why they don't offer ISOs. If you don't understand this, then you proably won't like SuSE.
I love the live CDs and I love the fact that they're starting now to have an option to automatically install on a partition for you.
However my primary day-use machine is a work provided Dell laptop. I would love to use Linux on it. I have Linux on all of my other desktop workstations. But the laptop came set up with an NTFS partition that consumes 100% of the drive. I can't just blow it away because I need the usual office apps, VS and Outlook.
Later versions (> 6 which is what I have) of Partition magic seem to be the only thing on the planet that can non-destructively resize this for me. Does anyone else know of another way?
For me the uncertainty when resizing a drive or partition is a major holdup.
Sure they can survive in a world without information boundaries. Where they can't survive is in a world without buzzwords and marketing bs. "world without information boundaries" my ass.
Pedro
I absolutely LOVE SuSE linux! Started with 7.1 and never looked back. Sure hope that Novell is able to follow their lead and not change SuSE to follow Novell's
A friend will come and bail you out of jail, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "damn that was fun!"
I hope they'll also release a PPC Version again. I always preferred SuSE to any other Distro unter x86. PPC Distros are rather rare and not as good as PC ones. Maybe Gentoo is quite good but it takes way too long to compile on my iBook.
Novell's vision of one Net ...
As opposed to now, where we have all these incompatible nets, like your web-net and your irc-net and your google-groups-net and your yahoo-chat-net and
I am still downloading Mandrake 10 from bit torrent! 84.4%! Can't wait to get off this stupid Debian box back to Mandrake!
The press release says that it will be available May 6. amazon is claiming an April 15 availability date.
Of course we need another office suite - as long as it supports compatible formats, who cares how many we have? Choice is good, and, more importantly a bit of competition is good. Right now everything is largely locked into the MS Office paradigm of how to do things, but there are other ways of doing these sorts of applications. The GoBe Productive suite, for instance, while not a direct MS Office offers a different and very nice style of doing some of these things. The more innovative and new thinking we can bring to the party the better we will be.
I really do fail to believe that the basic MS Office style word processor and spreadsheet are the pinnacle of design for such applications.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Ok, folks. Now that MS is going to drop out of the 1st league in a measurable amount of time (estimate: ~2 years) I think it's time to declare SuSE enemy and honor it with the title 'prime slashdot target numero uno', moving MS to position two. /. And lengthy rant.. err... reviews of even the slightes bug in YaST that the /. editors can come up with.
I for my part want a borg cameleon and an automatic +3 insightfull for every rant about SuSE lock-in behaviour plus an extra 'SuSE sucks, Debian rulez' subject on
I'll make a start on the comenting side:
SuSE sucks because they use RPM and only look at the money that comes from sleek boxing of products. Debian apt-get is much more superior. How long will customers put up with this SuSE crap?
(The joke been made, I'd like to add that SuSE migrated me and that they're my fist recomendation for every Linux n00b)
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
Was I the only one disappointed to learn that "Planmaker" is yet another spreadsheet application? I saw the name and thought it would be (MS Project compatible) project-management software. It would be a whole lot cooler if it was, maaaan.
A post a day keeps productivity at bay.
I guess real geeks have always had a little contempt for Novell. The sysadmins made a living off of it but it didn't seem to do a whole lot. TCP/IP was always a lot better solution to whatever Novell was hawking. So now they've found religion and are now promoting Linux. Just what can they do better than Red Hat? or Gentoo or Debian for that matter?
Sounds fishy to me.
No thanks.
It's down already.... ;-)
Yes, we need as many competing office suites as the market and programming talent pool will support. But in order for it to work, the file formats need to be completely open. Competition is goooooood.
SoftMaker's products are quite exelent and TextMaker was worth buying, for me. There are a number of times when OO just doesn't render a document right while TM does. Ideaily I like to have at least OO, TM & Abiword installed on any desktop I use. I used to include Applix (the best office suite there was) in this but since the company killed it it's not worth running anymore.
--
If I actually could spell I'd have spelled it right in the first place.
I would not put much faith in Novell leaving SuSE alone. Recently in an employee meeting attended by:
Jack Messman CEO
Chris Stone Vice Chairman Office of the CEO
Gary Schuster Senior VP Communications
Bob Couture VP Worldwide Services
Joe Forgione VP Net Solutions
Ron Hovsepian President Novell North America
Mark Hardardt VP Worldwide Sales
the following question was asked.
Linux is really just a piece that fit the kernel shaped hole in the GNU system. Most of what we think of as Linux is really GNU.
The stated goal of GNU is the elimination of proprietary software.
Will you speak to our alliance with and reliance upon a community whose stated goal is the elimination of the need for our software.
Chris Stone:Here's an interesting one.
Linux is really just a piece that fit the kernel shaped into the GNU system. Most of what we think of Linux is really GNU.
For those of you out there just, to try to translate for you I think what he's trying to say is that the original sorta open source or free software movement was called GNU invented by a guy named Richard Stallman at MIT it has grown up over the years to be much more than just GNU. One of the points he's trying to make here is that the stated goal of GNU is to eliminate proprietary software, how will that effect us.
Lets be clear here, just open source does not equal free and that the open source community has shall we say 'grown up' considerable over the past fifteen odd years and that the folks who write software in the open source community are just as interested in making money as anybody else is. The model of how open source works where the code is shared and then it must go back in the community does not prevent you from building a commercial product and that is in essence what we intend to do; provide both a commercial version of our software and in some cases open source versions of our software so I don't see GNU as the elimination of proprietary software, the world has changed considerably since that time frame and that's really not an issue.
Jack Messman: yeah, I'd say to that the ya know the code is free and we don't try to sell free code I mean that's sort of an oxymoron idnut. What we do is we sell a service that makes it easy to use free code and if you look at it that way I think you get a better feel for it then that free services are proprietary tools and services that sit on top of the operating system.
The question could have been better worded but the answer shows, IMHO severe violence to both the concepts of GNU and open source. I don't think they 'get it'. If there is a need for it, in time there will be a free or open source product. Soon people won't buy software. Those that have software for sale will be stuck with niche software or software nobody wants. Windows will be replaced, but so will Netware, eDirectory, Groupwise, ZENworks, etc. Instead of addressing this issue they answered 'can we make money in an open source world.' Perhaps next time someone should ask a more direct and dumbed down version of the question.
It was a joke, Mr. Troll Moderator.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
SuSE 9.1 Professional contains 5CDs, 2 double-sided DVDs. Both the 64bit as well as 32bit versions are delivered together, not in separate bundles. SuSE 9.1 contains Kernel 2.6.4, KDE 3.2.1 together with a KDEified OpenOffice.org suite. This information comes from the german SUSE-website (in german).
Novell's vision of one Net -- a world without information boundaries
Like the information boundaries created by proprietary software? Reading that Novell has decided to abondon all free office software in favor of a hitherto unheard of proprietary effort puts the lie to their marketing bullshit, now doesn't it? A 'world without information boundaries'. Oh how nice. I've been wondering what kind of company the new Novell would become, and now I know. Buy Novell? No, bye Novell.
That's interesting... as it says in the Press Release that SuSE 9.1 will be available in May...
The blurb describes Textmaker as a text processing application, when it would be more correct to call it a word processor. A text processor or editor would be something like vi or emacs (no wait, emacs is an OS that has a text editor in it).
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
How did you manage that? It isn't out until May.
Jeez, Pedro. Unless you disenfranchise your information boundries, how can you ever hope to leverage your knowledge resources in a dynamic way to effect optimal... uh...
(shit. let me find my brochure. oh - here it is.)
Nice discount on Suse Linux 9.0 Professional Edition
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/det
+++ David Watts 5495 0.0 0.5 1888 884
Suse 9.1 is awesome. I even got my grandma to switch to it without whining too much.
Awesome! Considering what the FA says:
SUSE LINUX 9.1 will be available at http://store.suse.com and from bookstores and software suppliers on May 6.
)9TSS
I'm with you there. Since Sun decided to use SuSE as the basis for the JDS, we have two big software houses pushing the SuSE binary base. Hopefully, SuSE will take over the desktop space that RH abandonned (ok, there's still the RH Workstation edition).
My biggest outstanding desktop beef is that Netlock/Apani's Contivity VPN product for Nortel gateways doesn't work with kernel's above 2.4.20. Of course, this is because Apani's development leads suck, not Linux itself. If there was an alternative way to connect to a Nortel Contivity VPN gateway (and I've searched far and wide) I'd drop them in a blink.
Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws-Plato
Okay I have heard about 3 or 4 different ways of pronouncing SuSE. Is it "souse" like as in Dr Seuss rhymes with Zeus? Is it "susa" as in how you say porche? Some of my German friends said the second was the proper way of saying it. I also have an IT manager here trying to make everyone pronounce it as "Suzy" which I am almost 100% sure is not correct. Forgive my ignorance; I am a Slackware guy myself.
spoken like a true AC.
many large corporations continue to use Novell. Although their market share has not grown in the last few years, their base has been stable. Products like the NDS, NDPS, and ZenWorks have made the life of a sysadmin bearable.
Their move to Linux in the corporate world, means that servers will continue to host Novell, and not be taken over by Windows Based servers.
In this light, Novell is nice to see. As for competition with other Linuces...we'll see what pans out.
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
It's almost enough to make me like the french.
This also represents our friends at Novell (with the help of IBM) taking the fight to SCO on a new front
SuSE Pro was typically $79, now its $89. SuSE Pro Update (the best deal, Pro without manuals) was $49, now its $59. SuSE Personal was $39, now its $29. As for SATA drives, I've installed SuSE 9.0, Slack 9.1 and Mandrake 10.0 on my SATA drive without issue or any special voodoo. I'm on an Abit IT7-Max2 v.2 Intel/P4 motherboard with an onboard Highpoint 374 Raid Controller that the SATA drive is attached to.
I've always tought in trying suse, it looks very professional, but as isos aren't avaible (there are pirate copies, but duh, c'mon, it's linux!) I'm using Mandrake. If the live-cd from suse was free, I belive more people would buy their procuts because they would know it better. (yes, I know you can install from fto, but c'mon, this is not a good way of installation)
..but do we really need another office suite?
,monopoly crap yada yada yada??
Whatever happened to the standard opensource argument about more choice=better. Anti Microsoft
Feeling fatigued with all the choice you have now?
Hmmm... I'd define "world without information boundaries" as "a world in which no-one has an economic incentive to deny you access to any information that would be useful to you for some legitimate purpose".
This doesn't rule out securing computer systems against crackers, and it doesn't rule out using cryptography for protecting the privacy of truly personal matters.
However I'd say that business practices of selling a GNU/Linux distro which contains demo versions (and no full-featured versions) of some programs are clearly in violation of this "world without information boundaries" vision. Shipping any programs without making the source code available is even worse.
But Suse isn't Open Source. At least not in the way that matters. The very core and most important part of Suse YAST is closed source and comes with restrictions. If you "need" to push Open Source push Fedora, Mandrake, Knoppix, Debian, Slackware, or Gentoo.
If Red Hat can give away the source for its most expensive products why can't Suse Open Source Yast?
In the end Suse is free to do what they want with their code and I don't think they are "evil" but they are not an open source distro any more than somthing like Lindows. Once Novell starts integrating their proprietary technologies into Suse it will become even more closed source. And Yes that is their plan. It may end up being a really good distro but it will always be far from Open Source.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Would be worse if it was "Microsoft announces SuSe linux".
... I am rather sceptical about that having tried to (net-)install the 64bit version and not making it past the boot cd (realizing that I am not the only one with similar problems).
... the biosses are buggy.
Excuse as found
To be fair, other distros I tried did'nt make it as well so far (Fedora, Gentoo: AMD64 3200+, ECS 755-A).
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
**chuckles**
I must be new to the scene... Never seen Linux pluralized before.
I agree that their move was a smart one. And honestly, if ANYONE had to buy out SuSE, I'd rather it be Novell or Sun.
Jeez, Pedro. Unless you disenfranchise your information boundries, how can you ever hope to leverage your knowledge resources in a dynamic way to effect optimal... uh... (shit. let me find my brochure. oh - here it is.) ...to effect optimal return on your brain-market capitalization?
Whoa... that's a verbatim quote of what my boss said during my last performance appraisal... are you secretly my boss?
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
How long do I have to wait for a desktop linux solution that will install out of the box onto a #$&@ serial ATA hard drive?
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
SuSE is what RedHat could have been and what Mandrake should aspire to be.
Graham
Linux - Fast Pane Relief
Dependency on Windows is overrated. Our office manager, a retired woman working part time, uses SuSE 9.0 as her primary desktop (OpenOffice and Kmail) on K6-3 450 MHz box. I rarely have any questions from her, and the box hasn't been rebooted for many months. She does not know how to turn it off, and never needed to ask :-)
Kernel 2.6 and KDE 3.2.1, from what I hear is a good step forward in GUI responsiveness and performance which, is one of the big drawbacks for linux on the desktop.
The next issues to address are easier app installations for joe blows (sorry but for rh/suse/mdk , i can never get stupid rpm front-ends to work properly out of the box) and better hardware support and easier configuration/installation of hardware drivers.
Once that is done its a matter of time before the window breaks
[alk]
Textmaker is known for telling lies about other Linux office suites, particulary proudly proclaiming defects with old versions off the office suite.
searching for "abiword" on a search engine brings up this ad.
No-Bloat Word Processor
OpenOffice too slow? Abiword
missing all the nice features?
www.goat.cx (url changed for obvious reasons)
OpenOffice.org was slow in version 1.0, which was forced to be version 1.0 by sun mangement. 1.1 is the latest OpenOffice.org, which has all the speed problems eliminated!
Same goes for Abiword, which is mentioning the old 1.x version of abiword. I have tried textmaker and it is obvious that it has relied on the faults of the old versions of them and that Abiword 2.0 and OpenOffice 1.1 hands textmakers ass to it on a platter!
A question for those who have used SuSE recently / are using it now:
Is it possible to boot a live CD, install it to your hard drive, and then use Yast Online Update to pull packages not provided on the CD?
The same way one could download Knoppix and use it as a Debian installer.
Would be a cool halfway solution between buying a full-set distro and having to bootstrap a netinstall from floppies.
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
>I'd define "world without information boundaries" as "a world in which no-one has an economic incentive to deny you access to any information that would be useful to you for some legitimate purpose".
What's your legitimate purpose for understanding the CSS system? Are you sure it's legitimate. Because, you know, you kind of look like one of those filthy terrorist supporting h4xx0rz.
You see what I'm saying? There's always a good reason for denying access by default.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
bah! I've been with SuSE since 6.4 :-)
I'm really happy about this. I've been waiting for 9.1 for ages (didn't bother with 9.0). IMO SuSE is by far the best distribution so I've never minded paying for the boxes.
You seem to have omitted your definition of "legitimate".
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'm thinking of migrating my family (actually my father) to GNU/Linux, but I'd require a distribution that is at _least_ as userfriendly and GUI-oriented as Win98 - that is, he'll never need to touch the command line after initial installation. I had originally planned on trying out the new Mandrake 10 (run Gentoo myself, but I doubt he'd like having to wait hours for applications to compile :-) ), but now I'm thinking of giving SuSE a go.
He's not really that computer-savvy (he doesn't want to be, he was quite proficient back in the DOS days), so I want to secure him a distribution that's easy to use with all the odd peripherals (cameras, USB-disks, scanners, etc.). Would SuSE GNU/Linux fill this role?
Gnusay -- for all your talking gnu needs.
I was wondering whether it might be an attempt to launch a trojan, myself. But surely nobody here is dumb enough to decode and then run (probably as root) a script from an unknown source without at least checking first?
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
Looks like a $10.00 jump in the pricing.
Sigh. Have you EVER bothered to read the licensing for YaST? It is open, you can take it, reuse it. modify and redistribute it. You just have to credit SuSE and print "modified Version" on the menu screen and in the code. Read the YaST license for once instead of harping on Internet misconceptions. http://www.suse.com/us/private/support/licenses/ya st.html
Actually, YaST is open source, but prohibits commercial redistribution and I believe "rebranding" as YaST. There isn't any closed-source core to SuSE. YaST, while not totally free, you can still do what you want with it, read the source, and it does its job as an installer for SuSE just fine.
easy install, cool apps, lots o' choices... but
:(
:(
- DVD playback doesn't exist unless you download various stuff from the net (even then it was choppy playback ???)
- my expensive scanner I bought is not supported by SANE
- it didn't like my Netgear RP614 router (slow/delayed net access blah blah - never could get a resolution for this)
- alas...no 3D killer gameage (UT, Quake, etc)
- no turbotax or taxcut software for Linux that I am aware of
I had to give up on it
I sooooooo wanted to jetison XP too. I have high hopes for future versions of SuSe.
Is the juice worth the sqeeze?
I bought SuSE 9.0 and tried it a few months ago, and must say I didn't particularly care for it.
While they are definately producing one of the most polished distro's available, it deviates from most linux distributions somewhat dramatically; I still don't know how exactly the init system works. (It's not exactly SysV, it's not exactly BSD).
When I used it I had a problem in which it repeatedly would launch the X configurator if I had dual-head enabled. I don't know if that was just me or not.
Everything is tightly integrated in SuSE -- the KDE desktop is pretty amazing, but GNOME support is almost non-existant. Unfortunately, I found the KDE desktop to be pretty slow on my machine (P3 800mhz machine. Slackware with KDE3.1 runs great on it).
I also found that you HAD to do things SuSE's way -- if there wasn't a button for it in YaST, the SuSE configurator (and generally, there was.. YaST is probably the most comprehensive config tool for Linux), or YaST didn't give you all the options you needed, you couldn't do it yourself because YaST would stomp all over your changes.
SuSE is also the most proprietary of Linuxes, and there's not alot of support for it online (again, you can't just update say, package X from a source tarball because SuSE will throw a fit).
It's probably not bad for novice and intermediate computer users; I'd reccomend that experienced users who want a pretty desktop with little hassle use Mandrake.
When selling free software, the logical business model is to add value. It is that added value that you are paying for. For SuSE that value is YAST. Sure they are slick and they are one of the most complete distributions out there, but ask anyone who runs SuSE what their best feature is and they will tell you it is YAST.
Instead of demanding that SuSE release the source to software that they paid developers to write, why doesn't the open source community band together and give us an admin tool that is the equal or superior to YAST.
Insert Generic Sig Here:
Easy test: Have you ever suspected your boss of quoting brochures?
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
I Linuxed my dad and he was never happy. If he's not that computer savvy he will prefer you giving hime wwhat he is used to rather than what you want...
Unless you live at home and have a lot of time on your hands.
WRT SuSe - it is probably the best (most comprehensive) and easiest to install Distro. So if you must inflict Linux on your dad it is not a bad choice. You were warned.
Huh? How is it closed source exactly? SUSE notes here that you can use, distribute and modify YaST as long as you clearly mention something along the lines of "This is a modified version of YaST" and that "SuSE will not provide support for it". The other main restriction is that the modified sources should be available to everyone else. Any other FUD that you would like to spew out?
A new office suite? Cool. Will it work? Even cooler.
:P *maker.
Most importantly, however, is will it be standards-compliant? Will it have a proprietary file format, or will it be able to talk with OOo flawlessly?
From the screenshots on their site, I'm fairly impressed so far - it looks to be able to edit things somewhat more complex than OOo can, at least. Time will tell.
Anyone use this product yet? They have goofy naming conventions.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I can't be the only one who has noticed that major product version numbers are a) inflated, and b) the same (+- 1) as the competetors. For example, this is Suse 9.1, Mandrake has some 9.x stuff and even a 10.0, RedHat had a version 9. RedHat even stripped the .X like Solaris, which is at version 9 and a 10 is coming. Slackware is hovering around 9.1 as well. Of course more pure distros like Debian does not participate. Nor do the current owners of all things UNIX. Hell, even Apple's OS is in the 9/10 range.
This happened when there was competition with word processors (Word vs. WordPerfect), also this happened when there was competition with Web Browsers (Netscape vs IE). etc. Microsoft has surpassed the whole version number thing by appending 2 random letters at the end of their products, so I guess that is next for everyone else to do.
Just an observation.
I've been using SuSE since 6.3, mostly as a server and from 7.3 as a desktop. Improvements have been great, however, 9.0 has some weird problems sometimes. Waiting for 9.1 and happily paying for pro edition once again.
One of the things that got me started on Caldera oh-so-long ago (whenever COL 1.3 was out) was their Netware integration and tools (having an NDS client when ncpfs was just bindery) and a KDE version of Netware Admin.
I'm wondering if there's anything Novell-y in this, or if it's Just Another Distro.
cmon man! i'm a karma whore, but not this bad, so ill be the AC
clickable
Then again, SuSE pretends to be more of a turnkey OS than that. (Unless they've changed -- I haven't looked at SuSE since before the UnitedLinux thing.) Instead of hacking the system at every little level, you're supposed to use the administration system they've wired in. You can easily bypass the system, and config it the old fashioned way (most SuSE users seem to prefer to do that) but that's not a supported setup, which means SuSE won't sell you tech support. Or has that changed?
Anyway, a distro with pretensions to serious non-hacker usage, like SuSE, should pick a standard set of tools and stick with them. I think SuSE actually tried to do this at the beginning, but couldn't resist pressure to include this package or that one.
I recall them taking out a back-cover ad on either Macworld or MacAddict magazine a few years ago when they offered their first PPC distribution. The text of the ad was something like:
SuSE (pronounced Soo-sah) Linux. Now for Macintosh.I've gone with that ever since.
HBH"Smart is sexy." -- D. Scully ("War of the Coprophages")
Ill just keep running FBSD where you arent required to pay into the pot.
While i do contribute, i much prefer the request for donations, then having to pay for something with out a choice.
When there is a free alternative that does a better job, why do you even need a commercial choice?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
As for giving away stuff: reiserfs, lots of kernel modifications, lots of support for Xfree86 (Dirk Hohndel was a SuSE employee for a long time).
Ok, that's great, but I'd really like to know (and haven't been able to find out yet) is whether Ximian Desktop 2 is merely included in SUSE 9.1. It is, in fact, my desktop of choice (the integration of OOo with the rest of the environment is fabulous) and if it's part of the SUSE 9.1 standard install (i.e. without having to go to ximian.com afterwards to install it), SUSE 9.1 *will* become my new standard Linux. RH9 is getting a little long in the teeth, and you can't get Ximian Desktop for Fedora ... and Fedora seems beta-quality at best, anyway.
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
funny one, this release. It starts with:
Novell today unveiled SUSE(R) LINUX 9.1 Personal and SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional, the first complete commercial Linux* products based on the 2.6 kernel, providing the only significant retail Linux products on the market.
and ends with:
SUSE LINUX 9.1 will be available at http://store.suse.com and from bookstores and software suppliers on May 6.
so which is it? at least with Mandrke people can actually run the community edition now - same with RedHat/Fedora. What can I run based on SuSe 9.1 now? are they announcing the beta at this time?
I'm not familiar with all the tools available with all the distros (probably no one person is, but collectively, maybe I can get an answer). I just tried SuSE LiveEval 9.0 a couple days ago, and got to see what YaST can do. I discovered finally a tool that can manage some hardware settings with a graphical app on your desktop. I had tried Mandrake and Debian, and they didn't seem to have a way to just do something like change my display size.
I was used to being able to do a right-click and Properties on my background and change colors, resolution, etc. Are there any OSS apps that can do that from within KDE, or does YaST have the only implementation?
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
If you weren't busy trying to sound cute, you would realize that I'm talking about choice.
Not the reality that at times you must pay for things. However, when you have a valid alternative that doesn't cost, ( or costs less ) why choose to pay? That's just wasting your money and irresponsible behavior..
Some of us have to work for our funds, and we don't want to throw it away unnecessarily.
PS: I bet I'm older then you have a much better clue. So take your snot nosed comments elsewhere.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I don't expect SuSE will licence it under the GPL, so the best thing is for someone else to reimplement it's features and release it under the GPL. This would be preferable to taking YaST and modifying it, with the restrictions that its licence imposes on you.
43 - For those who require slightly more than the answer to life, the universe and everything.
You can also support FSF by "buying" GLPed software from their site as well.
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
So SuSE 9.1 continues to use RPM's, and there's no word on whether apt-get will be included. Why does SuSE stick with RPM's instead of moving to Debian packages?
The real difference between RPM's and Debian packages, for me, is that 'deborphan' is only available in the Debian world, and so i can easily trim out libraries which were installed as dependencies for software I no longer have installed. I haven't yet found an easy way to find orphaned RPM's on my SuSE system.
Oh no! I only installed SuSE 9.0 last weekend... now I've got to start all over again??! :(
(well, it would be nice if there was a smoother upgrade path than reloading the whole OS - it's a big download)
(Spudley Strikes Again!)
I wish I had some mod points right about now. Maybe one of our Novell admins has some.
-Phil
Shoot questions, first ask later...
Yeah, but I was more concerned about him calling me Pedro...
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
...then your choice is already made: Gentoo.
:-)
Next best thing to FreeBSD
(ducking)
Seeing "Novell announces SuSE". It's like "Bill Gates announce Mac OSX".
I'd like to add that SuSE migrated me and that they're my fist recomendation for every Linux n00b
I've tried out a number of distros and I have to agree with you; SuSE is the closest thing I've seen to something that Joe Desktop can grasp. That said, as a Linux user of intermediate knowledge, I am looking to switch from SuSE to a distro that is a bit less restrictive. I think another poster mentioned having problems when they tried to do something other than the SuSE way. Personally, I've had difficulty on SuSE with applications when I try to install from source. The rule seems to be: if it's not a SuSE update or RPM, then it's best to leave it alone. So I am considering trying out Gentoo, but am afraid that I'll miss all the hand-holding SuSE gives me in terms of software/hardware config. Any thoughts about this?
Magnatune: Quality (DRM-free) MP3/FLAC/
---------
Create a WAP server
-----------
Try out WAP hosting
um hello?
How about you just take the defaults? problem solved.
I wrote a little Pascal program asking arithmetic quetsions for my son when he was four. I was working on my thesis and needed to occupy him while I concentrated. Now he's an aerospace engineer and we had to pay for the university.
it starts out with "begin-base64 644 mksuse.sh"
:-P
That gives away the filename before you even start copying/pasting, ya troll
the real at&t mix
What do you really miss by doing the free FTP install? (i.e. what commercial packages included with the pay-for copy would a lot of people really care about?)
the real at&t mix
I like Suse 9, but I'd rather have Samba 3 instead of Samba 2.whatever. Having Samba 3 is reason enough for me to upgrade.
Go Gusties
It's funny...I remember a time (not so long ago, either) when diversity was encouraged in the Linux community. I'm assuming that the reason why unity has become the Holy Grail is because of the desire to convert Windows users to Linux.
I read a good article on madpenguin.org the other day though about how if a reasonably consistent, unified *interface* is maintained, it doesn't matter how many actual programs there are out there.
Also, methinks peeps need to keep in mind that the whole reason why Outlook Express and IE are now the target of so many viruses is precisely because nearly everyone and their dog uses just those two programs. Only having a single set of apps which everyone uses makes life a lot easier for the crackers, script kiddies, and virus writers, and a lot harder for everyone else.
If we want unity and consistency, I think we should aim for it primarily in the UI space. If we follow ESR's paradigm of creating the core program and UI as modules connected by protocols anywayz, we can have a boatload of different programs all doing different things, (diversity being a GOOD thing) but the UI can be consistent enough that Joe Sixpack will have absolutely no trouble using them. The bazaar lives on.
I never understood this issue. What's the big deal about it? You can do a ftp install where only the packages you need get downloaded. Lot less traffic for the providers.
You will not get the programs where SUSE has no rights for redistribution, but you would not get them on ISO's either. Remember there's software with commercial licenses included (like officebib).
SUSE tries to make money from boxed versions, and I think they deserve it. You can still get it for free (as in beer).
While we are on it: yes, the YaST license is not free. I do in most cases support the standpoint of the FSF, but since the license only prohibits commercial redistribution and not redistribution per se, I can even live with that.
Just wait until they post the 9.1 installation to the FTP site and download the whole thing (probably approaching 8 GB by now) and install/upgrade as much as you want for free. When you buy the box set from SuSE, you're really only paying for the convenience of packaging it all together for you on cds, the manuals and 30 days support assistance if you need that.
That was easy. You signed the original post. ;)
That's not entirely true. You are right about YOU, but you can add additional install sources (Change Source of Installation) which can be used by the Install and Remove Software module in YaST.
Try to add ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/suse/ftp.suse.com/suse /i386/supplementary/KDE/update_for_9.0/ to the sources (replace with your closest mirror and correct distribution), and YaST will update your KDE install.
The source directory must contain extra information sources for YaST (like a yast-source directory), so it does not work for all software updates provided by SUSE. AFAIK, it works for KDE; but not for GNOME or projects like Mozilla, unfortunately. You might try to use apt4rpm instead.
The answer to the orginal question: No, if they have not changed something for the new 9.1 Live CD's, it should not be possible to do a Knoppix-like upgrade from a Live CD.
I just bought a copy of Xandros 2.0 the other day, and from what I've seen so far it's fantastic...I'm extremely happy with it. Installation is a breeze, and my jaw dropped when I saw how it automatically detected/configured my wretched WinModem. (which I feared would require a kernel recompile to get working, and although I'm definitely not a complete UNIX newb, I'm sufficiently non-programmatically oriented that that would have been somewhat daunting)
.debs, it's true...but I've been able to get an rpm to work with minimal tinkering, and I'm used to doing manual .configure/compiles with tarballs anywayz, to a degree.
Xandros also doesn't seem to have the problem you mentioned about SuSE not allowing other apps. It does prefer
My only real grizzle with Xandros is KDE, because last time I had Linux installed I was using Enlightenment, which is a lot prettier than KDE, if less user-friendly. Everything else though is fine...File Explorer works like a charm, and I'm currently in the process of installing the alphaware monstrosity that is WINE, in order to use a few of my beloved windows apps. Incidentally, if anyone feels like having a crack at getting RealDraw (http://www.mediachance.com/) working with WINE and posting the results, (I will be myself as well) I'd be much obliged. It's a truly fantastic little vector graphics app too, so you'd be doing yourself a favour at the same time.
Umm, how about directory services? You may have heard of NDS - y'know, the architecture MS ripped off when they came up with ADS? I'm not a novell fanboy, but this is a matter of giving credit where it's due.
Yes, my only tool is a hammer. And you're starting to look like a nail.
Novell is doing what FOSS has wanted proprietary OS vendors to do for some time, and all you want to do is flame them for it.
Yes, my only tool is a hammer. And you're starting to look like a nail.
It exists, you know.
One time, I caught SuSE reverting changes I made to crontab (using vi.)
I walked away from it then and there, and I'll never go back.
I'm looking to install to a hardware SATA RAID array, not simply to a drive connected to an SATA controller. So try THAT on your Dell, dude.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
If novell chooses to open source their software, that's up to them.
Longtime Novell CNE/CNI here.
How does a company like Novell compile a product like NDS and not have it contaminated by the GPL? Or perhaps I should ask: Against whose libraries is something like NDS linked as [or after] it's compiled?
I got an alert about a new Groupwise on Linux seminar, and all I could think was, "Gee whiz, how can they do something like Groupwise without GPL contamination???"
Is the Intel C++ compiler shipped with contamination-free libraries? Is the Metrowerks compiler shipped with contamination-free libraries?
As a developer, I'd love to know the answers so that I could sell my own Linux software [confident in someone's assurance that their libraries are contamination-free].
YES.
That's why we (or at least I) got into this Free Software thing. Yes, Virginia, we do need choices.
Let's not repeat the same error when someone said the very same, citing M$ Office as definitive.
Samba 3 is already available for SuSE 9. If you follow the download links from SuSE's website you are redirected a few times and wind up here. These are the RPMs specifically for SuSE 9.0.
Is xv by John Bradley included? killer-app.
still use it.
A version of linux that runs from a cdrom, and
allows me to have my home directory in a USB ram card. In fact it would be cool to be able to boot from the ram stick. The only way to make linux defacto is if somehow it is made very easy to boot from, and use, and store with.. Then it would allow users to carry their environment with them..
Just say no to license servers!!
I have searched the SuSE online literature and I can not find answers to these questions, nor in the books nor on the box for 9.0. I'm sure you can tell from my questions that I'm fairly new to this and not a professional.
1. Does it come with True Type fonts, and will they be installed by default? (Was not the case with 8.0.)
2. If I already have SuSE 8.0 installed, with the YAST installer be smart enough to just install the new stuff I need and leave my data and configurations alone? Or do I need to do an uninstall/reinstall? (The original installation didn't take long; what took long was for me to set up everything the way I liked it.)
3. I have run the YAST update from the SuSE site and it does not seem to take me from, say, 8.0 to 8.2. Why, then, do they say you can stay fully current? What I mean is, can I somehow have YAST get me everything I need to be at 9.0 or 9.1(when it gets there)? And again, will it leave my data alone?
Thanks.
- I rarely have any questions from her, and the box hasn't been rebooted for many months. She does not know how to turn it off, and never needed to ask
:-)
If my grandmother reads this and tries to install linux, I'm blaming you.What is this "kool aid" running gag/topic I see through many /. threads?
I have tried SuSE 8.1 and 8.2. They are awesome. I am still a Debian man, but would always recommend SuSE for new users. It does everything for you. Asks for the CD at the right times, etc. You won't be left with a broken X after fiddling.
Howdy,
I had the same experience with choppy playback. Suse seems to disable DMA on DVD/CD drives by default. It's very easy to enable it with Yast, just select hardware on the Yast menu, select the IDE/DMA mode icon and pick your DVD Drive, set the mode to be "DMA On", gone should be your slow playback problems.
Getting playback to work is a whole other sorry story but Suse are just being cautious over the legalities of distributing CSS etc. If you don't mind building your own software, download mplayer from mplayerhq.hu. By default it builds only a command line player, if you want the nice GUI you need to
1. pass --enable-gui to the configure script
2. Download a skin (it doesn't come with any)
Good luck.
A small company can handle large customers by subcontracting. In fact, this is what outsourcing is about. Rasing profit margins by shrinking the company, by outsourcing specific tasks to companies specialising in those.
I just purchased the AMD 64 9.0 Version for $129 and now they are including AMD 64 and Intel 64 and Intel 32 in the same package. I will gladly pay them for the upgrade, I have more Green Boxes laying around then I care to talk about. I've used Redhat, Fedora, Slackware but always seem to gravitate back to SUSE. SUSE always seems to detect hardware that other distros miss. Just my opinion.