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IBM Invests $50M in Novell, May Ship SUSE Linux

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the big-deals dept.

dave writes "Novell announced that it has finalized a $50 million investment from IBM, and that IBM can now begin shipping SUSE Linux on all IBM server platforms. Historically, IBM has been a 'Red Hat shop,' and one has to wonder if this is a harbinger of things to come."

5 of 321 comments (clear)

  1. Redhat may count the cost... by Space+cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... of catering only to the pay-for market. If IBM can bundle a no-cost distribution, why should they pay even token fees to Redhat to bundle their version of Linux as the IBM-blessed version? It's not as though IBM can't support any linux they care to. Hell, they're just about the only company that could support them *all* [grin]

    Or, perhaps it's payback time. Novell were very supportive of IBM in the SCO debacle. Perhaps this is IBM saying thankyou. Wouldn't it be ironic if SCO's actions were what caused Linux to become an even stronger corporate presence :-)

    Simon

    --
    Physicists get Hadrons!
  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. IBM has always been tight with Suse by puppetluva · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This post is misleading. IBM has always been close to Suse (probably closer than with Redhat):
    • IBM was one of the main investors in Suse from the beginning.
    • They shipped Suse for their Zseries (mainframe) boxes as the only option.
    • Many of the suse executives were ex-IBMers
    • I think that Suse was the distro they pitched in Munich (although I'm not as sure about this one)

    So. . . this should surprise no-one. IBM is omnipresent in Linux these days, but they have traditionally been the biggest force behind Suse (and now they are backing Novell).

    My Guess As to Why? There are things that IBM can do hiding behind the names "Suse" and "Novell" that they cannot do as "IBM".
  4. IBM is a company by 222 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IBM is a company, and a company sells what its customers want. If 6% of IBM's customer base wanted to use dr-dos, im sure IBM would find a means to deliver it. Thats all, theres nothing more to see here.
    Suse, for those that havent used it, is a fantastic distro btw... it was the first one to convince me to buy a boxed copy ;). Both home and personal versions on 8.2 and 9.

    Also, suse sells 3 foot inflatible penguins on their website, i paid 25 bucks for mine, and TRUST ME... it impresses the ladies.

  5. The Big Slashdot Fallacy by fm6 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Slashdotters need to start understanding that "It works for me," is not an argument. The typical Slashdotter has a level of hacking skill that is neither available nor desired by the world at large.

    It gets old. You talk about email clients, and someone will insist that you can get by with a plain text mailer -- MIME attachments are passing fad. You talk about off-the-shelf routers, and somebody will wonder why you don't just use an old laptop running BSD. You discuss the problems of providing reliable downloads, and someone will insist that BitTorrent, a tool you need to be a total hacker to use, is a universal solution.

    And of course there's the dude who asks, "I have no trouble working with Fedora, why is it a problem for IBM?" Of course it doesn't even occur to him that Red Hat gets the same amount of revenue for Fedora as they get for SuSE. Which is to say, none.

    Repeat after me: "OTHER PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT NEEDS FROM ME."