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Dell Teams Up With SUSE

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the dude-you're-getting-a-linux dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Dell's Linux blog points to the news that Dell and SUSE have teamed up to start offering SUSE Enterprise Linux installed directly on Dell servers. Looks like Dell isn't just a Red Hat shop anymore."

16 of 178 comments (clear)

  1. good news by dns_server · · Score: 5, Interesting

    things are starting to look good for linux, we now have a veriety of different companys that are starting to support linux. hopefully this will mean drivers will be better supported (atleast for the hardware provided).

    1. Re:good news by Methuseus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I actually have a couple dells, 6 and 8 years old, still running on all the original hardware. They may be pretty slow compared to newer computers, but they still run. Now, a Dell from 2-3 years ago is probably not running anymore unless the person got the extended warranty, since Dell's quality went to shit in the past 4 years.

      I agree that I largely hate Dell machines, but when you get them free you generally don't argue. I also hate most other machines, but lately Gateway and eMachines have had good quality. The only problems I've seen with *them* in the past 2 years have been user error. You are correct about NEC and IBM being probably the most stable prefabs, however.

      You also don't tell us how old you are, just that you have been building computers since you were 11. You could be 13 now for all we know. (at least for what the average user knows)

      --
      Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, though I'm not yet sure about the universe. - A Einstein
    2. Re:good news by BlackHawk-666 · · Score: 4, Interesting
      I used to work for a company that supplied Dell servers for the web sites we created. We had maybe 20 of these machines, and at least five of them had major issues in the first few years. One broke down so many times that eventually every single part of it had been replaced several times except the case, which I was threatening to smash in order to force them to replace this awful machine. And yeh, it was a critical production machine.

      When I got a new workstation from Dell it took them 56 days to get a working one delivered to me after I told them the one they first delivered was broken. That's two fucking months!!! The reason it was broken, for the curious, is because they put the heatsink on top of the CPU but didn't strap it into place, so it wasn't doing any heat sinking at all.

      I'm sure there are people out there who haven't had trouble with Dell, but for me it's always going to be a reputable company like IBM or HP in future, Dell is cheap (but costly) rubbish.

      --
      All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
    3. Re:good news by Scumbumbo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Dell's hardware (at least on the server side) has always been well supported in Linux thanks to their work with Red Hat. I'm hoping this latest move makes their management utilities work better with SuSE.

      A few months back I mentioned to our Sr. Dell rep that I wished they supported SuSE (preferably by releasing tarballed sources) with their management utilities. The "Red Hat only" afacli RAID management RPM installs and runs great on SuSE, but installing the other management stuff (specifically for the DRAC management) is a pain in the arse. She seemed really interested in my comment and kept asking me questions regarding my experiences with SuSE on Dell. Makes me wonder if she either knew something was coming down the pipe or if she was actually high-level enough at Dell to be one of the instigators of this.

  2. Future partnerships... by jmcmunn · · Score: 4, Interesting


    If we keep seeing these types of partnerships, perhaps more PC manufacturers will jump on board and start shipping Linux PC's as well. Even if it is just a Linux Live CD for someone to play with, at least then they can get their feet wet.

  3. I wonder by Moby+Cock · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I could not RTFA, the thing is /.ed already. However, I wonder if the move with SuSE is an attempt to move into some bigger European markets. SuSE is the de facto linux standard over there (as opposed to RHEL in NA) and I wonder if Dell is trying to squeeze into some business operations on the continent.

  4. Re:Windows XP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think Microsoft pay/threaten/reward (delete according to bias) system builders to say that, a lot of ads contain the same phrasing with different manufacturers pasted in.

    So it's probablary just part of a standard page template, and not some conspiracy on Dell's part to confuse customers.

  5. Re:Windows XP? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well it means:

    Dell is paid by Microsoft to recommend it's OS. ("$COMPNAME recommends Windows XP" is so generic it can't be a accident, it's marketting.)

    Dell supports Linux because that's what it's customer wants.

  6. how much tweaking... by gp310ad · · Score: 3, Interesting

    What does it mean when Dell and Suse or IBM and ??? (RedHat?, Debian?, Knoppix?, all three and more?) deliver a server with 'certified' linux?

    Has anyone bought one of these for work and taken a good look at the install?

    I see the 'support' part, but do they:
    1. compile kernel (./config options) for that particular box?
    2. config all applications for that particular box?
    3. more than '1' and '2'?

    --
    Do not look into LASER with remaining eye!
    1. Re:how much tweaking... by jimicus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      What does it mean when Dell and Suse or IBM and ??? (RedHat?, Debian?, Knoppix?, all three and more?) deliver a server with 'certified' linux?

      Has anyone bought one of these for work and taken a good look at the install?

      Yes. My former employer was an IBM shop, had 250 Linux servers and around 1,200 desktops.

      We bought servers without an operating system. Some (not all) models arrived in parts - disks, memory processors and rack-mounting kit were all shipped in separate boxes and you fitted them yourself. My understanding was "every bit of hardware here works under Linux".

      Experience demonstrated that this was indeed the case, only you sometimes had to download kernel patches (which were generally open source, they just hadn't made it to the mainstream kernel).

      I don't know whether or not the pre-built servers had these patches pre-installed - I'd imagine so.

  7. SuSE on the Desktop, please ! by InodoroPereyra · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I would bet that with the gaining momentum of Linux as a corporate/govenrment desktop environment, teaming up with SuSE could be a good idea for Dell. Not that RedHat is horrible unusable or anything, but SuSE is more polished and integrated for the end user, and they are in a position of offering top of the line KDE, GNOME or a combination of both.

  8. Bad news for Red Hat... by Thaidog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now that novell has bought SuSE, major fundage means major comp now for Red Hat. Personally I think SuSE is more user friendly than Red Hat is now... with YAST playing a major role in that. Easy to configure, even for an end user to get a basic server up and running or whatever else. I see this hittin the lowend workstation level big time as well since most of the hardware cerifications Red Hat has SuSE has too (too a point).

    --

    ||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.

  9. Re:Windows XP? by I+confirm+I'm+not+a · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's an ad that's always amused me: Dell recommendsWindows XP Professional, but supplies Windows XP Home (unless you choose to "upgrade").

    --
    This is where the serious fun begins.
  10. SuSE vs Red Hat by DrugCheese · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I was always under the impression that SuSE was the most popular distro. I think they were the first to commercially distribute linux. While Red Hat as the most popular in the U.S. SuSe was the most popular world wide?

    I've long thought SuSE to be far FAR superior to all other distros I've tried and have said over and over again that it can be used by a newbie to linux or a mission critical server application out of the same box.
    In a couple years (or less the way SuSE is in the news more and more recently) people will agree that Red Hat is no longer the name when it comes to a great pre-packaged linux.

    --
    *DrugCheese rants*
  11. Dell was offering RedHat 3 years ago by vasqzr · · Score: 3, Interesting


    What's this have to do with anything? It really doesn't mean anything.

    Linux is EXPENSIVE from Dell. Most people are going to do what we did, buy Dell $329 servers, and install a downloaded version of (insert your favorite distribution)

  12. Considering the limited.. by Tracer_Bullet82 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    product options and the somewhat contradictory message in Dell's policy, this may not seem to be a significant step.

    Dell however has the image of providing good support(at least in my neck of the woods)

    Seeing that Dell can ofer and support for Linux;I'm presuming they will, this can show to the general public that (Dell considers) Linux is/as a viable option.

    --


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