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Novell To Open Source SUSE
jambarama writes "Newsforge reports Novell will be open sourcing SUSE professional under the name OpenSUSE. Is Novell following in the footsteps of Red Hat Inc., with its Fedora Core Linux distribution, or continuing its own open source policy as it has in the past as with YAST?" Note that it looks like the opensuse.org site is not yet up.
Is Novell following in the footsteps of Red Hat Inc., with its Fedora Core Linux distribution, or continuing its own open source policy as it has in the past as with YAST?
While I'd much prefer the latter, I'm betting that the former possibility is much more probable. However, either option would be just fine, provided that the new OpenSuSE is binary-compatible with SuSE Professional.
From TFA:From this excerpt, it seems that Novell doesn't intend to make the two binary-incompatible, as Red Hat did with Fedora and RHEL. I certainly hope they don't change their minds on this.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
This is probably one of the best moves Novell can make for both themselves and the OSS community. As Linux gains popularity, corporations are wanting to move to open source apps, but want corporate backing and support. This gives Novell the flexibility of both tracks, and offers another stable solution for enterprise level business.
Microsoft Sucks, F/OSS Rocks. I get mod points now right?
All they're doing is opening the development process to be something more like Fedora.
-linuxrocks123
My opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer. This is not legal advice.
"There's no need for red-hot pokers. Hell is -- other people!"
-Jean Paul Sartre
I currently have been using kubuntu because it has proven to be the most user friendly KDE distro, for free (full version, no eval). I have tried suse before and enjoyed it, but I did not like having eval versions and such. And just felt stupid trying to get a pirated version of a linux distro. if this pans out I will definitely give it a chance.
Open sourcing a linux distro that contains Open Source Software (OSS). What an interesting concept. Did Novell take a patent on this? Will Microsoft be the doing the same thing? What about SCO?
Anyone else notice that the domain opensuse.org is registered to the caped crusader himself?
This signature has Super Cow Powers
In other news, Debian and Gentoo is also creating an "open source" versions of their respective OS's.
:-)
Oh... Wait a minute...
As this develops, news on the announcement as well as blogs from the SuSE community (and staffers) discussing it will be on Planet SuSE.
Listening for the sound of the coming rain...
Just because you are using Gentoo now and you think Suse is too "n00b" for you, it doesn't mean it is "crappy." You and me like *BSD or Solaris instead of Linux altogether, or Debian, Gentoo, or Slackware, that is great for us and serves us well. But Suse is still good for person across the street that just sends e-mail and reads online news, and wants something relatively easy to use, but without the hassle of spyware. You don't want to teach them how to use something like Gentoo do you?
Powered by caffeine and sugar; BSD
They will do exactly like RH because it appears to be profitable.
It's difficult to see how this makes them an actual meaningful competitor to RH though.
It will be interesting to see if they drop java in the forthcoming project. In 9.3 they distribute it on the cd. They pay Sun for this priviledge, so I find it hard to believe they would be so charitable in the future.
It's sad (predictable though) that Linux is going this way. The open project portion is essentially free development and testing for the corporate parent. The "open" portions of the distros are becoming the red-headed stepchild to the supported version.
Please, no comments about how CentOS is "the same" as whatever RH product they got it from. Service, service, service is what makes it different.
Charge a fortune for something that's free and the world will beat a path to your door.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Now finally the community might have a chance to make and totally apt based SuSE.
Currently it is possible http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/ to have apt run on top of an existing SuSE but not as the default installation medium. I feel that apt is the one thing that stand in between of SuSE and perfection.
The current (YaST/RPM) based solution is not too bad, but it is just too slow. Seaches in the package database take ages. And, iirc, it cannot do multiple downloads at the same time.
Right now im installing SuSE 9.3 from the default http site. I thought it was released to the public more than a weak ago, but it still is not on the mirrors. It right now is about to take 6 hours to download 1.3 gig of packages. amazing.
but afterall i still feel suse is the best (most polished) desktop distro arround.
im looking forward to what this move will bring us.
cies breijs.
You mean the name was has not already been taken by a porn site? Cool!
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
I think your explanation sounds great in theory but it flunks the real-world test. MS software installs pretty easily these days and brings along all the libs it needs. Or, if the app doesn't get all the libraries necessary, WIndowsUpdate does.
I don't like the fact Linux apps install rougher, but they do.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
How on Earth is it possible that SUSE Pro has NOT been open source so far? It's based on GPLd software and therefore all changes to the code and 3rd party additions should be free too.
They used to licence their installer, Yast2, under what the FSF would call a non-free licence (basically, no commercial redistribution). It was their own code, so they could licence it how they liked. There's nothing to stop you putting free and non-free stuff in the same distro: "mere aggregation" as the GPL has it.
They haven't done that since SuSE 9.1, so it's a non-issue now.