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Novell Returns to the SUSE Name
soren42 writes "It appears that Novell has decided to rename their enterprise desktop line SUSE, once again. According to an announcement at CeBIT, Novell will be releasing the next version of their desktop product under the name SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop - ditching the moniker Novell Linux Desktop. Naming aside, it looks like the features will be there to make it a strong desktop competitor."
SUSE is a better choice than Novell.
When you hear the word Novell, the image that pops up in your mind is "Old and Busted"
SUSE on the other hand, sounds vaguely of "New Sweetness"
From my experiences, I've noticed that it's never a good idea to change the name of a well-known product unless you have a GOOD grip on the market where people are forced to remember/figure out the new naming. Otherwise, a lot of times, mass confusion occurs when something's name is changed, and customers go and try to find another product because they haven't been told that the name changed and assume that it disappeared (or think that something else might change).
Props to Novell. This was the right move.
http://scr3.golem.de/?d=0603/Novell_Next_Generatio n_Desktop&a=43914
Just ask Borland/Inprise/Borland...
What are you listening to? (http://megamanic.blogetery.com/)
I didn't even know they dropped the SUSE name. I guess maybe they didn't market the other name very well. (They might want to try to brand SUSE a little better).
Quality Hosting e3 Servers
To be kinder than a previous post (but the "old and busted" sentiment remains, hee hee!), brand name recognision is there:
SuSE is the name of a Linux distro. People know it's a Linux distro. Calling it "Novelle" makes it sound like it's not a Linux distro.
Novelle is a networking systeme. Networking, not a desktop environment. SuSE may be able to be used in a networking environment but it's not a network environment in itself like Novelle.
Corporate vanity failed. The world is on the way to being right again. It'll be better when Earthlink spins off its dialup service, renames it back to Mindspring, and hires Americans to take the tech calls since the reason why the two merged was for Earthlink [good brand, lousy cust service] to obtain the customer service skillz of Mindspring [unknown brand, JD Powers-praised cust service].
Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
The big danger is that chopping and changing the brand name again will worsen the confusion, rather than clarify things. Those who have grown used to the Novell name may not be so happy with the SuSE name and may even reach the (incorrect) conclusion that it's a distribution fork. Remember, the enterprise market has been pumped up with the FUD that Linux is going to fork "some day".
The name-change to Novell was a Bad Idea (apologies to 1066 And All That), so it would seem that switching back to SuSE would be a Good Idea. There is also strong evidence that the Solaris/SunOS name-switching by Sun didn't kill the product line - although it definitely didn't help and was such a farce that it is still clearly remembered to this day.
Red Hat's method (Red Hat for the Enterprise, Fedora Core for the Real Users) is acceptable, though certainly not brilliant. It's one way of leveraging brand recognition for multiple brands. Works better in the car industry than the software industry, I suspect.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Errrr.... Weve been using the Novell SUSE enterprise desktop where I work for ages. Dunno where this "New Name" came from but they sold it to us awhile ago when we paid for SUSE Desktop and Zenworks... We paid a lot so i hope we didnt get bilked...
While I use Ubuntu on my "home office" computer, I think SuSE is the current front-runner for the home computer desktop OS. I've got SuSE 9.1 on our home computer for the wife and kids to use, it's just a slick package.
Given the choice, it's the first one I would recommend to relatives.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
I have a stuffed penguin with the name 'Novell' written on it's belly which I purchased from your staff at an IT conference. Now, due to the name change, my dear Novell Tux is considered worthless and damaged goods. As the damage is caused by your part, I expect to receive full compensation in form of one (1) stuffed penguin sized 100" by 40" which is 10 times the size of my Novell Tex(tm). The increase in size is requested to remind you that what seems like a simple change of name is in fact psychologically damaging to a nerd. Upon receiving the new Suse Tux, I will destroy my Novell Tux to eliminate the chance of any other geek suffering from the same trauma I have. I expect you to comply with my wishes within 30 days from today. Failing which you will hear from my whose amazing achievements can be seen here.
Sincerely,
Me
I love humanity, it is people I hate
The subject makes you believe that Novell had dropped the SUSE name and returns to it now. That is not completely acurate. The SUSE (Not SuSE anymore) name was always there as a distro and at no point was there any thought about dropping that name.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is not the same as the SUSE Linux you can download for free. By naming it is does show, again, Novells comitment with Linux.
Oh and just so you are all clear on names: SUSE is the distribution, openSUSE is the comunity. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server are the products they sell for real.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
At least MS (Windows ) and Apple (OSX ) got it right. And I mean the cute code name stuff in all Linux distros is starting to get out of hand.
Aside from RedHat, you guys got to admit SuSE has a lot of potential (i.e. OpenSuSE and SuperSuSE specifically).
I still won't use it!
What if they rename it to iWindows BSD Professional?
1f u c4n r34d th1s u r34lly n33d t0 g37 l41d
... in the same sentence just seems not right.
Most Government agencies have not switched from Novell products because Novell products Work better and cost less.
What do most Government agencies use Novell products for? Most use mainly File and Print Servers as well as Novells Directory.
Novell has the Best File Server, The best Print Server, and the Best Directory of any Company and any product!
Many of their other Products could also be considered better than the rest.
ZenWorks is much better than Microsofts SMS! What do you want people to switch to? Microsoft?
The company I work for is in the process of switching over to Microsoft for File and print.
We are switching from Netware 5/6 servers to a Windows 2003 Cluster.
For this switch my company has paid millions to Microsoft and in the end we are going to have less functionality and it will take more time to manage than what we could do with Novell 10 years ago!!!
The reason that Microsoft can sell it's product is because they make their pitch to the CIO of a company, and tell the non technical CIO how much money he will save. (They don't tell him about the increased down time and increased time to manage and patch. Or the hundreds of thousand of dollars he will have to pay to 3rd party software venders just to make the crap work.)
I have talked to some IS staff at various places and have heard the same story from all of them:
Microsoft came and talked to the CIO and gave him a deal on Microsoft products, But Only if they agreed not to renew thier contract with Novell.
In most cases they were willing to give them Microsoft software to replace their Novell software for pennies on the dollar. Microsoft looses nothing since they were already getting the same amount of money for Windows and office. But now they are able to use their Monopoly on the desktop to try and push Novell out of business.
I have been supporting Netware, windows, Linux, and Unix since the early 1990s and I have not found anything that works as good as Novell's products.
There's official Novell screenshots (a nice sneak preview) online at http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/preview.htm l.
"Adventure? Excitement? A Jedi craves not these things."
"After discovering that our customers didn't know WTF Novell Desktop Linux was, but oddly enough had heard of SuSE, we're changing our Linux line back to SuSE!"
It's embarassing to be chatting with fellow geeks at the LUG meeting and mispronounce distro names - is it "Suzy/Susie" or "sooz" (rhymes with "muse")? And Ubuntu - is is "yew-bun-two" or "ooh-bun-two"?
BSA: "Would you like a free Software Audit"? me: "No, thanks. My software is all Free".
On the other hand, I have found SuSE/Novell/whatever much more pleasant to use than Red Hat. The Novell bugzilla response has been particularly good.
...that they would have done better to use a different name for the enterprise edition and keep the goodwill name for themselves. Fedora Core isn't really a different distro - they just used the fedora name.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
...I thought Inprise was a great name. :)
Lump lingered last in line for brains, and the ones she got were sorta rotten and insane.
Red Hat Advanced Server
Followed by:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server
Red Hat proudly announces the availabity of:
Red Hat Ultra Enterprise Linux Super Advanced Server Extra Value Edition
Or RHUELSASEVE for short.
You'll still be able get their workstation product as well:
Red Hat Ultra Enterprise Linux Super Advanced Workstation Plus
Or just say RHUELSAWP!!
I have Novell Linux 10.0 installed. I ran RedHat from version 6 on to 9. Most of our RedHat servers ended life at version 8 and switched over to Mandrake 10.1o. Aka Mandriva 10.1, aka Madriva 2005?
:)
Novell makes it almost impossible to get the free download of version 10.0, but if you are patient you can get it. Took me about 2 weeks to get the ISOs from their FTP server.
I was looking at Novell's Distro to provide DNS/DHCP. As a desktop, I was rather impressed. What I think is missing from most distro's is a central place to manage the system. Novell/SuSe has YaST which blows away apt-get, RPM, Urpmi, and has all the configuration settings in one well defined application with a constant feel. And unlike Urpmi and many of these tools, it actually works right out of the box. The live update works very well and is very user friendly. It handles Kernel updates and walks you through it.
Novell/SuSe has Ximian Evolution which looks very much like Outlook and has Exchange integration. http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/exchange/ximian.htm
This is one awesome distro. But it comes at a cost. It really is bloated inside of VMWare. It seems to lock up every 5 seconds for half a second. It is not what I am looking for in a DHCP/DNS server.
I almost went with Trustix, but wasn't sure of it's future. BSD seemed a good choice for this, but as everyone knows BSD is dead
We use Zenworks, Netware, eDirectory, and many other tools from Novell. But we are no loyalist. We are moving away from their solutions due to the lack of direction at Novell.
SUSE Desktop 1.0 was renamed Novell Linux Desktop, now being renamed back to SUSE. It was not an incredibly popular product, which is probably why you don't remember it.