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."

Comments

Name matters

[Spy Handler]

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"

Re:Name matters

[mtenhagen]

In my mind an image popups of of powerfull, reliable and secure software. Not the best looking but something you can build your business on.

With SUSE I think about some guys who decide to package a bunch of free software.

I think most of the "older" IT decision makers still remember the old novell software as being pretty stable.

Re:Name matters

[SpinyNorman]

As someone who remember using Novell Btrieve (B-tree index file library) way back when, the last thing I associate with Novell is quality. This simple library had dozens of new errata every few months.

Re:Name matters

[10Ghz]

In my mind an image popups of of powerfull, reliable and secure software. Not the best looking but something you can build your business on.

True that. Whenever I hear someone say that "this piece of software is rock-solid", I always think "rock solid, eh? I wonder how it compares to Netware?"

We moved from Netware to Active Directory some time ago. And comparing Windows-server with AD to Netware is.... Not nice. Everything seems to be more complex in with the MS-solution, we have all kinds of strange issues with it (nothing catastrophic, but things that make the whole system awkward to use, whereas Netware was a breeze). And while Windows has been reasonable stable, it's nowhere near as stable as Netware was. In the time I started working here, to the time we dumbed Netware (about three years), it went down once, and that was due to power-outage. During this year or so that we have been on Windows/AD, the server has been down... 3-4 times, due to patching, crashing, lockups and the like.

If I had to choose between Netware and Windows, I would choose Netware, no questions asked. And that sentiment is shared by just about all techies here. But since it's the PHB's that call the shots, and Microsoft had shinier PowerPoint-presentations than Novell did, we are stuck with AD.

Good idea

[parasonic]

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.

Re:Good idea

[moranar]

Normally, what's lacking from the "free" editions are three things:
1) Official support, which you don't get either in debian.
2) Expensive proprietary software, which you don't get either in Debian.

It might be different for Fedora, but I don't think there's any other distinction in SuSE or Mandriva.

> Why pay for a pro edition when I can apt-get anything I want (or compile if you're a Gentoo-user)?
> Just because the distro is harder to use?

To support a distro, most of the times. To get official, quick support. Oh, and please get in the 21st century: we do have other usable package managers other than apt-get. Please inform yourself, and spread it. I'm sick of Debian fans comparing apt-get to the bare rpm when Yast, smart, urpmi and yum exist.

Some screenshots

[Zaitor]

http://scr3.golem.de/?d=0603/Novell_Next_Generatio n_Desktop&a=43914

Good brand recognition is important

[LardBrattish]

Just ask Borland/Inprise/Borland...

Honestly

[WebHostingGuy]

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).

Brand recognision

[themushroom]

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].

To be expected.

[jd]

Brand Recognition Good, Brand Confusion Bad.

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.

Re:To be expected.

[LardBrattish]

Red Hat's method (Red Hat for the Enterprise, Fedora Core for the Real Users) is acceptable, though certainly not brilliant.

That's a marketing disaster for Red Hat IMHO.

They had the undisputed #1 dominant brand & split off the goodwill generating bit and forced most of their loyal users to switch to a different distro and - get this - the users figured there were OTHER non Red Hat Linux distros and - shock horror - some of them did stuff better than Red Hat.

Brilliant move morons. 5 years ago Red Hat was the shoo in no brainer distro for servers everywhere. Today Suse is the preferred supplier to the NSW govt.

I gotta say this for SuSE

[StressGuy]

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.

Dear Novell People,

[dartarrow]

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

Misleading subject

[houghi]

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.

Re:turn off the lights

[wclacy]

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.

Re:OLD NEWS!!

[Jahf]

as far as I remember, Novell only released their desktop product as Novell Linux Desktop, which was based on SuSE Enterprise Linux. They kept the SuSE naming for the business products.

Take a look...

[soren42]

There's official Novell screenshots (a nice sneak preview) online at http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/preview.htm l.

It went something like this...

[jav1231]

"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!"

Support Confusion

[Skewray]

When I used to use SuSE, I went to the SuSE website for support, such as using bugzilla. With the switch to Novell, I had to wander around for hours in Novell's mazelike web pages to find, register, and use the same set of support utilities. Will I have migrate back to SuSE for the next distribution? Maybe half here and half there? What a mess they are making of this. Reminds me of Red Hat's mess when they stopped supporting the desktop, and then created Fedora some months later. A lot of users, myself included, switched to SuSE then.

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.

Re:Pronuciation?

[drewness]

SuSE - zu-zuh
Ubuntu - oo-BOON-too

Red Hat changes name too

[theendlessnow]

After coming out with:

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!!