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Novell Releases SUSE Linux Enterprise RC3
MrHoolio writes "Yesterday morning Novell publicly annouced the free availability of release candidate 3 of the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 products. Both the server edition and the desktop edition work with XGL out of the box. A serious step forward in the Linux desktop market, Novell claims this will go head-to-head to rival Windows on the enterprise level. It implements a whole new menu system on top of Gnome that is very well thought-out. It has incredible hardware support for a Linux distro."
You can read some good reviews here and here.
If I clone myself, can I call it a thread?
If a girl winks to us, can I call it a race condition?
It seems like "Incredible" is awfully vague. What I really want is out-of-the-box support for my nVidia card (common enough with non-FOSS distros) and my crappy Netgear WG111 wireless USB adapter. In general, wireless, sound, and to a lesser extent graphics support are what plagues Linux. Of course, Windows isn't really any better; they just have the advantages of actually having drivers developed for them by third parties, which is still relatively scarce in the Linux world.
Check out DL.tv, an online tech show hosted by Patrick Norton (of former "The Screen Savers" fame") and Robert Heron. Episode 72 shows off the function. It's pretty cool. It's a lot of eye candy, but it is pretty stunning. And supposedly, it's running on a not-too-state-of-the-art video adapter, illustrating how the implementation, unlike Windows Vista, doesn't require the highest-end hardware.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
Having just gone through the process of installing the nVidia driver it does seem strange that that nVidia doesn't release a script so you don't have to go out of x (the graphical system) and then go back into the graphical system manually. I find Intel is doing a better job of 3d graphic suport. Too bad all the decent cards are nVidia or ATI. I guess a little pain for the long term gain. Also, with OSS other graphic card campanies can become main stream easier. Hang in there Linux users the I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
I'm running it right now and posting this within xen virtualization. Most of this stuff is stuff you could already do with Linux anyway. However, I'm highly impressed at the integration of it all. I think with SLES 10-Final I'll finally convert all our debian and cent os boxen to SLES. SLES 9 wasn't ever really anything impressive to me but I used it because we are a Novell shop (however I found myself installing other distros when SLES 9 was too painful).
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
>> It has incredible hardware support for a Linux distro.
That line makes no sense to me at all.
Linux has had incredible hardware support for many years now, and it's all built in.
We don't have to rely on drivers to be supplied by manufacturers with their products as is the norm in the two proprietary consumer operating systems. For the most part, everything just works as soon as you plug it in. It's been many years since I bought a PC accessory off the shelf in Maplins or from a mail-order box shifter, plugged it in to one of my Linux boxes, and it's failed to work.
Of course, the wierder stuff probably doesn't have Linux support, but then it doesn't have built-in Windows support either --- the manufacturer provides the support on disk.
The amount of hardware supported directly by Linux is nothing short of phenomenal. And that's not limited to just a couple of distros.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
As long as the productivity apps are there (whether custom built or off-the-shelf), it can be used for 'enterprise level' workloads. Users can be trained to use something without having to understand how it works or what platform it works on. Hell, we had users working on OS/2 Warp 3 as of a few years ago.
To me at least, enterprise level means management and deployment tools. Centralized patch management, remote administration, and policy/profile tools are really at the top of the list. Linux has always had the pieces there, you just usually had to assemble them yourself. If Novell has managed to unify this into a cohesive package (and from the early buzz, it sounds like they have), they may have a product on their hands that can compete with everybody's favorite 800 pound gorilla.
For me personally, I'd be thrilled if I didn't need to call up a vendor just because I need to reinstall the OS (we use Dells, which have the unpleasant tendency to brick). That's a waste of 10 perfectly good minutes. Also, it'd be nice to not need my users to have admin privileges just so they can receive anti-virus updates. The logic there still causes my brain to cramp.
After calming me down with some orange slices and some fetal spooning, E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose.
Is this a new version of Dapper Drake? 6.07? That's a cute name for ubuntu: Suse.
Both SLES and RHEL fell toyish, to say the least. It reminds me of how Windows Server, that has a media player installed... only 100 times worse.
I installed Debian where I used to work, because they needed to run Linux to work with a partner; it actually feels enterprise like.
Where I work now (Fortune 100) it's all BSD (Net, Free and Open) and Solaris; yet we tell managenent it's Linux, because that's what they want to hear.
If we must run Linux is always Debian; it happens if we can't get some comertial app to run in the Linux ABI (we use Debian as Linux-Base) because it uses some silly new Linux kernel API.
The only reason to go with the comertial vendors would be if we _must_ have support for some unthinkable reason and cannot run Solaris. And then our choise is almost always limited to SLES and RHEL, and well, SLES is the best of those; so I'm glad it's improving.
Did you know that with SuSE Linux you can:
- Elect not to install xine, kaffiene, etc.
- You can choose from a variety of window managers
- You can choose to run or not run X
- That media and graphics apps, office apps, and so forth can actually be useful on a server? (ref: thin clients like X terminals, or if you're used to Windows, terminal services, etc.)
Your server may not line up with what other enterprises use. Why limit the system, and likewise, be glad it's not like Windows in that it's highly configurable and you don't get MSIE and Windows Media Player shoved down your throat with no option to remove them.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
All major distros install fine now, so what is left is how they deal with your hardware, that is the #1 important part now that really needs to be "fixed" in linux land, any distro. Any distro out there can function as a web surfer, email client and word processor,all that crap works now just fine, but how about printing and other various USB devices? How about all the other do-dads that the vendors are pushing now that come either USB or to a lesser extent firewire? I've been on a search for the best distro with the best hardware detection AND configuration. It not only has to find and see the device, said device MUST repeat MUST become functional within a few clicks or it is "broken". I am no longer buying more hardware trying to find the magic combination of distroX and add-ons. I am no longer playing with distros because this or that desktop window manager has "cool new features" and they now offer a thousand new semi functional applications. That is irrelevant, it is already "good enough". Fix the dang bugs! Make what is already out there "just work".
People want to know how to "make money" with open source? Frikkin easy to answer that one. Offer a distro that actually installs and configs external devices flawlessly. That's worth paying for. Your monitor gets nailed, sound WORKS first time every time, printers work, cams work, and etc. That stuff. Not half assed semi-works and have to haunt google for weeks to find the magic incantantion.
All the other stuff,IMO, perpetual fast release cycle beta broken ware.
I don't care one bit if they release two or three times a year if the stuff doesn't work (Hi Fedora!), I prefer one good solid release once in awhile, a year or two, with just security updates, that's plenty. I don't need 5 CDs full of broken ware,90% of which I and the vast bulk of the computing public will never, ever use, I want one CD with some normal apps and ****superb hardware detection and installation****. That's the killer make it or break it "app" for me now. Beyuond that, sure, have it offered, but stick to one cd tops for a basic install, and everything on that CD works. If it doesn't stick it elsewhere and label it truthfully as alphaware.
I'll see how the reviews go on this latest suse, the forums tell the tale.
Let me know when they add support for SELinux.
I was using a number of front ends for Linux and bought Mandrake 10 a while back. I am a (close your ears), Windows NT4 user for a long time. Had started with NT3 as a bug chaser. Those were the days. Along the way I was studying UNIX for simpler server control due to Windows memory managment - or lack of. Stumbled onto Linux and loved it, but had little spare time to realy get into the command line stucture. Heard the mumblings of Novell getting into the fray and thought - what the the heck, all's I can do is brake it. It installed wonderfully, and way shorter than Windows. I to was impressed with the lib finding all my hardware. I'm using a Compaq SP 750, dual P3 733's with 256MB and three hard drives (two IDE, one SCIC), running raid. Even picked up on my onboard sound chip. As I said - I'm impressed. It's usable - finaly - a Linux system I can show-off. Robert