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A 5-Year Deal With Microsoft To Dump Novell/SUSE

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wake-up-call dept.

Nicholas Petreley writes, "Wake up little SUSE, wake up. No, that's not good enough. Wake up SUSE customers, wake up. Novell is jeopardizing the future of Linux for its own short-term rewards. If you want to see Linux flourish, let alone survive, after Novell's five year deal with Microsoft expires, I suggest we make an alternative five-year deal with Microsoft. In this case, our part of the deal is to spend the next five minutes, months, or years migrating away from every shred of Novell/SUSE software in our home, office, or enterprise."

4 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. This makes no sense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Linux needs to get its act together

    Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with >1% marketshare.

    Take installation. Linux zealots are now saying "oh installing is so easy, just do apt-get install package or emerge package": Yes, because typing in "apt-get" or "emerge" makes so much more sense to new users than double-clicking an icon that says "setup".

    Linux zealots are far too forgiving when judging the difficultly of Linux configuration issues and far too harsh when judging the difficulty of Windows configuration issues. Example comments:

    User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Linux?"
    Zealot: "Oh that's easy! If you have Redhat, you have to download quake_3_rh_8_i686_010203_glibc.bin, then do chmod +x on the file. Then you have to su to root, make sure you type export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.2.5 but ONLY if you have that latest libc6 installed. If you don't, don't set that environment variable or the installer will dump core. Before you run the installer, make sure you have the GL drivers for X installed. Get them at [some obscure web address], chmod +x the binary, then run it, but make sure you have at least 10MB free in /tmp or the installer will dump core. After the installer is done, edit /etc/X11/XF86Config and add a section called "GL" and put "driver nv" in it. Make sure you have the latest version of X and Linux kernel 2.6 or else X will segfault when you start. OK, run the Quake 3 installer and make sure you set the proper group and setuid permissions on quake3.bin. If you want sound, look here [link to another obscure web site], which is a short HOWTO on how to get sound in Quake 3. That's all there is to it!"

    User: "How do I get Quake 3 to run in Windows?"
    Zealot: "Oh God, I had to install Quake 3 in Windoze for some lamer friend of mine! God, what a fucking mess! I put in the CD and it took about 3 minutes to copy everything, and then I had to reboot the fucking computer! Jesus Christ! What a retarded operating system!"

    So, I guess the point I'm trying to make is that what seems easy and natural to Linux geeks is definitely not what regular people consider easy and natural. Hence, the preference towards Windows.

  2. firsT by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    a BSD box (a pIII

  3. HEY YOU DIPSHIT MODERATORS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Replies to replies are B R O K E N.
    Why the fuck are you modding down people trying to get the attention of the editors so that this can be fixed?

  4. Tis' better to own, than to invent.... by LibertineR · · Score: 1, Troll
    Do you hear that laughing sound, /.?

    Microsoft gets ready to launch the new cash cow, while at the same time, Linux deals with a nice fat FUD sandwich for a year or so while all this is sorted out. When a company has enough cash to buy your very soul, no amount of criticism or complaining can substitute for competition.

    A lot of time over the past 3 years that could have gone into inproving installs for new users, device drivers, and UI, has gone into endless chatter over the GPL and other issues that in the end, don't forward or develop marketshare.

    Watch, as your futures burn. Vista can stink to high-heaven, but by March of next year, it will take over and leave us in the dust. Shelves will begin to fill with Vista-ready software, and we will get to once again remember what it must have felt like to have a network based on OS/2 and wonder where the fuck are the apps!

    "Better" aint good enough, it never was, it never will be. Until you are ready to kick the giant in the balls, just as Microsoft did to IBM, nothing is going to change. How about a unified device driver model? How about some consolidation? Microsoft treats software as a business. Linux companies treat software as a self esteem project. "Money and profits? Who cares, baby? I can run five flavors of Linux on a 486, and stream video to my PDA for FREE, bitch!"

    Will we ever learn? I doubt it. Listen to the laughter coming from Redmond......