To date I have sent almost 100 Windoze installations to data heaven in favor of Suse 10.xx installations, to the delight of my clients.

Todays economy dictates small business and consumers conserve financial resources, guess it was a bad time to tell everyone “ Wow, you have to spend $900.00 a box for the ultimate blue screen experience”

Novell really has a golden opportunity to promote and deliver a media friendly SuSe suite offering for the consumer and small business, it’s all in the timing and now is the time.

When you can tell the small business person and the consumer there is a reliable secure cost effective alternative to the software jungle and annual security relicensing they will listen.

My clients range from an 78 year old lady ( who visits questionable adult sites ) to small business ( 19 terminal point of sale ) even have a couple of gamers. All of them said
“Why haven’t I heard of SuSe ?”………….I don’t know, ………….guess it’s a cult thing.

Since I found Suse 10.0 I have followed the instructions, “copy and distribute freely”
I have given away over 3000 DVD’s in central Florida. The thing is, all of these people would have gladly bought the software, as I did once I discovered it did everything I want and nothing I don’t want it to.

I and most of my clients are completely liberated from the Micro Soft jungle, SuSe 10.xx and the bundled apps. have breathed new life and speed into old hardware, a primary consideration for the survival of many a small business person and home desktops in a fiscally challenged time.

So, guess I put the real WOW back into computing, Wow! I didn’t have to buy a new box, Wow! I didn’t spend over $200.00 for a bloated browser/ OS, Wow! I don’t need a $100.00 a year security suite, Wow! my office suite reads and will save in any format and came with the OS, Wow! I don’t have to defrag, Wow! this could go on to infinity.

“There comes a time in every mans life when he must grab the bull by the tail and face the situation” ( W.C. Fields )

By recently read articles obviously the wrong person is at the helm of Novell’s Suse project, this person needs to be relieved. Micro Soft got to where they are through sound business decisions, obviously it was not through a superior product.

I just don’t want SuSe to end up spoken of in hushed tones from smoke filled rooms in the same way Amiga is now remembered. (talk about bad business decisions!)

SCO didn’t own Unix, and Novell did? They may have a great product, but somebody’s asleep at the wheel.

Novell has never lacked decent products. But if the VAR channel is just waking up to products that have been on the price list for years then their marketing problems are as bad as ever.

@brian:
I have NEVER seen Novell be able to marked themselves out of a wet paper sack. That’s a shame, as their products are generally first rate – the recent Server OS Reliability Survey demonstrates this http://www.iaps.com/2008-server-reliability-survey.html. They really could learn a thing or two from the whole Ubuntu movement (about the only thing I like about Ubuntu is it’s focus on community involvement), and community activists like helios with Komputers4Kids.

@Joe:
Ah, a more balanced perspective, thank you. You’ll have to forgive me however, as I do tend play favorites. I’ll choose open source and open standards whenever it’s practical – it’s about who owns your data (or controls access to it). From my perspective, the important thing to keep in mind is that software is a tool meant to serve it’s users, not leverage to be used in a crusade. Novell has served it’s users (as is evidenced by increased market share), and they contribute a great deal back to the community in the form of development hours and contributions. And you’re right – they’ve done so IN A WAY THAT COSTS MSFT PAID LICENSES, and PROMOTES LINUX USE.

So while the Windows franchise does still have a place, the open source/standards methodology will force some much needed changes in their way of doing business. I welcome these changes, but am cautious every time I see a sycophantic crusader run forward to smite some evil corporation for trying to make a profit or serve their customers needs (perceived or real).

As far as I can see, the only damage done by the Novell/MSFT deal was to the ego of the “free” software zealots, who have forgotten that real freedom doesn’t always mean code will be used in a way they approve of. Short of that, there has been no damage to the community, the code remains free, and the companies involved serve their customers. Even if that service is smoke and mirrors – perception only. In any case, there was no actual harm done to “free” code or it’s users by any of these deals.

Don’t like these type of deals? That’s fine, the code’s still free, use and support it in any way you choose. But it’d sure be nice to see the “community” stop trying to kill itself off over differences in ideology.

It’s a valid fear. Novell will never again be free of it.

I’m not playing favorites: Windows Server does have its place in the enterprise. And Microsoft has built a worthy franchise with Windows Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, etc. But that franchise increasingly competes with Novell SuSE Linux and Red Hat Linux.

I really couldn’t disagree more with the article… I feel like they are shooting themselves in the foot with Ron H. at the helm and if I were a board member(really wish I was) I would ask to have the guy removed.

How hard is it to put out some sort of advertisement, let people know you have an all around incredible product.

Monta Vista charge one and and one leg for their services and that’s just for their tools without even addressing getting a port for your particular platform.

I can totally understand why Novell dropped support for it. The one thing that support for embedded Linux has going for it is that powerful device such as 200MHz ARM9s loaded with fantastic peripherals are well under £5 and lots of people *want* to use them and *want* to use Linux. When the cost for a port to someone’s platform costs well over ten thousand pounds (and sometimes way more) in most instances, lots of people are put off.

Can Novell or anyone else find a solution for this problem? It would be excellent if they could.

The plethora of variations in things like ARM9s alone make it so hard (impossible probably) to have a standard architecture that you can just have an installation CD. There’s no PCI bus on most embedded devices which would make it easy to have a standard architecture and add different devices.