On Tuesday 04 November 2003 14:29, Mark wrote:
Jack Alderson wrote: [snip]
The acquisition of SUSE by "ANY" U.S. company is very B-A-D!. All companies in the U.S. fear Microsoft. Their business decisions, strategies, and implemented and marketed technologies are too heavily influenced by what Microsoft does or they think they will do. European companies have no fear of Microsoft and do not allow their businesses to be controlled by them. One of the main reasons SUSE has done well is because they are "NOT" a U.S. - based or owned company.
[snip]
Good points. As a Brit, I feel depressed that a really good slice of European IT (and there is precious little of it) has been swallowed by Uncle Sam. I like SuSE because they don't do Red Hat's big swinging "We are Linux" BS. Many of us Europeans prefer the low-key approach.
[snip]
Still let's be realistic. The only way forward for SuSE is to reinvent itself, at least to a degree, as an American company. Otherwise, they'll never be able to break into the world's most lucrative IT market.
[snip]
I'm an American, and as such I've been witness to the effects of what Microsoft's tyranical monopoly has on other U.S. companies both directly and indirectly. And their tactics discust me to no end. I agree that SuSE needs to advance but with the help of American companies not being purchased by them. I think the best way that American companies can help SuSE (or any other company in this same venue) is to provide financial investment, technical and development suport. In order to advance, SuSE (and Linux in general) needs access to internal standards in order to provide software interfaces and drivers that will allow them to tie into the larger legacy systems and infrastructures that these companies have developed over the years. I think these things would go a lot further to adancing SuSE and Linux as a whole rather than a takeover by one large American company that will stiffle some of SuSE's technology that has been developed; particularly that for the desktop. Some of this has been done but many companies still have fear of Microsoft retaliation and as a result do not provide any inhouse support for Linux. I think this will only become worse now that SuSE is pushed into obscurity by a company that has been beaten out on several fronts by Microsoft in the past. This will not instill confidence in these companies to break the strangle hold that Microsoft has on them and support other systems. The future is uncertain but I see this as a terrible blow to SuSE and the Linux community as a whole. Time will tell if Novell can prove itself capable of handling such a responsiblity. I doubt that they can. I hope I'm wrong. Jack A.