RH has been a little behind the devel curve of late. This is especially in light of the fact the the KDE project seems to be gaining momentum while GNOME 2.0 has yet to be seen on the end-user side. An end-user interfaces are become a viable issue. The IT guys are, more or less, beyond the point of having to worry about setting up various sever configurations on the base operations. The exception, of course, is all the MCSE drones to worried to change - but they are diminishing in numbers faster then Redmond cares to acknowledge. So, now interoperability and end-user space are beginning to become issue that is seriously being entertained. SuSE and KDE are making better strides in this arena simply due to the fact that both interoperate together to afford end-users a more pliable degree of functionality. Now the other side of the coin is cross-platform interoperability and functionality. Partners such as IBM are making great strides on the enteprise arena, and now more third party developers and support companies are starting to contribute as well, such as C.A. Tie all these factors together along with greater adoption of SuSE in Europe by governmental and enterprise institutions and there's a fair amount of potential for serious market gains by SuSE and Linux in general. Also, it had been rumor that SuSE might be putting an IPO together. And given that IBM has backed SuSE this might have the guys at RH a little bothered. Think of it, SuSE offers an IPO and IBM is a major contributor to SuSE development. RH has made headway but not in Europe. So, SuSE makes IPO and is partnered with IBM. Hmmmm, if I were RH that would bother me. There are two ways of view this possible scenario. A) RH will cause potential fractures in the Linux/OSS community. This would be problematic in light of the LSB if RH goes roque. B) This solidifies the LSB movement and causes non-compliant distros to suffer due to the fact that developers complying to the LSB can offer compliant distros better interoperability. Futhermore, this could spur on greater development project to fruition related to the need to compete and comply with LSB standards. Linux development has come to a point wherein interoperablility with M$ quasi-standards such as office/document formats will be a non-issue. It will be an issue of which distro supports cross platform interoperability paired with end-user interfaces. Hence, IBM provides support for enterprise standards and SuSE is a primary benificiary of this. RH tries to be far too bleeding edge insofar that they tend to put products that aren't easily used within and between other platforms and distros. SuSE is also bleeding edge, but in a more cogent fashion. Therefore, RH is shooting itself in the foot by not providing the users/clientele with a OS that is easily setup and integrated into an already existing environment - SuSE is striving to do just this and IMHO they are way ahead of RH in this arena. On Friday 10 May 2002 08:41, Joe Sullivan wrote:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/25232.html

RedHat offering $10 rebate on upgrading to their 7.3. Not just upgrading from their own product, but "upgrading" from Mandrake 8.2 or SuSE 8.0!

Um... Seen Redhat. Used Redhat. Their 7.3 is far from being an "upgrade" to SuSE 8.0!

I'd expect this from the Redmond morons. But pitting Linux against Linux is deplorable.

Going to download Mandrake. Or Slackware. Or anything to put on my old computer I use for Linux learning. Currently has the last RH Skipjack beta on it, and that's leaving a bad taste in my mouth now.

(That's just my practice computer, where I've installed more than a few distros. SuSE is my permanent mainstay on my "real" computer, of course! Didn't buy it for nothin'. ;-)

Joe --------------------------------------------------- The surgeon general has determined that using Microsoft products may be hazardous to your wallet. And your computer. ---------------------------------------------------