Ivan Sergio Borgonovo wrote:
SUSE Linux is definitively a good product and SUSE techs definitively know what they are doing (kudos), but this business model is not going to last forever in the Free Software market.
Yeah, but if the software gets better and easier to administer, what's preventing the companies that should pay money to IT industry from hiring their own admins of medium competence and doing their own services? I'm telling you, I work for a company that sells SUSE and Linux services, and we have a hell of a hard time and very little business selling services. That's because, here, the vast majority of non-IT companies hire pretty good admins that can do the job either well enough or very, very well. Maybe we could do a better job, but they don't care that much if stuff works less optimally, but works nevertheless. So, if you want to have your SUSE for the future, you'd better recommend people to buy it, so SUSE can get some profit. I don't see the Services story happening here, just yet. And SUSE didn't sell to Novell because they had too much money coming and were getting bored, ok? Until the Services story starts happening (if ever) pay SUSE the ol' way, thank you very much. Or maybe you want a Salamander, the equivalent of Fedora? Linux will never get where the money is with that. There has to be a locomotive product that's easy and nice to use, that people will like and want to have it everywhere, so this will tow the "Enterprise" product into place. Or there will be Windows Server everywhere and the butt-ugly, stayed behind UNIX here and there. And it were so much better if this locomotive product would be self sustained and maybe even have a little margin, so the journey to where Linux does the "mission critical" doesn't seem so hard and long. And please, let's take the flame/discussion/whatever to suse-ot.