Hmmm ... can't agree with you on the customer treatment comment based upon my experience so far.
I contacted SuSE for advice regarding best version for my intended use and the possibility of an evaluation copy.
I received excellent and logical advice by both email and telephone and an evaluation copy of S8 within 2 days.
I made similar enquiries of RedHat ... and I'm still waiting for a reply.
Consequently, my infrastructure will be based upon SuSE.
Same here, most of my servers are running either Suse 8.2 or 9, however the core server is running SLES 8, which although currently only handles DHCP and is the backup server for all other services, will soon be running Oracle. If you couple SLES with a maintenance contract you have the perfect long term (5+ years) solution with the absolute minimum of downtime. Customer support has been excellent, and I recommend SLES to any buisness that wants a linux server with the minimum of fuss and need for support. As for the price, well most of my customers qualify for educational pricing and therefore a very generous discount, even so at the full price coupled with the certifications from companies such as Oracle, it is an absolutue bargain. Regards, BenH