On Sat, 2005-09-10 at 21:57 -0400, elefino wrote:
On Thursday 08 September 2005 16:44, Darryl Gregorash wrote:
http://www.novell.com/news/press/item.jsp?contentid=a2e8d2eb89036010VgnV CM1000000100007f____
The article included a link to their list of SuSE retailers. The first three that I tried for my area (Ottawa, Canada) were defective.
One was a broken link in Quebec (preferable for ordering because then I don't pay Ontario sales tax...), another was a defunct Ottawa business that formerly sold discount/overstock books, software, etc., and the third was for a book retailer that doesn't list software in its stock.
They also, conspicuously, did _not_ list Camelot.ca which is a booming business in downtown Montreal and ships for free across Canada. I bought my last four or five SuSE boxes from them. Based on that (admittedly small) sampling, I wonder if Novell/SuSE is any better represented in the rest of the world, at the retail level.
'Zat's 'cause we're supposed to order through womeone who deals with "microsomething" the big importer here and stateside. {Problem is they are so heavy handed with their retail slaves (they treat them more like this than partners) that no-one wants to special order them down this way. (south west Ont)
I'll bet Microsoft would do a better job of policing its distribution network... which is just one factor that explains the relative wealth of both companies. I don't want to knock Novell - I'd just like them to wake up and tighten up, so that they (and SuSE) enjoy continued success. Letting your reseller network go to seed is not good marketing practice.
I have no problems using Camelot, but they get stuff a good month or two after stateside release. :( Mike