Am Sonntag, 2. April 2006 01:44 schrieb Mike McMullin:
On Sat, 2006-04-01 at 15:35 -0800, kai wrote:
On Saturday 01 April 2006 12:14 pm, Cody Nelson wrote:
What is up with all the different Suse versions out there? I see: Open Suse Eval Suse (how is this different than open suse?) live eval Suse (eve boot) SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 Novell Linux Desktop 9 SUSE Linux 10.0
Novell is just trying to keep up with Microsoft, who's going to eventually have six different flavors of Wintendo.
I've heard rumors that it also may be part of a government conspiracy, but since I wear my tinfoil hat every night to bed, I'm sure they're not going to get me.
But to answer your question before the government invokes the patriot act on me and sends in the KGB (formally known as the CIA)...
openSuse == Open Source version of SUSE Linux
IIRC this is more like GEEK brewed SuSE, user augmented development.
openSUSE is the community, there is no such product as openSUSE ;-) SUSE Linux 10.0 is the enthusiast/home/small office version. This is available in several versions: SUSE Linux 10.0 OSS (Open Source software only, free for download) SUSE Linux 10.0 Retail/Eval is the version with the third party, non-OSS software. The Retail is the one you buy in the shops, Eval is a exactly the same, but for free download. SUSE Linux 10.0 Live is the live version for running from CD/DVD only.
Eval Suse == Evaluation version of Retail SUSE Linux
This is not quite right. It's the dl version of 10.0. Poorly naming it has caused confusion. Eval copies have stale dates, this one does not. AFAIK. It's the version that I am running on my main system.
Well OSS and Eval are both download versions of 10.0, depending on whether you want the non-OSS packages or not. They will be changing the Eval name for 10.1 to try and make it clearer.
live eval Suse == Live/non permanant version of eval.
AKA run from disk (CD/DVD) distro.
SLES 9 == Very pricy enterprise server-based version of Linux. NLD9 == Enterprise version of SUSE without the bleeding edge software. SUSE Linux 10.0 == Retail box of SUSE (what I run).
They will be removing the term "Novell Linux Desktop" with the next iteration and calling it simply SUSE Enterprise. (NCC 1701 for short.)
It's being talked about on Novell's site as SLED10. Interesting reading, and I'm seriously thinking of buying a boxed set for use on a laptop that's going to be used at University.
Basically SUSE has a reputation in Linux circles, and Novell doesn't, so they are dropping the Novell monika and going back to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop for the next release. NLD/SLED are cut down desktops which allow the use of the main things that a business desktop requires, whilst not including some of the other things that aren't appropriate in a business environment (although multimedia players, 3D whizzing desktops and photograph cataloguing software seem to be important for the business desktop...). SLES/OES are the "professional" versions where Novell make their money from providing very staid versions and long term support contracts. Stability of the product and versions is the name of the game here, the customers usually want to run the same version of the database sever or mail program for many years with just bug fixes and security updates, rolling out a new desktop or server strategy takes a lot of time and planning. (Just look at the number of companies that are still using Windows 9x or NT and are still thinking about migrating to 2000, XP or Server 2003...) -- "I got to go figure," the tenant said. "We all got to figure. There's some way to stop this. It's not like lightning or earthquakes. We've got a bad thing made by men, and by God that's something we can change." - The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck