On 2011-04-28 Carlos wrote:
On 2011-04-28 08:12, jdd wrote:
Le 28/04/2011 03:54, Carlos E. R. a écrit :
What if it doesn't pass the test, and you want to try again a year or two later? You can't.
you need susbsciption only to test the update mechanism. you can test the distro as long as you want without that.
and don't be too demanding, trying a commercial product for a very long time mean using it!
I'm thinking of the cases where there is a bug that impedes the product from working for you. You have to wait for a release pack or a new version.
It is not a continuous evaluation: you try it once, fails, and a year later you try again to see if the problems were solved. I have had bugs in openSUSE taking two or more years to be solved.
Yes, it is true that you can't do that with every business product. With some, you can. And with linux, we expect it.
Then there is the case of the will be professional that uses sles for his own training. He is not making a profit, yet. Only if he is hired and the job includes maintaining sles will he buying it - and not him, but the business he now works for.
Sorry, but SUSE has plenty of sales people who can help you with all of this. I'm sure they can send you a second eval if you request it in a phone call (easy enough to request a call on the website) or figure out and tell you if your bug has been fixed. Or wait for a new service pack (which includes all the updates) to become available and download & test that. Seriously, SUSE has sales. Let them worry about this. If you need training, use openSUSE - for normal, day to day stuff the experience you gather there is 99% transferable to SLE. The few area's where it's not, well, there are trainings for SLE and certifications, get those (you'll need them anyway to prove your knowledge). Sorry but to me it feels you're trying to find reasons while there aren't any. oh and balsam isn't free either, it's just cheaper. If it will ever exist (SLE 12 isn't exactly released yet, is it? Who knows if openSLX still exists in the few years it might take for SLE 12 to release?) In any case, these are things SUSE can and should take care off. Contact their sales people if you have worries about it. Let them handle it.