1) they delay the actual posting of the files on their server for at least two weeks, possibly more, from the official "release" day. This is mainly to encourage those "gotta-have-it-NOW" types to seek a physical box for $$$. This is good for a lot of reasons, but the most important two are that (a) SuSE gets some cash to continue operating as a business, and (b) their FTP servers aren't bombarded on day one
There is another very important reason for this, the version that appears on the FTP server is *neither* the Personal or Professional Edition as bought in the box. A lot of the commercial software that is distributed in the boxed version can only be distributed that way, so is not included in the FTP Edition, also, there may be one or two minor updates between the CD versions going 'gold' and the FTP release. -- James Ogley, Webmaster, Rubber Turnip james@rubberturnip.org.uk http://www.rubberturnip.org.uk Jabber: riggwelter@myjabber.net Using Free Software since 1994, running GNU/Linux (SuSE 8.1). GNOME updates for SuSE: http://www.usr-local-bin.org