On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 17:26 -0500, Michael S. Dunsavage wrote:
On Thu, 2008-11-27 at 16:04 +0100, Roger Oberholtzer wrote:
I am just confused about the non-availability - there is nothing to be obtained.
I think you seem to miss the point that OpenSuse (The one for the community not the enterprise), while I'm sure some Novell people work on it, is not supported by Novell. No guarantees made by Novell for opensuse. Why do you expect Novell to make software that is not free work on a free unsupported platform?
openSUSE is not supported by Novell?
Why are you running opensuse in an enterprise any way?
You miss the point. I am willing to buy the package for openSUSE. Our company already has a site license for all Novell products. The issue is not cost. My reasoning: I see Novell actions generally as trying to remove the obstacles to using Linux as apposed to Windows. The long term benefits of a larger user base outweigh the immediate costs of making these improvements. The main point: This is not the case when it comes to, say, the Netware client. I can install Windows, for which Novell gets ZIP cash. I can then go to Novell's site and download the Netware client for free. In the total transaction, Novell gets nothing. Except a user who can easily access a Netware server - which is a good thing for Novell as they want to sell Netware servers and servers need clients. I can also choose to install openSUSE, for which Novell also gets ZIP cash (exactly the same as Windows). However, I CANNOT go to Novell's site and download the Netware client for free OR even for a cost! But we now have a user who cannot easily access a Netware server - which is a bad thing for Novell as there is no client looking for a Novell server. And, funny enough, as a consequence of other Novell actions, this user CAN access MS servers - meaning more MS server clients, but lost potential of Novell server clients. Message from Novell: if you want to run a Novell client, install Windows, not openSUSE. This is my confusion. Surely Novell have some sort of an investment in getting people to adopt openSUSE over having them install Windows. openSUSE could be seen as an enabler Linux. After that works, people may pay for the stronger Linux. Windows users are a fact of life and there are many of them. So Novell must provide the client. But why don't they do the same for openSUSE?
Why are you running opensuse in an enterprise any way?
It is not used at the enterprise level. I use it on my desktop at work. Of course, if it worked well for me there, there are 8000 other desktops in this Novell-using company, some of which could consider using Linux. Our fluid dynamics guys in Denmark just announced that they are very happy with OpenFLOW and will be setting up some Linux machines in a cluster to run it. They currently run it in a vmware linux guest that is hosted on Windows. The interest is there. But it has to work in a Novell environment as well as a Windows environment. And, yes, it would probably be the Enterprise version that Novell supplies as they would want the stability, and are already pro-Novell. But this is an engineering consulting firm. Engineers like to play. openSUSE better satisfies that for some. -- Roger Oberholtzer OPQ Systems / Ramböll RST Ramböll Sverige AB Krukmakargatan 21 P.O. Box 17009 SE-104 62 Stockholm, Sweden Office: Int +46 8-615 60 20 Mobile: Int +46 70-815 1696 -- "On two occasions I have been asked (by members of Parliament!), 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. - Charles Babbage 1791-1871) English computer pioneer, philosopher And remember: It is RSofT and there is always something under construction. It is like talking about large city with all constructions finished. Not impossible, but very unlikely. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org