Greetings: Ive been listening to this thread now for a couple of days. I was not aware of this problem as Ive been upgrading via Yast..ftp for some time now. Thinking back however I did run into this problem with the 5.x series of cd's as I bought a set and then later received a boxed set for evaluation from SuSE. mixed the discs up in my portable case and of course nothing worked. Called Scott M at the time and he pointed out that there were different version out pending the press date but the discs were not marked. Spending an hour with a felt pen solved the problem. If I remember the discussion correctly at the time there may be a solution to this well commented and directed discussion. Does not SuSE offer a business edition for it business clients in Europe? This could be a middle ground solution and an advantages business solution for all. Press one set of each release, documented and stable for business/commercial users....say X.0. This version is completely QA'd, documented inventoried and versioned, available in a boxed set or via ftp. For the casual user such as myself and others who want to play with the latest and greatest for no particular reason other than its there (OK call me foolish..but play is the operative word here) the releases would be numbered X.x This set would be documented, inventoried and version but not as extensively QA'd as the X.0 editions. All future upgrades would be marked as X.x+ The next stable business release would be issues at designated intervals with the coding of X+1.0 All editions could be made available as boxed sets, on the ftp sites and clearly documented and inventoried as a minimum. QA standards would naturally differ and support could be made available in accordance with existing plans or tailored to individual corporate needs. Also, all discs need to be clearly labeled with the release number...PLS The stable business release would be updated at lesser frequencies than the user edition which would sprout the latest and greatest as of press time. The advantage of this model is that commercial users have the advantage of having a stable release, a subscription that would issue SuSE official updates say twice annually. Others could be satiated by interim releases that need to be clearly marked as so. Hence both commercial and non-commercial users could update programs for security reasons or any other reasons via the ftp site of through a boxed set. If Im not mistaken SuSE is or was doing this in Europe. Such a distribution model would meet the needs of all: SyS admins and businesses that crave for stability and functionality not toys, common users that need or want to explore the latest and greatest regardless of the security risks. and finally such a model would increase and differentiate SuSE's clients base into two major groupings that could be cultivated with tailored marketing programs>>>>increased business and revenues. Could be good all around. The objective here is to grow linux into the business community. Clearly there are different requirements for each segment and the company that can address these needs of such diverse groups has the potential for a significant increase in market share. RH is good but there model is starting to tick off hard core and traditional users, at the same time moving quickly towards new adopters. SuSE may have a window of opportunity here, as so well presented by all the posts on this news group. Good business listen to there customers. chris h -- To get out of this list, please send email to majordomo@suse.com with this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e Check out the SuSE-FAQ at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A">http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/</A</A>> and the archive at <A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html"><A HREF="http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A">http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html</A</A>>