Andrew Joakimsen wrote:
In terms of the software product itself, I think it would be inefficient to create a new distribution. What I am getting at is ideally we would be a clone of CentOS but based on SLE. Thus, for example, we can achieve binary compatibility with software for SLES. I don't think the prominence of RHEL would be what it is without CentOS, IMO the Linux market for commercial software would have been more segmented.
I fully agree. A CentOS-like distribution for a Novell-based product, i.e. SLES, is from my point of view the only solution for various reasons. Firstly, binary compatibility with SLES is certainly an important aspect, especially if the target group is, for instance, medium-sized businesses. A lot of (commercial) software is only certified for RHEL or SLES. Being compatible is a clear advantage. Secondly, I doubt that an LTS version of openSUSE without (financial) support from a sponsor would work. Back-porting bugfixes over a long time period is hard work! You would also require real experts in the team, nobody would trust average community member Joe to back-port crucial kernel bug fixes. A CentOS-like re-distribution of well-tested packages is a lot simpler to achieve and a much more realistic target for this project. In general, I really appreciate this effort! In the past, whenever such a discussion came up, the only answers from (prominent members of) the openSUSE community were "can't be done", "too much work", etc (search the archive and you'll see it). I was always surprised to hear such answers as other communities can obviously do it (or have already done it, respectively). Legal issues need to be considered, though. Many companies in our line of business have just recently (i.e. over the last two years) made a switch-over, they are now using CentOS on many machines (except on important servers where real Enterprise support might be required). In our case, this has again various reasons but I don't want to bore you with all the details (cutting costs is certainly one argument when you deal with installations on a large number of machines where Enterprise support isn't really required). The core message, however, is: we haven't experienced any major problems. In case you ever wondered why download statistics are sometimes misleading, keep the following in mind: we have just downloaded one image, but it's now installed on something like ten thousand machines. Greetings from London, Thomas -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org