openSUSE 10.2 RC1 has been released: "I'm glad to announce Release Candidate 1 of openSUSE 10.2 codename Basilisk Lizard. It contains a large number of enhancements and updates done by the open source community and Novell's development teams. Screenshot walkthrough here.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Gossly inflated fee to who, someone trying to use it on their play machine? Yeah maybe.
Firstly there's licensing, which people moving from Windows want to get away from. Secondly there's the cost of updates and support. This kind of overhead is acceptable on servers but not on desktops. With Windows you pay your license and then update away. Sad, but true.
That instantly makes it less attractive to people already on Windows. The less than stellar sales so far tells me that this is at least partially true.
I can get Novell support for SLED, can't for openSuse.
Why?
I can run the Novell client on SLED, not openSuse.
Why?
I can run the cross platform groupwise client on SLED, not openSuse(at least it's not supported).
That would be Evolution, but considering how utterly bug-ridden Evolution and Groupwise are (it's taken about a year to get one service pack out for Groupwise 7) I would be holding off myself.
Really. These aren't selling points.
The point is, until you're actually in an "enterprise" environment, don't crap over something that is geared towards organizational networks and not mom's computer.
Newsflash: I am. Given the less than stellar sales of SLED I don't see people in enterprise environments getting excited about SLED, and putting the overhead of a license fee and support fees on top for every desktop doesn't exactly help. Novell should be doing all it can to aid people moving people off Windows, not putting extra baggage on.
Nobody said the desktop market was easy.
Member since:2005-07-06
Firstly there's licensing, which people moving from Windows want to get away from......That instantly makes it less attractive to people already on Windows. The less than stellar sales so far tells me that this is at least partially true.
Who wants to pay for licensing at all? You're not going to find one person. I can't speak for everyone, but like I said before, I would pay 95% less per seat to run SLED compared to windows. There are still a few technical issues, not least of which is the office suite compatibility which this deal is supposed to address at some level.
Why can't I get Novell support for openSuse? Because it's a Novell sponsored project, not a Novell product. Why would Novell offer support on it? Why can't you run the Novell client on openSuse? Because the client is geared for enterprise clients. What's the point in taking the time to make sure it works on openSuse when almost nobody needs it there?
I can't speak much on Evolution. The windows builds are very poor, but I haven't experienced the same on the Linux builds. How utterly bug-ridden was GroupWise exactly? 7.0 had issues, but bug-ridden is off the mark. Anyone who moved their agents to 7.0 were asking for trouble. Any admin who moves any production system to the next initial major version release would know what they are getting into and it's not advisable. I don't care if it's a Novell software product, Microsoft, Sun, whoever. And GroupWise 7sp1 was far more than a few bug fixes, that's what took them a year to get it out.
Novell continues to drop the ball in marketing. I'm not sure what their marketing department does, but it's not marketing their products. That's where they fail first, and that in turn hurts their bottom line. They have some damn good products, but nobody knows about them because Novell makes no effort to explain them. An ad exclaiming "Your open business is ready" does absolutely nothing to explain what they sell. That's their problem selling SLED, not what it brings technically.
Member since:
2005-07-06
Virtually nothing, apart from the 'Enterprise' badge which Novell slaps on SLED to try and sell it for a grossly inflated fee.
Gossly inflated fee to who, someone trying to use it on their play machine? Yeah maybe.
Here's some perspective from the other side. I can buy a license for SLED at $.50, compared to $20 per desktop of Windows. I can get Novell support for SLED, can't for openSuse. I can run the Novell client on SLED, not openSuse. I can run the cross platform groupwise client on SLED, not openSuse(at least it's not supported). I can tie the workstation login to authenticate against eDirectory easily with SLED, not with openSuse. I'm sure there's more in SLED that fits my environment far more than openSuse(and Ubuntu, Fedora, Slack, and Gentoo for that matter). The point is, until you're actually in an "enterprise" environment, don't crap over something that is geared towards organizational networks and not mom's computer.
I'm typing this on my laptop at home running Ubuntu, because I don't need an enterprise distribution at home. Work on the other hand...
Edited 2006-11-24 03:53