Linked by Eugenia Loli-Queru on Thu 23rd Nov 2006 22:07 UTC, submitted by Philipp Esselbach
SuSE, openSUSE 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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RE[5]: Download now...
by IanSVT on Fri 24th Nov 2006 17:44 UTC in reply to "RE[4]: Download now..."
IanSVT
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.

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RE[6]: Download now...
by segedunum on Sat 25th Nov 2006 15:43 in reply to "RE[5]: Download now..."
segedunum Member since:
2005-07-06

I can't speak for everyone, but like I said before, I would pay 95% less per seat to run SLED compared to windows.

It's not quite that simple. It's the whole complexity of moving, testing it out to make sure that it works etc. etc. Adding in the overhead of paying for support is an additional unneeded roadblock when you are trying to kick out an incumbant monopolist.

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.

And you think Microsoft are going to help?

And GroupWise 7sp1 was far more than a few bug fixes, that's what took them a year to get it out.

Groupwise 7 was a disaster. It was left in an unworkable state for a year, and they couldn't even release a series of patches when they realised how bad things were. And installing it....... It's easier to install things like Web Access on Windows for heavens' sake.

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RE[7]: Download now...
by IanSVT on Sun 26th Nov 2006 15:43 in reply to "RE[6]: Download now..."
IanSVT Member since:
2005-07-06

Groupwise 7 was a disaster. It was left in an unworkable state for a year, and they couldn't even release a series of patches when they realised how bad things were. And installing it....... It's easier to install things like Web Access on Windows for heavens' sake.

Unworkable state? I know people who ran 7.0. It certainly had issues, but far from unworkable. Novell got it out the door too early. But again, why would you jump on an initial major rev release anyway?

The webaccess install stinks, and has always stunk. You'll get no arguement from me on that.

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