“Anybody who is using a desktop computer’ is a potential customer for SuSE Linux in its latest push for the open-source operating system. SuSE plans to announce in January an effort to bring the open-source Linux operating system to desktop computers, an attack on Microsoft that will be bolder than similar initiatives from Red Hat and Sun Microsystems.” Read the report at ZDNews.
SuSE to Push Desktop Linux
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
The only point to have Linux on the desktop is that it enables a free of charge desktop solution. I can’t think of any other good reason.
So if you get a free platform and then purchase an expensive office suite, that doesn’t click. Why not putting a little more money in the bucket and get a commercial platform as well?
If someone wants to run MS Office, then please let him do that on top of Windows.
“The only point to have Linux on the desktop is that it enables a free of charge desktop solution. I can’t think of any other good reason.”
Aside from security reasons and for the sake of ‘the revolution’, I can’t either.
As for Suse, how is this ‘push for the desktop’ different from what they have been doing? Wasn’t this the intention the whole time?
…is very different from M$Office on Windows. When you install M$Office in Windows it completely messes up your Windows dir, which sometimes can cause problems. Wine and Crossover don’t have these problems. Also Linux is just more stable and often faster than Windows. M$Office might not run faster, but I found that if I’m running a lot of programs in Linux that the overall speed is still accepable, while with XP on the same machine it isn’t.
Also the current versions of SuSE are far more userfriendly than every Windows version I have seen to date. Microsoft really got behind with userfriendlyness with XP, especially with the installer, but also with installing extra software and hardware.
Actually there are many points to having Linux on the desktop.
One is security. And I’m not talking about security from hackers and bugs. I’m talking about the security in knowing that the source code has been scrutinized by people outside the Distributions ensuring that every bit of code will not sell your personal data to corporate spammers, or report what hardware you’ve installed and what it’s used for. And knowing that your data won’t be destroyed if the vendor finds it offensive or against the law in their country. I’m not condoning such behavior, but some have forgotten Due Process of Law.
Two is the feeling of satisfaction of ownership. Anyone can posess, alter and sell their Linux OS; knowing they won’t be charged with a crime for having it installed on multiple systems within their home, or for transferring mp3’s from one hard-drive to another without the file being corrupted with squeaks and chirps. (Media Player 9beta does that).
Three, it’s free as in speech. Linux distributions typically cost $30 to $150, although if you choose to download one, that’s fine, but you’re unsupported. And the point to running MS Office in Linux is to allow you to continue to use a licensed copy you probably already own on a different operating system so you won’t have to spend more money unnecessarily.
I’m sorry Linux seems to offend you so, but that’s not up to Linux, is it. I truly like Windows, I really, really do, but I don’t like what it’s become. I don’t like a single company controlling 90% of the computer infrastructure, anymore than I would like General Motors to control the US Freeway system. I wouldn’t like GM to tell me I have to upgrade my car or I won’t be allowed to exit a specific offramp, or that my car no longer fits in the lanes that they’ve suddenly decided to redesign.
For a single point that I can trust Linux, at least for now, I’ll more than gladly put up with it’s configuration foibles and unfamiliar feel to be able to relax just that little bit more.
I got sick of MS and their stuff when i found that if i JUST installed MS Access, and unchecked everything else, i still found IE, Outlook, Netmeeting and Web server componets installed on my laptop! How annoying is that when i only wnated one product? At least this may change if i installed it on linux and could delete the crap it offloads onto my pc unlike in windows where its joined at the hip and registry.
Well said, HagerR15.
“I truly like Windows, I really, really do, but I don’t like what it’s become. I don’t like a single company controlling 90% of the computer infrastructure … blah … blah .. blah …”
Yes, and Bill Gates is Satan, we know .. it’s all about the revolution.
Can’t Linux pundets come up with something better than this besides “Windows crashes all the time” ?
“SuSE also will sell another version, SuSE Linux Enterprise Client, that includes management, administration and security features specifically geared to large companies with hundreds of employees, Dyroff said.”
I find this last sentence of the article damn interesting. They seem to be going for more administration value-adds than other desktop Linux vendors are offering. Also, the fact that they chose StarOffice over OpenOffice is a very smart move, IMHO, because I think StarOffice will have much more credibility with large corporate purchasers than OpenOffice will.
I just installed SuSE 8.1 professional, and i have to say, i’m impressed, i’m coming from a mandrake/slackware background, so i have a grasp on what linux is all about. i can’t comments on it’s comparison to Red Hat 8 execpt in pricing, i paid $79.99 for SuSU while Red hat was $139…
as far as the desktop realm is concerned, i’m gonna say that SuSE really beats the crap out of Mandrake 9 and naturally it beats slack, but that’s not saying very much. i think i’ve found my new distro… even a layman could install SuSE….
“Yes, and Bill Gates is Satan, we know ..”
Worse, actually.
I said none of that and you know it. Bill Gates is a good businessman and Windows XP is a really good product. I just said I don’t trust it.
I came right from only using windows, to duel booting windows for a game, and now SuSE Linux Personal 8.1, upgraded from 8.0. Anyway got a Ext> Serial modem, cause my winmodem wouldn’t work. Plugged the modem right in, linux saw it when I changed it to ttyS0, & it worked. A little bit of a learning curbe, but not mutch. Now there is no reason to not switch to linux, with an easy distro like SuSE. I hope SuSE does well in this.