Networking software giant Novell Inc does not have any plans to change anything in the Linux operating system from its recently-acquired SuSE AG … at least, not in the medium term. “SuSE will continue (to operate) as a business unit of its own,” said John Phillips, Novell’s corporate technology strategist for the Asia Pacific region.
Novell: SuSE Stays the Same, for Now
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Eugenia Loli
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that Novell will just take SUSE technology and make a separate OS using Ximian and their services.
Novell has much work todo before they even start touching the underlying linux system themselves. First, thier own services need to be ported over to linux. The company needs to learn and embrace Open Source. There needs to be planning on how to accomplish integration using the current technologies. etc… etc…
You will start seeing changes in Suse once Novell has started reaching thier final product and know where they are going. there is still some time till that…
List: kde-core-devel
Subject: Statement
From: Richard Seibt <>
Date: 2003-11-11 13:19:43
Dear KDE developers,
since I joined SUSE in January 2003, I learned that KDE is one of the most
successful and fastest evolving open source projects. Since the first day I
use it myself and I am thrilled with it. My personal thanks to all of you who
contributed in the last seven years to KDE.
KDE is the defacto standard for Linux desktops in Europe. Without KDE, I do
not believe we would be seeing the interest in Linux on the corporate desktop
that we are seeing today and on the consumer desktop as well.
Please be clear: SUSE LINUX will continue to strongly support KDE.
Both the Ximian and SUSE LINUX acquisitions reaffirm Novell’s strong belief in
the value of the open source development model and strengthen Novell’s
commitment to supporting the open source community. SUSE LINUX is an
integrator with a wealth of experience in working with both the open source
community and the IT industry. SUSE LINUX brings extensive experience in KDE
and has a track record working with GNOME. Ximian has core competence in
GNOME and a great desktop focus, both in platform and product offerings.
Together with our Ximian colleagues at Novell, we will also enable our
customers to use GNOME with the same convenience and comfort KDE offers to me
and all SUSE employees today.
The integration capabilities SUSE LINUX brings will continue to help
seamlessly integrate Linux-based offerings, inside and outside of Novell.
Together, we might even think about new opportunities to leverage the usage
of Linux on the desktop. E.g. why do we not open Linux for Apple’s Mac OS
desktop?
Today and tomorrow, we must be strongly committed to deliver what our
customers ask us for. They know best what tools will help to fit their needs.
That’s why we recently choose our new slogan – Simply change! It is an
affirmation to all of us to listen what our customers and users need
— and change our manners and goals, if necessary.
So I really love to stay with you in an ongoing and fruitful dialog.
Richard
—
Richard Seibt, Chief Executive Officer – Vorsitzender des Vorstandes
SUSE LINUX AG, Deutschherrnstr. 15-19, D-90429 Nuernberg
A re-assuring statement, Richard, for the *immediate* future of KDE on Suse ( or is it Novell/Suse? ).
Further out, I’m not at all convinced that Novell think remotely the same way as you, and I expect that the Gnomifying of Suse will continue apace.
I’m not waiting around for that to happen by slow attrition.
If I had any respect for Gnome, I would have been using Redhat for these last few years and not Suse.
Shame really, it was all going so well, especially your X86_64 version.
The news is missing this important quote: “We don’t expect to make Ximian the default user interface, and for the medium term KDE will remain the default GUI on SuSE Linux.”
And also still the public preference: see the LinuxQuestions Member Awards. It makes sense.
This is actually quite far from the truth. Novell has been developing *quietly* for Linux for some time. They employ some of the most talented engineers out there and porting things over for them is really quite easy. As a matter of fact, Novell Linux Services 1.0 is already released. Came out a few weeks ago. It basically consists of most of Netware’s main technology. (eDirectory, Console1, iFolder, iPrint, and they’ve also thrown in Netmail). Most of Netware 6.5 is running OSS software already (Apache, Tomcat, MySQL, PHP, Python to name a few). Look for further releases throughout 04 to include even more advanced Netware technology to be incorporated into Linux. Including support for NSS (Novell Storage Services) volumes in Linux….something I’m really excited about. I’ve also got word that Groupwise is extremely close to being ported, ZENWorks for Servers is already ported, and ZEN for Desktops is in the works.
So, Novell aren’t even going to provide more mirrors for getting SuSE updates.
ie. there are no Pacific Rim mirrors … I’m in Australia and I have to get all my updates from Germany – even though Novell has a presence in Australia selling Netware.
I sure hope Suse does not make SusE another netware. We have seen the long term results of it. Not good! Keep Linux as Linux and keep commercial as it is.
Good things come to pepole who can wait.give Novell some time this is great for Linux ,and not so great for microsoft anyway you look at it.
let them sort things out …what works and what does not,then they may have the right mix from server to desktop with services on top.
we need people like Novell and all the support we can get.