Hi To clarify the situation: SuSe does contain non-free sotware along with a very large portion of gnu/free software. Them Non-Free elements are not distributable with anon ftp, the license usually states so. So, in an effort to everyone happy, suse ships the non-free software on the boxed cd-s that you have to pay for. For the non-free portion, you usually get a try before you buy license, to test-run them applications like vmware for example (RedHat also has that one :-)). The anon-ftp downloadable isos/distro does not contain these non-free apps. Still you can download them apps from their respective websites in leu of an informal registration and license-terms acknoligement. Hope That was good enough :-) Cheers Szemir
On Wednesday 01 January 2003 15:30, you wrote: > Jesse is right in saying the ISO's are not available for download like say > RedHat's for example. > There are Live Evaluation ISO's for download but SuSE claims they offer > ALMOST everything software wise that their boxed sets do. Reason behind > the lack is license agreements with software writers. I would think they > get a percentage of SuSE's sale of a boxed set too. It's only fair. And > how far or much can FREE actually go when it comes to putting food on the > table or paying the mortgage? > > But, so people aren't going to download SuSE Linux for the complexity of > the task, this is the short version of "How To" download and install SuSE > Linux. > > First, you need to download and copy to either CD or floppy, a bootable > image that will boot your computer with Linux. Both are supplied by links > at the SuSE site. > > Then, once booted, you'll be greeted with an installation method in which > SuSE expects you to follow the simple directions at > > ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/README.FTP > > which will tell you exactly how to set up to install directly from their > FTP server at ftp.suse.com. > > My opinion is that SuSE does not require the installation disks to be > reinserted time and time again like the M$ CD that requires you to insert > the disk time and time again as often as you sneeze in your pepper factory. > Not so with SuSE. > > Downloading is downloading and ISO's on CD can be both useful and totally > unnecessary depending on how much you install to begin with, and if there > is indeed an Internet or Network connection to ftp.suse.com to begin with. > And depending on if the system being installed is to be a very specific and > single use system or if it's to be a system installed with everything. If > the system is installed with everything, you can easily install to other > systems in your own private network and you won't be asked to insert the > installation CD's again regardless of which way you install SuSE. > > So, without trying to sell SuSE, this is their method and that is the short > version of why no ISO's. We all hopefully know the value of the MD5 > checksums when installing anything Linux. > > Cheers again. Garth Meisel
