It seems that you SuSE as a minor distribution or that they come out of the blue. That's not the reality.
SuSE was just one step ahead of RH in the commercial world. They were not so nice to the unpaying consumer. But they didn't stand still - notice that they have a big support from SAP. That's alone can build them well. They also have Oracle's support (through United Linux). My guess is that SuSE was just chapter to buy than RH, so Novell gave it a green light (with the help of IBM). Form commercial purposes It seems that RH and SuSE are they same: 1. Support 2. Free software with propriety software. 3. Support from the big players. For private purposes I think Mandrake will have a great time. Fedora is too young to judge. But still - I see Debian growth (maybe with HP support) and when Sarge will be out. The geographical aspect of the issue is very interesting... But I'm not sure it has too much with the decisions. Two aspects which may still be important: 1. How does the EU will threat software patents. 2. How does the EU will threat Microsoft monopoly. 3. US restriction laws of encryption export. Lior Kaplan > Hi, > > I want to raise an issue for discussion; It is not related specifically > to Hebrew, nor to Israel, nor to me, but I haven't seen any similar > discussion on the net, so I raise it here: > > Until recently, there was not a real competition in the field of Linux > distributions; RedHat was the default, and all the rest (hundreds (!) > of them, according to LWN) served specific niches. > > This has been the status for at least 5-6 years. > > (Mandrake was popular too, but earned its popularity thanks for starting > as "RH++", till it was popular enough to start its own way) > > However, recently, in a very short time (2-3 months), a series of > dramatic events happened, that might changed everything we have ever > known about this field: > > 1. RH stopped shipping packages (though Fedora is partially an option). > 2. Novell acquired SuSE. > 3. IBM left its 100% neutral status, and now is backing SuSE directly, > developing shared projects with it, and even helped Novell to > acquire SuSE (see #2 above) by investing $50M in Novell shares. > 4. Sun released its own Linux distribution, JDS (p.k.a "MadHatter"), > and guess what - it is based on SuSE too. > > So with no RH package anymore, Mandrake based on charity, Debian serves > mostly freaks and embedded needs, and all of the 3 big names (IBM/SUN/ > Novell) backing SuSE - is SuSE the "new RH"? Is it going to be the new > "default Linux" instead of RH? > > The shared power of IBM/Sun/Novell should not be underestimated; It's a > dramatic development that all of the three biggest names (in size of > company) stand behind one distribution. In the past it has never > happened; the most that such companies agreed to say, was that they > preferred GNOME over KDE or vice-versa. Now, all of them stand behind > the same distribution, which has not been the leader one, ever. > > Moreover, the center of power of SuSE has been in Europe in general, > and Germany in particular, but all of these 3 companies are based in > the US. > > Is it the start of a new era in the Linux business? > > Please don't try to guess my own opinion from this message (I still > don't have), or flame me for raising the question; I'm just a wondering > man, who has difficulties in trying to guess the future of Linux and > choose his next distribution according to it. > > -- > Eli Marmor > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > CTO, Founder > Netmask (El-Mar) Internet Technologies Ltd. > __________________________________________________________ > Tel.: +972-9-766-1020 8 Yad-Harutzim St. > Fax.: +972-9-766-1314 P.O.B. 7004 > Mobile: +972-50-23-7338 Kfar-Saba 44641, Israel > > ================================================================= > To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with > the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command > echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > > ================================================================To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
