S.Toms wrote:
>
> Very nice article on ZD-Net, should make alot of people feel better
> about SuSE's place in Linux's standings. Also makes for a very nice read
> as they compare SuSE, RH and Caldera to WinNT. Guess who lost
> miserably??
>
> http://www.zdnet.com/sr/stories/issue/0,4537,387506,00.html
Well yes and no. What the article states in laymans terms is that SuSE
is a good product. This is good and it provides an opportunity and
incentive for SuSE
managment to review their strategy and marketing campaign in NA. Lets
just say it constitutes a good break. IMHO SuSE strategy in NA is
seriousely flawed, no major partnerships have been annouced since the
partnering with Applix. This was a good move as Corels products are not
ready and StarOffice is simply not up to the task...yet. 6.0 will ship
with Star. Other than that no major partenerships or side deals.
All major announcements that have moved Linux forwared into the
commercial arena came from Redhat. While this is great news for Linux
and nubies (early adopters) it certainly does little to level the
playing field for linux distro vendors or consumers. Our shop runs on
RH, we have too, to survive. I personally run SuSE at home for all the
right reasons, but try and convince anyone else of its merrits,
especially non-users. Corp views are clear Linux = RedHat
At best the article hopefully will wake up SuSE managment of the
portential in NA. IMHO nothing would hurt linux and its penetration of
the corporat world more, 'in the long run', than an identification of
Linux with one brand name, even if that name was SuSE. We need players,
choice and some
diversification. A strong represtation by a number two player is
urgently needed. Right now its a toss up between Caldera and SuSE who
each have less than 10% of the total US install base where as the
rest is split quite unevenly by RH and Debian. As Debian will not likely
ever go commercial that leaves SuSE or Cladera with quite a lot of work
ahead of them just to catch up.
This is where we come in. SuSE will only invest some seriouse money into
advertizing and partnerships if we the user base keep pointing it out to
them and encourage them. Linux is about consumer choice as open source
trasnfers the
ownership, responsibility and managment of the OS from the manufacturer
to the developers and end users. Cant look under the hood with other
systems. I think if we just keep at it we cold possibly see some greater
levels of commitment to NA. While they are doing well in Europe things
are not that cozy on this side of the pond.
PLease be informed that this is not an anti-RH rant, quite the contrary.
IF the SuSE team was as active in NA as the guys in the red hats...I
think we would all be better campers.
regards
chris
-
To get out of this list, please send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
this text in its body: unsubscribe suse-linux-e
Check out the SuSE-FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/ and the
archiv at http://www.suse.com/Mailinglists/suse-linux-e/index.html
