i left suse after years of championing it. i don't think the "just use opensuse" argument holds water due to the fact that opensuse as of version 10.1 uses mono in the package management system.

i think anyone paying attention saw this day coming. the minute miguel started work on mono, people were thinking that if it developed to the point that it was a credible threat to microsofts' bottom line, patent lawsuits would begin to fly.

miguel and ximian are now at novell and this looks like an a** covering move from where i stand.

they could have done this (patent threats) with the wine project, but lets face it, wine doesn't work right (or at all) for 90% of the apps written, and never was a credible threat.

samba, the us/eu antitrust suits have drawn too much attention for them to try any patent foolishness there.

i'd like to go back, but will stay with mepis for the time being.

For what reasons you didn't like the news?

...deleted...

I am on Ubuntu 6.10 now.

If I still used Suse, I'd drop it ASAP.
That includes OpenSuse - it's only free advertising for Novell anyway.

I used to use Suse. Stopped about 2 years ago. There are plenty of alternatives - many are as good or better than Suse. The hand-writing is on the wall people.

Free as in speech is what matters - not free as in beer.

That's why I pay for Slackware even though it's free. Support the people that make it all possible. Dump the ones that want to take it all away.

My 2 cents.

If users stop using Suse, then M$ is getting exactly what they want. M$ has a horrible past about business politics. See they want you to stop using Suse and the enterprises to. They want to run Novell into the ground financially so they can own them. Picture all the companies using Novell products that switched because of virus/cost/security related problems from M$ products. They (MS) wants these companies to say "oh hell no" and move to something else, giving a chance to buy. Erase linux one distro at a time. Let's not give them what they want. I could be wrong (and I hope I am) but judging by past actions, I really don't know.

Shouldn't that be: Has SUSE abandoned us?

When the deal between Novell and M$ was announced, there was conjecture about what that would mean for Linux.

I beleive that question has been answered by M$ CEO Ballmer. Linux owes M$ (as in owes money) for copywrite infringement. If you have ever used Linux to make a fat32/ntfs partition, or used OpenOffice.org or CrossoverOffice to open M$Office files (and write/save such files), or used any Linux app to play M$ audio/video format files, you owe M$ money. That's the M$ stand.

That's exactly what this is all about, Microsoft trying to charge everybody for using Linux, that's nonsense and I'm very sad that Novell has been willing to play this game.

SuSE is (still) my favorite distro, but since Novell took the lead on this distro, things have going bad and bad. Novell just ruined a fine distro, and it seems that they will flounder with it. Too bad for SuSE, time for me to use daily other distro. But, hey we got other choices. And this is what Linux is all about, choices and the freedom to run it without having to pay "royalties" to anybody.

Good we have other choices...

This is not just about Microsoft. This is also about companies - like Novell - that decide they have the right to play fast and loose with the GPL at the expense of the rest of the community.

Believe me, I hope I'm wrong - I really do. My fear is that by the time people find out I'm right it will be too late. Now is the time to vote your conscience - if you have one. Mail your Suse discs back to Novell wrapped in copies of the GPL and tell them what distro you moved to. Not that that will matter to Novell. They only really care about their corporate clients. They're the ones who pay the bills. This is a corporation after all. Profit is the #1 priority above all else.

Well, I've gone beyond my 2 cents now.

Cheers.

PS. Maybe this forum should be renamed Suse/Novell/SCO/Microsoft

You will need to sign a EULA before posting here, but apart from that, everything will be the same. No big deal, no one reads those EULAs anyway.

(just kidding ...)

I remember when i first changed from windows to redhat 7. It was a new experience for me. I remember also when I switched to SuSE 9.1... It was an awesome experience, I couldn't believe it, easy,pretty polished and with a company behind it supporting it.
I knew though that as the friend above says it's the profits one company is after.

But my world is kinda broken cause I think they knew that there are some hardcore linux users out there that cannot really accept this, a license threating company to set foot on the linux game. I'm sure half of the suse fan lovers lost their fate and in 6 months will find another distro for they day use.

I like opensuse really, but we should accept it's just a testbed for enterprise and walks by some rules novell has.

Again I too say to wait a little more to see how this will go. Then we, the users, will decide if suse will be at the left side of distrowatch without the need to scroll down to see it.

Cheers,

Vangelis

I have been with Suse now since 8.1 and have purchased each full version. Then Novell came along....
We all saw doom and gloom from here but we all set back to see if things would work out in the end.
Well, they didn't. We saw one after the other original Suse Programmer leave and the Distro was heading more and more Corporate.
!0.1 was the 1st Suse version that I didn't bother to purchase as I could already see things heading down hill.
When Novell took over Suse, it has meant the end of a great Distro.
I am not a Linux deep core advocate nor do I hate MS, but their licensing just got out of hand and W2k was the last MS OS I will ever run on any of our PC's at home.
When I saw Mono come up in the Zen updater just a short while ago, I new that 10.1 was the very last Suse version I am going to run.."Rest in peace SuSE"

The deal Novell did with MS has insured MS's prolonged survival for the time being ,while bastarding the spirit of Linux.

To the "Open SuSE" developers:
Jump ship...come up with a new Distro name. You can take the majority of Suse's source code with you as most is under the GPL license.
Re-create the Distro under a new name with and we will happily follow you..just stay away from Corporation and give us an underwriting that you won't sell the new Distro ones it reaches the success that Suse used to have..which shouldn't take long at all.
And we will support you again and I will be happy to purchase it's package at full prize again.

Threads like this are getting old. Cry Cry Cry. The deal wont change anything. Nothing. Zilch. Nada.

I tip my hat to Novell to suckering Microsoft to buy MILLIONS of dollars of SUSE products. Good for you Novell. Nice sale! Somebody is getting a nice commission check this quarter

I've been using SUSE for years, and although 10.1 has notable changes, it's still the best distribution IMHO. We're sticking with it. And with all the money Novell just made, we can expect them to invest even more into SUSE. Version 10.2 is next. Keep going Novell.

There's nothing in OpenSuSE that other distros cannot do. OpenSuSE is the testing ground for Novell's enterprise solutions, just as Fedora is for Redhat. If people did not use OpenSuSE and report back, SLED would be in serious trouble.

I've not used SuSE, but a friend of mine did, and then tried PCLinuxOS. He preferred the latter, it automated his Wireless setup using ndiswrapper through the Control Centre, and everything else just worked out of the box. Well impressed he was.

PCLinuxOS and Mandriva have a better control centre. PCLinuxOS and all the Debian-based distros have Synaptic and Apt-get, a better method of package management. And I don't know a distro that touches PCLinuxOS for Hardware detection.

I am looking at Mandriva 2007 right now and have just registered with their club (the free one at the moment) to get more info about it.
From what I have read so far, their compiz and 3D support seems to be working a lot better straight out of the box, while they also have LinDVD that works straight of playing full DVD's.
Looks promising......

i cannot see why i am new to linux and this could be the door opening for linux the only thing is that linux stays true to what it is but if it means more users not using windows then that is a good thing

After listening to everyone's view on the topic, digesting all the comments and straining out the chaff, I think the decision about abandoning SUSE is dependent on a number of factors that have varied significance for different groups of users. Novell did make a very smart "short-term" commercial move and Microsoft did the same though with the "long-term" perspective. People praised Novell for being smart enough to have succeeded in sucking off millions from MS but what they just ended up doing is losing the trust of users and the whole open-source community. As anyone with even a little business sense will know, trust is the matters in the long run for any business.

The more interesting point though is to understand if the move by MS and Novell will have the desired effect or not. Sad to say (for them), it won't as they are trying to play around with a unique and innovative concept (the open source movement) that none of them really understand. Linux is a born rebel that has time and again proved its resilience to the barriers erected by the opposition and it will keep on doing so because it is using the most basic evolutionary principle of "survival of the fittest" to penetrate the market. Even though major corporate entities are against its development, the fact that it makes evolutionary sense will ensure its success in the future. SUSE may be the best Linux distribution as of now (though I would contend that) but if it tries to go against the evolutionary forces acting on the market, it and not Linux will be wiped clean. Linux is here to stay and it will become the future king of the OS world. MS is acting stupid as it too can foresee this future but it is burying its head in the sand and doesn’t have the common sense to accept the truth. MS is just trying to change the future by doing what it has been doing all along with all of its potential competitors. What they don't understand is that their corporate philosophy (something akin to the character of a person) cannot change the future as far as Linux is concerned. There however is a way out for them too as even though they cannot prevent the dominance of Linux, they still have some options to make their future equally bright. I hope they will be able to gain the needed insight before it’s too late

I thank everyone who contributed to this discussion. Hope everyone has been able to arrive at their own conclusions on the matter based on all the views that have been expressed.