Well blow me down. Only a couple of days ago I decided to jump ship to Linux. I plumped for Suse 10.2 thinking how nice it was to jump from windows XP pro to linux I was then willing to sell my XP Licence key as I no longer reqired it and I am investing a number of hours fiddling with the system a few ups and downs but happy knowing that I have ditched the Windows.

I now read that everyone is leaving Suse because it's in bed with Microsoft. Does this mean my little trip into the world of linux is all in vain just because I found Suse easy to use. I have also told other people that are totally non IT literate that you could do worse than use it for some of the stuff they where doing on windows 98, Some are quite impressed and it all appeared to be free.

Reading some of the post it's all doom and gloom and I should move back to windows? Even though I see it as a good step onto other distros?

Hey a_c_g_t, there is no reason to jump ship. The full ramifications of the deal between Novell and Microsoft are not yet known and there are two sides to the story. If you are learning Linux, the SUSE 10.2 release is very good and there is a lot of information available for it in various places to help you troubleshoot any problems you may encounter. It may also interest you to know that it has been the #1 Linux distribution for the last month or so according to distrowatch, so not everyone is convinced that they need to abandon SUSE.

I'm stickin' with Suse.
I've tried some of the others and Suse is the only one that I found to work "right out of the box" so to speak, and meet my needs such as they are.
I'm not affected by the Novell Suse / Windblows server market.
What I do want is for Suse to be as profitable as possible because thats the only way to keep rolling out good products. Yeah, The 10.1 pre RM had bugs but they fixed it.
We live in an ever changing world and successful companies must do what they can to stay ahead of the curve. I don't use linux because it's free. I use it because it's better than M$. I use Suse linux because it suits my needs better than most of the other linux distros. I always buy the retail version when it comes out because thats the only way I have of helping to support my favorite distro.
When and if Suse no longer meets my needs, I'll just move on to another distro. But till then, I'm hangin' in there.

I am sticking with SuSE, I have used it pre-Novell and post-Novell and post-Novell seems very promising. I have also purchased SLED 10 to help promote the "cause".

I just hope this deal doesn't kill their relationship with the openSource community and Samba

a major problem i see is once gpl v3 is accepted and projects start moving over, it will leave suse to die on the vine with a shrinking amount of v2 applications available.

they will have to start maintaining their entire build in-house, instead of being able to accept security/bug fixes from "the community".

after a few years of this, debian stable will appear cutting edge in comparison to the crufty and outdated suse offering.

If anyone with Linux experience wants to make this decision, I recommend they try 10.1, then upgrade to 10.2.
Just look at the program menu arrangement and try to use it a few times. (KDE desktop)

Obfuscation, indeed.

I had 9.1, then 9.2 for 2 years, upgraded to 10.1, and it sorta worked, but had problems with Yast, etc., so I got 10.2 and upgraded.
I then downgraded back to 10.1. I'm still trying to work out the modem problems with permissions someplace, but in general, it is better. 10.2 is silly, to say the least. If it represents the trend of SuSE, I will be done when 10.1 no longer meets my needs and I will go back to Lindows (or whatever it's called now) or somewhere else. I don't care about the ego problems dealing with Microsoft. I hate them for their wastefulness and that's that. What concerns me is whether or not SuSE will continue to be practical and useful. As I see it, it is going the way of Windoze, which is to be more fluff than stuff, and that doesn't bode well for it.

Net Creativity. What can we create without using so many resources?
All things in moderation, even moderation.

Linux is the future because it actually doesn't matter what distribution you use. For those scared about the future of SUSE, I would say that there's nothing to be afraid of! A distribution is more akin to a wrapper and moving to another distro amounts to changing the wrapper, whatever's underneath remains the same. I have tried out various distros and moving from one to the other has always been as easy as moving into a new house. All I needed to do was move my stuff (data) from the old to the new house and as I always chose a better house each time, I never regretted leaving the old one! I just keep my home directory in a separate partition so it doesn't matter which distro I use as long as its running Linux at the core.

Moreover, I haven't seen a single distro that offers something that's not (or can't be) provided by another one. If you want to stick with SUSE, feel free to do so! You can always jump ship when it starts sinking (looks very likely that it will unless someone can somehow plug the leak) and there won't be a need to jump into freezing waters as you can just board a better ship (distro). If you want to move on from SUSE because you feel their greed has destroyed your trust and their own future, you will easily find another distro that’s equally good or better than SUSE. Being with Linux is unlike anything you have experienced with Windows. It’s not a do or die thing, YOU, the users have the freedom of choice to move on to a better distro whenever you want and that's why Linux will be the king as it has empowered users in a way nothing else has!

AFAICS, 10.2 is everything that 10.1 is not... SuSE 10.1 was so buggy it is best promptly forgotten. OTH, 10.2 works well and looks to be a reasonable system.

I do not see much point about arguing the technical side of it.

The idealogical aspects, if I may call a spade a spade, is another matter altogether. If I was as little as 3 years younger, I would give up suse right now, but I am close to the end of my computer days, so with nice features like those of openSUSE10.2, I will save myself the considerable effort required to move to another setup at this stage.

That is a pragmatic decision. It does not mean that I endorse the peculiar mix of OSS and the closed world of secretive, copyright bound Close Source Software. Let me be critical of my tentative decision: my stand reminds me of the prayer of a would-be saint "God make me a saint, but not just yet...".

I suspect that the new masters of suse barely tolerate small users and will not care that the likes of me will refuse to buy the product of suse and will now use only the openSUSE version, whilst previously they were prepared to spend a little money for the "boxed version" of the same product.

The good thing from all this is that many Linux users will seriously consider moving to true independence and will try to download source and built their own distros with their own compilations.

Peace to all on the occasion of Christmas and a happy New Year!

Would you elaborate a little - why will gpl v3 have the effect that gpl v2 does not? I know too little about gpl v3 and suspect that many of your readers are in a similar boat. A little explanation would go a long way to help to understand your remarks.

Thanks in advance - in hope that you will respond to this request!

Views from a fresh newbee MS convert.
I've been interestd in dumping MS for its bully posture and mere size.

5 Days ago somebody gave me a set of RH9.1 disks to load on my notebook (See my signiture) and while I was impressed with ease of use, it did not detect/install many periphrials and this being uncharted space don't know a kernel from a corporal.
I was almost ready to dump Linux.
Then somebody gave me a set of SUSE 9.1 disks and this did install correctly and everything did work.
I need it to run windows programs but WINE wouldn't work for the SUSE version.

I did some surfing and found openSUSE 10.2. and amazed it was freeware.
After shrinking my NTFS from 100% (39gb) to 15gb it lost the ability to boot so I ran the openSUSE install and wall-ah, I was so very impressed that openSUSE will also start the previously unbootable XP.

I've spent 99% of my time in openSUSE trying to get my stupid Linksys card to run but I'm sticking to openSUSE at least for a while.

I found the joint Novell+MS statement un-nerving, simply for the creation of such an alliance and I figure I'll use openSUSE as a learning platform, then probably mirate back away from MS again, since Novell is in bed with MS.

Just my $.02
-Steve

I have been using linux for a long time off and on. I started with RedHat and ended up with Linspire, but I am now using Suse 10.1. I love it. Other then having trouble with my Linksys card it works great on my laptop. I will proably keep using it until it dies. I really hope it does not. I have tried Ubuntu, Mandriva 2007, and Fedora 6 Core and Linspire, all have their good points, but over all I like Suse the best. I started using it with 9.3 Professional version and have used it ever since. I have learned not to panic, as long as it works keep using it. I think I will wait and see. It is not hard to go to another distro if I have to. I really do not ever want to go to MS again.

Speaking of dust settling, I haven't seen any overwhelming support for gpl v3. It actually sounds more like Stallman trying to become relevant again. So maybe Novell won't have to take on that much of the burden.

I for one will be one of the last rats off the ship

I think the Microsoft reputation for being a bully has perhaps put a bias on the communities view of the Novell-Microsoft agreement. Novell hasn't admitted that Linux infringes on Microsoft patents. Its simply an agreement not to sue over potential patent problems (and you know how these things are: our patent system is horribly broken). Had this same deal been done with any other company I doubt this would even be news.

I think that the interoperability that this agreement will create in both OS's would benefit Linux greatly. The key to Linux success will eventually come down to interoperability with other OS's. Isn't that why the wine project is such a great boon to Linux? Linux is not going to succeed if it decides to be the pariah that the FSF wants it to be. I do not want Linux to become another Iceweasel. As much as I appreciate the efforts of the FSF, it is too stuck on its principles for its own good.

SUSE has always been my favorite distro and even though they had some mistakes (10.0 and 10.1, yes I am looking at you), they're getting much better with 10.2. It has the best GUI tools I have seen. It is slow, but at least its there and it works. I'd much rather spend 5 extra minutes waiting for YaST to finish than spend my entire day going through manuals to find console commands. As long as SuSE has the configuration tools and the same good share of open-source software bundled with it, I won't be going away, no matter what controversial deals have been made.

Well over in the UK Novell has been writing to its customers about how its deal with M$ protects them from Patent suits, however, there is no such law currently in UK and unless Linux has stolen or plaigiarised THE ACTUAL CODE there is nothing under British Law anyone can do.

I know it's different in the USA, but in the long run I think Novell is speaking with forked tongue, and it will be in trouble. They have virtually settled the argument over whether GPL2 is still adequate (clearly it isn't) and whether the community falls behind the current GPL3 proposals or another version comes out, there's gonna be problems for Novell and SuSE.

Just out of curiousity, what IS the native language in Britain? We speak the King's English in Brooklyn!