hi everyone,

i have downloaded the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 and SP1 and i have a question with the installation.

on the download page i get this information

"Check out this free 60-day evaluation of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, which includes the entire contents of the full version plus 60 days of patches and updates. This does not include access to any technical support or to any software updates beyond the evaluation period. For technical support and yearly access to patches and updates, buy online or choose one of our other purchasing options."

1. after the 60 day evaluation , can you still use the product (even after extension )? does it mean that you cannot boot after the 60 days

2. or is it that you cannot receive updates and support after the trial

3. any information as to what happens to your system after the trial will be appreciated very much. e.g. system wont boot after trial? etc

4. what is the difference between the SLED and OpenSuse?

by the way my I'm kind of a newbie to Linux so my questions might sound silly but please bear with me

thanks

ally

Not a SuSE user, so my answers are based on general knowledge rather than specific information. But..

1) I don't think they would have an effective way (besides formatting or shredding) of preventing you from booting the machine after 60 days (or that they'd really like to do that). So my answer is: yes, you can boot the machine after the period, but you probably can't get the updates anymore ([EDIT] the commercial updates; surely you can access the community updates that don't cost you anything). Not sure how they identify you, but the upgrade program checks something to see if you're entitled to access the update server's content, and after the trial period refuses your access. Could be that there is some proprietary software installed that would stop functioning after the period, but I doubt that..the base system works after the period, only the "paid" parts won't. Like technical support and updates.

OpenSuse is SuSE that's supported by the non-paid SuSE community, SLED is supported by a commercial group. Like RHEL compared to Fedora. Community version has updates and possible support from the community, enterprise version has paid tech support staff and possibly updates made by people who are paid to do just that, and probably proprietary software that's not in the community version. Very probably both community and enterprise versions share a part of updates, it's the extra that makes the difference.