Seems like the "preferred" linux version run in many corporations is Redhat. However, Novell/Suse has 'made a deal with the devil', so to speak, and partnered up with Microsoft.

There are a couple of articles on it, and I'm sure many of you already know this. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11...ll_suse_linux/ , for one)

What does everyone think this means for Redhat now? Anyone think Suse might become the dominant distro?

This isn't news - they made the deal with the devil quite a while ago.

You would have to ask the past partners of M$ whether a tie-in with them has ever been more advantageous to them or to M$. I daresay you'd find it is always more advantageous to M$ and there have been enough lawsuits and attempts to go after MicroSloth for antitrust violations to suggest not only is it mostly in the devil's favor but often enough has actually ended up damaging the partner. Many have alleged that M$ simply took what they needed from the partner then came out with their own product and cut ties.

Even if all the above didn't apply the main issue with switching to Suse vs. RedHat has a lot to do with the sheer number of 3rd party commercial apps that work on RedHat vs. Suse. Since its all Linux you may be able to get something "working" that is not the same as getting it "supported" by the 3rd party vendors. The main reason people go to a commercial distro of Linux is for vendor support - they're unlikely to compromise that support for commercial apps they also pay support on.

For example I setup a Fedora 6 system to run Oracle R12 even though it wasn't "supported" by Oracle but that was only to do proof of concept for what we later applied to our RHEL systems that are "supported" by Oracle. My company would not use the Fedora setup for any critical systems.

From my experience, the "deal with the devil" has been way overblown. Working in a couple large Novell shops over the last several years has only proven this to me. Prior to the 'deal', one of my employers was already heavily into Suse and Redhat (with redhat eventually getting completly replaced by Suse)

As this company was a global company, and many of my co workers from Asia, Germany, and the UK will attest that SuSE seems far more prevelent in their countries than Redhat is. Here in the US it seems to be the other way around. This, of course is pure 'word of mouth'

Now, as far as any benefits from the 'deal'.. I'll have to say that looking at the latest offerings from Novell's OES2(SP1) product have significant benefits from the M$ cooperation, in particular the Domain Services For Windows component.

http://www.novell.com/connectionmaga...se_server.html


Which will let me (finally) envelop my AD forests into a true enterprise directory and manage them both with the same toolset. This level of integration would more than likely NOT be available without the 'deal'

Interestingly enough, most of Novell's offerings run on Suse and Redhat (as well as some on solaris, hpux,AIX and even Windows) with the exception OF OES2 which will only run on SuSE.

For me, I have only seen positive things come out of the 'deal' and I have only seen positive growth and adoption of SuSE.

My 02c

As stated, SuSE is the standard outside the US. As for all this "deal with the devil" nonsense, it's totally in SuSE's favor. Some people really ought to get their facts straight regarding this matter.

As mentioned, this is old news by now -- old enough that we might expect to see a negative impact in revenue for the last couple quarters.

I don't see it: http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_...heetQ22009.pdf

"Some people" have their facts straight. It may be in Suse's favor but only if you assume the deal they signed was required in the first place. By signing the agreement Suse gave just that more credibility to the idea that M$ "might" be able to sue over Open Source poaching of M$ code rather than vice-versa. In legal circles it often occurs that existence of something that isn't required is used as "proof" that it in fact is required.

If you're a Suse cheerleader more power to you but don't be like the Neo-cons and assume everything your favorite does is valid just because they are.