10.04.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday – Part I: SUSE and Some Mentions of Xandros and TurboLinux
SUSE (SLES/SLED)
Not much has happened, despite this one particular accumulation taking almost two weeks (I was away from the Internet). Here is one video that was uploaded to YouTube very recently. It shows SUSE Studio at VMworld.
The following short post was right in pointing out that Novell is neglecting the desktop.
SUSE has had some success on the desktop, but Novell, its parent company, remains chiefly concerned with the server market.
We previously discussed possible reasons for Novell to distance itself from Microsoft’s key turf.
Here is yet another belated article about Userful, which was mentioned in recent digests [1, 2] because the solution uses SUSE. The author is Kristin Shoemaker.
The Userful Desktop software is a custom Linux distribution with the Userful Multiplier built in. It contains the usual suspects in open source applications: GIMP, Firefox (and Epiphany), OpenOffice.org, and a number of educational applications geared towards the younger crowd (such as TuxPaint and gCompris).
It’s worth pointing out that Kristin Shoemaker publishes quite a few short articles about SUSE and Novell. It can’t be a total coincidence.
Here is another belated coverage of the Wyse/SUSE relationship. It comes from a Web site which is already known for its Novell bias (affinity).
Wyse Technology and Novell announced the joint delivery of Wyse Enhanced SUSE Linux Enterprise, the next-generation of Linux operating system designed for thin computing environments and available only on Wyse desktop and mobile thin client devices.
[...]
Meanwhile, the partnership between Wyse and Novell was born of the Linux market growth, he explained.
Novell’s PR department wrote about SUSE and SAP.
Companies in India are making good use of SUSE Linux Enterprise Priority Support for SAP Applications.
There was also this PR about SUSE, SAP, and some other involved companies.
All PAN-supported hardware — including solutions from Egenera and its partners, Dell and Fujitsu Siemens Computers — are now certified by Red Hat and Novell for Red Hat® Enterprise Linux and SUSE® Linux Enterprise on both Intel® and AMD® processors.
It’s truly a shame that a SLES/SLED beta contained that notorious kernel bug, but there we go…
Intel e1000e user? Don’t install the new SUSE betas
[...]
The problem is described as “a serious issue with the potential to damage the network card in a way that it cannot be used any longer”. Intel and Novell are said to be working on the issue. Other Intel network cards, including the e1000 (without the -e postfix) are unaffected.
Following that recent post about Sirius Corporation edging out Novell, there is also some consolation from Glyn Moody.
There are two other aspects of the official announcement that are worth remarking upon. First, is the fact that Novell, contrary to some earlier reports, was not included on BECTA’s list of the chosen few. At one level, that’s a pity, since it would have been good to have had more than open source supplier. On the other hand, many – including myself – have their doubts about Novell’s commitment to the principles of free software, however much it may be happy to make money from it.
Novell’s agreement with Microsoft, and its pushing of technologies that are encumbered with patents is extremely dangerous: there is a real risk that the open source world will wake up one day to find that a large segment of its user base has deployed code fatally tainted by intellectual monopolies.
Against this background, then, Novell’s absence from the list is probably a good thing. What Sirius may lack in terms of clout or brand recognition compared to Novell, it more than makes up for through its adherence to the core principles of free software.
There will probably be no SUSE in UK education. Sirius is not a fan of Novell, to say the very least.
Xandros
Not much going on here except for this review from James Turner.
Xandros will no doubt offend Linux purists, both by the tight integration of commercial software into its business model and by the lack of features such as Gnome. On the other hand, for a Linux newbie who wants a Windows-like experience, it may make a reasonable choice.
This showed up elsewhere, including PCAdvisor, PCWorld (also IDG), ITWorld (IDG), and the New York Times.
Xandros was also mentioned in this instructional article.
Some commercial Linux distributions, such as Xandros, have created integrated package managers that double as storefronts to sell you commercial software. You may need to scroll down a bit to see the free software available for the distribution, but you should be able to find it in short order.
Scalix, which is now part of Xandros, had this press release about Japan.
Scalix, the award-winning Linux email, calendaring and messaging company, today announced the availability of group calendaring and scheduling features attuned to the way teams coordinate their workflow. A new “Overlay Calendar” feature in the Scalix Web Access (SWA) client makes it easy to organize events and appointments in multiple user and public calendars. A new “Calendar Planning Mode” view displays multiple calendars in a single planning sheet to facilitate team scheduling and resource allocation.
TurboLinux
Is Epson still playing with TurboLinux? It turns out that it does.
Epson presenta su nuevo ordenador de escritorio para el hogar digital denominado Endeavor LX7900, el cual se caracteriza por incorporar el sistema operativo TurboLinux Client 2008. Detalles técnicos del nuevo Epson Endeavor LX7900: Microprocesador Intel Celeron 430, Pentium Dual Core E2200, Core 2 Duo E8600 o Core 2 Quad Q6600 2Gb de Memoria RAM DDR2 Disco duro de [...]
There is some more information here, but it’s not in English. █
