Re:Novell: Why we don't need a third Linux distro
by darklajid on Tuesday October 12, 2010 @07:41PM
(#1785446)
Well, obviously I have not more numbers than you. But Suse (and later OpenSuse) was very prominent for a long time in Germany (according to empirical references providing the best l10n experience combined with commercial support).
They lost a lot afterwards/in the last years, but I'd still say that they are relevant (mind you - without running Suse here.. I'm running a distribution that didn't get mentioned here and has no commercial support..):
- The OpenSuse BuildService [1] is really awesome. Think Ubuntu PPAs, just without the limitation of being for a single distribution/release. It's basically a build system that serves everyone and is still actively improved day by day. Want to build packages for Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora? It can do it for you..
- If you have looked at Suse Studio [2] once, live, you'll agree that this is an awesome product for a lot of deployments. Think "Let me create my linux based appliance with a few clicks using a nice interface".
- Novell still funds a lot of desktop stuff. Granted, RedHat is probably bigger. But if you think "Gnome" you probably see right away that they are both deeply involved and actively moving the platform forward.
- Suse improved zypper (the yum/apt-get/aptitude alternative) by _huge_ amounts concerning speed and usability and it is now for all intents and purposes at least equivalent to the competitors
- Remember the outcry of the open source community after Novell made the agreement with Microsoft regarding the patent protection (fail to find the correct words, you probably know what I mean) for .Net technology: If you are afraid of the risk there, you'll be a customer of Novell I guess.
I agree that RedHat is probably the bigger one (and the "we gained 5% claim is therefor maybe misleading), but - pulling numbers from ... nowhere.. I'd rather put them at 30 (Novell) vs 60 (Redhat) % of the market.
They lost a lot afterwards/in the last years, but I'd still say that they are relevant (mind you - without running Suse here.. I'm running a distribution that didn't get mentioned here and has no commercial support..):
- The OpenSuse BuildService [1] is really awesome. Think Ubuntu PPAs, just without the limitation of being for a single distribution/release. It's basically a build system that serves everyone and is still actively improved day by day. Want to build packages for Ubuntu, Suse, Fedora? It can do it for you..
- If you have looked at Suse Studio [2] once, live, you'll agree that this is an awesome product for a lot of deployments. Think "Let me create my linux based appliance with a few clicks using a nice interface".
- Novell still funds a lot of desktop stuff. Granted, RedHat is probably bigger. But if you think "Gnome" you probably see right away that they are both deeply involved and actively moving the platform forward.
- Suse improved zypper (the yum/apt-get/aptitude alternative) by _huge_ amounts concerning speed and usability and it is now for all intents and purposes at least equivalent to the competitors
- Remember the outcry of the open source community after Novell made the agreement with Microsoft regarding the patent protection (fail to find the correct words, you probably know what I mean) for .Net technology: If you are afraid of the risk there, you'll be a customer of Novell I guess.
I agree that RedHat is probably the bigger one (and the "we gained 5% claim is therefor maybe misleading), but - pulling numbers from ... nowhere.. I'd rather put them at 30 (Novell) vs 60 (Redhat) % of the market.
1: https://build.opensuse.org/
2: http://susestudio.com/