Remember when Novell was the technology leader that others followed? Remember when Novell was renowned for having the best server software engineers anywhere in the world? Me too. But evidently, that's changed.
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At last week's LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco, Novell announced the openSUSE project. The project is intended to open the development process for SuSE Linux by giving developers in the open source community access to the review, testing and development of the SuSE Linux distribution. Community participation begins this week, with the first beta release of SuSE Linux 10.0. As a result, developers around the world will be able to contribute to future versions. The story on this announcement was carried by The Register, the U.K.'s always irreverent look at IT, under the headline "Copycat Novell opens SuSE development process."
What did they mean by "copycat"? Simply that the company seemed to be following on the heels of Red Hat, which last year released a version of its Linux distribution to the open source community as the Fedora Project. Both projects appear to be driven by the lack of adoption of Linux as a desktop operating system by any except the true geeks among us. Where just last year many people were talking (or, perhaps, vocalizing wishful thinking) about the coming demise of Windows, the talk today is about getting Linux into the server room as an enterprise host, such as through Open Enterprise Server, while the desktop is being left to the hobbyists through the free distributions from Novell and others.
Novell has posted the beta release of SuSE Version 10 to the openSUSE site, and has committed to releasing the finished product as a free download offering. Or, as the Novell press release put it:
"The openSUSE project will offer access to frequent developer builds of the SUSE Linux distribution, beginning today with the first beta release of SUSE Linux 10.0. The beta release will offer the latest state-of-the-art features, including new desktop environments and desktop productivity applications, Linux application security based on Novell AppArmor, improved desktop search, the latest Xen virtualization technology, updated Mono and Eclipse development packages, and enhanced multimedia capabilities. When completed later this fall, SUSE Linux 10.0 will be made available for free download at openSUSE.org. Novell will continue to deliver a packaged edition of SUSE Linux 10.0 for enthusiasts and first time Linux users in retail stores and online shops, with installable media, additional software and plug-ins, comprehensive documentation and installation support."
Dave Kearns is a writer and consultant in Silicon Valley. He's written a number of books including the (sadly) now out of print "Peter Norton's Complete Guide to Networks." His musings can be found at Virtual Quill.
Kearns is the author of two Network World Newsletters: Windows Networking Strategies, and Identity Management. Comments about these newsletters should be sent to him at these respective addresses: windows@vquill.com, identity@vquill.com .
Kearns provides content services to network vendors: books, manuals, white papers, lectures and seminars, marketing, technical marketing and support documents. Virtual Quill provides "words to sell by..." Find out more by e-mail.
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