* Novell releases public beta of Open Enterprise Server
At least for North and South American users, Novell did manage to make the public beta of Open Enterprise Server available “before Christmas.” European, African and Asia-Pacific fans, though, had to beg off the figgy pudding on Christmas Day to be among the first to download the new networking operating system. Still, sometimes the presents that come late are the best.
The release produced surprisingly little comment on Slashdot (https://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/26/1834248) with a total of 14 postings, only a handful of which actually related to the release (in typical /. fashion, of course). Still, the original poster’s remarks – “The product seems to work well for beta” – are a good sign that acceptance, perhaps slow acceptance, by the Linux community is coming.
I’ve also seen that newsgroup comment seems heavier on German, Italian and Russian groups. Could it be that the large size of the download (perhaps coupled with slow response times during the initial few days) have caused folks to delay getting the package? That’s certainly a possibility. Many will try to do the download during “slow” times but those are becoming fewer and farther between, it seems. It’s too bad that Novell didn’t see fit to offer to ship the open beta on CDs (or DVDs) for the cost of media plus shipping. Between $10 and $15 should cover it, but even $25 would be worth it for many who simply don’t have the time to do hours of downloads followed by hours of burning CDs just to get to the point where installing the software is possible.
If the time issue is important to you, there is a feedback link on the download page (https://www.novell.com/products/openenterpriseserver/beta.html) where you might let Novell know of your preferences.
