* More ways of taking SuSE for a test-drive
A few issues ago, I told you how to get your hands on a free copy of the SuSE Enterprise Server 8 operating system to try it out before Novell’s Open Enterprise server ships this fall. Unfortunately, this offer is only for those with an in-force maintenance or upgrade protection agreement with Novell – and not all of those qualify.
Novell Small Business Suite (SBS) maintenance and upgrade protection customers are – so far – not eligible for this promotion. I say “so far,” because Novell is considering extending the offer to those customers. Talk to your sales rep, call Novell or visit the SBS Web site (https://www.novell.com/products/smallbiz/) and leave feedback telling Novell that you’re an SBS customer with a maintenance (or upgrade protection) agreement and you want to be included in the promotion. Unless Novell hears from you and can gauge your interest in Linux servers, the promotion isn’t likely to be extended.
You could still, of course, download the 90-day evaluation version of SuSE. That’s available to everyone: NetWare customers with or without maintenance and upgrade agreements as well as non-NetWare customers.
Some of you, though, won’t want to devote scarce resources (i.e., a PC) to a 90-day eval. So there’s one other option that was pointed out by alert reader Bret Dayley. You can also download the SuSE Linux 9.1 Live CD. After putting the downloaded image on a CD, the SuSE operating system boots and runs completely from the CD, allowing you to try SuSE on your hardware without changing your hardware’s existing operating system. Just put the Live CD into your CD drive and boot up. When you’re finished testing out SuSE, just remove the CD and reboot the machine as normal. If you just want to take SuSE Linux for a test drive, or for testing if your hardware is fully supported, the Live CD could be the perfect choice.
Because of Novell’s heavy use of Java on its Web site, I can’t give you a direct URL to these free downloads, but I can give you the instructions you need:https://www.novell.com/nps/ and login. (If you don’t already have an account, go to that URL and create one.)https://download.novell.com/ and click on the radio button to search by product.
1. If you already have a Novell eLogin account, go to
2. Head to
3. Choose the product you want from the dropdown product menu. For the Live CD, choose “SUSE LINUX.” For the 90-day evaluation products, choose either “SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server” or “SUSE LINUX Standard Server.”
If you decide to purchase the product after using the 90-day eval, you can simply plug in a registration code. Novell certainly does seem to want you to get your hands on SuSE.
