Novell Story Site Launched

An anonymous reader writes "Novell launched a Linux/Open Source story page where everyone can briefly describe how he/she helps pushing Linux or Open Source forward. For every submission a marker is set on a world map. You can also win prices, among them, although yet not mentioned on the page, 50 SLED 10 licenses."

Other prizes. (prices?)

[Whiney Mac Fanboy]

Errr - thanks for mentioning the SLED licenses, but the other prizes (that people would actually want) are:

Prize/Odds of Winning: There are 20 tier 3 prizes to be awarded, 6 tier 2 prizes, and 3 tier 1 prizes. Tier 3 prizes are Apple® 2GB Nano iPods . They have an approximate value of US $199. Tier 2 prizes are Olympus® EVOLT E-500 Digital Cameras. They have an approximate value of of $800 US. Tier 1 prizes are HP Compaq nc6400 Notebooks . They have an approximate value of $2,000 US. The odds of winning a prize depend upon the total number of eligible entries received. All prizes will be awarded, provided they are properly claimed and a sufficient number of eligible entries are received. Limit one prize per household.

From the article

[Denial93]

> The odds of winning a prize depend upon the total number of eligible entries received. Nice way of saying that to max your chances, do not advertise this site.

Non-US not welcome

[leandrod]

It is still not fully functional. I can't make it understand a non-US zip code or city/country combination.

Re:Wait, Open what?

[Anonymous Coward]

SLED 10 isn't proprietary, it's open source. You can download it from Novell's site. The licenses give you access to their support and patch services.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Wait, Open what?

[Anonymous Coward]

We are all very sorry that you do not understand what "Open Source" actually means.

We are also very sorry that you do not know anything about SuSE, the difference between SLED and OpenSuSE, and what the license is actually used for.

Now that you know you are lacking in the necessary knowledge to make the statement that you did, please go educate yourself using the free resources located at http://www.google.com/ [google.com] http://www.novell.com/linux [novell.com], and http://www.opensuse.org./ [www.opensuse.org]

Good luck on your mission.

Accused as Being Proprietary?

[reverendted]

Several people have commented on SLED being proprietary. Amid this firebranding, I ask you to consider some details about SLED, SUSE, and Novell. 1. Open Source SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop was developed in open source. It includes a couple pieces of proprietary software from partner companies, such as the Macromedia Flash plugin for Firefox, RealPlayer, and Adobe Reader. It includes no proprietary kernel modules. Andreas Jaeger recently posted on SUSE's policy here [novell.com]. Novell includes a couple proprietary packages developed at Novell on the SLED10 media, but they do not install by default, and are all related to integrating with enterprise infrastructural services (already-deployed Novell enterprise systems). 2. Free Software, but Not Free Updates SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is fully functional free software. It does not require any kind of license key. However, Novell hopes to make revenue on the software update service, as well as enterprise support, consulting, training, and other services. The activation keys activate the update service for one year. (Clever winners of the 50 1-year activations that we are giving away might extend that a bit by using the 60 day eval before they use their activation code.) 2. Free Updates? Yes, for openSUSE. Novell also underwrites another desktop distribution openSUSE, which includes a lot more packages than SLED. Anyone can download it and use it. However, SLED today has some features that were (thankfully) not included in openSUSE 10.1, the current version. (In fact, we had a major screw up with a including a not-ready component in openSUSE, causing a mess that we are still trying to clean up in the SUSE community.) The feature delta with SLED, as well as the extensive extra polishing that SLED received before shipping--have prompted many people in the community to expressed their desire to use SLED. They like what Novell has created and packaged--an amazingly well-assembled desktop system, and they would rather not wait for many of the features and design elements to appear in openSUSE 10.2. 3. Novell Contributes...a Lot Please give Novell some credit for driving many of the great Linux features that have shown up not only on SUSE Linux, but many other distributions. Novell hired David Reveman to complete his work on Xgl & Compiz, which are now available on Ubuntu, Gentoo and other distros. Novell hired Aaron Bockover to create Banshee on the Helix framework so that we could have legal mp3 on Linux. Novell bought Ximian and continues to enable them to create things like the new main menu for GNOME (Jimmy Krehl's "slab"), and solid desktop search well ahead of Microsoft Vista (which still may not ship with that feature). A major reason why plug and play devices like USB drives, mp3 players and cameras just work today is Robert Love's project Utopia. SUSE engineers today are pushing upstream Linux kernel code that has been and still is greatly extending battery life. Maybe these examples are still too self-interested? Novell employees the team that maintains GCC, which is a 100% upstream contribution the GNU toolchain, and yields zero competitive advantage to Novell. Novell CTO Jeff Jaffe has stated the reason: you can't just take, you gotta give back. That's why Novell is participating and contributing. Novell is part way through a cultural change that I think is nothing short of astounding. Say what you want about our marketing missing the mark. But if you believe that we are too proprietary, or that we do not actively engaged enough in open source, then tell us why you think so. Otherwise, is it really justified to berate Novell for being proprietary just because we have offered 50 update activation keys on an awareness campaign? Please refer people to this comment if you see accusations of SLED being proprietary. -- Ted Haeger (You can find me at http://reverendted.wordpress.com./ [reverendte...dpress.com]

Re: Something's not right about this.

[reverendted]

"What's wrong with this picture?"
Maybe you're looking through dirty lenses? :)

SLED10 is far from proprietary. I posted an update on my blog [wordpress.com] about this mischaracterization. I'm hoping that you will be willing to read it and reconsider.