Novell Returns to the SUSE Name 170
soren42 writes "It appears that Novell has decided to rename their enterprise desktop line SUSE, once again. According to an announcement at CeBIT, Novell will be releasing the next version of their desktop product under the name SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop - ditching the moniker Novell Linux Desktop. Naming aside, it looks like the features will be there to make it a strong desktop competitor."
Name matters (Score:4, Funny)
When you hear the word Novell, the image that pops up in your mind is "Old and Busted"
SUSE on the other hand, sounds vaguely of "New Sweetness"
Re:Name matters (Score:5, Insightful)
With SUSE I think about some guys who decide to package a bunch of free software.
I think most of the "older" IT decision makers still remember the old novell software as being pretty stable.
Re:Name matters (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Name matters (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
I for one, have no idea what "NLM" is.
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
Re:Name matters (Score:3, Insightful)
They should have learned something from Microsoft 10 years, never mind the tech people having to work with it, but clever marketing directed at the suits (to which Novell sounds old).
(And when you got them, THEN you can make a reliable product, but that is another story
Re:Name matters (Score:4, Interesting)
True that. Whenever I hear someone say that "this piece of software is rock-solid", I always think "rock solid, eh? I wonder how it compares to Netware?"
We moved from Netware to Active Directory some time ago. And comparing Windows-server with AD to Netware is.... Not nice. Everything seems to be more complex in with the MS-solution, we have all kinds of strange issues with it (nothing catastrophic, but things that make the whole system awkward to use, whereas Netware was a breeze). And while Windows has been reasonable stable, it's nowhere near as stable as Netware was. In the time I started working here, to the time we dumbed Netware (about three years), it went down once, and that was due to power-outage. During this year or so that we have been on Windows/AD, the server has been down... 3-4 times, due to patching, crashing, lockups and the like.
If I had to choose between Netware and Windows, I would choose Netware, no questions asked. And that sentiment is shared by just about all techies here. But since it's the PHB's that call the shots, and Microsoft had shinier PowerPoint-presentations than Novell did, we are stuck with AD.
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
Would those be the same "older" IT decision makers who have abandoned Novell in droves for Windows networking?
Re:Name matters (Score:1, Offtopic)
Agent J: What are you doing?
Kevin Brown/K: I always do the driving.
Agent J: Oh, no.
Kevin Brown/K: I remember that.
Agent J: No, you drive that old busted joint. I drive... the new hotness.
[pointing at K]
Agent J: Old and busted.
[pointing at himself]
Agent J: New hotness.
Re:Name matters (Score:1)
Re:Name matters... Mame Natters (Score:2)
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
Re:It sucks (literally!) (Score:2)
As it is, what it most reminds the French of is probably Suze, a local liquor which probably isn't sold much outside of France. See http://www.suze.com/ [suze.com] (flash site and in French).
This being said for some reason even when SuSE was German it didn't seem to be used much in France, people ran RH (in corporate settings), Debian (when the requirements were less formal) or Mandrake (on the desktop).
It might h
Re:Name matters (Score:2)
NOTHING is NIS > NIS+. Plaintext > NIS+. Hell, even StreetTalk > NIS+!
And StreetTalk's been dead for at least 5 years now.
Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
Props to Novell. This was the right move.
What do you mean? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Good idea (Score:3, Informative)
"If you have to use Fedora (read: can't afford RedHat Enterprise Linux), you're feeling a second class citizen."
As a Debian-user, I'm surprised people who use all of those distros that have a pro version don't feel this way if they're using the free version - SuSE, Mepis, Mandriva, Xandros, etc. This is part of why I don't use any of those distos. Why pay for a pro edition when I can apt-get anything I want (or compile if you're a Gentoo-user)? Just because the distro is harder to use? Yeah, well, the *n
Re:Good idea (Score:5, Insightful)
1) Official support, which you don't get either in debian.
2) Expensive proprietary software, which you don't get either in Debian.
It might be different for Fedora, but I don't think there's any other distinction in SuSE or Mandriva.
> Why pay for a pro edition when I can apt-get anything I want (or compile if you're a Gentoo-user)?
> Just because the distro is harder to use?
To support a distro, most of the times. To get official, quick support. Oh, and please get in the 21st century: we do have other usable package managers other than apt-get. Please inform yourself, and spread it. I'm sick of Debian fans comparing apt-get to the bare rpm when Yast, smart, urpmi and yum exist.
Re:Good idea (Score:2)
Some screenshots (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2)
What kind of geek are you ?
Re:Some screenshots (Score:3, Interesting)
I think that the Suse Enterprise Desktop is replacing the Novell Desktop Linux, not Suse Linux.
So Novell will have three Suse Linux products: Suse Linux, Suse Enterprise Server, and Suse Enterprise Desktop.
I plan to continue using Suse so long as their KDE support does not fall into disrepair.
Re:Some screenshots (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:1)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:1)
Apparently there is some confusion caused by bad coverage: it's the successor of Novell Linux Desktop 9, a rebranded NLD 10 - if you like to say so - which gives you the choice to use either KDE or GNOME. As Nat Friedman stated to some press you will not lose functionality when you choose to use KDE: every desktop's applications will run on the other desktop, OpenOffice.org will integrate into both equally, desktop search is available under both and Xgl/Compiz (if su
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2)
Re:Gnome, %@$%! (Score:1)
SuSE == KDE
KDE == SuSE
enough said!
--
BSD Podcasts @ http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]
KDE supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (Score:2)
Re:Some screenshots (Score:2)
Good brand recognition is important (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
Who?
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
I have used Borland tools since the 1980s
I was a Delphi Beta tester
Delphi is running on my PC as I write this.
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
(Though I've been programming with Delphi more than with any other single tool, I guess. Apart from obsolete editor it was pretty good. Though after v5 it stagnated.)
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
Re:Good brand recognition is important (Score:2)
Time/Warner/Turner/Time Warner/Time Warner/AOL/Time Warner?
Micro-Soft/Microsoft?
AT&T/South Western Bell/Bellsouth/SBC/AT&T?
US Robotics/3COM/US Robotics Modems?
Burger Chef/Carl Jr's/Hardees?
Honestly (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Honestly (Score:2)
Novel sux, SUSE sweet (Score:1, Insightful)
I just installed OpenSUSE 10.0 and am really enjoying it. I had to live with NLD 9 ona job last year, and it was OK. I preferred CentOS however.
But, SUSE 10 is solid, quick (once you turn off Beagle indexing in GNOME) and full featured.
Novell fails to inspire confidence. But, if they use the SUSE name, I can almost forget it is from Novell. I like that.
Just kill it already (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Just kill it already (Score:1, Insightful)
Brand recognision (Score:4, Insightful)
SuSE is the name of a Linux distro. People know it's a Linux distro. Calling it "Novelle" makes it sound like it's not a Linux distro.
Novelle is a networking systeme. Networking, not a desktop environment. SuSE may be able to be used in a networking environment but it's not a network environment in itself like Novelle.
Corporate vanity failed. The world is on the way to being right again. It'll be better when Earthlink spins off its dialup service, renames it back to Mindspring, and hires Americans to take the tech calls since the reason why the two merged was for Earthlink [good brand, lousy cust service] to obtain the customer service skillz of Mindspring [unknown brand, JD Powers-praised cust service].
Re:Brand recognision (Score:1)
Re:Brand recognision - (Score:1)
It's Recognition!
andNovell - (sans E)
Not so Insightfully moderated by spelling charlatans!
Hmph! Please add this post to my next Meta-Moderator list - thank you very much!
To be expected. (Score:5, Insightful)
The big danger is that chopping and changing the brand name again will worsen the confusion, rather than clarify things. Those who have grown used to the Novell name may not be so happy with the SuSE name and may even reach the (incorrect) conclusion that it's a distribution fork. Remember, the enterprise market has been pumped up with the FUD that Linux is going to fork "some day".
The name-change to Novell was a Bad Idea (apologies to 1066 And All That), so it would seem that switching back to SuSE would be a Good Idea. There is also strong evidence that the Solaris/SunOS name-switching by Sun didn't kill the product line - although it definitely didn't help and was such a farce that it is still clearly remembered to this day.
Red Hat's method (Red Hat for the Enterprise, Fedora Core for the Real Users) is acceptable, though certainly not brilliant. It's one way of leveraging brand recognition for multiple brands. Works better in the car industry than the software industry, I suspect.
Re:To be expected. (Score:5, Insightful)
That's a marketing disaster for Red Hat IMHO.
They had the undisputed #1 dominant brand & split off the goodwill generating bit and forced most of their loyal users to switch to a different distro and - get this - the users figured there were OTHER non Red Hat Linux distros and - shock horror - some of them did stuff better than Red Hat.
Brilliant move morons. 5 years ago Red Hat was the shoo in no brainer distro for servers everywhere. Today Suse is the preferred supplier to the NSW govt.
I'd have to agree... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:To be expected. (Score:2)
IIRC at the time they did this there was a semi-revolt by some of the Red Hat community who didn't like the change.
In Australia you used to be able to buy Red Hat from Newsagents for a very reasonable price. It was available, THERE, when you wanted an up-to-date distro to put on your PC & they got awesome market presence as a r
Fedora? (Score:2)
Fedora is throwing the scraps to the dogs. The whole reason why anyone would choose redhat or suse is theyre enterprise and have been well standardized. You can much more easily run Oracle, DB2, Domino, Websphere etc on these two (as certified) than on slackware, debian, knoppix, gentoo, mandrake. Say you own a company and need an oracle server. You pick up a cheap server with good raid di
Heh! (Score:2)
OLD NEWS!! (Score:2, Informative)
Re:OLD NEWS!! (Score:4, Informative)
I gotta say this for SuSE (Score:4, Informative)
Given the choice, it's the first one I would recommend to relatives.
Dear Novell People, (Score:4, Funny)
Sincerely,
Me
Come on now... (Score:2)
Re:Dear Novell People, (Score:1)
I take it you are new to the software business.
Makes perfect sense to me (Score:2)
For people who want Novell, you can sell them "Novell Directory Server on SuSe Enterprise", or whatever.
I think that they'll really get the best of both worlds with the new setup.
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Misleading subject (Score:2)
Ha! (Score:2, Insightful)
At least MS (Windows ) and Apple (OSX ) got it right. And I mean the cute code name stuff in all Linux distros is starting to get out of hand.
Aside from RedHat, you guys got to admit SuSE has a lot of potential (i.e. OpenSuSE and SuperSuSE specifically).
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
I'm not sure if MS did get it right. At first, they used letters (NT) for business OS and years (95, 98) for home OS. Then it switched to year (2000) for business OS and letters (ME) for home OS. Then MS combined the business and home OSes into a single codebase (which I think was a good idea) and called it XP, but kept their server OSes in year naming format.
Re:Ha! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Ha! (Score:2)
Rose by any other name. (Score:2)
*After coming up with 12 different endings for this joke I leave it open for debate.
Linux and Solid Desktop Contender... (Score:2, Funny)
NLD vs Suse Desktop vs SLES (Score:1)
SuSE Linux was them continuing the SuSE distro. While it *could* be used in the enterprise, that's not how they were pushing it.
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) was their server.
They never offered a Linux server OS w/ the Novell name on it. Now it appears they're trying to be a bit more consistant with the naming scheme. NLD and SuSE Linux were two different beasts all together. I had much luck with SuSE 9 while NLD 9
Re:NLD vs Suse Desktop vs SLES (Score:1)
Feel free to take a look a NOVELL OPEN ENTERPRISE SERVER.
"Maybe they're simply dropping the Novell Linux Desktop distro?"
No they're not dropping it, this whole friggin article was about them CHANGING THE NAME of said distro.
Re:NLD vs Suse Desktop vs SLES (Score:2)
Re:NLD vs Suse Desktop vs SLES (Score:3, Informative)
But will it be SuSE 10.0? (Score:2)
Products seem to jump away from version numbers right around the time they hit that second digit. Red Hat renamed their main distro as Fedora Core and started over at 1 rather than release a Red Hat 10. Mandrake and Conectiva got up to 10, merged, renamed themselves Mandriva, then switched over to yearly vintages.
And let's not even get started on Mac OS X, which technically has a version number (two of them if you count "X"), but hides it in t
Re:But will it be SuSE 10.0? (Score:2)
You must have been asleep, or hiding under a rock!
10.0 was released last year already. They're currently in the beta phase for 10.1, and should start with RCs for it in a few weeks.
They certainly don't appear to be shying away from using the number ten.
-- Steve
Take a look... (Score:5, Informative)
All the screenshots appear to be GNOME (Score:2)
It went something like this... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It went something like this... (Score:2)
Novel does indeed have excellent name recognition: unfortunately the name recognition has been tainted over the last 12 years by people struggling to migrate AWAY from the platform and on to this rediculous microsoft BS.
Thier memories do include Novel as being a necessary and integral part of their windows installs and such, and it was bomb-resistant and sturdy, it was not a happy happy taffy eating time.
We've spent 10 years migrating away from this and now you want us to migrate back? WT
Re:It went something like this... (Score:2)
You call that a name? (Score:1)
K.I.S.S.
Re:You call that a name? (Score:2)
I can think of a whole SLEW of names better than that...
Pronuciation? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Pronuciation? (Score:5, Informative)
Ubuntu - oo-BOON-too [wikipedia.org]
Re:Pronuciation? (Score:1)
Re:Pronuciation? (Score:2)
Easier to spell....
Re:Pronuciation? (Score:2, Funny)
Support Confusion (Score:4, Interesting)
On the other hand, I have found SuSE/Novell/whatever much more pleasant to use than Red Hat. The Novell bugzilla response has been particularly good.
Show me don't tell me. (Score:2)
Novell has made a couple of choices which don't display a clear committment to formats one can play with FLOSS.
Recently they started an audio show distributed online and this show is encoded exclusively in MP3 format. I wrote to them suggesting that they upload a WAV or FLAC file to archive.org and let archive.org make derivative files in a variety of formats including Ogg Vorbis, thus simultaneously offloading bandwidth and hosting resources while allowing people to hear their show without necessarily g
Red Hat changes name too (Score:4, Funny)
Red Hat Advanced Server
Followed by:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Server
Red Hat proudly announces the availabity of:
Red Hat Ultra Enterprise Linux Super Advanced Server Extra Value Edition
Or RHUELSASEVE for short.
You'll still be able get their workstation product as well:
Red Hat Ultra Enterprise Linux Super Advanced Workstation Plus
Or just say RHUELSAWP!!
Now that we have this straight again: (Score:2)
Re:Now that we have this straight again: (Score:2)
Re:HA HA! (Score:3, Funny)
What if they rename it to iWindows BSD Professional?
I have used it. (Score:2, Informative)
Novell makes it almost impossible to get the free download of version 10.0, but if you are patient you can get it. Took me about 2 weeks to get the ISOs from their FTP server.
I was looking at Novell's Distro to provide DNS/DHCP. As a desktop, I was rather impressed. What I think is missing from most distro
Re:HA HA! (Score:1)
Re:turn off the lights (Score:5, Interesting)
What do most Government agencies use Novell products for? Most use mainly File and Print Servers as well as Novells Directory.
Novell has the Best File Server, The best Print Server, and the Best Directory of any Company and any product!
Many of their other Products could also be considered better than the rest.
ZenWorks is much better than Microsofts SMS! What do you want people to switch to? Microsoft?
The company I work for is in the process of switching over to Microsoft for File and print.
We are switching from Netware 5/6 servers to a Windows 2003 Cluster.
For this switch my company has paid millions to Microsoft and in the end we are going to have less functionality and it will take more time to manage than what we could do with Novell 10 years ago!!!
The reason that Microsoft can sell it's product is because they make their pitch to the CIO of a company, and tell the non technical CIO how much money he will save. (They don't tell him about the increased down time and increased time to manage and patch. Or the hundreds of thousand of dollars he will have to pay to 3rd party software venders just to make the crap work.)
I have talked to some IS staff at various places and have heard the same story from all of them:
Microsoft came and talked to the CIO and gave him a deal on Microsoft products, But Only if they agreed not to renew thier contract with Novell.
In most cases they were willing to give them Microsoft software to replace their Novell software for pennies on the dollar. Microsoft looses nothing since they were already getting the same amount of money for Windows and office. But now they are able to use their Monopoly on the desktop to try and push Novell out of business.
I have been supporting Netware, windows, Linux, and Unix since the early 1990s and I have not found anything that works as good as Novell's products.
Re:turn off the lights (Score:2)
BUT, Novell in their foray into linux land made a fatal mistake. They should have taken the SuSE propduct they were selling and offered a "home edition" for 100% free to home users and non-profit companies. Redhat became King fast becau
Re:turn off the lights (Score:2)
It's called openSUSE [opensuse.org]