10.24.09
Posted in Courtroom, GNU/Linux, IBM, Novell, SCO, UNIX at 8:12 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A SCO Trustee, Edward Cahn, wishes to end the case against AutoZone, but the Linux lawsuit stays for now, with or without McBride
THE firing of SCO CEO Darl McBride is an important development that we wrote about in [1, 2, 3]. But there is more stuff going on at the moment, starting with this from Groklaw:
SCO’s Chapter 11 Trustee Moves to Settle AutoZone
Edward Cahn, the Chapter 11 Trustee now running SCO Group, wants to settle and be done with SCO v. AutoZone. He sees no value in further litigation. So he has filed a motion asking the court to approve the settlement he has worked out with AutoZone.
Can you believe it took this long? It’s been in the Top Ten Stupidest Cases of All Time Hall of Fame since 2004. Evidently Mr. Cahn does not share Darl’s gambling ways, nor his zeal to punish SCO customers who switched from Unix to Linux. SCO put AutoZone through an experience it never deserved, but it looks like all the horses are heading home to the barn. At last.
More on the subject from a Microsoft-friendly source:
At any rate, Schwartman says the firing of McBride, and the company’s announcement Thursday that it will settle claims against Autozone (AZO), indi ate the company may look to settle with Novell as well, which would ease legal costs for Novell and perhaps lead to “a redirection of legacy royalties” to Novell. Schwartzman maintains a “Buy” rating on Novell and a $6 price target.
There is a lot more coming from Groklaw, including Darl’s fate. The title Carla chose is slightly different, saying that “Darl tries threats to get a job.”
The same three appeals court judges who decided to send the copyright ownership issue in SCO v. Novell back to Utah for a jury trial, including the now-retired Judge McConnell, have denied the Novell petition for rehearing. Judge McConnell wrote the original ruling, so it’s hardly a surprise that he would feel it was just right.
More from Groklaw regarding bankruptcy:
Update: Pachulski, Stang has filed a motion to withdraw as SCO’s attorney, or as one of their bankruptcy attorneys:
9. The Chapter 11 Trustee has selected counsel in these cases and an application to approve that retention has been approved (Docket No. 914).
10. PSZ&J seeks leave of this Court to withdraw as counsel to the Debtors in these chapter 11 cases. The Chapter 11 Trustee is serving and is represented by counsel and the Debtors’ interests are adequately represented.
So much is changing. Not to be cynical, but when the money runs out, if there is an opening, so do the lawyers ofttimes.
The local press writes about the Novell-SCO case:
Action by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday clears the way for a trial in Utah in a dispute between The SCO Group and Novell Inc. over the ownership of the copyrights to the Unix computer operating system.
This will probably be the last post that mentions McBride’s epic departure, so here is a record from Reuters, a sort of ripoff of the article from Ars Technica, and a variety of other reports on the subject, including the statement that lawsuits are still SCO’s present direction.
Perhaps the decision to pursue the six-year-old legal battle with IBM and Novell was fueled by a favorable ruling in August by a federal appeals court.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed that SCO’s argument had merit. The company maintains that IBM and Novell illegally used the Unix operating system to make a crucial improvement that turned the Linux system into a competitor.
Still, Lyman said SCO may have missed a golden opportunity to shed the bad blood it created in the Linux and IT communities.
More on Novell’s role:
Which leads us back to Novell. And during this whole time, Novell’s version has been that the Santa Cruz Operation — the folks SCO acquired, not SCO themselves to begin with — did purchase certain things from Novell, mainly the right to use the UNIX and UnixWare trademarks under controlled circumstances (see page 12, section C), but with Novell holding the leash on all of them. Novell insists they never sold off a controlling stake in UNIX to anyone. Plus, Novell’s feelings vis-a-vis Linux are plain: they develop it, support it, and provide legal indemnification for its users.
There’s a part of me that can’t wait for the Novell trial, which promises to be either very long or very, very short.
Novell and IBM both refuse to speak about McBride’s sacking.
Novell and IBM also declined to comment.
Linux Today has a sort of eulogy for McBride (also promoted here), which puts things in perspective.
Darl McBride, to the glee of many, is out of a job. I think this signals the real end of all The SCO Group litigation, because I think Mr. McBride was hired specifically to litigate rather than run a software company. SCO (Caldera back then) had a good management team in place led by Ransom Love, and they were given the boot to make room for Darl and his henchpersons.
Their cunning master plan failed, despite masterful gaming of the system and support from deep-pockets third parties who were happy to write checks, stay behind the scenes, and let Mr. McBride take the hits.
SCO used to contribute to Linux, just like Novell. It’s reason to be equally cautious about Novell, which claims ownership of UNIX. █
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Posted in America, Europe, Law, Microsoft, Novell at 7:22 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Some of Microsoft’s latest mischiefs and law-dodging moves leave its competitors out in the cold, even on the ideally-standardised Web
OPERA is protesting against Microsoft’s behaviour with Vista 7, which still comes with a crime-committing Web browser preinstalled [1, 2]. As The Register shows, Microsoft’s flagrant disregard for the law continues to shine bright.
Several Register readers have been in touch because their early installations of Windows 7 have not come with a ballot screen offering them a choice of browsers to download.
Ryan, a Boycott Novell regular, complains that Microsoft’s software technology continues to exclude and to punish Opera users (even on Windows).
Not every ASS.NET page breaks in Opera, but nearly every page that does break in Opera is built with ASS.NET. (On a side note, Silverblight won’t work at all, but who cares?)
Speaking of this “Silverblight” Ryan speaks about (or “Silverfish”, or “Silver Lie”), watch what Microsoft is doing to GNU/Linux users who wish to find out about the Vista 7 boot sequence:
This is a classic, I surfed over to Agency Spy to read his post about the new Windows 7 boot sequence, thinking hey if it’s really fast or really good, maybe I’ll switch from Ubuntu. So visiting the site, the embedded video wasn’t able to run on Ubuntu Linux, and the reason, it’s done only in Silverlight.
Read yesterday’s report from Richard Rasker about Moonlight (appended beneath). It may as well be added that Vista 7 nukes GNU/Linux out of the MBR when it is installed. Technical sabotage carries on. █
“This is WAR, and in that regard, I believe we should design Janus such that if this multiboot partition (has a unique partition number (11)) is found, we should warn the user a foreign OS has been detected, give them a chance to exit and read the docs and possibly make a backup, and then repartition the disk, removing the multiboot partition. This way, we disable OS/2 2.0 in *all* cases.”
–Microsoft internal mail
From: Richard Rasker <spamtrap@linetec.nl>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Microsoft crapware: “If it works, we’ll fix it”
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 21:28:39 +0200
OK, so I set up Moonlight support for some of my users who complained that they couldn’t watch videos on their favourite sites — sites that have been stupid enough to swallow Microsoft’s Silverlight lure. And OK, the picture was crappy and choppy, nevertheless with a huge CPU load, but it kinda worked. People could watch Microsoft Silverlight goodness, hooray.
And out of curiosity (and to be able to answer user questions), I installed it myself as well.
Sure enough, in true Microsoft style, an endless stream of updates began almost from the beginning. Up to twice a week, starting Firefox was delayed because crappy Moonlight needed yet another update — sometimes with Microsoft license agreements, sometimes without. The actual updates didn’t appear to do anything — the picture remained crappy, and the CPU load remained high when playing video. I never watch Silverlight content anyway, so I didn’t actually care. But I did feel sorry for my users.
Now guess what happened today: half a dozen e-mail complaints from users, complaining that Moonlight doesn’t work any more. When I started Firefox this afternoon, I already noticed that Microsoft indeed had yet another update-plus-codec-pack-plus-license for Moonlight, and as usual, I simply let it install. And indeed, Moonlight now is well and truly b0rk3d — the time counter is running, but there’s only the Moonlight logo, and no sound. Even after trying to fix it for well over an hour, removing everything to do with moonlight and reinstalling it, it still doesn’t work.
Well done, Microsoft, for once again confirming my views with regard to your competence, the quality of your software, and making me waste my time. Then again, I already wasted hundreds or perhaps even thousands of hours on your crap, so this hardly counts.
For the time being, I told my users that they’re out of luck, and that they may send their complaints to those idiot Web sites who decided to go with Microsoft crapware. Sure, it’ll get fixed within a few months or so. Until the umpteenth new update breaks it again, of course.
Richard Rasker
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Posted in Australia, Google, Marketing, Microsoft, Security, Vista 7, Windows at 6:51 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The scale of click fraud from Windows zombies reaches an all-time high
WE previously showed that almost half of all Windows PCs are compromised, costing the economy trillions of dollars. Another potentially-new component of this cost emerges with a release of the following figures:
Botnets accounted for 42.6 percent of all click fraud in Q3 2009, more than doubling in the past two years and up from the 27.5 percent reported for the same quarter last year.
More in The Register:
Botnet click fraud at record high
[...]
Malware-infected computers are increasingly being used to perpetrate click fraud, according to a study released Thursday that found their contribution was the highest since researchers began compiling statistics on the crime.
Suffice to say, these botnets take advantage of Windows flaws and according to other reports, this is increasingly becoming a national issue which goes all the way to the top:
NEVER ONE to let the urgency of a potential cyber war speed up its processes, the EU has decided to deal with a European Commission report on cyber war by holding another inquiry.
If Australian ISPs get their way, Windows PCs may gradually be taken off the Internet. Vista 7 has not resolved anything in that regard, despite deceptive advertising in Australia. █
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Posted in Deception, Finance, GNU/Linux, Marketing, Microsoft, Vista 7, Windows at 6:21 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Evidence from across the Web showing that Vista 7 did not have the impact Microsoft wished for
MICROSOFT is not having a good week, despite all the excessive hype which even Novell helps in creating. Yesterday we wrote about Microsoft’s bad financial results [1, 2] and our reader David Gerard writes: “I see they managed to fiddle the numbers again this quarter, having set appropriately low analysts’ expectations.” Other possibilities exist [1, 2].
What not many people have realised is that Vista 7′s launched failed to make an impact. It’s almost as though something went terribly wrong because in previous launches of new versions of Windows there was a lot of fanfare and even AstroTurfing. IDG has remarked on Vista 7′s launch parties as follows:
Are you just waking up and nursing a hangover after hosting one of those wild Windows 7 launch parties? No? Well, you at least attended one, right? Invited to one but had a scheduling conflict??
Let’s face it, the Windows 7 launch party concept was a complete and utter failure. The YouTube video Microsoft created to market the launch party concept certainly got attention, but for all the wrong reasons. It was almost universally mocked and parodied. Just look at the endless list of ‘Related Videos’ making fun of the launch party promotion.
One reader commented in the PC World forums to lament his attempts at hosting a launch party. After receiving only one response, which wasn’t even the official RSVP, the reader examined the RSVP in more detail and found “it looked like the whole TON of apparently life-sucking legalese I had to agree to in order to HOST a party. With even GUESTS having to agree to everything short of giving up their BIRTHRIGHTS to Microsoft and its subsidiaries, heirs, etc., how is ANYBODY supposed to actually get people to do the “official RSVP?!?”
And on it goes.
Mary Jo Foley, one of Microsoft’s biggest fans out there, got distracted (meaning she did not just put forth Vista 7 PR) by Microsoft’s poor performance, especially where the cash cows — namely Windows and Office — are concerned. She wrote:
A day after Microsoft launched Windows 7, its first quarter 2010 results are in. And both Windows and Office — Microsoft’s biggest cash cows — took a hit.
For the quarter, which ended on September 30, Microsoft’s net income was down 18 percent, to $3.57 billion, and revenues down 14 percent, to $12.92 billion — both compared to the first quarter earnings for fiscal 2009.
Because Microsoft beat analysts’ expectations for earnings-per-share and Microsoft has continued to prove it can cut costs, the company’s stock price was up this morning. And because of strong pre-orders for Windows 7 (which didn’t go on sale at retail until October 22, which is during Microsoft’s next quarter), Microsoft’s press release is highlighting “the strong consumer demand for Windows,” even though the Windows division’s revenues were down to $3.98 $2.62 billion from $4.28 billion from the comparable quarter a year ago.
Microsoft said the first quarter of 2010 was the biggest quarter for Windows sales ever. But the numbers aren’t reflecting that fact…
Spin and lies, smoke and mirrors. Only a week ago we gave a new example of this.
Pseudonym George Orwell wrote:
From: George Orwell <nobody@mixmaster.it>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Vista 7 launch an utter failure!
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 2009 23:10:31 +0200 (CEST)
Despite positive spinning by Microsoft the Vista 7 launch turned into one utter failure. The ‘Windows 7 Launch Parties’ were almost universally mocked and ridiculed by the press and the general public. The so-called ‘Windows 7 Is The Best Sold Windows Ever’ campaign turned out to be nothing more than channel-pushing, worse even than when Vista was launched, with retailers being prodded by huge discounts, which will disappear after launch. NO ONE is actually buying Vista 7. Sure,
some clueless sod may buy some computer where the shit is pre-installed but that’s about it. PC sales are NOT going to take off because Microsoft updates a few icons in Vista, smacked a new label on it and bribed a few journalist to write about it being a ‘huge improvement’ compared to its predecessor. Businesses aren’t even contemplating upgrading their PC hardware and consumers are more concerned with keeping their jobs and being able to pay their mortgages.
The only real growth, especially in this recession, lies in dirt-cheap netbooks and Smartbooks, which is where M$ will meet its Nemesis: Chrome OS (Linux) on ARM.
Regarding the relative silence from Microsoft trolls in USENET, ‘Homer’ wrote:
From: Homer <usenet@slated.org>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: The Silence of the Shills
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 12:51:28 +0100
Even Microsoft’s army of Munchkins are silent at the unleashing of Vista 7. Compare the silence to the noise the shills made here in COLA, at the launch of Vista. It was like a zoo during mating season.
So what went wrong?
Apart from the fact Vista 7 is just a rebadged Vista, and so there’s not really anything to announce, much less celebrate, Microsoft are probably keen to avoid looking like idiots, like they did last time, by screaming like a bunch of chimps about something that turned out to be nothing but an embarrassment.
And of course, with their Windows revenue rapidly going down the toilet, their budget probably wouldn’t cover the necessary “marketing expenses”, i.e. fake grassroots astroturfing and bribery, anyway.
I look forward to watching the Vole bleed to death, over the next couple of years. Let’s hope it’s all over faster than the SCO fiasco.
In response, writes another person:
Someone in this NG [newsgroup] correctly noted that M$ spends $500 million on marketing and advertising Vista 7, yet maybe twice that amount was spend developing it. That shows where their priorities lie: they see the trick of selling software as marketing it ocrrectly and making the right noises (or bribing people to make the right noises for them).
Anyway, the Vista 7 launch was very anti-climactic and wasn’t even covered on the news. It’s a non-event. I did my part trashing the Windows 7 launch by spreading rumours and FUD about it. My ‘Windows 7, I Hate It Already!’ campaign was very successful and was picked up by ZDNet.
Windows 7, I HATE IT ALREADY!
Matt wrote about Microsoft’s bad results and produced hard evidence as follows.
From: Matt <matt@themattfella.xxxyyz.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: 3rd quarter: 2009 vs 2008: PC unit sales up 1%; Windows revenue down 39%
Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2009 09:39:09 -0500
Comparison of the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2009 to the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2008.
Note: Operating Income is the difference between operating revenues and operating expenses, roughly: earnings before interest and taxes.
Windows and Windows Live Division
=================================
Revenue: (2.620-4.278)/4.278 = -38.76%
Operating Income: (1.463-3.059)/3.059 = -52.17%
Microsoft Business Division (which produces MS Office)
======================================================
Revenue: (4.404-4.954)/4.954 = -11.10%
Operating Income: (2.863-3.185)/3.185 = -10.10%
Entertainment and Devices Division
==================================
Revenue almost unchanged.
Operating income almost doubled.
References:
http://www.microsoft.com/msft/earnings/fy10/earn_rel_q1_10.mspx
> Microsoft Reports First-Quarter Results
> REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 23, 2009 — Microsoft Corp. today announced revenue
> These financial results reflect the deferral of $1.47 billion of revenue, an impact of $0.12 of diluted earnings per share, relating to the Windows 7 Upgrade Option program and sales of Windows 7 to OEMs and retailers before general availability.
http://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp;sessionId=LPAERBQQTNW3YCQJAFICFGAKBEAUMIWD?containerId=prUS22040709
> PC Shipments Rise 2.3% … According to IDC
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1207613
> Gartner Says Worldwide PC Shipments Returned to Growth in Third Quarter of 2009
> STAMFORD, Conn., October 14, 2009 — The PC industry performed better than expected as worldwide PC
shipments totalled 80.9 million units in the third quarter of 2009, a
0.5 per cent increase from the third quarter of 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_income
Cf.
Second quarter 2009: Windows revenue fell 29% while PC shipments fell
only 5%
http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/693b13a999a71648
Looking at the news, we find that GNU/Linux already capitalises on Microsoft’s losses. See for instance (from yesterday):
i. Collaboration suite from IBM, Canonical targets potential Windows 7 customers
ii. Windows 7 v Ubuntu 9.10: an illustrated guide
Enterprise IT managers, frustrated for the last three years by Windows Vista, have recently begun to move Linux from its traditional home in the datacentre out to user desktops. However, it’s still very much a minority option and Linux’s progress could be halted in its tracks by the release of Windows 7, which is widely seen as the logical upgrade for those still running XP.
Whether or not Windows 7 will actually put paid to Linux on the desktop remains to be seen. But to give you flavour of how the two platforms measure up, we’ve compiled a brief illustrated guide, comparing key business features as implemented in Windows 7 and the latest version of the world’s favourite Linux distro — Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala.
iii. Harry Tuxxer and the Curse of Windows 7
Harry stretched his legs at his workstation under the stairs. He had been there for the entire night debugging the latest iteration of Ubuntu Owl mail. It was vital that he delivered a message to the old wizard Stallmandore. The forces of darkness felt closer than ever and Harry’s scar throbbed as it always did when proprietary software vendors were close by.
On problems with the “hype machine” we have:
i. Microsoft promotes Windows 7 with a bunch of giant Whoppers
Now some Asian dude is going to drop dead from eating enough cholesterol to kill anything that’s ever lived.
ii. Elgan: Is Windows 7 cursed?
The Today Show, which averages some 5 million viewers, hosted Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to officially launch the Windows 7 operating system. But what possessed the Today Show art department to show Windows 7 on an older MacBook Pro behind Ballmer?
Microsoft can hardly blame the Today people. The company did the same thing in one of its own ads. The laptop used in a TV commercial for Microsoft’s Songsmith is a MacBook. Microsoft put stickers all over the Mac, including one strategically placed over the Apple logo, to hide the fact. Are Windows laptops really that hard to find?
iii. Five Ways Windows 7 Could Become another Vista
Windows 7 is finally here. The sun can shine and the birds can chirp. Ding dong, Windows Vista is dead! Perhaps that is a bit premature. Windows 7 hasn’t been officially released for 24 hours yet, so its understandable if the jury is still deliberating. There are certainly those who think Windows 7 is nothing more than Windows Vista with an extra bell or whistle thrown in for eye candy.
iv. Windows 7… So what?
Windows 7 does reduce the ‘fat’. It requires less memory and made minor improvements to the ’snappyness’ of the Operating System.
However, these comparisons are against Vista, the PIG. Any improvements, can be regarded as an improvement, no matter how small, because Vista was really that bad. (Sure after a year or two and SP2 Vista was stable and usable). But, if you compare Windows 7 to XP, Windows 7 is still a PIG. It still consumes triple the RAM, Disk and CPU power, not to mention Graphics memory.
One of our readers, ‘Goblin’, wrote about unrealistic projections and also commented on Microsoft’s results.
Oops Microsoft did it again!
Whilst our MS Faithful are praising the greatness of Vista 7 and the fact that they can get Vista users upgrading their OS to what Vista should have been in the first place, in the back of their minds must be the news that yet again Microsoft’s profits are down.
There are many more examples out there. It is too easy to be left with the impression that Vista 7 failed to make the desired impact when it launched, only to be further extinguished the following day by a huge reported drop in Windows revenue. It is about margins, not the number of sales; GNU/Linux forces Microsoft to reduce its margins and thus compromise profitability. █
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Posted in Deception, Marketing, Microsoft, Novell, Vista, Vista 7, Windows at 5:44 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Novell parrots Microsoft-sponsored cheerleading of Vista 7
NOVELL does not care about the reality behind Vista 7. It fails to understand or recognise Vista-like hype (as per January 2007) and to make matters worse, Novell promotes Windows Vista [1, 2] and now Vista 7. The argument is posted by a PR participant (senior solutions manager) and it is ludicrous. In attempts to advance Novell itself, it says:
Today, Microsoft unveils Windows 7, which promises to be one of the industry’s biggest product launches. Analysts forecast that Windows 7 will show significant adoption over the next few years. For example, IDC is forecasting that 177 million units of Windows 7 will ship by the end of 2010.
IDC said the same thing about Windows Vista when Microsoft contracted them to say this. Where is Novell living and why is it perpetuating such paid-for myths? Even Microsoft’s CEO recently contradicted this. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Linspire, Novell, OpenSUSE, Red Hat, SLES/SLED, Xandros at 5:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Really bizarre Novell Web page (real screenshot)
Summary: News about OpenSUSE, SLE*, and a little update from Linspire
OpenSUSE
TWO weeks ago we saw the formation of the OpenSUSE Boosting Team. They sure have a good sense of humour:
[...]
Busily,
The Propaganda Minister
Looking at coming events, Zonker will attend the Linux Fest in Ontario, Canada. OpenSUSE will also have presence at Encuentro Linux 2009.
Yes, I am going to Encuentro Linux 2009, and so does openSUSE!.
OpenSUSE 11.2 is almost ready to roll now and it will come with the excellent KDE 4.3.2 as the default desktop environment.
The 4.3.2 release of KDE came too late to be included in openSUSE 11.2. As the distribution release gets closer, there is a certain point after which only reviewed changes should be allowed in, in order to reduce the possibility of these changes causing unexpected breakages that might go unnoticed within the relatively short time until the release. This can happen and it wouldn’t be very good to fix something small and break something bigger for the release because of some unnoticed mistake. So openSUSE 11.2 will not officially include KDE 4.3.2.
To say more about the looming launch:
There is a lot of buzz in the tech media world about the upcoming Ubuntu Karmic Koala release, but it’s not the only Linux release on its way from a major vendor. Novell’s (NASDAQ: NOVL) community-driven openSUSE project is nearing completion of its next major release, version 11.2
The first release candidate for openSUSE 11.2 was released this week and includes the latest Linux 2.6.31.3 kernel, social networking support and the inclusion of the GNOME 2.28 desktop, among other new features. While both the latest GNOME and KDE desktops are part of the openSUSE 11.2 release, the KDE desktop will now become the default choice for desktop GUI instead of GNOME. The move to make KDE the default choice is not seen by openSUSE as a shift, but rather a choice for users.
On the technical side, Andreas Jaeger weighed in on packaging contributions and Pascal wrote about OpenSUSE Build Service.
We are currently switching from OBS (openSUSE Build Service) version 1.6.0 to the latest SVN trunk HEAD, which requires some experimentation and also caused a complete rebuild (for unknown reasons).
Here is an analysis of how free (as in Freedom) OpenSUSE Build Service really is.
Aaron Seigo, one of my favourite blogger, recently wrote a text titled freedom services where he highlighted aspects of freedom of online services. Aaron found four bullet points which need to be fulfilled to form a free service. I was thinking about how good the openSUSE Buildservice is in this regard. The Buildservice might not be a ‘classical’ online service yet, but who knows how things develop and where and how the OBS gets integrated. There are plenty of ideas around in that direction.
Scott Morris from SUSE Rants writes about “When 1-Click Install Bites the Dust.”
In OpenSUSE Linux, we have a wonderful thing called One-Click Install. This is a marvelous thing for new users. I love it to death, and care for it as I would my own child. Almost everyone knows that this is very cool except for maybe Christer, as he is not a believer (nuttin but love bro, loved your presentation @ UTOSC). That said, what happens when it stops working or gets broken?
AutoYaST is already here and when it comes to RPM, a Novell employee writes about “interoperability efforts” (more of a Microsoft-esque term, typically used when standards are neglected).
Bubli said that it might be a good idea to write an article of a very basic step by step instruction for AutoYaST and I had to agree with that. So this is more for people who don’t ask questions like “can I use the ‘ask’ feature for ‘rules’ in AutoYaST?” 
Repository branching takes place ahead of the official arrival of OpenSUSE 11.2:
As you might know, Contrib is a universal repository for third-party packages. Branching of this repository to openSUSE:11.2:Contrib is going to happen on October, 30, so if you want to have your favorite application or tool included in openSUSE:11.2:Contrib, please submit your request as soon as possible.
More packages are being built for OpenSUSE and there is even a Firefox Personas entry for it.
Moving on with this technical side of things, except for some OpenSUSE instructions we have also found some raves, such as a recommendation from SJVN, who loves SLED.
OpenSUSE
OpenSUSE, like Fedora, is also a major distributor’s community Linux. In this case, Novell (http://www.novell.com) is the company behind the distro. Unlike Fedora, however, openSUSE tends to be less bleeding edge and more stable. It also includes software like Mono, which brings .NET programs to Linux, along with other Windows-friendly software. Free-software purists hate this and so tend to avoid Novell and openSUSE. Personally, I have little problem with that, and I like openSUSE a lot. The latest version, openSUSE 11.2, is almost ready to go. I’m not ready to review it quite yet, but I can tell you already that it’s a winner.
Also, if you’re looking for PCs for a business, Novell is the only company that offers a Linux desktop, SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) with all the enterprise support trimmings and Windows domain and AD (Active Directory) compatibility. If I were running a business today, my desktops would probably be running SLED.
OpenSUSE is also mentioned in this roundup of distributions that will soon be released, amongst other similar lists.
- openSuSE 11.2: Due just over a week after Mandriva 2010, on 12 November. Once again, Linux kernel 2.6.31, KDE 4.3 and Gnome 2.28, and a variety of other new packages. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like openSuSE has made some huge strides forward in usability, flexibility, reliability and even cosmetics over the past couple of releases, and this one looks like it will be no exception. I’ve had it loaded on various of my systems since about Milestone 3, and it has been interesting to watch how the diversity of systems on which it installs and runs easily has improved.
Here is the latest OpenSUSE Weekly News, as well as a reminder and announcement of a translation tool for it.
SUSE (SLES/SLED)
Last week we wrote about SUSE support in new Compaq/HP computers and there is still some coverage of that.
This week we have Teradata, which came out with the following press release that includes:
Teradata Express Cloud Offerings
The two new Teradata Express cloud offerings are built on Teradata Express, which is a free, non-production version of Teradata Database software intended for developers and evaluation scenarios. The cloud versions of Teradata Express support up to one terabyte of data and are powered by Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.
Here is some news coverage of the SUSE part:
Teradata will add cloud versions of Teradata Express to support up to 1TB of data and powered by Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10.
SP3 of SLE* 10 is still being mentioned in some Web sites:
Novell announced the availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 3, offering customers the latest fixes, patches and updates issued for the SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 platform, as well as support for the latest hardware.
As a minor last note about Linspire, the fight against Michael Robertson carries on as he loses his case [1, 2]. And in other Robertson news, the media industry wants to sue personally. Tough times for him. His Linspire identity got lost inside Xandros. █
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