Bonum Certa Men Certa

SUSE Replaced by Ubuntu for eSys Machines, Apparently

re€·placed (\ri-ˈplās-d): gentle word for "dumped"

The word about Tesco stocking Linux PCs reached people's attention just a few days ago. Here is one of the latest short articles about it.

Tesco is the world's third largest grocery retailer, and also sells everything from clothes to electrical equipment.


They use a long-term support (LTS) version of Ubuntu Linux. As more details emerge (this is very new to the public), it turns out that eSys is behind this. And at eSys, you see, SUSE was used for quite a while. Has Ubuntu replaced SUSE? Ubuntu's latest newsletter seems to confirm the choice of Ubuntu.

eSys Intel Celeron PC Base Unit

Priced at 139.93 pounds, yet another PC manufacturer is offering pre-installed Ubuntu Linux computers to the public. This machine is loaded with Ubuntu version 6.06 but with the release of Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 and the growing numbers of pre-intalled Ubuntu systems hitting the market on what seems like a monthly basis, Ubuntu stands poised to make steady progress in the desktop market share.


eSys used to sell their boxes with Mandrake 9.2, then SUSE OS (that's what they called SuSE 9.3). How do I know? Because I received 2 eSys boxes. The first came with Mandrake and the second came with SUSE, which I loved at the time, even just because I had already used is elsewhere (at work). Mind the fact that all happened was before the Microsoft deal. It was also a time when I actually advocated Novell and SUSE (see proof).

The following new article was written to say that Ubuntu is a threat to Novell, which it is. It's actually a threat to a number of other Linux distributors as well, including Mandriva.

Evidently Novell should be afraid – very afraid – because Canonical with its Ubuntu distribution, Dell's little playmate, the Linux Dell's pre-loading on a few of its PCs, clearly has designs on Novell's place in line behind Red Hat, the Linux leader.


Whatever enables Linux to gain critical mass without any patent nonesense will be great. If Ubuntu is the hot distribution at the moment, then so be it. There's no reason to fear Linux monopoly because the rules of the game make this unlikely. Just as Ubuntu forked Debian and stole some of its thunder, another motivated party could pull the rug from under Canonical's feet by forking.

On the one hand, one finds that, as in the case of the Linux kernel, it required a hefty investment to fork. With exclusionary patent deals, on the other hand, that investment barrier rises significantly. If there was ever danger of a damaging Linux monopoly, it was Novell.

Novell loves the monopoly

Recent Techrights' Posts

The 'Culture Wars' in Free Software Have Gone Out of Control
Social control media amplifies such utterly infantile discourse
10 Out of 10: RMS Attracts Massive Audience in Göteborg, Sweden (All Seats Occupied, Some People Standing)
a 55-second clip of his talk
The Lawsuit by Clients of Brett Wilson LLP Against Brett Wilson LLP is Officially On, It is Progressing, The 'Experts' Pick Outside Law Firms (RPC and Mills & Reeve) to Spare Them From Litigants in Person
So it is probably quite potent
Slopwatch: Plagiarism and "Linux" Articles by Bots
Sites that do this won't survive; many of them rely on slop services (suppliers) that will cease to exist after the bubble bursts
 
Links 11/10/2025: China-US Tensions Grow Again, "Hey Hi" More Widely Recognised as Bubble Made of Capital That Doesn't Exist
Links for the day
Now Confirmed in Western Media: Microsoft Azure Layoffs This Month
Affirmed by more sources moments ago
Peter O'Callaghan QC represented grandparents, Westernport Hotel, at Liquor Royal Commission
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Either The Register MS Divests From FOSS Coverage or Liam Proven is on Long Holiday
Publishers perish when their audience loses trust in them
Microsoft Cancelling Another Datacentre is a Sign of Financial Trouble and Lack of Growth
The debt continues to grow
Gemini Links 11/10/2025: An Evening at the Fair and Fast Fourier Friday
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 10, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 10, 2025
Geminispace is Very Large
The word continues to spread and the number of participants grows
Teaser: To Compensate for the Fact Our Clients Are Terrible Human Beings Who Strangle Women (While on Microsoft's Payroll) and We Get Paid by Mystery Parties We Bombard You and Your Wife With Almost 10 Kilograms of Legal Papers
If you can't win an argument, then drown the other side with papers?
Another Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, This Time During National Day Holiday
This time it's China again
Staying Happy in Times of Crackdowns on Civil Society
Optimism in this sort of "new reality" or "new normal" seems like something for the irrational person
"Nobel" Exploited Posthumously for "AI" Hype, Now They Do the Same With "Quantum"
ere have been many jokes about "Nobel" for peace (often granted to pro-war people) and a fake one for "Economics" (establishment propaganda)
Distinguished Lecture by Richard Stallman This Coming Monday in Rome
After "Free software, Crucial for Freedom in a Digital World"
Links 10/10/2025: Putin Admits Russia Downed Azerbaijan Airlines Jet, More New Heat Records
Links for the day
Noteworthy Claim That IBM is Firing a Lot of Lawyers This Week (RAs in the Legal Department)
A lot of what they do is patent 'trolling' or lawyering up against their own staff (e.g. HR disputes)
Links 10/10/2025: US Judge Bars Attacks by ICE On Journalists and Protesters; “We Took The Freedom of Speech Away” Says the President
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Serial Sloppers, Google News Gifting Slopfarms, and Fake News/Plagiarism About "Linux"
Google itself is a slop pusher these days
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day