Summary: A glimpse at distributors who pay Microsoft for GNU/Linux

SUSE (SLES/SLED)

FOR SUSE it has been an exceptionally quiet week, but SUSE Studio still generates a bit of a buzz and there are also reviews that are largely positive.

I just built my own Linux distribution through my browser. It can be ran as a Live CD or installed on your system. No, you did read that correctly. I actually used Firefox to build my own SUSE-based distro. Sometimes technology throws curveballs at us that are so unbelievable you’d have to read the statement several times to realize that you aren’t hallucinating. Do you think I’m writing a piece of science fiction? Enter SUSE Studio.

[...]

The Good:

* Amazing potential * A ton of fun

The Bad:

* Builds take a while (that’s to be expected though)

Overall: 5/5 (Outstanding!)

There are other reviews that include more raves like this one. But Novell is behind it.

A Novell employee once told us that, in yesteryear when Novell's marketing team were pushing brands faster than their coders were pushing software, Novell could easily have switched over to being a T-shirt manufacturing company. It seems their love of marketing hasn't died out, because TuxRadar HQ recently accepted delivery of a suspicious box. Upon opening it, we found this:

Inside was a bag containing dozens of different parts, some plastic, others carefully cut foam. Next to that was a card pointing us towards the assembly instructions and, 10 minutes or so later, we were the, er, proud owners of one of these:

Great success! And even more fun than building a distro with SUSE Studio...

Further to last week's news about National Vision, there is this hyping up by Novell's PR people and other SUSE promotion. Unrelated to this, there's fun stuff such as this new video ("Hacking Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server").



Novell's PR department also brings back to life this old success story. Advocacy of SLE* can be found at the usual places and Novell's own site has some too.

Another new video was nicely done and uploaded twice by Novell:



There is apparently no new business for SUSE though, just marketing and old stories.

Xandros

A mini review of Presto was published at IDG and the product was also mentioned in OStatic, which states:

We've written about Splashtop and instant-on compact Linux operating systems before. If you're on a Windows PC or netbook, these can take you directly into a miniature operating system in about 15 seconds that can allow you to have access to IM, Skype, e-mail, the web and more. Presto is a free download you can get that takes you into a Xandros-based environment in seconds.

Some articles about renewed ASUS rumours mentioned Xandros, e.g.:

Asus may have pulled its experimental Google Android-powered netbook from sight after teasing journalists with it at Computex in June. But that doesn’t mean the company is sticking to Windows and Xandros Linux. Sascha at NetbookNews says a reliable source has told him that Asus will launch a netbook with Moblin Linux in October.

There are many similar posts in Russian and all sorts of other languages. There might be other ongoing attempts to put Xandros on small computers. From PC Pro:

Asus will deliver an Eee PC running the Moblin operating system in October, according to reports.

[...]

Though unconfirmed, the rumours aren't too difficult to believe - Asus has long flirted with open source. Its original Eee PC ran a modified version of Xandros and its high-end motherboards are equipped with the Linux-based Splashtop "instant-on" OS. There were also reports it was ready to launch a netbook based on Android, though those have quietly fizzled out.

Moblin uses another variant of Ballnux, namely SUSE. There may as well be hidden patent tax. Also on Xandros (from an unrelated press release):

-- Announced that Synchronoss has partnered with Xandros, the leader in providing seamless Windows-Linux interoperability and open source netbook software solutions. Together, the companies offer the first single-source solution to automate the activation and provisioning of netbook devices on 3G and 4G wireless networks.

Scalix was mentioned in a press release of its own.

Turbolinux

6 years before selling out to Microsoft, Turbolinux pondered an IPO. Here is a reminder of that.

Turbolinux (OSE :3777) Having canceled its IPO in late 2001, Turbolinux eventually found its way to the stock market in September 2005 via an IPO on the Japanese Osaka Securities Exchange. Between those events, the Japanese Linux distributor was owned by Software Research Associates and then Livedoor. Turbolinux’s shares continue to be traded on the Osaka Securities Exchange.

Curiously, there has been no word about Manbo in ages. ⬆