Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell Too Busy (With Proprietary Software) to Promote OpenSUSE



Summary: Novell continues to show that it doesn't care about OpenSUSE; instead, it's focused on marketing Fog Computing, proprietary software, and the Microsoft-taxed SLES

EARLIER this week we noted that Novell had put Banshee (patent liability) inside OpenSUSE 11.3 and gave this release so little attention that it deserves to lose possession of OpenSUSE and its volunteer workforce. We have spent a few hours going through Novell news and Novell sites, but all we found from Novell is this lousy press release from last Thursday (July 15th, 2010). That's all the promotion Novell appears to have done for OpenSUSE. Typical.



Looking at some news sites, none of the major ones covered this release, but some medium-sized ones did [1, 2] and so did blogs, e.g. [1, 2], or something in between [1, 2, 3, 4]. Some sites posted pictures and shared advice (e.g. [1, 2]), but there was nothing in Novell's PR blog about the release of OpenSUSE 11.3. Instead, Novell chose to cover Fog Computing/virtualisation [1, 2], which led to articles around this particular theme.

Liquor group Pernod Ricard Australia has emerged as one of the early local pioneers for Novell’s Cloud Manager, currently available in beta form, prior to the product’s formal launch slated for September.


The posts from Novell's PR blog simply beg for the characterisation of Novell as a Fog Computing company [1, 2] and also in the press (more mainstream press) people may get the impression that Novell is still a purely proprietary software company. The company's staff is quoted on these matters, sometimes in the context of security [1, 2], though not in the SUSE/Linux sense.

“The PR blog sticks to Gartner boosting, quite frankly as usual.”Novell's PR blog continues to cover proprietary software like identity management, which was covered/publicised in Forbes. The PR blog sticks to Gartner boosting, quite frankly as usual.

GroupWise 8 Service Pack 2 is released, but there are many flaws in this piece of proprietary software [1, 2, 3] and others.

The point to get across here is that Novell did nothing to promote OpenSUSE, except that one press release. When it comes to SLE*, Novell is poaching Sun customers and SLES (not OpenSUSE) was mentioned in relation to IBM's proprietary offerings -- ones that may relate to those "Cloud Competence" announcements from IBM (also here):

IBM is working with a range of business partners across cloud management, security, software development and testing support. As a result, IBM can offer clients flexibility, scalability, enterprise-grade security and control for development and test on the IBM Cloud. By co-operating with Novell for example, IBM has SUSE Linux enterprise components available and can offer its enterprise customers a full range of Novell capabilities for smart development and workload testing services.


Novell helps IBM with Fog Computing in Ehningen, Germany and it also promotes Fog Computing in China by helping to create a "Cloud Computing Laboratory".

This is not about Free software at all. SUSE is in fact not free either and it carries with it a Microsoft patent tax. Who would choose to train for SLES rather than RHEL, for example? Some people might. From the news:

The Novell Certified Linux Engineer (CLE) 11 practicum exam is now available. This hands on assessment, which costs $195, is based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 and can be taken by individuals who currently hold a Certified Linux Professional (CLP) 10 or 11 credential.


Novell is up for sale and Red Hat's market cap is almost 3 times that of Novell. So why would anyone choose to bet one's future on SUSE? It's a lost cause.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
 
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025