AS OpenSUSE 11.0 is reaching its end of life (already!) and downgrades are discussed in another context, one must wonder, just how much damage did the patent deal with Microsoft cause SUSE? The patent deal was signed in November 2006. Since then there has been a rapid decline in terms of the number of people who search for "suse" in Google and now that Novell is up for sale interest in SUSE is decreasing also based on anecdotal evidence. Watch this new article:
Ubuntu Server makes gains at SUSE Linux' expense
Red Hat Enterprise Linux is still the most widely used open source server operating system in data centers, but Ubuntu Server adoption is on the rise, and it could come at the expense of SUSE Linux.
John Locke, the manager of the open source technology consultancy Freelock Computing in Seattle, said he’s witnessed an increase in production-level use of Ubuntu and less interest in SUSE.