Bonum Certa Men Certa

Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part II: Keeping Track of Microsoft-taxed GNU/Linux Distributions

Crossing over from OpenSUSE to SUSE, consider the following newly-published Master’s thesis which studies the relationship between the two.

This is the page for my master thesis at the University of Oslo. The thesis carries the title: Managing Firm-Sponsored Open Source Communities

- A Case Study on Novell and The openSUSE Project




Over at Nat Friedman's site, there's a call for job candidates, specifically for SUSE.

One of my most fun responsibilities at Novell is running the SUSE Incubation Team: a small team of developers focused on innovation, prototyping, and exploratory hacking. Our charter is to come up with disruptive ideas that take Novell's Linux business in exciting new directions.


Here are some new photos of Novell at Linuxtag 2008.

SUSE (SLES/SLED)



Jacqueline Emigh at Beta News is once again covering Novell, typically based on the company's press releases.

Novell is now in beta with a subscription management tool for SuSE Linux Enterprise, aimed at helping users of Novell's Linux operating environment to manage their software updates.

In an interview with BetaNews, Michael Applebaum, a senior product marketing manager, described the new tool as a package proxy system designed to accommodate customers' regulatory compliance requirements and corporate firewall policies during the software update process.


SLES/SLED 10 Service Pack II



We mentioned it last week on a couple of occasions, but we didn't refer to Steven's new review of it (with the exception of individual comments that we challenged).

In Novell's new SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP2, announced yesterday, you'll find only small, but useful, improvements, most of them for better interoperability with Microsoft protocols and formats.


As always, Timothy Prickett Morgan joins the previous week's news a little later, but with a unique and detailed article.

Novell Delivers Service Pack 2 for SUSE Linux



[...]

Commercial Linux distributor Novell got Service Pack 2 for its SUSE Linux variant of the popular open source operating system out the door just before the holiday and just as rival Red Hat launched its own 5.2 release of its Enterprise Linux distribution. Once again, Novell is pushing the envelope, offering more scalability for servers and a more recent update of the Xen hypervisor compared to the RHEL alternative.


SUSE-based MSI Laptop



This little laptop received quite a bit of coverage. Here it is from PC Advisor.

The US edition of Wind will be available in two versions: one running Microsoft's Windows XP and one using Novell's SUSE Linux OS.

A few things set Wind apart from competitors, which is going head to head with the latest version of the Asus Eee PC, including the 1.6GHz Atom microprocessor, a larger 10in screen and a six-cell battery that gives it around six hours of power.


TCMagazine too was quick to make a comparison to Asustek's Eee PC.

With the Wind laptop MSI is preparing quite a bold offensive against the Eee PC but taking on Asus' (cvasi) low-cost offer will not be an easy task. Still, MSI's laptop has sparked a lot of interest and reason is certainly the reasonably low price tag.


The MSI notebook also attracted the attention of Microsoft Jack.

Xandros



The only appearance Xandros made in the past week was tied to that derivative from Asustek (eBox and Eee in this case). It would be interesting if Xandros was unable to flourish for its own products, rather than something that's borrowed and tweaked by distant partners from Asia.

Linspire



Nothing. Nada. Not a press release and barely even a distribution review.

Turbolinux



Not a word in ages.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Search @ Techrights: Almost There Now (Maybe an Anniversary Gift)
Just to be very clear, search would not be unprecedented at Techrights
The Rumour Was True, Mass Layoffs at IBM Today
How widespread the layoffs are (or how they're disguised, e.g. PIPs) is hard to assess
 
Holding Institutions Such as the EPO Accountable Through Public Information
Speaking truth to power is never easy
Techrights Will Contact German Media About the EPO's Substance Abuse
This scandal won't "go to waste"
EPO Staff Losing Holidays, as Usual, as the Office Increases Profits by Illegally Granting Invalid Patents While Reducing Salaries
How much more can the staff endure and generally tolerate?
Free Software Does Not Always Speak for Itself, It Needs Advocates
Legal matters that relate to sharing of code will be discussed
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, November 03, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, November 03, 2025
The Register MS Continues Looking for Money in Promotion of the "AI" Ponzi Scheme
That The Register MS participates in this deceit rather than tackle/debunk it says a lot about The Register MS
IBM Layoffs in "Software", This Likely Impacts Red Hat as Well
Many people say "software" people are impacted
Escaping Proprietary Software, Not Just Escaping Microsoft
To take control of your life adopt GNU/Linux
A Lot of Fake News About Microsoft Headcount (Also: Microsoft's Debt Rose by About 24 Billion Dollars in Past 12 Months)
If you see some headline about Microsoft's CEO making claims about hirings, look away
Techrights Turns 19 in Three Days
It would be nice to meet for a chat
Akira Urushibata on How Grokipedia Fails to Work
The Grokipedia article gives the wrong character for the "Ko" on "Koan"
Links 03/11/2025: Data Breaches, Wars, and Digital Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Poetry, Old Androids and Small Shells
Links for the day
Links 03/11/2025: Internet Anniversary
Links for the day
Two Years of Uptime
Reboots are seldom involuntary
Richard Stallman is Giving Another Talk in Less Than a Fortnight
in two weeks' time (13 days from now)
Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
Many people choose to leave Windows altogether
Microsoft's Search Business Falls to Lowest Point in 2 Years, Based on statCounter
what can Microsoft sell other than shares in Microsoft?
Evidence Regarding Layoffs at Red Hat
Seems like IBM layoffs
Microsoft: Our "Goodwill" Value Grew More Than Tenfold Since 2011
Hallmark of pseudo-economics
GNU/Linux as a Boarding Pass
being mostly analogue is still feasible
Links 03/11/2025: Lack of Trust in LLMs and Windows TCO at Jaguar
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/11/2025: Books in October and Change
Links for the day
Mozilla Firefox Won't Survive and Many Sites Don't Work With It (Compatibility Abandoned)
The Web has become monocultural
Debian is Non-Free
Devuan might be worth looking into
Slopwatch: Brian Fagioli and LinuxSecurity
This is a real problem and most certainly a big problem because when people try to find real information about security and GNU/Linux they instead read "word salads" made by bots
Four Reasons to Party With Us in Four Days, Celebrating the Four Freedoms
Today we expect to be back to a more-or-less regular publication pace
Links 03/11/2025: The "Smartphone Panopticon" and Belarus' Hybrid Attacks on EU Intensify
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, November 02, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, November 02, 2025
Microsoft's Debt Has Skyrocketed by More Than 15 Billion Dollars in 6 Months or 8.2 Billion Dollars in the Past 3 Months Alone
The corporate media intentionally disregards - or merely turns a blind eye to - such data
Rumour: IBM Layoffs in Canada Starting Tomorrow
"RA (IBM's term for layoffs) Coming to Canada this week (Nov 3rd)"
Debunking False/Misleading Statements Made or Told to the High Court
People who try to cheat the system by gaslighting judges will end up discrediting themselves
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD) by LLM Slop
The Web has become such a sordid mess that this FUD made by bots is what Google News deems to be "the news"
This Month's Analytics Show Vista 11 Down, GNU/Linux Up
After pulling the plug on Vista 10 we see losses - not gains - for Vista 11
Almost Fully Caught Up
The EPO series will continue very soon, maybe tomorrow or on Tuesday
Links 02/11/2025: Another Halloween Bust and MAGA Regime Says Public Universities Should No Longer Hire 'Foreign' Employees
Links for the day
The Long-Coveted Milestone of 3,200 Active Gemini Capsules
Despite being away some days last week, about 50,000 Gemini requests were served each day, on average
Five More Days Till Techrights Party
We'll have many more batches of Daily Links as we catch up with a 'backlog' of news
Links 02/11/2025: More Nuclear Escalations and "Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2025: "The Pragmatic Programmer", Perl New Features and Foostats
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 01, 2025