Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part II: GeekoBuilder and Novell's Imaginary Open-Source Apps Store

Chameleon on branch



Summary: News about SUSE

There is nothing significant to see here this time around, but SUSE was mentioned in some places, mostly indirectly. Heise, for example, mentioned SUSE/Novell in this short roundup



Support for Moblin, the Linux distribution designed for mobile devices originally based on the Intel Atom processor, is growing. At Computex this week both Xandros and Novell announced they plan to support the mobile operating system. Canonical have also confirmed plans for an Ubuntu / Moblin remix.


A little more about Novell and sub-notebooks (even if it refers to OpenSUSE):

Intel has enjoyed recent success with the Atom chip, which helped products like the Netbook. The company has partnered with Novell on mobile operating systems, hoping to break into smartphones. Intel microprocessors are not yet in the iPhone (AAPL) or Palm (PALM) Pre, but Intel hopes to win them over in time.


Marketing



This was perhaps the more exceptional part. Novell seems to have decided that for fun and publicity it would be useful to promote the Geeko mascot.

Perhaps you have allergies or maybe you live in a small apartment, and so you’ve lived without the companionship of an animal friend. Well, no matter what your circumstances now you can have your own virtual pet Geeko.


Some OpenSUSE folks present what they got. Here is Gabriel Stein, Zonker and others. There is even a well-made video about this over at YouTube.



TuxMachines mentioned it and Heise did an entire article.

The Novell community has responded to the demand of its users for a personalised SUSE mascot builder by publishing GeekoBuilder.com.


It's mostly a publicity tool/stunt and Novell is mentioned among companies in this page on unethical marketing training/gig. Its PR people are trying to harness social networks too.

That’s right, Novell has a presence on Facebook that gives friends and fans the latest information for SUSE Linux Enterprise, GroupWise and ZENworks as well as Novell in general.


Shop



The big news, aside from GeekoBuilder, is probably the rumour about a Novell-centered applications store. It all seems to have all begun here, along with a lift from Slashdot.

Novell plans to bring the wealth of open-source software to everyday users through an "open-source apps store".

The vast amount of free software available to open-source users has long been one of the major benefits of switching to a Linux distro such as Ubuntu, or openSUSE. The problem has always been in explaining this to customers reared on a Windows diet.


This was also mentioned in The Register:

Novell is considering making a one-click "open-source app store" for its upcoming Moblin-based OS for netbooks. The scheme is intended as a selling point for average users largely unfamiliar with free software alternatives outside a Microsoft platform.

According to PC Pro, Novell believes baking an open-source software repository into the SUSE edition of Moblin will help sway more netbook users to uncheck the Windows option when buying their small, cheap computer.


Matt Asay rightly compares to this RHX.

In fact, we have several. Google Code, SourceForge, Code Haus, and other open-source code repositories already freely provide open-source applications. Beyond this, Red Hat tried to do a one-click installation experience with Red Hat Exchange (RHX) back in 2007. It didn't work as planned.


Another skeptic is his colleague Dave Rosenberg, who writes:

Novell believes that an open-source apps store would make life easier for customers, specifically those interested in Netbooks. This certainly seems logical, but considering that open-source applications tend be licensed in a way that doesn't require an upfront fee, it's hard to see how this represents a business model.


Glyn Moody is also a skeptic because of Synaptic.

Er, haven't we had an "apps store for GNU/Linux" for ages? Things like Synaptic and KPackage? Do we really need anything more?


Novell's PR people tried to clarify the company's intent because this story had spread to all sorts of publications even in Europe.

A reader wrote to us about this, claiming that "SourceForge might be under low-burn attack. Remember the acquisition of one company infested with Microsoft staff? Now Microsoft/Suse is doing a "me, too" on software. MS/Novell's Saturate, diffuse and confuse can be countered with the real information."

Out reader recommends the various Ubuntu, Debian, and Fedora repositories as well as to SourceForge and Savannah:

http://sourceforge.net/ http://packages.debian.org/lenny/ http://packages.ubuntu.com/jaunty/ https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/collections/id/21

Novell/SUSE Miscellany



Some other new articles that mentioned SUSE (or SUSE-based products) are:

i. Germans fire up 200 teraflop Juropa2 super

Another 14 Sun storage servers are running a Lustre clustered file system that currently has 500 TB of capacity. While Sun didn't say this, it is inconceivable that the Juropa2 cluster does not run Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.


ii. Motally to deliver reliable mobile analytics

Motally claims to have solved this problem and others like it by using its own servers to measure mobile traffic. And with talent drawn from Yahoo Mobile, IBM, Novell, Oracle and Helio, it seems to be on the right track.


iii. What's the Future for OpenSolaris?

Having a development platform and a commercial product is in itself not unusual: In the Red Hat world there's the commercially supported Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the unsupported, community developed Fedora, while Novell offers SuSe Linux Enterprise Edition as well as providing support for the OpenSUSE development project.

But these are commercially driven open source OS companies: RHEL and SLES are key parts of Red Hat's and Novell's businesses, respectively. Oracle isn't and will not be a company driven solely by the need to make money from operating systems, so why should it follow the Red Hat/Novell model of using an open source project to feed in to its enterprise OS?


iv. Centralized monitoring of all Novell OES platforms

AdRem Software, Inc., a leading provider of network management and monitoring solutions, introduced a new version of AdRem Server Manager 7 for Novell OES server monitoring and maintenance, both OES Linux and NetWare platforms.


That's about it for now. Not much of significance.

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The Week to Come
Planning ahead
LLM Slop Has Only Been a Boon for Misinformation Online
The very same companies that were supposed to maintain quality (again, not limited to Google with PageRank) are now actively participating in generating and spreading slop
When They Tell You It's Free, Does That Mean No Charges (If So, Who's Paying and Why)?
there's "no free lunch"
 
LWN Has Been Down for a Long Time, Another Casualty of LLM Bots?
Time will tell. How much time though?
Slopfarms Versus 'Linux' (and Against People Who Write Real Articles About GNU/Linux)
LLM slop in slopfarms by Brian Fagioli and Redazione RHC
Gemini Links 28/07/2025: Bila Yarrudhanggalangdhuray and Running pkgsrc in a FreeBSD Jail
Links for the day
Microsoft Turns News Sites Into Spamfarms
Is the site The Register MS the next IDG?
The Register MS/The Register US
On Saturday I contacted them for a comment (before issuing criticism)
Hacking revelations at Vatican Jubilee of Digital Missionaries
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 27, 2025
We're Going to Focus Less on the Molotov Cocktail-Throwing Microsofters and More on Patents
We can get back to focusing on what we wanted to focus on all along
Just Trying to Keep Web Sites Honest (Journalistic Integrity)
the latest articles in LinuxIac are real
Links 27/07/2025: Political Affairs, Data Breaches, Attacks on Freedom of the Press
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: Hot in Japan and Terminal Escape Codes
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: More Microsoft Layoffs Coming, Science and Hardware News
Links for the day
Links 27/07/2025: FSF Hackathon and "Hulk Hogan Was a Very Bad Man"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 27/07/2025: DAW Mixer Chains and Simple Software
Links for the day
The Register MS is Inventing or Giving Air Time to New Conspiracy Theories so as to Distort the Narrative As High-Profile Agencies Fall Prey to Microsoft Holes
But the problem is holes, i.e. Microsoft making bad products; the problem is Microsoft
Most Editors at The Register Are American, Including the Editor in Chief, a Decade-Long Microsoft Stenographer (Writing Prose to Sell Microsoft)
It's not easy to tell where the site is based (we tried) because it's hiding behind ClownFlare and CrimeFlare hasn't been well lately
Pushers of systemd Rewrite History (Richard Stallman Said UNIX "Was Portable and Seemed Fairly Clean")
Unlike systemd
"New Techrights" Soon Turns 2 (A Few Days Before the FSF Turns 40)
We have a lot more to say about LLM bots
When Silence Says So Much
Garrett, a 'secure' boot pusher, will need to defend himself in the UK High Court
The Register in Trouble
There is not much that can be done at this point
Trajectory of The Register: From News Site/s Into "B2B"... and Into Microsoft Salespeople
Something isn't right at The Register
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 26, 2025
Misinformation in Social Control Media
Social control media passes around all sorts of tropes
Slopwatch: Fake Linux 'Articles' and Slopfarms With "Linux" in Their Names/Domains
throwing bots at "Linux" to make some fake articles
Links 26/07/2025: Amazon Shutdown in China, Russian Economy Slows
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: History of Time (1988) and Gemini Games
Links for the day
Links 26/07/2025: 50 Percent Tariffs in Amazon, Dying Intel Offloads Network and Edge Group (NEX)
Links for the day
Doing My Share to Tackle Online Slop and SPAM
Trying my best to 'fix' the Web
Blaming Programming Languages for Users' and Developers' Bad Practices
That's like blaming cars for drivers who crash into things
Slopwatch: Fakes, FUD, Duplicates, and Charlatans Galore
The Web as we once know it is collapsing. Some opportunists try to replace it with low-quality slop.
The Register UK Seems to Have Become American and Management is Changing (Microsofter as Editor in Chief)
The Register 'UK' is now controlled by the Directions on Microsoft guy
Many People Still Read Techrights Because It Says the Truth, Produces Evidence, and Does Not Self-Censor
Unlike so many other sites
The Register is Desperate for Money, According to The Register
I decided to check how they're doing as a business
Microsoft Finally Finds a Use Case for Slop?
Create low-quality chaff to shift the media's attention?
Microsoft Windows Lost 400 Million Users in a Few Years, Why Does The Register Double Down on Windows With New US Editor?
days ago they hired a new US editor
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 25, 2025
For Libel Reform One Must First Bring (or Raise) Awareness to the Issues and Their Magnitude
I myself know, from personal experience
Links 26/07/2025: Rationed Meals in the US and TikTok Repels Investments (Too Toxic)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/07/2025: "Bloody Google" and New People in Geminispace
Links for the day
Response to Solderpunk (Father of Gemini Protocol) About the Gemini Community
Solderpunk responds to non-sequitur
HTML and the Web Used to be Something a Child Could Learn, "Modern" Web is a Puzzle of Frameworks, Bloat, and Worse
When the Web was more like Gemini Protocol