Don't take it out on SuSE [LWN.net]

Don't take it out on SuSE

Posted Nov 28, 2006 19:24 UTC (Tue) by shieldsd (subscriber, #20198)
Parent article: Who is being divisive?

I've used SuSE on my home box for some time. Indeed, I even paid for the last two release though I could have downloaded it for free. I appreciate the good work done by the developers, and so sent in the money more as a show of support than because I need support.

I did the same thing for LWN. I sent some money to Jon even though I learned my corporation is a corporate subscriber and so I could access lwn for free. I've been an avid reader of lwn since that late 1990's and have always though it the best of the Linux/Open-Source news and opinion sites.

One way to encourage the growth of open-source is to spend some money on it from time to time.

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Don't take it out on SuSE

Posted Nov 28, 2006 20:39 UTC (Tue) by marduk (subscriber, #3831) [Link]

I think it's very commendable what you did and only wish more people would do the same. For example, I donated a sum of money to the CentOS project. Even though I have never even used CentOS I believe in their philosophy and wanted to help keep the project going.

And you touched on something else too. Despite one's dislike for Novell the company at this point there are open source developers who work for Novell and who may not necessarily agree with their policies and actions, but those people should still be supported for the work they do.

Don't take it out on SuSE

Posted Dec 3, 2006 3:07 UTC (Sun) by GreyGeek (guest, #41838) [Link]

I feel your pain.

I purchased a new Sony VAIO computer on Dec 29th, 1997 and and had to reinstall Win95 FIVE TIMES in the next FOUR months. I had used OS/2 and went to the software store looking for a newer version of it. There I found a book called "Learn Linux in 24 Hours", for $25, IIRC. To sweeten the deal there was a copy of RH 5.0 in the back of the book! It took me about 30 hours (I was 55 at the time) to get a handle on Linux. Linux was a lot harder to learn and use back then than it is now.

I upgraded to RH 5.1 and was stunned by how much worse it was than 5.0. So, I looked around and found SuSE 5.3. It was GREAT!! Over the next few years I PURCHASED TWENTY TWO boxed sets of SuSE, the last being SuSE 9.0, IIRC.

Then Novell bought it. Shortly after that a new SUSE EULA appeared on their website. It forbid installing SUSE on more than one PC or making archival copies without written permission from Novell. They supplied the name and phone number of the women who could issue written permission, if you were convincing enough. I raised a fuss on the SUSE newsgroup but the Novell employees and fanbois couldn't see the problem. However, it made such a stink on several Linux sites that they relented and restored their EULA to GPL compliance, except for YAST, which they later released under the GPL. Then, they spun the episode into a mis-understanding. However, it was too late for me. If they did it once they could do something similar again. That's when I left SUSE for a Debian based distro.

I couldn't have imagined that Novell could do something that has the potential to affect me so seriously even though I don't use their products, but this "convent" has done that.