10.1 has problems ok ..

10.1 has problems ok ..

Wasn't Suse corporate from the beginning? I figured they were incorporated right off the bat in Germany. I'd hate to start a software company without the indemification that being incorporated provides...

I think that Novell is just learning how to do stuff. I think that they didn't realise the hell they were going to get themselves into by advertising XGL as a release item when it realy is still very beta.

You simply just don't _do_ that.

Seriously. A hell of a lot of people who don't know Linux very well are all about trying out Suse just because of the eye candy. It's a huge attraction. So your getting a horrid mix of people who are fairly new to Linux trying to do something that is fairly beta that usually involves installing questionable propriatory kernel models.

What I would do if I was Novell would be this:

A. Cut my losses with Suse and join in on Ubuntu. Concentrate on improving Novell's propriatory software compatability and try to get cool parts working on a full free software platform. Like their Novel network file system.. It's very advanced, much more then either NFS or Samba. And people like good, stable, and secure file systems.

I'd keep something called 'Suse' though.

Also avoid getting hung up on the whole 'Linux' moniker. Along with teaming up with Ubuntu you can maybe flirt with Sun and their open solaris/sparc platform for high end database stuff.

Seriously. Work on high compatability with Debian. Let Debian/Ubuntu do all the work on stabilizing the operating system, that's a waste of time for Suse-folks to do it if other people are better and are willing to do the work. Work on stabilizing new stuff like XGL, key-based authentication infrastructure and whatnot.

B. Adopt Kubuntu in a big way and work heavily on helping stabilizing the next-generation QT4-based KDE platform and get good integration with Mono and other stuff into that desktop environment like they did with Gnome. Take the best parts of Gnome and work it into KDE and visa versa. Work on the portland stuff. Make KDE users happy and they'll flock to your operating system and they are huge fanboys and will make a good grassroots following.

C. Continue to work on items that attract Windows users and developers to Linux. Stuff like .NET compatability with Mono. Flashy graphics, fast desktops. Exchange replacements. Higher office suite compatability. Develop more tools to make packages that are very highly compatable and make it easier to make packages that work with other operating systems.. including Redhat.

Stuff like that.

D. Learn from Redhat and Redhat's mistakes with the Redhat 7, 8, 9 releases. Stability should be a very very high priority in a consumer supported release. Look at Windows and see the benifits of having a long lasting platform that a company then can turn around and feel safe in commiting large amounts of resources into adopting. People want something that just works and there are no suprises. Even if their are bugs and stuff that you have to work around that's preferable on the long term then always getting hit by small (bad) suprises.

That's my theory on the subject.