New Linux Installs from long time ago

Ben Scott dragonhawk at gmail.com
Fri Dec 22 13:38:44 EST 2006


[replying on-list to an off-list reply, with the author's permission]

On 12/22/06, Thomas Charron <twaffle at gmail.com> wrote:
>   SuSE looked good.  That statement itself would infer it functioned. ;-)

  It looked good because it functioned *and* there were no objections
to the company behind it.

  Now that Novell has partnered with The Great Satan, many people
(myself included) have an objection to SuSE Linux.  Not because the
functionality of the software has changed, but because we want nothing
to do with the company behind it.

  People make produce purchase/use choices based on this sort of thing
all the time.  For example, some people refuse to buy sneakers from
certain companies, due to the working conditions in the manufacturing
facilities.  The sneakers themselves might be fine footware.

  I had been continually impressed by SuSE Linux in the past.  They
were early leaders in things like decent partitioning during install,
hardware auto-detection, and distro-wide integration of component
packages.  The YaST series was a very comprehensive tool.  (I disliked
some of their design decisions, but there were arguments in favor of
them, too, so it was a matter of personal preference.)  SuSE the
company was a big supporter and funder of Open Source efforts.

  The Novell/Microsoft deal is a deal with a company I dislike, and
worse, it's a deal that is quite likely to be used as ammunition in a
campaign against Linux.  That puts Novell on my personal "no fly"
list.  It's disappointing to me and many others *because* SuSE Linux
is a good product.

  At least with the SCO campaign, we didn't have that aspect, because
SCO's products sucked anyway.

-- Ben


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