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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • SuSE's arrogance -- maybe not (by Wilbur Pan at 2003-08-18 13:07:11 GMT)
I reread Richard Seibt's comments. From a single end user standpoint, I would agree that his comments make no sense. Personally, I've been using Gentoo after trying Red Hat and then SuSE. (By the way, I liked SuSE better than Red Hat.) Gentoo fit my needs.
But if you look at his comments from the corporate/business user standpoint, I would agree that Red Hat and SuSE are the only two distributions that I would consider, for the simplereason that these are the only distributions that seem capable of providing the type of end user support that the corporate environment would need. I love Gentoo, and I love the support that I get on the Gentoo forums, but I would not run a business on this level of support.
I am hard pressed to think of another distro that can provide the level of support that Red Hat and SuSE can at this point in time. Mandrake is too close to their financial crisis for me to be able to confidently think that they will be around in 5 years. Gentoo, Debian and Slackware are too DIY at this point in time. LinEx is well supported by the Extremadura and Andalusian governments, but I don't think that they are particularly interested in supporting a business' IT needs.
Again, on a personal level I would agree that there are many choices beyond Red Hat and SuSE. However, in the corporate environment, the situation is much different.
2 • RE: SuSE's arrogance -- maybe not (by ladislav at 2003-08-18 14:08:25 GMT)
Seibt is trying to convey two messages. One of them is a message to businesses saying that if they want to deploy Linux, they should choose either Red Hat or SuSE -- simply because there is nothing else. This is wrong - rather than deploying either of them at no small cost, a business could consider a less expensive distribution (you can buy commercial support packages for Debian and probably for other distributions too).
The second message is to hardware vendors saying that they don't need to worry about any other distribution except RH and SuSE. Of course, the hardware manufacturers prefer to support as few distributions as possible, but this is not up to them (and certainly not up to Seibt), this is up to the market to decide. We are the ones who need the drivers. Both you and I have a preferred distribution and we shouldn't have to switch them just because Seibt thinks so.
3 • Distro support (by Benjamin Vander Jagt at 2003-08-18 15:43:48 GMT)
Don't forget Xandros, SCO *spit*, Lindows, and Voodoo.
By the way, does SEL qualify for any sort of mention? I mean, for the most part it's just a kernel, and I'm not sure if it would qualify for a "distribution". Would one have to shove it in a Red Hat and package it that way? (Hmm, a funny picture comes to mind. Anyone wanna draw Colonel Sanders wearing a red hat?)
4 • SuSE (by Anthony Boyd at 2003-08-18 20:13:24 GMT)
I agree with Wilbur Pan, I think SuSE really IS one of the few companies with dull, stodgy, corporate-level support contracts. I also think it's fair for SuSE to not offer .iso files -- the GPL doesn't require this, and I think the lack of .iso files is what keeps SuSE from pulling a Mandrake.
Finally, SuSE's releases are VERY clean. People talk about the high quality of "German engineering" when they talk about SuSE. I personally switched to SuSE after getting tired of Mandrake's repeated bugginess. Of course, in 8.2 SuSE released a beta of GCC, and the latest Mandrake is heavy emphasis on stability. So things are fluid to a certain degree. But I still think that SuSE's beta system is working well. Their releases are very stable.
I do agree that Seibt does sound arrogant. But I think maybe just toning down his rhetoric would be a solution -- no need to overhaul what is otherwise working.
5 • Not necessarily a flame war. ;-) (by Benjamin Vander Jagt at 2003-08-18 21:24:39 GMT)
I've personally had the opposite luck with SuSE. My HP LJ4 and HP DJ 842c printers print garbage, my USB keyboard doesn't work at all, the nVidia drivers install, but everything starts up with a warning that it's going into Mesa mode, it oversyncs on my NEC MultiSync 3V, it refuses to install over SMB, Tux Racer spazzes out and crashes X on ATI video cards, XMMS hangs, none of my older sound cards work, some of my newer sound cards sound like they're echoing down a sewer pipe, and Pegasus II cards aren't automatically loaded. PlaneShift won't build on it, but then again, PlaneShift seems to only build on Red Hat and Gentoo. (Oh, I forgot, I installed a GeForce 4 Ti 4200, and now I get lines over everything.)
I have always said that I wish I could use SuSE. It has a serious cache of software, including some nice 3D rendering stuff. Also, for whatever reason, hdparm -Tt consistently gives the best scores when I'm using SuSE. It's truly nice to use, but I have never had a computer that liked it.
6 • RE: SuSE's arrogance (by Anonymous on 2003-08-19 06:28:31 GMT)
Do you really think that web polls on Slashdot or visits to distrowatch.com represent the distributions companies' and governments' market share? They only reflect the home desktop.
7 • RE: SuSE's arrogance (by ladislav at 2003-08-19 09:23:11 GMT)
Do you really think that web polls on Slashdot or visits to distrowatch.com represent the distributions companies' and governments' market share?
No. That's why I also gave an example of SuSE's availability on dedicated web servers as another indication of its relatively low level of deployment.
8 • Suse (by andrej at 2003-08-19 13:08:06 GMT)
Referring arrogance of Mr.Seibt, it is out of question that there are no facts supporting what he said, it is true that my first linux was SuSE and I like it very much, especially for its easy installation. Although I had some ptoblems with making my monitor work (no HW support for this piece) the rest was O.K.
Wilbur Pan is right talking about corporate customers, there are 100s of 1000 of companies now using mail, word and excel on their PCs nothing else. For this use SuSE is perfect (but not the only)and has the support, this is only due to policy of the company.
Basically, what Mr. Seibt said was completely against all rules and ideas of linux (as a whole), but let companies like SuSE take over as much Windows users as they can. DO you really think that someone who ever used linux (suse or RH) would change back to Windows?
So Mr. Seibt.... the idea of taking place of windows was good, but turn off your attitude.
9 • PHR & Links Embedding (by Grunt on 2003-08-19 14:55:04 GMT)
Hey there, Ladislav!
I already thanked you in the reader feedback area of the previous DWW as soon as I noticed the change, but I guess no harm will do from doing so again. :) I'd say some changes are already visible - some of the distros at the top keep staying red since the removal of links.
"I am reluctant to remove the listing completely"
Well, moving the PHR list onto a separate page and placing a link to it somewhere in the "Site Navigation" table at the top of the front page wouldn't exactly qualify as "completely removing" it, would it? ;) This way PHR would both persist as an information source, AND would affect the actual results much less... (Persistent little bugger, am I not? ;) ).
"Maybe I should make the PHP code more intelligent so that URLs inside HTML tags will be left untouched and only URLs not enclosed in HTML tags will be autoparsed. Any other ideas or suggestions?"
Hmmm... How about adding a simplified links embedding? Something akin to tags used in forums/messageboards :
[url=http://blah.blah.blah]Check this out, guys![/url]
and
[url]http://blah.blah.blah[/url]
Also, I can see you're quoting people in italics in the "Reader Comment Area". Based on your above statement I figure that PHP code is leaving " "as is" as well? (we'll se about that AFTER this post is... well... posted), so how about :
[i]this text is in italics[/i]
The exact format of the tags (be that original HTML tags or simplified ones) is irrelevant, as long as there will be some piece of text somewhere on the website documenting what tags are supported.
My regards.
10 • Links embedding and italics (by Grunt on 2003-08-19 15:00:32 GMT)
Er... Seems like HTML tags for italics idea worked, kind of... :)
In the post above, "I figure that PHP code is leaving " "as is" as well?" it should obviously read : "I figure that PHP code is leaving "" "as is" as well?"
11 • Links embedding and italics (by Grunt on 2003-08-19 15:08:48 GMT)
Er x2... Seems like the posting script has its own way with ANYTHING enclosed in "less than"/"greater than" (namely - it's slapping those two signs AS IS into the page, without conversing them into "& lt;"/"& gt;" - spaces intentional - so the browsers obviously ignore the contents between them)...
In the post above and the one above that one, "I figure that PHP code is leaving " "as is" as well?" it should obviously read : "I figure that PHP code is leaving "[here come the opening and closing HTML tags for italics, except the script is parsing them in a funny way, so you can't see them, he-he]" "as is" as well?"
12 • Back to Suse... :) (by Wilbur Pan at 2003-08-20 14:23:36 GMT)
Regarding ladislav's comments:
On considering a cheaper distribution and/or Debian support: I looked at the Debian support options links on their webpage and again I would be concerned about continuity of support if this was my business. Most of the consultants operate on an hourly basis. A business environment would require a higher level of support than that. What I would be looking for in a corporate environment is a multiyear contract for 24/7 support. This would be more than a single consultant can provide on his/her own.
On hardware vendors: For my education, are there any Linux drivers that will only work with one distribution and not others?
I do agree that Richard Seibt's comments have a considerable amount of FUD in them, but I think that at this point in time, there is a core of truth to them.
And I should probably take time out for a compliment -- your website was probably the single most useful source of information for me when I was getting started using Linux. In fact, it was through DistroWatch that I first found out about Gentoo, which is what I use personally. Thanks!
13 • More about Suse (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-21 19:01:02 GMT)
Is Suse arrogant? My opinion is most definitely yes, mainly from the point of view of a home user.
Apart from the fact that their OS is far from perfect (one more reason why they should be more humble)-against the stability of Debian or Slackware, and besides the reasons mentioned by you, which are in my opinion all very valid, I have a couple more reasons: it is made very difficult to run Suse 8.2 as root. Well, I paid good money for it, and I find that I have the right to choose how I want to run my OS.
My system is only a few months old and it looks and feels almost obsolete. Only way to upgrade it is with apt4rpm, which they stubbornly refuse to support.
Is there any interaction with the end users, an official forum or anything like that? You can dream it.
They have been given a good lesson by KMlinux, which I find better from many points of view (pity that it is meant only for German users-especially the impossibility to install English Openoffice instead of German Oo, which cannot be removed)
Give me Libranet everyday: it gives me the freedom, the stability and the MIGHT of Debian!!! (and an excellent support and a very nice forum).
14 • Debian. (by Edward.C on 2003-08-22 00:44:40 GMT)
One w o r d: Debian!
15 • Arrogant? Maybe, Accurate though... (by Beasley at 2003-08-22 04:10:13 GMT)
The comments about SuSE do hold up in the corporate world. Dealing with the systems I deal with on a daily basis, and for the abilities I need (HA, Oracle, etc) Red Hat and SuSE ARE the only games in town. From a home user, or small shop standpoint, there are many very nice distro's. For the enterprise customer, who wants Oracle, Veritas, Tivoli, and other enterprise software, it is Red Hat and SuSe here in the states. Not too long ago it was only Red Hat though, so the competition is nice. If you want to get really technical on it, SuSE is United Linux at the enterprise level, so if it is SuSE certified, it should work on Conectiva, Turbo, and (I shudder to think of it) SCO. Here in the states at least, his comments are not nearly as arrogant as some things I have heard from Red Hat sales reps... As for me, I run a bit of everything, but SuSE and Red Hat are the mainstays in most of my systems because that is what I have to deploy at the enterprise level.
One last thing to consider, most software that is certified on one or the other will work flawlessly in other Linux environments. The problem is, when you do have an issue, even if it is totally a result of the application code, and has nothing to do with the distro, they may well refuse to support you. This is why Red Hat has mattered here in the corporate market for so long, and why SuSE is starting to matter as well now. Sure it will work elsewhere, but for how long? When your mission critical apps are down, and it costs you thousands of dollars per hour, do YOU want to explain to your CIO that you saved a few grand with distro X, and that is why your application vendor wont handle your support calls?
I am all for competition in the environment, but I see little signs of a change in this particular arena in the near future.
16 • SUSE is the MSoft-wanna-be of the Linux World (by CJoe on 2003-08-22 07:45:40 GMT)
Go to LinuxIso.org and check out which of the distros put their ISOs. SUSE is not there.
SUSE is one of the "free rides" companies: they take advantage of the work of "n" developers and put -as far as they can- a Trade Mark on other's work.
They block their distribution putting another license tag to their YAST.
SUSE's prepotence and bad attitude is wel known. They want a kind of MicroSoftish linux dominance.
In fact, I fin this rather disgusting, greedy and they can put their distro to rest in peace.
17 • SuSE (by mdekkers at 2003-08-22 08:19:44 GMT)
I find the article on SuSE lacking insight into how the corporate world decides about IT issues. A lot of my work involves dealing with CIO's, CTO's, IT Directors and Boards. For them, there are only two distro's in town: SuSE and RedHat. And increasingly, we find that customers are turned off by redhat for a variety of reasons. For a corporate customer, technology is not as important as some other things, such as: will the supplier of my hardware support the OS I want to run on this. Contrary to popular belief, businesses do not run their datacenters on white boxes, they run on brand names. And installing Debian on your newly purchased IBM x440 8 way - cool as it may be - is a surefire way of losing any glimmering of hope to get your box supported by IBM, not even mentioning the "who is going to support this OS" question. Oh, yes, is debian Oracle Certified? Nope - and that is a big issue for corporate IT shops. Oracle Certification for a specific hardware/software combination can cost upwards of $2 million a pop, so that really only leaves the big players in town. Extramadura is a great project, and a fantastic case study, however, they are the exception rather then the norm, and counting the size of the deployment has nothing at all to do with distro popularity. Where is your count of deployments in investments banks, for example? I have worked on a 1500 node blade deployment running SuSe linux - is that counted? nope. Do the architects visit Slashdot, and post on a poll as a measure of market share? nope. Do *all* these people check out market research companies for market share size, based on reported earnings, vendor shipments, distributor details. Yes. Anyway, contrary to what many of you believe, SuSE has the *largest* contingent of dedicated developers doing open source work, about twice as much as redhat. SuSE works with the community in an interesting way, where they develop directly on the project involved (as opposed to working in secret isolation, like Ximian or RedHat, and then dumping the patches upstream), they then integrate their distro (one of the cleanest around), beta test with their *customers*, and deploy. The full distro is then made available a month ofter release. Commercial customers cannot use Gentoo, they cannot use Debian, they cannot use LFS, they are stuck with RedHat or SuSE, like it or not. And frankly, between RedHat and SuSE, SuSE is by far the better Open Source citizen. Their licenses are clear cut and simple to understand, their deals are good, and they don't force you to keep paying them every year, like redhat does for advanced server - talk about microsoftian. I have the personal experience of dealing both with redhat as well as with SuSe, and SuSE are way, way, way better and nicer to deal with.
18 • A little geography goes a long way (by Alex Reina at 2003-08-22 09:01:35 GMT)
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 11, 18 August 2003: "...the Spanish provinces of Extremadura and Andalusia..."
Extremadura and Andalucía, both rightly parts of Spain, are not provinces. They are what's known in Spain as "Comunidades Autónomas" or autonomous communities as a rough translation would have it. In fact, there are 17 of these in Spain, all divided in provinces internally. They represent one of Spain's greatest assets: cultural diversity. Some even have their own language (Cataluña, País Vasco and Galicia), which are also official languages in Spain.
Extremadura is made up of 2 provinces, while Andalucía has 8. The first has an area of about twice the size of New Jersey (41,000+ sq kms or 16,000+ sq miles). Andalucía, however, is the largest autonomous community in Spain, roughly the size of South Carolina (87,000+ sq kms or 33,000+ sq miles).
Please treat them with respect.
19 • Suse, beta testing with their 'customers'??? (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-22 11:29:50 GMT)
Could please Mr/Mrs Mdekkers tell me more about Suse 'beta testing with their *customers*? This is absolutely unknown to me and I'd be extremely grateful for any further clarification. Unless he/she is talking about corporate customers of course.
20 • RE: SuSE (by ladislav at 2003-08-22 13:17:31 GMT)
Commercial customers cannot use Gentoo, they cannot use Debian, they cannot use LFS.
Says who? SuSE's CEO? Sorry, but I don't share his and your views. There is absolutely no reason for a small (or even medium-size) business to go with RH or SuSE's expensive enterprise editions where they'd be much better off with Debian or Slackware. In fact, I'd say that even many large enteprises would do well with a free distribution in most areas of their operations.
21 • SUSE - my two cents worth (by vara at 2003-08-22 14:59:00 GMT)
Before I start let me say that I currently run SUSE and Red Hat and have used Debian and Slackware. SUSE is a great product and has worked very well for me. As mentioned in other posts, I believe that for the corporate/business users then the real choices are SUSE and Red Hat as they offer the support big business requires but the other distro's lack.
Recently, I have started to become disenchanted with SUSE. The main reason is the lack of freely available .iso's. I don't mind supporting Linux but sometimes I would like something for free. Just like apache or mysql or any number of numerous software out there.
The comments of SUSE's CEO have further left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm also not too fond of Red Hat anymore. Linux is meant to be a good thing, but these companies are looking more into how to make money from Linux than how to co-exist with making money and the open source spirit.
Looks like it's Debian and Slackware for me in the future.
22 • In reply to 'vara' about free Suse isos. (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-22 15:38:25 GMT)
If you have just a bit of knoledge of German to go past the installation, try Kmlinux. It is what Suse could have been and it is not, I believe you'll love it.
Of course, once installed, with Yast you can change language and any other setting.
I have also found out how to solve the problem with Open Office. Quite easy in fact. If you would like further info write me an email.
23 • Business vs. non-business (by BusyGuy at 2003-08-22 19:17:52 GMT)
I fear that a subtle point was missed in your missive.
Seibt, when stating there was desire by vendors for two Linux distros, he was saying that competition is essential. If business-grade Linux was restricted to either Red Hat or SuSE, then vendors would find themselves in the same trap they suffer under Microsoft. Seibt was merely stating the obvious –as vendors commit to Linux (based on the demands of their customers), vendors want choice between equals.
Seibt’s statement about it being SuSE, Red Hat and nobody else is merely a statement of fact. As good as other distributions are, the only ones actively considered by businesses are SuSE and Red Hat. Anyone arguing otherwise has not been paying attention to commercial buying trends.
As for polls on websites . . . so many problems here. First, be aware that these polls are most commonly answered by members of the community and assorted hobbyists. This group is as far, far cry from the business buyers to which Seibt was referring. Second (and this comes from professional experience in survey design and research, especially online), these polls are meaningless. They are unscientific and merely popularity polls for an unfocussed group. So ignore them, especially when discussing business Linux.
As for SuSE not submitting commercial distributions for general public beta . . . I cannot fathom why this would be a problem. I’ve managed software production for commercial vendors, and the madness of a public beta would do little for a company like SuSE who’s main focus are enterprise buyers. Indeed, I applaud them for looking out for their customers and business interest by having focused, regulated beta cycles. Besides, how many people in the community have a z900 in their den ready for beta testing the latest mainframe SuSE distro ;->
So, lighten-up dude. I think you misinterpreted Seibt’s statements. SuSE is a friend of business Linux buyers and the community. Thanks to them there are Opteron and Athelon64 distros, and other goodies for use to enjoy.
24 • In reply to 'BusyGuy' (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-22 19:51:30 GMT)
'Suse who's main focus are enterprise buyers'...
Ah, but I bet they would weep if they were to loose the majority of their home users. In fact I know from very reliable source that they can use every cent they can get.
And if not, if their main source of income are corporate users, why don't they put some sort of fully working iso for download, for instance an installable version of their LiveEval Cd or their previous version, like libranet used to do and is doing again.
25 • Enlightened by Mr Seibt (by ladislav at 2003-08-23 04:28:23 GMT)
Following the feedback to "SuSE's dangerous arrogance", as well as posts on Slashdot, OSNews and other sites, I've done some serious thinking. I have concluded that my analysis of Mr Seibt's talk was completely wrong and that there are, in fact, only two distributions - Red Hat and SuSE. As a result of being enlightened by Mr Seibt's interview and also by many readers who wrote to me and kindly pointed out my gross misunderstanding of the whole situation, some important changes on DistroWatch will come into effect next week.
Firstly, I am going to migrate this site to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8. The truth is that DistroWatch.com is a business and as I have been kindly reminded by many readers, I cannot run the DistroWatch.com server on Debian or Linux From Scratch - I can only run it on either Red Hat or SuSE. Luckily, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 costs only $749.00 and this price includes a generous Maintenance Program valid for one whole year! Even better, after the first year, the cost of the Maintenance Program drops to $699 per year, but I am sure that by then SuSE will have released a new version with some special pricing for its valued customers.
The bad news is that I will have to find a new web hosting company, because my current one does not offer SuSE Linux as a choice of OS. I will search around to see what I can get, so if you find DistroWatch.com off-line in the near future, please don't panic. I don't expect the downtime to last for more than 6 weeks, but I will keep you updated via the forum on PCLinuxOnline.com.
The second big change on DistroWatch.com is the removal of all Linux distributions, except Red Hat and SuSE. There is no need to cover the rest any more, really. From next week on, DistroWatch.com will specialise in Red Hat and SuSE only and it will bring you all the exciting news from the industry's only two players. We will follow every move and every word by the senior executives at Red Hat and SuSE and these will be duly reported and analysed by our staff. These will be exciting times and I expect the readership to at least triple once we start bringing you the exclusive coverage of all the happenings in the world of Red Hat Linux and SuSE Linux.
The migration of DistroWatch.com from Debian to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 will of course mean extra expense and as a result of this you will see an increase in advertising on this site. I doubt that either Red Hat or SuSE will be willing to provide us with some advertising revenue, since they will be covered exclusively anyway, so I will be contacting advertisers in the gambling and pornographic industries to compansate for the increased cost associated with the planned migration. Yes, I know - this might offend some visitors and I'd hate to lose them, but I am sure that many of you will understand that because there are only two distributions for the enterprise, I can no longer use Debian to host DistroWatch.com.
These are exciting times on DistroWatch.com and I really want to thank everybody who have sent in their feedback and made me see the light. The changes will come into effect shortly. If you still haven't joined our great Timesavers Programme, then now is the time as we will soon bring you all the great features, including detailed comparisons between Red Hat Linux Advanced Server and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server so that you too can make an informed decision about your company's Linux needs.
Once again, thank you all for your feedback.
Ladislav Bodnar
DistroWatch.com
Put the fun back into computing. Use Red Hat or SuSE.
26 • The SUSE-iso issue: arrogance, free-riders and lost academic space. (by Aldo Solari at 2003-08-23 06:33:02 GMT)
For a couple of years ago, I contacted SUSE complaining about the "ISO-issue". We do use Linux in a research laboratory/academic environment, a "space" which SUSE lost due their greedy and arrogant policy (no ISOs, YAST license, etc.). Their postmaster sent us a sort of "roman senator rethorical speech". We switched to both Red Hat, Mandrake and Debian.
SUSE is -like Caldera- a free-rider/scavenger corporation. It uses for free a core system worth hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D and, at the same time and it attempts to deny access to many of the tools it develops for the business community. YAST is just an example.
SUSE has shown a rather unethical and greedy approach, it exploits badly the open source community and it has lost most of the academic space it had.
SUSE is interested in making money with the work of many developers who devoted their time & creativity for the open source approach.
Within the academic space, SUSE is a distribution which can no longer be recommended.
Aldo Solari/fisheries researcher
27 • • Enlightened by Mr Seibt (by ladislav) (by monkymind on 2003-08-23 07:35:08 GMT)
LOL. Great news! One small suggestion is instead of supporting two distros perhaps pick only one. The added benefit would be Distroweekly could then become an annual newsletter. ;->
Love the site and the humour - keep up the good work.
rob
PS FWIW perhaps enterprise linux could be moved to a separate "elite" section - away from the what everyone else uses.
28 • No subject (by Anonymous on 2003-08-23 09:58:17 GMT)
please stay the way you, reducing to distros would something
akin to M$ tactics.
BTW mainly Mandrake here, but some serious flirting with
various debian derived distro's
29 • 'Enlightened by Mr Seibt' (by ladislav) (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-23 10:04:07 GMT)
Fantastic grand finale, thank you. I was almost crying with laughter.
Distrowatch is one of my favourite sites and I visit it several times a day.
L Gandolfo
30 • My take on German arrogance (by G.Floros at 2003-08-23 19:03:29 GMT)
Is SuSE arrogant? Is a BMW engineer saying he's made the world's finest automobile arrogant? I can't answer that. Haven't driven all cars in the world yet.
What I can say for sure having compared Mandrake and SuSE head to head is that if first impressions were important for me I would have quitted Linux altogether based on my first experience with Mandrake 9.0 NOTHING worked. But I said to myself, hey this can't be real! Why are all those people so excited about this Linux thing? Are they all raving lunatics with a taste for mazohistic activity? Then I went out and bought SuSE 8.2. I've created a rock-solid desktop out of it and I'm quite a happy penguin, doing some patchwork on the auto-update as I'm writing these lines.
So when I'm looking at the photos of the new M5 along a very happy German engineer I know that in his mind at least he's right. And there are the lucky few out there who'll probably second that
31 • About 'German arrogance' (by G.Floros) (by L Gandolfo at 2003-08-23 21:22:41 GMT)
'German' arrogance has nothing to do here. I lived in Germany, I adore it and I like the Germans very much too.
Besides, the issue is not with the 'Suse people', meanig Suse's developers and employees, whom I know out of personal experience to be very nice. The issue is with the management.
And managers can be arrogant all over the world.
Also the issue of quality is only a secondary one. I come from an experience almost identical to yours: first 'in love' with the beauty of Mandrake, but hardly anything worked.
Then 'in love' with the relative stability of Suse.
But I have moved on ever since, I discovered that there is life after the rpm distros: Debian based, Slackware and similar, source distros...
And yet Suse is still my second favourite after Debian.
That is why I care at all, otherwise I wouldn't be here wasting my time, I'd be doing something more meaningful.
Number of Comments: 31
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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| • Issue 1162 (2026-03-02): AerynOS 2026.01, anti-virus and firewall tools, Manjaro fixes website certificate, Ubuntu splits firmware package, jails for NetBSD, extended support for some Linux kernel releases, Murena creating a map app |
| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
| • Issue 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Full list of all issues |
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CPUBuilders Linux was a complete RPM-based Linux distribution designed for desktop or server applications. We strive to include as much great software as possible and provide an easier-to-use Linux experience without giving up any advanced functionality. Usable by beginners, hackable by experts, compatible with widely available Red Hat 9 and Fedora Core 1 packages, and easy to keep updated with the optional and inexpensive Cognitio update service.
Status: Discontinued
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