Re: [PLUG] Free Software

["Aaron Mulder" <ammulder@alumni.princeton.edu>]

On 11/3/07, Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net> wrote:
> Sort of.  The official DVD that I got came with 60-day access to the repos.
> That is enough time to grab any package you want.  After that you miss out on
> security updates, unless the package was updated on the free repos.  You get
> no support.
>
> Registration was offered to me for $80/2 licenses.  Each registration gets you
> a year of access to the repos and a month of unlimited support.

Is that right?  I haven't tried 10.3 yet, but in 10.2, there were
community repositories and mirrors that contained all the open source
software, all the proprietary software (Java, Flash, etc.) and all the
security updates.  The free installation media did not contain the
proprietary software (nor PostgreSQL, or many other open source
packages that didn't fit on the CD for that matter), but I was
prompted to add both free and non-free HTTP installation sources
during the install, which meant post-install it was trivial to go into
the package manager and add Java, Flash, PostgreSQL, etc.  It also
prompted to add a security update mirror during installation, so these
days it would immediately start downloading 100+ updates after
installation.  If there was a special repository "for retail/support
customers only" I was unaware of it.

Also, for what little it's worth, they've sent me copies of the last
few retail releases free for being an active bug reporter, and I don't
feel like I've been all that active, so their bar has to be pretty
low.

Thanks,
       Aaron

> Like I said, I prefer Ubuntu -- maybe I'm just used to it and know it better,
> but this distro is solid. No installation nor driver issues.  Integrated into
> the MS infrastructure out of the box.  At work, one of my specialties is
> breaking things before they get to the floor and a user has to break it.  I
> have yet to break this one.
>
> My beloved Kubuntu, on the other hand, becomes uber-flaky when joined to an
> Active Directory domain -- starting with art (user 1000) lacking access to
> DOMAIN.ORG\art (user 14655)'s files and directories.  Of course I always log
> in as art, and magic or randomness seems to govern whether that is user 1000
> or user 14655.
>
> On Saturday, 03 November 2007 15:09, Brent Saner wrote:
> > ah! a little bit of research shows i'm correct:
> >
> > "The latest release, openSUSE 10.3 is available as a retail package and as
> > a no-cost open source <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_source> package.
> > In terms of software, *there are major differences between the two
> > packages*(see Reference below), including the fact that the
> > *retail edition contains a number of
> > proprietary<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software>components,
> > such as Adobe
> > Flash <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash>.* In addition, *the retail
> > package, available for 59.95
> > USD<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_dollar>,
> > includes a printed manual and limited technical
> > support<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_support>
> > .* openSUSE is available to download freely from their website. The retail
> > and eval versions contain one DVD and six CDs, while openSUSE now uses only
> > one CD. It is the second SUSE release to be called openSUSE, versions
> > before openSUSE 10.2 were called SUSE Linux.
> >
> > Other flavors include dedicated server editions and groupware servers
> > geared towards corporate networks and enterprises, along with a
> > stripped-down business desktop which runs some software designed for
> > Microsoft
> > Windows<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Windows>out of the box
> > by virtue of
> > WINE <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wine_%28software%29>.
> >
> > SUSE Linux Enterprise
> > Server<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Server>(SLES)
> > and SUSE
> > Linux Enterprise
> > Desktop<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE_Linux_Enterprise_Desktop>(SLED)
> > are Novell's branded version of SUSE targeted at corporate
> > environments. SUSE Linux Enterprise product line (SLES and SLED) include
> > some proprietary
> > software<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proprietary_software>as well as
> > technical support. For instance, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9
> > (SLES 9) has fewer packages (around 1,000 packages) than the SUSE Linux
> > Professional (consumer) distribution which has around 3,500 packages. Most
> > of the packages that have been removed are desktop applications which are
> > more suited to consumers than to a business environment. SLES has a
> > guaranteed life cycle of 7 years and only the SLES products are certified
> > by independent hardware and software vendors.
> >
> > (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suse#Versions)
> >
> > so yes, i knew that they were selling PRIMARILY support but it's also
> > access to their repos.
> >
> > of course, from what i remember there are third-party repos you can add
> > that give the same functionality more or less to openSuSE.
> >
> > On Nov 3, 2007 3:02 PM, Brent Saner <brent.saner@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > i was under the impression that the SuSE "professional" (whatever the
> > > hell they call it) contains access to repos with proprietary software
> > > whereas the free version (OpenSuSE) only contains access to repos with
> > > open-source software... ?
> > >
> > > On Nov 3, 2007 2:49 PM, Art Alexion <art.alexion@verizon.net> wrote:
> > > > Right now, I am working on providing Linux desktops as an alternative
> > > > in an
> > > > existing MS infrastructure that isn't going anywhere for a while.  I am
> > > > pushing Novell's Suse at this point.  Why?  I like the Ubuntu family
> > > > more,
> > > > but Novell seems to be offering an out-of-the-box solution that
> > > > integrates
> > > > quite well with our infrastructure.  I have a copy that I can duplicate
> > > > as
> > > > much as I like, but I only get support with a license.  So what am I
> > > > buying
> > > > with the license?  Not software.  I am buying support.
> > > >
> > > > So I still believe in my initial position -- people aren't buying
> > > > software
> > > > they can get for free, they are buying support contracts dressed up as
> > > > software licenses.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > >
> > > > _____________________________________________________________
> > > > Art Alexion
> > >
> > > --
> > > Brent Saner
> > > 215.264.0112(cell)
> > > 215.362.7696(residence)
> > >
> > > http://www.thenotebookarmy.org
>
> --
>
> _____________________________________________________________
> Art Alexion
>
> PGP fingerprint: 52A4 B10C AA73 096F A661  92D2 3B65 8EAC ACC5 BA7A
> Keyserver: hkp://subkeys.pgp.net
> The attachment - signature.asc - is my electronic signature; no need for
> alarm.  Info @
> http://mysite.verizon.net/art.alexion/encryption/signature.asc.what.html
> _____________________________________________________________
>
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