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SUSE Linux (pronounced [http://www.novell.com/linux/demos/desktop.html] in American English) is a major Linux distribution. The developer rights are owned by Novell, Inc.. SUSE is also a founding member of the Desktop Linux Consortium.
There are three (2) major distributions of SUSE Linux currently active:
* SUSE Linux Enterprise: This is Novell's open-source solution for major enterprise. It is made up of two packages, these are:
- * SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: SLES is the Enterprise Server Operating System component of SLE.
- *SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop: SLED is the Enterprise Desktop Operating System component of SLE.
* openSUSE: This is a free, Novell supported distribution.
History
The SUSE Linux distribution was originally a German translation of Slackware Linux. In mid-1992, Softlanding Linux System (SLS) was founded by Peter MacDonald, and was the first comprehensive distribution to contain elements such as X and TCP/IP. The Slackware distribution (maintained by Patrick Volkerding) was initially based largely on SLS.
S.u.S.E was founded in late 1992 as a UNIX consulting group, which among other things regularly released software packages that included SLS and Slackware, and printed UNIX/Linux manuals. S.u.S.E is an acronym for the German phrase "Software- und System-Entwicklung" ("Software and system development"). There is an unofficial rumour that the name is a tribute to the German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse. They released the first CD version of SLS/Slackware in 1994, under the name S.u.S.E Linux 1.0. It later integrated with the Jurix distribution of Florian La Roche, to release the first really unique S.u.S.E Linux 4.2 in 1996. Over time, SuSE Linux incorporated many aspects of Red Hat Linux (e.g., using RPMs and /etc/sysconfig).
On November 4, 2003, Novell announced it would acquire SuSE (Shankland, 2003). The acquisition was finalized in January 2004 (Kennedy, 2003) and the company's name was changed to SUSE Linux after Novell's purchase. "SuSE" does not officially stand for anything anymore. According to Ramesh (2004), J. Philips (Novell's corporate technology strategist for the Asia Pacific region) stated that Novell would not "in the medium term" alter the way in which SUSE continues to be developed. At Novell's annual [http://www.novell.com/brainshare/ BrainShare gathering] in 2004, all computers ran SUSE Linux for the first time. At this gathering it was also announced that the proprietary SUSE administration program YaST2 would be released into the public under the GPL license.
Novell Open Enterprise Server
OES is best thought of as a platform for delivery of enterprise-level shared network services, such as (file, print, directory, clustering, backup, storage, web applications, etc.) and common management tools. When installed using a Linux kernel, the product is known as OES-Linux. This uses SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) as its platform. Atop the SLES install, daemons are added to provide NCP, eDirectory, NSS, iPrint and other services delivered by OES.
Licensing costs are identical regardless of the platform, and the platforms may be mixed under the same license. As is typical for Novell's products, OES is licensed per user seat, without regard to the number of physical servers on which the product is deployed. Further, pricing is typically not altered by physical CPUs or the use of hardware virtualization technologies (e.g. VMWare, Xen). Finally, OES includes 2-node licenses for Novell Cluster Services, allowing basic clustered environments to be created without additional licensing charges.
OES is Novell's reaction to two things:
* the increased significance of Linux and open-source in the company strategy and the industry in general
* the fact that it lost a lot of market share, not because the customers were dissatisfied with the quality of its networking services (usually it was just the opposite), but mostly because these services ran almost exclusively on top of an OS that was narrowly specialized in its initial design and didn't get as strong support from ISVs as most of its competitors.
Novell executives, as well as most analysts, expect that porting these services to an OS with growing popularity and better support from hardware and software vendors will give Novell a good opportunity to improve its business results.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) is a Linux distribution supplied by Novell, targeted at the business market. It is supposed to be run mainly on servers, but some desktop software is included as well. New versions are released at an interval of 18-24 months. During that period the selected software is put under heavy testing with the intention that only mature, stable versions of the included components will make it through to the released product.
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), formerly Novell Linux Desktop is a desktop-oriented Linux distribution supplied by Novell and targeted at the business market.
The current version is SLED 10, which is developed from a common codebase with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server as well as YaST for installation and configuration. Ximian Desktop is used as the user interface and Novell ZENworks as its update manager. It also includes GNOME 2.12, KDE 3.3, Mozilla Firefox 1.4, Novell Evolution 2.4 and many other popular open source packages as well as some proprietary software such as RealPlayer.
There have been a number of Service Packs (SP's) released for SLED 9. SP1 was released on February 11, 2005 and contained many updates. After that, SP2 was released on August 9, 2005, containing all the released updates and bugfixes since August 2004. SP3 was released on December 22, 2005.
With SLED 10, Novell has increased focus on features for home users, positioning SLED as a competitor to Microsoft Windows. It includes the Beagle desktop search tool, similar to Spotlight in Mac OS X v10.4. The Xgl+Compiz support enables a variety of advanced graphical effects in the user interface, such as "application tiling" (similar to Exposé). Other features include making it easier for Linux beginners to connect digital cameras to the computer and play audio files such as MP3s using Helix Banshee.
openSUSE
openSUSE is a community project, sponsored by Novell, to develop and maintain SUSE Linux components. After their acquisition of SUSE Linux, Novell has decided to make the community an important part of their development community. It is Novell's goal to market openSUSE as the best, easiest distribution for all users.
openSUSE is available through three separate alternatives:
* Download: openSUSE is freely available from the openSUSE downloads page. Users are able to either download the 5 CD package, with an optional 6th CD which includes proprietry software or the DVD which includes all files including the proprietry software.
* Third-Party: SUSE Linux is available through third parties, such as Linux CD websites and certain Linux magazines.
This entry uses material from from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Disclaimer.