OpenSuSE 11 not free anymore

[booman]

Apparently Novell is not offering SuSE for free anymore. Whats the deal? I loved the fact that Linux was free now they are charging $60 for it with free shipping.
Is this going to be the new strategy for Linux Distros? I know Linux is getting more popular every day, servers, home use, Eee PC but I've always been told that Linux users fill about 2% of the Operating System market. So who is going to purchase OpenSuSE 11.0 for $60?

OpenSuSE 11.0

[ccperf721p]

Most of the larger linux builds have a subscription service for tech support but offer a free downloadable that doesn't come with live support or a printed manual. Seeing how Suse 11 rc1 is available as a free download I imagine it will continue to exist for free.

[Daniel ~]

(booman and Daniel ~ breathe a sigh of relief..":O}

[booman]

I hope so because when you go to downloads SuSE 11.0 isn't available. Newest one for free download is OpenSuSE 10.3
The link doesn't exactly advertise it as a customer support subscription either. Maybe thats part of their marketing scheme, to get people new to Linux to pay for OpenSuSE since they don't know if free.... I don't know, that wouldn't make sense because most people hear about Linux from someone who is allready using it and they will always say "its free".

[Daniel ~]

Things may have change booman, I don't know, but there has been both free and pay for support for a long long time, I think I bought Suse 2.0 or somthing...finally got around to throwing away the manules....":O)

[ccperf721p]

Suse 11 is still at RC1 so you won't find it on the official downloads page. Looks like they are trying to put the preorder up for paying customers to put together some working capital.

[dsio]

I should point out that under the GPL they are required to provide it, so don't worry.

RedHat Enterprise Linux is a commercial linux that you can only get by paying, however like everyone else they are legally bound to publish the source code and make it available to anyone that wants it.

Enter CentOS, which is nothing more than RedHat Enterprise Linux with the redhat trademarks and logos removed. You can get CentOS anywhere and it is absolutely and completely identical to RHEL in every way.

If Novell ever did the same thing with SuSE, there would be a clone of it overnight made available for nothing. That is the beauty of the GPL, if you take without giving back, you leave yourself open to being beaten over the head with it.

[booman]

So is this a "hype" strategy? They want us to purchase OpenSuSE or wait for the free version...

[Redroar]

They want you to pre-order it. You won't get it any sooner than the download...I guess they're just trying to get cash out of the people who like a box.

[booman]

I'll admit, I'm not too interested in boxes. Not even the really pretty ones.

[Moosy]

openSUSE 11.0 is available as a free download. The openSUSE project is a opensource community project (sponsored by Novell)

openSUSE 10.x was available for download and you could purchase the boxed version. The boxed version includes a fancy DVD, a paper manual and installation support.

Nothing has changed

[cloasters]

I wish SuSE wasn't bought by Novell. And for only $62 million, IIRC. No likee what Novell did to the distro.

[Áedán]

I don't have a problem with SuSE offering a paid for product that includes installation support, manuals and a DVD (as they have done for years). After all, it does allow people to support SuSE by buying a product.

[Daniel ~]

Not to mention learn Suse in a more structured way...or at lest I'd hope so!
(I never actually opened those manules...sorry ":O}