At least compare like with like. OpenSUSE is comparable to Ubuntu whereas suse enterprise edition is comparable to Ubuntu + a support contract. Your comparison is nonsensical when you take this into account.

What you get from the 1,289 from buying SUSE Enterprise is a *support contract*. You can use as much SUSE Enterprise, and get zero support for free.

What does a support contract give you? Things like:

* Critical fixes delivered on a timely basis
* A phone number you can call in for problems
* An email address you can use to cry in case of trouble and get consolation in the form of bug fixes
* Priority support for your reported bugs
* Updates that have been QAed, not one of those “shit, I installed the update and now nothing works”
* Support for binary compatibility for 7 years.

Of course, if you have plenty of time in your hands, you will just admin your machine, and upgrade to the cutting edge every six months. Whether software runs or not, that is an entirely different issue. At least with Enterprise supported platforms (RHEL and SLES) you can plan that software you deploy today will work for 7 years without forcing you to re-deploy and rebuild or fix your software.

But it is a service. Do not like it? Do not buy it.

Amazon sells mostly (99%) from Music Industry. The same Music Industry that’s busy buying worldwide legislation to criminalize even looking at their products without paying.
Legislation that goes beyond simple copyright infringement, that will remove some of the basics legal guarantees that we in the west have taken for granted.

Legislation that will affect free software development and distribution.

Sell your principles for 30 pieces!

@AG
The brilliant argument: “they could be even worse”. That’s a wonderful reason for accepting a bad deal. I want to use that same philosophy in my own life! Why fight injustice, just accept them, because they could even worse. Hilarious!

Given that developers need to live from something, do you think it is a good idea to badmouth Ubuntu for taking $12 (and giving $4 to GNOME), whereas Novell is taking $1289 and giving $16 to GNOME?

I understand that there is some rivalry between the projects, but I don’t understand why SUSE developers seem to assume that Ubuntu developers should work for free.

Blog posts like your put me off Suse and it’s products, which is sad since I like Free-Software and I’m happy about every company that pays developers to work on those great projects.

(and just becauseI can already guess what you might say to this: yes: I know OpenSuse is free, no: that changes nothing. What is important how the payed developers get paid! And the business model of Novel and Canonical differ. That’s the point…)

However, I do think the users have the right to know whom they donate to, and which project they support. Some people might also prefer to support Canonical instead of the GNOME foundation.

It’s also a strange argument that once you choose an open source license, you cannot comment anymore on how people are using your code. Using a free license and not putting narrow restrictions on your users, distributors, and fellow coders does neither mean that you have to approve everything they do, nor does it mean that you have to keep your mouth shut.

I have been reading a lot about the latest OpenSUSE and it sounds nice, but lots of blog post like the one above don’t make me even want to try it out, I will rather find another distro with positive people behind it then this whining community.

Oh, yay for Mark; such a good person. He doesn’t take it all, he leaves some for us.