[lug] debian

[Ferdinand Schmid]

--On Monday, September 22, 2003 03:58:19 PM -0600 Kirk Rafferty
<kirk at fpcc.net> wrote:

> Ferdinand is correct, SuSE and Red Hat are very different.  This is
> one of the reason that Red Hat and SuSE "fans" are so fervent in
> their support of one, and condemnation of the other. :)

I don't condemn RedHat users although I mostly run SuSE.  What brought
me to SuSE is their higher quality standards and support of newer
hardware/software.  You can, for example, select a ReiserFS, XFS, JFS,
or ext3 file system to install to right out of the box without
touching the kernel or its modules.  ACPI was included for a while
now, which allows you to run on newer laptops.  You can do all of this
with RedHat - but it requires better user skills and more time.  I am
willing to pay the distro price for these services.

However, I do have to admit that it bugs me when people think RedHat
IS Linux and every other distro descends from RedHat.  My assessment
is that RedHat does a much better job marketing Linux than any other
Linux company.  SuSE does a better job creating technically solid
Linux distro (including security services) for everyday Linux users.
SuSE's Linux marketing is terrible at best - but they really
contribute lots of innovative features to Linux, often together with
IBM (like porting Linux to Mainframes, and being a major contributor
for the Athlon64 port).  Of course RedHat also innovates and SuSE also
markets - lets not forget who developed RPM ;)

We really need both, PR and technology.  So I am very glad that RedHat
is such a visible Linux IT company.

> However, I have to disagree that SuSE is "quite a bit older than
> RedHat."
> 
> SuSE was "established in 1992" (I don't know the exact month):
> http://www.suse.de/us/company/press/press_releases/archive02/sles_xeo
> n.html
> 
> Red Hat started in March, 1993:
> http://www.redhat.com/mktg/rh10year/

So SuSE started its Linux services (not a distro) just about when
Linus got his first versions of the kernel running.  RedHat started a
year later - 10 years after they started this difference has shrunk
below the 10% margin.  I have to agree with you on that point.

> Not that it matters.  Both are great distros, and you really couldn't
> go wrong with either one.

Thanks for your thoughtful comment on my message,
Ferdinand

--
Ferdinand Schmid
Architectural Energy Corporation
Celebrating 21 Years of Improving Building Energy Performance
http://www.archenergy.com