[SLUG] Another Distro

[Paul Teasdale]

>
> On 12 Oct 2003, darren rogers wrote:
>
>  Hi everyone
>
>  Just trying out Suse 8.2 distro I got on DVD with Linux Magazine,
>  looking quiet nice. Great hardware support......
>
>  Darren
>
>> From: "Jamie Adams"
>> Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 11:05 PM
>>
>> I have never tried SuSe myself, but I would like to give it a whirl. What
are
>> the licence restrictions on the copy you have? I was under the impression
that
>> SuSe had stopped offering 'download' editions.
>>

As you may or may not know I have been using SuSE 8.1 Pro on my laptop for
sometime now. I also have a copy of SuSE 8.2 Pro but have never used it
because I have got my laptop set up just as I want it and upgrading would
probably risk breaking something. SuSE is my favourite 'desktop' distro and
does a fairly good job at detecting all your hardware correctly at install.

As for SuSE licensing I have never been really sure of what you can and
can't do regarding its distribution. SuSE don't seem to release ISO images
of their OS other than the SuSE Live Evaluation CD (BTW it's a little bit
like Knoppix and by that I mean you just boot from the CD and off you go).
You can however (or so I believe) install the latest version of SuSE via NFS
for free but as you can imagine that's a little long winded & slow. Also I
don't know what you would do here if you had a nice new PC with no operating
system on it - how do you start - from the Evaluation CD may be one
possiblity or a boot disk??

A big thread about SuSE licensing issues went off on the York LUG mailing
list a few months back and there was mixed views regarding the use of copied
SuSE disks. Firstly the definite fact of it is that 98% of the stuff in SuSE
can be distributed because of its license (ie: GPL or similar) and SuSE
can't restrict anyone else from distributing it without themselves breaking
the license agreement of the original authors. One of the YLUG chaps said he
worked on the SuSE help desk and you cannot copy and distribute it but
another one of the chaps said you could copy it but were not allowed to
charge for it due to the licensing of YAST which is SuSE installer & setup
tool.

I have also looked on the SuSE website with regards to licensing and still
can't find anything definite regarding distribution. Another question: If
you buy one copy of SuSE can you install it on many PCs? The more questions
you ask the worse it seems to get!!

Just as final point on this issue there are lots of vendors on eBay that
offer SuSE and they don't seem to have any trouble even though they charge
for it (or are they getting out of this by claiming the charge is for the
media only and not the actual software?). SuSE as a company must know that
this is going on and to be honest eBay are fairly good at clamping down on
illegal auctions; one complaint from SuSE (especially if legal action is
mentioned) and all the vendors auctions would be ended immediately.
Furthermore vendors re-submitting their cancelled auction would probably be
kicked off eBay. Is this a sign that it's OK to distribute SuSE? Maybe,
maybe not, I don't really know.

I have in the past seen SuSE given away on magazine cover disks but only, in
my experience, when there has been a newer version around. For example SuSE
6.2 was on one of the Linux Format DVDs a while back but I think version 7
was out at the time. In Darrens case Linux Magazine must have come to
agreement with SuSE that allowed LM to put 8.2 on the cover disk as it is
the current version for now (which is probably good for both companies in
the long run).

Jamie: If Darren can't get you a copy of the DVD then tip me a wink and I
will do you a copy of the CDs and bring them along to the next meeting.

On a slightly different note does anyone have a copy of Slackware 9.1 yet? I
would love to get my hands on the 4 CD set so if someone would do me a copy
I will gladly replace the CDRs and ply you with drinks at the next meeting.
I know they will probably end up on the Linux Format DVD eventually but I
want to have a fiddle with Slackware over winter and I'm itching to go!!

Regards,

Paul.