Differentiating Novell and SUSE

Hey, I get confused as much as the next guy, believe me. But one thing I work at not doing is calling an apple and orange. Confused, let me explain. Basically, there are a number of people out there that are still confusing Novell with SUSE. Granted, SUSE is a Novell owned product, but they are still quite different.

Ever since Novell acquired SUSE, the Linux community has been wondering when and how SUSE Linux would change. Novell’s release of the Novell Linux Desktop (NLD) struck fear and confusion into many long-time SUSE users and Novell watchers.

The big red ‘N’ and Novell red are pervasive in NLD, but NLD is really orthogonal to Novell’s SUSE Linux 9.2. Unfortunately, Novell hasn’t done a very good job of explaining its Linux strategy except to say “we like it” and “Linux is the foundation for our future.”

With the release of SUSE 9.2 and various statements about the new NetWare, things seem to become more clear. What we now know as SUSE Linux will continue, though it will be increasingly branded as a Novell product. You can see that in the installer splash screen that accompanies SUSE 9.2 (see Figure 1), where SUSE is clearly “A Novell Business.”

While NLD is a descendant of SUSE Enterprise Linux and targeted towards the business desktop market, what we have always known as SUSE Linux should continue to thrive, perhaps with increasing query-replacement of SUSE with Novell and an increasing focus on English rather than German. For traditionalists, SUSE still provides LIESMICH files as an alternative to the more common READMEs.