Does SuSE Stand a Chance?

After much consideration, Emmett gives Novell’s acquisition of SuSE Linux his thumbs up. Here’s why.

by Emmett Dulaney
1/19/2005 — A little over a year ago, Novell decided that it wanted to change direction and become a Linux company. While this decision from what was once an Intel-networking market giant did not seem all that odd — after all, IBM has tread similar water — its decision to purchase SuSE lock, stock and barrel left more than a few observers scratching their heads.

SuSE has long been a darling in the Linux community, respected for its distribution and variations (it is now up to version 9.2 and comes in Personal, Professional and Server Enterprise versions). Germany-based Novell is a market leader in Europe and is well known for its focus on security and reliability, not to mention usability. Combining the esteemed SuSE with Novell, written off by many as a dinosaur of days past, begs the question, “Can SuSE survive?”

I wobbled on the fence for a while, did some research and came to a conclusion that I’m very comfortable with. My answer is that it’ll not only survive under the new arrangement, but also flourish within a short period of time.

To substantiate this, consider the following five items: