Title: HowTo: Keeping SuSE current and up to date
Description: Why SuSE is different from MS in this manner.




SuSE release a new version of their boxed set every six months. It's expensive to keep updated for home users and MS is cheaper over a five year period. Why don't SuSE make it cheaper for us home users...?



You're comparing apples with oranges.

A -> You DON'T need to buy the updated box set every 6 months. Unlike other OS's, it isn't strictly necessary to keep on the upgrade treadmill for a start. Security upgrades and bug fixes are provided free of charge for approximately 2 years.

B -> All versions of SuSE are available for FREE over a ftp install. NOTE: the ftp version merely misses out those programs whose licenses prohibit distribution in such a way - they can still be installed, but require just a little extra work afterwards. Also there may be commercial apps whose license means SuSE cannot give away for free (because for example they may have paid for them). However, this is merely a fraction of a percent of the distro and DOES not distract from the value of SuSE - for example, Mandrake does exactly the same.

C -> SuSE also allow you to download the DVD iso of the newest version, but this takes around 4 weeks to appear on their servers after the launch of the boxed product. See http://www.novell.com/products/linuxprofessional/downloads/suse_linux For the eval version which is, as they say

• This is a installable selection of SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 which comes with a comprehensive selection of applications to facilitate a wide variety of computing tasks (office suite, email, Internet, picture processing, multimedia and more) and comes as a 32bit and 64bit version with over 1,000 software packages.

• This free offering will enable Linux users to trial the latest open source desktop, server and application functionality that has become the hallmark of the SUSE LINUX consumer distribution.

D -> Unlike the MS version of an upgrade package, you can buy the cheaper upgrade package of SuSE WITHOUT an older version. All the Upgrade version misses out is the fine printed manuals, which ARE however provided as pdf's.

E -> The price of the boxed set actually covers the printed documentation, which is excellent, as well as a short period of installation support direct from SuSE/Novell. In addition, the cost of the boxed set is a way of supporting SuSE financially and keeping this excellent company afloat.

• Don't confuse free software as "free as in beer", free software is "free as in choice" and a small financial contribution (say one boxed set every two-three years) is an excellent way of supporting free software and keeping it free (as in choice) for everyone.

Sidenote:
Question: "Why a 6 month release cycle".
Answer: "For the money".
To explain why, is that SuSE is putting lots of money in many many projects, from bootsplash to kde. Also there are a lot of developers on the SuSE payroll worldwide. So to earn some of that money back it is logical they do it by selling a new version. (the ftp version only costs SuSE money)
One of the reasons that the developing of GNU/Linux is going so hard last years is because of distro`s like SuSE.(and many other distro`s of course). In short it is just the fact that SuSE need to gain money themselves so they can plough it back into the community.

Sources:
http://www.suse.com∞

Credits:
http://www.suselinuxsupport.de∞
http://www.suse.com∞

Comments or Suggestions:
http://forums.suselinuxsupport.de/index.php?showtopic=13738∞