this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Oh wow. SUSE family of distribution is relatively small footprint. Whole story sounds like "splitting the hair". The only reasonable explanation is that SUSE hired some self-glorified marketer from big corp. omg...
No, there are good reasons for it. A lot of people get confused between SUSE and openSUSE offerings. Often SUSE customers show up in openSUSE places, because they believe that it's a place they can get official support. And I'm sure a lot of potential customers might get confused in the same way too.
On the flip side there are also a lot of openSUSE (adjacent) users who think SUSE is (secretly or not) making openSUSE development decisions or think they can dand SUSE to do that and that.
So there are some good reasons to consider a rebranding, but also some speaking against it, like the less of recognition it might entail.
And you really think, people who are willing and able to buy enterprise support for their Linux distro get confused by the naming? Sure, there's that one confused dude, but you also have people asking Facebook where they left their keys.
OpenSuse is essentially free marketing for SUSE, nobody would know them otherwise. Why would you give that away?
Suse is not a huge company, it has neither a large enterprise backer nor any killer features, and its market share is relatively small compared to Red Hat or Canonical. Throwing away free marketing while alienating a relatively passionate community is a kind of brainrot only MBA can come up with.
No, I don't think that. I *know* that because I'm active in the community.
That is absolute nonsense. SUSE mostly serves large enterprise customers. That's an entirely different demographic from people who care about Desktop Linux or setting up a home server.
Edit:
I'm pretty sure SUSE is bigger than Canonical.
Editedit: According to wikipedia SUSE's revenue is about twice as high as Canonical's
And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information? Mind share is important.
That's actually surprising to me, but I'd argue that Suse offers more products, it seems like Rancher, Longhorn, etc. have no canonical equivalent.
Advertisements at large airports
OMG. This is so hilariously true.
If enterprise IT departments could decide what kind of IT infrastructure gets bought, systems administrators across the world would be elated.
Unfortunately, a lot of technical decisions are made in conferences, on golf courses, in sky boxes near stadiums, and in plain and simple YouTube ads.
I agree that mind share is important, but Fedora seems to be doing a fine job selling Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as did CentOS before it. You don't need to have an identical name as long as the company maintaining the free product has its logos everywhere.
Fedora is older than CentOS?
I was referring to the companies moving from CentOS to RHEL (or Rocky/Alma/whatever).now that CentOS is practically dead.
Most certainly not in Linux distro community spaces, because those are completely irrelevant for them and their needs.
Almost everybody that chooses SUSE ( SLE ) does so because of SAP.
I’m surprised and happy that SUSE is still doing well. I have fond memories of using SUSE in the enterprise especially around their “perfect guest” campaign for using it in virtualized environments. I thought they had very well-baked integration with large Windows networks—things just worked out of the box that didn’t with RHEL. I’m sure a lot has changed in the last decade but I appreciated their cooperative stance in the enterprise.
I've been working for big enterprises for many years, SUSE is used in enterprise environment to run SAP systems because it's recommended by SAP, OpenSuse has nothing to do with that.
And relying on marketing by someone you don't control is not good decision even if losing some mind share.
I am in the linux world 20+ years. Used SUSE for short amout of time back than and never really cared much about it, just glad it still exist.
This is the first time I am hearing openSUSE is not part od SUSE.
Having different name should be good for all. I think openSUSE people should have done it long time ago. But sounds like name is not the only problem.