[ Thanks to Ladislav Bodnar for this
link. ]
“SuSE is sometimes criticised by the media and the Linux
community for four different reasons. The first one is a thorny
issue of not providing freely downloadable ISO images of their
products. The second is the marketing ploy of shipping two editions
of boxed sets, of which the cheaper Personal edition lacks so many
vital applications that it is impossible to recommend it — unless
you are buying it for the grandma. None of SuSE’s main competitors,
such as Red Hat or Mandrake have ever resorted to such lowly
money-spinning tactics.“Unavailability of open beta testing is another sore point and
yet another area where SuSE differs from the rest. Then there is
that subtle arrogance of a corporation’s marketing department –
quickly embracing any praise that comes SuSE’s way while flatly
refusing to accept any criticism as valid. This is a major
difference between SuSE and Mandrake; try to offer a critical look
at an aspect of the Mandrake distribution and they will react
quickly, publish the story and open up for suggestions and
improvements by their users. Not so at SuSE.“Amazingly though, SuSE still remains one of the top Linux
distributions. How did they achieve it? The obvious hard work is no
doubt behind the success. By implementing that legendary German
quality of being notoriously obsessed with precision, by following
clear and logical guidelines and by providing an efficient and
eye-pleasing environment to accomplish those daily tasks, SuSE has
definitely won the hearts of many. SuSE 8.0 is another great
milestone as you will shortly find out if you follow this story
till the end…”