I've followed Linux for a long time now. Most of the posts on my other blog (now deleted) related to Linux opined that it wasn't yet ready for prime time. When Novell bought SUSE Linux a year or so ago, it looked like another in a long sequence of Novell missteps. How can any business with overhead like Novell make money with a basically free product??
Novell had botched so many things. Ten years or so ago, they had 80% plus of the server market with the Novell operating system. They botched that. Then they decided that the way to combat Microsoft's rise was to "integrate" and create a "suite" of products. They bought ailing Lotus, and WordPerfect and bundled them with the database Paradox (in its various incarnations) from Borland. They botched that.
So when Novell jumped into the fray and bought SUSE, I suspected that this was another in a long list of botched strategic moves. It may yet prove so.
But at least for this release of Linux, Novell is getting good reviews. And the sentiment that there needs to be an alternative other than Microsoft is growing in some quarters.
