Author: Benjamin D. Thomas
installation tool, users can be up and running
Linux on a drag-and-drop desktop in under 20 minutes. Advanced features include hardware acceleration for 3D graphics chips and a journaling
filesystem. SuSE Linux
Summary of Products and Services:
SuSE’s Linux
expertise has led its flagship product, the SuSE Linux
distribution, into becoming one of the most popular Linux distributions
worldwide. Now an international company, carefully localized versions of
SuSE Linux are available in many languages. SUSE Linux is available for
the Intel, Alpha, and Power PC* platforms. SuSE was founded in 1992, making it one of the earliest commercial Linux companies.
*Spring 2000.
In addition to its Linux distribution, SuSE provides professional services
to both enterprises and end users, offering technical support, consulting,
Partner Programs, and sales support to customers, resellers, and
distributors around the world. Because IT professionals respect the
reliability, comprehensive range of support, and level of technical
consulting SuSE offers them, SuSE is the platform of choice for server
systems at many companies.
SuSE is a technology leader in Linux. Through its SuSE Linux Labs division, SuSE contributes significantly
to Linux research and development with projects like XFree86, ALSA,
KDE, glibc, and kernel development, as well as with ports to other
platforms such as Sparc, Alpha and PPC, always releasing its contributions to the
Open Source community.
Staff:
SuSE has a solid engineering team: With over 250 employees worldwide,
two-thirds are employed in development, support, and information technology
service.
Because SuSE Labs is leading several important Linux development projects, more than 50 key developers from the Linux Community work
for SuSE. This level of Linux expertise enables SuSE to provide global
support for “mission-critical applications.”
Software Products: SuSE Linux Distribution
SuSE Linux comes with installation and administration tools, a
carefully maintained set of over 1500 applications, an extensive
manual, and 60 days of installation support. SuSE’s Linux distribution
adheres to international standards.
The current version, 6.3, premiered in early
December 1999 in both CDROM and DVD formats. Check http://www.suse.de/en
for upcoming information about new versions.
Non-Linux users sometimes wonder why SuSE releases an updated distribution every
4 months if Linux is so stable and reliable. The
quarterly releases allow the SuSE Development Team to bring the latest
Linux software and technical innovations to the market. However, while
Linux itself is continuously updated, SuSE controls its own releases.
SuSE only incorporates updates to the heart of the Linux operating system,
the kernel, when stable and when they provide performance improvements.
Experimental software outside the kernel is always labeled as such and
comes with documentation. SuSE ensures both innovation
and stability with every release.
In other services to its users, the majority of the new packages
are also available from our ftp server: ftp://ftp.suse.com. Technical information is always available online
through the support database.
Software Awards and Reviews:
The SuSE Linux distribution has won many different industry and user
awards, including:
- Favorite Linux Distribution: Linux World, Conference and Expo, February 2000 and March 1999
- Favorite Linux Distribution, Reader’s Choice Awards: Linux Journal, 1/99; PC
Professional 4/99; Computer Bild 6/99; PC Intern 4/99; PC Magazin 4/99, PC Answers 8/99
The SuSE Linux distribution is also frequently praised for having
excellent documentation, comprehensive hardware support, and an encyclopedic
set of Linux tools. The technical editor of Linux Journal Magazine,
a major US Linux publication, summarized many SuSE Linux benefits
when he stated in a recent review (10/99):
“SuSE is a serious, high-performance distribution which is more
complete than practically any single distribution, and at the same
time is clean and fast due to effective configuration and
intelligent design.”— Jason Kroll, Technical Editor, Linux Journal Magazine
SuSE Linux for Business
Businesses adopt Linux because it now features
business-level applications in addition to technical versatility
and economy for IT solutions. SuSE supports businesses with its
distribution as well as with associated applications running on the
SuSE Linux platform. Such applications include:
- Informix SE enterprise database solutions
- StarOffice 5.1 (Personal Edition) and Corel WordPerfect 8.0**
- “Linux Office Suite 99,” a SuSE product featuring a set of office
applications - ADABAS D Linux Edition
- Arkeia Backup Tools
SuSE Linux ISVs offering enterprise-level
applications include, among others:
- Hummingbird, provider of Exceed and other network connectivity and business intelligence products
- Appgen, a major provider of client/server-based general
business and accounting applications - Metrowerks, provider of professional software development
tools, including CodeWarrior(R) - Progessive Systems, a premier network security vendor
- Quadratec, providing backup and archival solutions
Combine SuSE’s popularity as a server platform with the availability of
business solutions on SuSE and SuSE technical support, and you have
solid business solutions.
Contact Information
SuSE Inc. can be contacted in the US at (510) 628-3380 or info@suse.com. The web site is
www.suse.com.
SuSE Linux AG, the international headquarters, can be contacted at +49 911 740 53 31 or suse@suse.de. The
international web site is www.suse.de.
v. 1.0 January 2000
SuSE Inc.
