[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Novell SuSe DVD's... -- SLP != SLSS/SLES

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Sun, 2004-09-12 at 13:30, Will Senn wrote:
> Bryan J. Smith wrote about the LTRK and correctly pointed out that it 
> contained a variety of evaluation versions.

Thanx for confirming.

> Bryan,
> Your comments cover a lot of territory, from SLES to Suse Linux 
> Professional 9.1.

Correct.  People seem to be confused on SuSE's product line.  Just so
everyone knows:  

  Consumer:  SuSE Linux Personal and Professional
Enterprise:  SuSE Linux Standard and Enterprise Server

> However, I must point out that Suse Linux Professional 9.1 is freely
> downloadable sans a tiny, tiny minority of proprietary non-freely
> distributable apps

Correct, as with most _commercial_ distributions.  To give Novell a lot
of credit, now that SuSE is part of a company that specializes in
proprietary (again, that's not necessarily a "bad" word) directory
service, messenging, etc..., Novell has started to GPL what it considers
"commodity" technologies.

As such, I'm excited to see what Novell is going to do with the
"consumer" products in the coming years.

> (name one without looking it up and you get a gold star).

YaST used to be the "biggie," but even it's GPL now.  I see Novell
making at least SuSE Linux Personal 100% redistributable.  The only
except would be sans the trademarks when you create an unlicensed
derivative.

Red Hat is the only major commercial distributor that had to address
this prior.  But now that SuSE Linux Personal is almost (or completely
now?) there, I wonder how Novell will address it as more people and
companies show an interest in using SuSE as a "base distribution."

Especially with Novell's backing, who _is_ now operating in the black
thanx to _finally_ shedding their previous UNIX attempts.

> Symantically speaking it can be argued that this makes it other than
> 'Suse Linux Professional 9.1' (I'm not going there).  I must point out
> that your interpretation of evaluation as "not legal for production
> use" doesn't appear in any license I could find.

I wasn't talking with respect to the "consumer" releases.  You _can_ use
SuSE Linux Personal _and_ Professional _in_ production.  They are _not_
evaluation versions.  Sorry for any confusion.

I was talking about the SuSE Linux Standard and Enterprise Server
releases in the Novell "evaluation kits" or "evaluation downloads."

Again, sorry for any confusion.

> The Suse Linux Professional 9.1 DVD says that the software is Licensed
> for Evaluation Only and Transfer Prohibited.

Yes, because the SuSE Linux Professional has value-add.  I don't think
that will change anytime soon either.

> It also says to look at the DVD 1a readme.txt for more information.
> The readme does not mention a single word about not using the software
> with production systems.

Correct.  I was talking about SLSS/SLES -- different issue.

> The only license information that is included that relates to Suse
> Linux Professional 9.1 as a unit is the GPL and another file called
> COPYING that explains that not all of the software in the DVD is bound
> by the terms of the GPL and that you must abide by each software's own
> license.

Correct.  Even Fedora Core ships with non-GPL, non-GPL license
compatible software.  But _all_ software on Fedora Core, as well as the
Red Hat Linux releases before it, were 100% redistributable.  But SuSE
is adding a few value-add components in the Professional version. 
Again, not sure about SuSE Linux Personal these days, now that YaST and
a few other items have been GPL'd by Novell.

But in _all_ cases of the "consumer" SuSE Linux release, you _can_ use
then in production.  I concur with you.  Again, there's a lot of
confusion because there are 4 products of 2 categories.

> Perhaps, you feel that this is what 'evaluation' means rather than being 
> a definition provided by SUSE? I would agree that deploying a bunch of 
> 'evaluation' workstations withouth paying SUSE for them and using a LTRK 
> DVD, would be unethical.

That's what I mean on the Novell "evaluation kit."

> However, I don't think that the licensing precludes the use of the
> software in production (single instance).

Correct.

> Still, if you know of a license agreement that explains the limits of 
> the evaluation, I'd be interested in reading it.

-- Bryan

P.S.  Or are you saying that Novell is now shipping SuSE Linux
Professional 9.1, and not SuSE Linux Standard Server or SuSE Linux
Enterprise Server, as part of its "evaluation kit" (I've only seen the
latter)?  That would be interesting.  If this is the case, _is_ Novell
saying that all the value-added components _are_ properly licensed?  Or
that you must purchase them _if_ you are going to use them in
production.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith                                  b.j.smith at ieee.org 
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