> Running a business on SUSE Personal is like playing with fire...you
> will get burned by not having a support infrastructure in place. Don't
> get me wrong - this code is what SLES is built from, however SUSE
> Personal is not supported and has a 6 month lifecycle. SLES is fully
> supported by a huge ecosystem and it's lifecycle is up to 7 years now.
I tend to differ in that I am very devoted to using SuSE Linux to run
my personal business. I do upgrade very frequently (probably averages
every 6 to 8 months) and haven't had any problems at all in doing so.
I've done the upgrades so often that I only need to block out a 3 or 4
hours in the evening to get it completely done - and most of that time
is waiting for the data to be transferred from the CDs.
There are just a few simple rules to follow:
1. Document the compile and/or install process of any packages that
need to be installed that are not part of SuSE.
2. When you edit any config files, either document the changes you
make or make backups of those files which have been affected.
3. For storing data and documents: Designate one or more partitions as
data partitions. Only use partitions that do not need to be mounted
during a SuSE upgrade. (Personally, I use /home). If you need to store
anything outside of these areas, document them so you can back them up
before an upgrade. This also lets you easily conserve your data backup
bandwidth.
This way, when you need to upgrade to the next SuSE version, you can
make your backups and then boot from the CD, mount your hard drive
partitions (except for those you designated as data partitions) and
delete EVERYTHING from them. Be careful you do not mount any of your
data partitions.
When you install the newest version of SuSE, tell it NOT to format any
of the partitions. Do not have it mount your data partitions yet. You
can change that later. Go ahead and install SuSE, then you can add in
your data partitions after it's all installed.
For my /home partition, I also go in and move all the hidden files and
subdirectories and mail folders into a backup folder so as not to
cause any config version conflicts. The users can then reference the
backup folder to restore their personal configurations.
This sounds like alot of work to go through, but to me, it's alot less
hassle than shelling out the big bucks to M$ for server licensing and
then when a problem occurs, waiting 4 hours for M$ tech support, only
to get half-baked break-fixes for undocumented "features" of various
services.
Regardless of the OS, I have generally found "support infrastructures"
very impersonable and less than desirable. They also come with a
premium of their own, which I do not find cost-effective. If
umpty-nine million people have had the same problem as you, you may
have to do the same thing that all the rest have done. Pay for tech
support.
With SuSE (and many of the other distros), everything is pretty much
documented anyway and isn't hard to find these days. Quite often, if I
run into a problem, many others have already had the same problem. It
doesn't take me long to find a solution after a few carefully drafted
queries to some choice search engines. Quite often, even just
"Googling" up a query gets me satisfactory results.
When I run into a problem, I usually start with google.com, then on to
ask.com and then I check out SourceForge.net (or the web site of the
author), www.tldp.org and then to SuSE's sites.
The only issue that has never been resolved is how to use my HP
scanner in Linux, and I don't think even any support infrastructures
would have an answer for that one.
As a side note, I'm not going to upgrade from SuSE 9.3 until OpenSuse
is stable. I've gotten updates (via the SuSE Watcher) from SuSE as
long as a year after the release date.
On 8/14/05, John Pugh <jpugh@novell.com> wrote:
> >>> On Sun, Aug 14, 2005 at 2:44 pm, in message
> <200508141836.j7EIaOeP019329@ms-smtp-05.tampabay.rr.com>,
> kelliott4@tampabay.rr.com wrote:
> > I received my Novell 9.3 Technical Resource Kit. I was disappointed
> that
> > it only contained ISOs for burning Live CDs. I went ahead and burned
> the
> > CDs and tried them. Frankly, I could not see any reason to upgrade
> our
> > servers from SuSE 9.1 to 9.3. I'm pretty sure I must be missing
> something,
> > but the Live CD certainly did NOT do a good job of selling me on
> buying
> > upgrades.
> >
> > The first Technical Resource Kit was great. This one has become
> shelfware.
> > Meanwhile, I'm playing with Fedora Core on one test server and Debian
> on
> > another. The lack of an installable version of SuSE limits my
> ability to
> > evaluate.
> >
> > Odd that the powers- that- be would not include access to an open
> source
> > product. This seems to play into the hands of those who say that
> Novell
> > doesn't "get" open source.
> >
> > Ken Elliott
> > =====================
> >
> > ----- Original Message-----
> > From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of Bob Foxworth
> > Sent: Friday, August 12, 2005 11:42 PM
> > To: slug@nks.net
> > Subject: Re: [SLUG] New Novell 9.3 Technical Resource Kit
> >
> >
> >
> >> >>>I do not know about the rest of you I never recieved mine.
> >> >>>It was ordered and have yet to see the Resource Kit.
> >> >>>
> >> >>>Bill Preece
> >
> >
> >> >>>>>>with the 9.1 ver in it which is what I am running right now
> on
> > my work
> >> >>>>>>laptop. I would certainly like to get that one to. I guess I
> did
> >> >>>>>not >answer
> >> >>>>>>one of the questions right with I ordered the original one...
> >
> >
> > Consider doing this.
> >
> > Create a company name. Rent a PO Box in that name. Register the name
> with
> > the State as a "fictitious name" ($10/year) Have all your corporate
> mail
> > sent there. Should improve your chances.
> > Also helps in getting trade magazines.
> >
> > - Bob
> >
>
> To start - open source does not mean free. Nothing is free. Open source
> is the freedom to do with it what you please provided you adhere to the
> license agreement - in the case of SUSE Linux that would be GPL.
>
> Running a business on SUSE Personal is like playing with fire...you
> will get burned by not having a support infrastructure in place. Don't
> get me wrong - this code is what SLES is built from, however SUSE
> Personal is not supported and has a 6 month lifecycle. SLES is fully
> supported by a huge ecosystem and it's lifecycle is up to 7 years now.
>
> The Technical resource kit is just that...a resource kit.
>
> If you want to download SUSE Linux - simply go to opensuse.org and
> download away!
>
> JP
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
> Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
> posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
> official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 20:04:38 EDT