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11.13.08 Linux Competition Questioned  By Doug Caverly The plots of countless fantasy and sci-fi stories have followed warring factions as they join forces against some great evil. Then the little guys win and are friends forever after. Only if you try to apply this concept to the real-world positions of Linux and its competitors, we seem to be stuck in the first, completely noncooperative act. Novell and Red Hat may be to blame. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols writes, "On November 11th, Novell announced a new subscription and support program 'designed to aid customers making the transition from their existing third-party Linux distribution to SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server).' What makes this interesting is that the three-year SLES subscription under this plan also includes two years of technical support for a customer's existing Linux deployments while they make the SLES transition."
Vaughan-Nichols then continues, "That's new. I can't recall ever seeing a vendor offering to support the competition's offering while helping you to transition to their product." Meanwhile, Microsoft and Apple are presumably enjoying not having the entire Linux community focused on overtaking them. Have you noticed more behavior of this sort? Do you think the in-fighting is getting better or worse over time? The trend might not be entirely negative, of course, as competition between Linux companies should make for superior Linux products. It's all something to think about, anyway. About the Author: Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news. |
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