[ILUG] SuSE

[Rick Moen]

Quoting John P. Looney (john at antefacto.com):

>  Nope. AFAIK, you can't burn iso's of SuSE anymore. They don't distribute
> them - you have to buy it, or make do with their SRPMs.

This isn't quite right.  Quoting from my standard explanation at
http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/linux-info/suse-product-strategy :


[Versions described were current as of 2002-03.  As of 2002-05, the v. 
8.0 i386 boxed set is out, and the 8.0 i386 live-eval ISO.]

On Fri, Mar 29, 2002 at 08:21:37AM -0800, John Mark Walker wrote:
> There's also this link: 
> http://distro.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/suse/suse/i386/live-eval-7.3/ 
> 
> That gets you most of the way there. You may need to install a few
> more random RPMs.

The "live-eval" wouldn't work.  It's a demo version that mounts the
CD-ROM as the root filesystem.

I'll explain:

SuSE want to be in the business of selling boxed sets, of which they
offer personal, professional, and enterprise editions at different
price points.   Each is a multi-CD set.  I believe 7.3 Professional is
eight CDs, for example.  7.3 is the current release of the boxed sets,
with 8.0 coming pretty soon.

SuSE attempt to forbid duplication of boxed sets:  They want to sell you
one, instead.

To promote the distribution, SuSE also make available a one-CD version
called the "evaluation" edition.  It's a complete distribution, but
obviously doesn't have as much as what's in the boxed sets.  Unlike the
boxed sets, it includes only publicly distributable software.  The
"evaluation" edition is also kept deliberately several versions behind.
Most recent "evaluation" edition out for i386 is 7.0.  I have a copy at
my desk.

As Mark S. noted in a different thread, SuSE also make something
approximating the current boxed set, but presumably without the software
that's cannot be legally distributed in public, available on their ftp
sites in a form that is Internet-installable.   E.g., one can find trees
on the Internet of 7.1, 7.2, and 7.3 for i386 in that format.  By
contrast, one cannot find downloadable ISO9660 (CD-ROM) images of any
version of 7.1/7.2/7.3:  That would be copyright violation.

So, when you see SuSE i386 ISO images on the Net, it's one of three
things:

1.  Evaluation edition.  This is fine and useful, but versions later
    than 7.0 don't exist. 
2.  Live-eval edition.  Not useful, as it's only a demo.
3.  Illegal distribution of ISO images copied from a boxed set.

-- Rick M.