I have been running RedHat and then Fedora as my desktop for work since RedHat 5 in December 1997. Back then it was mostly about becoming familiar with Unix so that I could administer the various Unices I had inherited as part of a new job. Having gotten used to the power of the shell and the many developer tools built in, as I transitioned from IT Management to development, it was natural to stay on the platform.
In the 8 years I have been running Linux I have never had a virus. An unpatched version of e-smith which I was using as a home gateway was once hacked but not damaged. That wakeup call made me pay attention to regular patching even in my home systems. Along with the lack of security hassles, it has been a very stable platform. Consequently losing work or productivity is pretty much a dim memory from my days on Windows.
Over the 8 years desktop Linux has steadily improved. Gnome and KDE came along. Sun decided to support Linux for Java and almost all enterprise software companies support it too. Life on Linux became easier and easier. Indeed things have become so good that in the last few years whole development teams have been running Linux.
When RedHat decided most of its money was to be made on the server they decided to create the Fedora project. The initial release was of the same quality as RedHat 9. Over time that has slipped. Fedora Core 4 is pretty good, but there is stuff that used to work better that now has problems. One example is the networking configuration. Originally I did this with text files. Then graphical config tools came along. In Fedora Core 4 it is necessary to delete a network configuration and then create a new one to make a change. For me it is a simple workaround, but a painful one to first discover.
What it amounts to I think, is the QA difference between a beta quality product and a production ready one. One of the reasons I enjoy Linux is the stable and productive base for development it gives me. Niggling hassles which have come in to the distro destroy part of that utility.
Before anyone suggests Mac OS X, know that I have been using it as my home digitial hub for three years now, and just this week upgraded my PowerMac to a dual core G5. (Yes I know about the move to Intel but the performance is comparable, the PowerMac is here now, and my old one got fried in a storm). Mac OS X is good to develop on, and I do so at home. However for a Java developer it is a second tier platform. Apple do their own JDK which typically lags 6 months to a year behind. I also like to develop on the platform that will be used for production. Mac OS X Server is not really in the mainstream and so far no clients of mine have been interested in running it.
I could also move back to Windows. However every time I use it, I feel like I have been neutered. No decent shell, no workspaces, a horrible registry and so on. (Sources at Microsoft tell me that there have been 3 so far unsuccessful attempts to rid the world of the registry). Philosophically, I also have a problem with monopolies, part of a long family tradition going back to our time as Huguenots.
So, I was pretty sure I wanted to stay on Linux, was fed up with RedHat’s Fedora policy. The number two Linux system for enterprise has always been SuSE, so I thought that was worth a look. Also, I did a stint at Novell last year and witnessed a company wide migration that was going very smoothly. Seeing my Novell Linux Desktop neighbours working with it, from programmers to project managers, and no one complaining, I thought it was worth a look. Still, I could not fathom Novell’s policy toward its free edition. SuSE 9 was the last version on the mirrors that I usually download from. References to it were buried deep in the labyrinthine Novell website. So I remained probably the only Fedora user on the Novell network. I did however complain long and hard to anyone that would listen. My main argument was that developers select the OS which when the software is done tends then to result in purchase of a commercial version for production. That is how things have tended to work. So, even though you do not make any direct money from a free version of your distro, it leads directly to revenue 6 months to a year later. My comments found a lot of support within Novell and trickled through to the product manager.
Anyway for whatever reasons Novell decided to release OpenSuSE and make a full effort of it. My main reason for not trying it went away. It has taken me until laptop changeover time to take a closer look at it. I have been using it for a few weeks now and am mightily impressed. It is up to date, slick and has the feel of a well tested and polished product. While a little foreign to me, the idea of only releasing security patches to a version, not updates, strikes me as a reasonable compromise. You get to enjoy production quality while trading the very latest. Given the maturity of Linux now, there is often little reason to want to go to a new version outside of major releases. That was not true in the past. If I do want to get the latest stuff I can always add a YaST source for it. The biggest problem for me is lack of familiarity which would be the issuse with any change, and the fact that Novell’s year away from promoting a free version has left a bit of a gap out there. You tend to find lots of packages for SuSE 9 but not for OpenSuSE 10. Having said that. everything is set up, all packages I need I have and everything works great. Stuff like CrossOver Office made the transition seamlessly. I just created a bottle (CrossOver speak for a self-contained file system) on my old system, archived it and brought it across.
It seems that other Linux users have been having similar thoughts. distrowatch.com reports on Linux distributions. OpenSuSE is number three on the top 10 list, ahead of fedora. It is beaten by Ubuntu and Mandriva, neither of which have enterprise server usage. Looking at the page hits metric over different time periods, it looks like OpenSuSE may move into second position. When looking at the last month it edges out Mandriva. Where have the new users come from? What is the distro in decline? Fedora. Lookout RedHat. If my theory is sound we will see the commercial versions of SuSE start to get more marketshare later this year. Of course RedHat could always improve the quality of Fedora. Lets hope they do so and the virtuous circle is completed.
