> I don't follow the german suse-linux list,

The archive of the german suse-linux list is online:
http://lists.suse.com/archive/suse-linux/2003-Nov/

Lots of posters think that this deal won't be good for SuSE. Especially for
the small private customer of SuSE linux and because of the small list of
Novell acquired companies that actually profit from the acquisition. There
are also voices that fear that yet another big german (european) software
house is sold out to the US, which not only leaves a very bad taste but
could also affect the good german localisation of SuSE Linux and - due to
US-legal issues - the . rpm packages that ship with the distribution. It has
also been said that the price for SuSE was too low and far below it's real
market value. (Some people even ask, how long it will take till SAP will be
sold to the US)
To sum up the "negative" side: Probably lots of private customers will look
at other distributions more closely in future - Debian was mentioned several
times.

Of course there are postings too on the list that think that this "merger"
will be good for the Linux movement and will increase force on Microsoft.
Especially the SuSE employees see the acquisition positively, it seems.

My personal opinion: SuSE Linux has been bought here (German, Austria)
mostly because of the good localisation and because it was a european
(german) software house. Now that it's a US one, I see no reason to prefer
it over another (RedHat..) Linux distribution. I'm of the opinion that this
acquistion is bad for the european IT industry in the long term, but -
sure - it will have it's pro's. If Novell manages to get Mono, SuSE and it's
own services into one box, this will be a superb offer. Drawback: For big
enterprises only, it seems.

So good bye SuSE & Yast, welcome NuSE & Nast,
Willi