Re: [Info-stow] *SUSE (was: texi2any vs texi2html)

[Adam Spiers]

On Mon, Nov 21, 2016 at 11:01:04AM +0300, Jean Louis wrote:
> Oh, Adam, I was thinking SuSE has a package manager

Yes, it uses rpm.

> and type of
> customers who would try anything to avoid messing with GNU Stow.

Stow is a symlink farm manager, not a package manager.  I realise that
in the past it was described as a package manager, but these days
package managers have evolved so far beyond simple management of files
in a package (tracking dependencies, checksums, and lots of other
metadata) that Stow no longer fits that description.

There is no way that Stow could ever replace rpm, nor would it make
sense to try.  Stow has very different use cases which are
complementary to rpm, for example managing dotfiles and other software
within users' home directories.

> Obviously I know SuSE since long time. I remember when I got it first
> time, there was few proprietary software packages on it, preventing me
> to copy the whole CD to somebody. I felt really bad. 99.9% packages
> were free, and just 1-2 non-free, and I could not copy the CD. I guess
> things changed today?

Yes, things changed a lot.  For a start, the names changed, like I
said:

- openSUSE Project: community project to build Linux distributions and
  associated tools, all built on FL/OSS:

    https://www.opensuse.org/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenSUSE_Project

- SUSE: a multinational, FL/OSS software company that develops and
  sells Linux products to business customers. Founded in 1992, it was
  the first company to market Linux for the enterprise. It is also the
  primary sponsor of openSUSE Project which develops the openSUSE
  Linux distribution. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of
  Micro Focus International.

    https://www.suse.com/
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SUSE

- SuSE: This has not existed since ~2004.  Please don't refer to it.

Both openSUSE and SUSE are doing really really well these days :-)