I want to order the boxed version of Opensuse 12.1, but, as I am in Canada, I do not appear to be able to order from the German site. However, it appears that I am only able to order Balsam Professional 12.1 from godboxslx. They say it is the successor to Opensuse. This is news to me. Has Opensuse (or SuSE or Suse or what have you) changed its name? It would be a shame if SuSE linux were to change its name to something that makes no sense.
I wish simply to order the Opensuse 12.1 version.
Can someone help to explain what is “Balsam Professional 12.1” and whether I can order the boxed version of Opensuse 12.1?
openSUSE is merely the community distro, and doesn’t make any physical media and manuals, or provide paid support anymore. In the past it did. open-slx.de continues this service. Balsam 12.1 thus is their product. In that sense it is the successor to the openSUSE box set. But not the community distro.
So you have the choice to purchase such a box set from godboxslx which is the N.A. distributor for open-slx.de.
Besides two things may be added. Balsam Professional AFAIK does provide a limited installation support. As it is not openSUSE but Balsam professional, it seems (although I read this only in a journal) that the might detach from the rapid life cycle of openSUSE and offer a longer support on the version. Take the latter as a “rumor” as it was in a press article with the words “offers the opportunity to…”. If at the end they will do… is another question.
Just for people who bump into this searching for what Balsam Professional is: the first Balsam release (12.1) was a release candidate of openSUSE 12.1. Right now, a month after the openSUSE 12.2 release, no newer version has been released, there is no news and the forums continue to be almost empty. Draw your own conclusions.
In any case, if you want to buy an official openSUSE box, you can get this from Open Source Press, see the buy opensuse wiki page. Note that this is German language based. Unfortunately, there currently is no boxed version of openSUSE 12.1 or 12.2 in the English language. If anyone wants to create and sell such a product, talk to the openSUSE board - they would love it.
From what I get, ASC is openSLX’s attempt to monetize the Open Build Service. ASC is basically a paid version of the free OBS appliance: OBS 2.1.7 – SUSE Gallery with unofficial support from openSLX.
Note that you can also get real support for OBS, see Support - Open Build Service - openSLX has no OBS contributors and doesn’t talk to OBS people so I personally would never consider buying ‘support’ from them, especially if there are SUSE-certified support options on openbuildservice.org
I think openSLX has given up on boxes, they didn’t do 12.2 and probably won’t do 12.3 either. Their ASC is a fork of OBS so that won’t go anywhere either, I bet. Too bad, they once really contributed to openSUSE…
