[Beowulf] SuSE 9.3

[Mark Hahn]

> Corporate users and ISVs don't want to see the OS revised more than once
> a year.

which is sad, really.  they've been so traumatized by the dominant
platform that they expect that changing anything will break everything.
the very concept of a standard, let alone an interface standard (ABI) 
is foreign to this mentality.


> On the user side, it takes a lot of effort to install, certify,
> and then deploy a new OS.  On the ISV side, there is little to no

certification is bad for users.  instead of an ISV stepping up to the 
plate and saying "our application requires Linux ABI 3.14 and we will
fix bugs where it doesn't", the ISV just annoints a particular config
(OS release, firmware revision, disk setup, these magic three patches, 
phase of moon).  certification is really an admission that the app is 
buggy in indeterminate ways, and that the ISV doesn't care.


> revenue associated with certifying an already released app on a new OS
> -- it's purely a cost factor unless the ISV is releasing new code.

managing cost is a good thing.  but doing so does not necessarily mean
that you also have to screw your customers.  hey, with a little spin
we can even make certification sound like we're _doing_them_a_favor_!

regards, mark hahn.