These are distributions intended for use by non-English-speakers. So far, all happen to be German.
NOTICE: I am planning to drop this section soon! These suppliers have sent me documentation I'm linguistically incompetent to read. I can't get fresh information on them in correct form for this HOWTO without making transatlantic phone calls. If you are appropriately multilingual and are concerned about the quality of this section's information, please volunteer either to (a) maintain a International Distributions HOWTO, or (b) act as my part of my international spy network, sending me regular updates I can use.
S.u.S.E. GmbH
Gebhardtstrasse 2
90762 Fuerth
Germany
Net:
bestellung@suse.de
Vox: +49 911-74053-31
Fax: +49 911-7417755
This is a (triple) CD mainly for German users. S.u.S.E. now presents their own distribution (starting in may 1996) indepent from slackware or other distributions. This is meant to guarantee a perfect interaction between all the packages on the CD and facilitates the menu-driven Installation and high conformity to the Linux filesystem standard. S.u.S.E. Linux contains additional software, such as the Postgres system, the pbm-Tools and lots of other tools and utilities (some window managers, GREAT environment, the POV- ray raytracer, a fully working and licensed database system (LNX) and so on). S.u.S.E. Linux also contains a couple of demo versions, preconfigured, such as OSS (Open Sound System), GraffyDOC (CAD), Maple,WordPerfect, YardSQL, Xess3. The source code of the complete system is included, too, as is a live system to enable using software without the need to install everything to the harddrive and not even partitioning.
The current version (November '96) of the distribution is 4.4. incorporating the 2.0.25 kernel.
A printed German installation guide will help especially new users to successfully install the system. Since version 4.3 there is also an English version including English installation and an English manual.
A 60 day customer support is included to help in serious installation crises ;-) via email, fax, snail mail or phone hotline (see below).
There are also interesting bundles of S.u.S.E. Linux together with Metrolink Motif Runtime for DM 174.- (or DM 159.- Update to former S.u.S.E. Linux versions).
Another product is S.u.S.E. Linux Aktuell!, a four CD ftp-server copy which appears about every 2 months. It contains the linux directory trees of the most popular ftp-servers such as SUNSITE.UNC.EDU, TSX- 11.MIT.EDU, FTP.FUNET.FI, PREP.AI.MIT.EDU (GNU Archiv), ftp.neosoft.com (TCL), ftp.phil.uni-sb.de (68k Linux), ftp.uni- erlangen.de (68k Linux), ftp.x.org (contrib-dir), elisp-Archive and RFCs. A basic S.u.S.E. Linux system is included, but no printed manual or customers support.
New is "Linux Decathlon", an edition similar to Linux Aktuell! but containing 10! CDs with almost any ftp-server important for Linux including also general non-Linux ftp-servers.
By mail, see contact information above.
Price: The price for a single German Linux CD is 98,-- DM for new customers. If you are already a S.u.S.E.-customer, you will get the CD for an update-price of 79,-- DM. There is also the posibility to subscribe for 4 subsequent editions; then you will receive 4 CDs for the price of 259,-- DM.
The "Linux Aktuell!" CD is 45.- DM.
The "Linux Decathlon" CD is DM 89.--.
Disks: Of course, you can get the German version of the Slackware Distribution on 3,5" disks. You can get either a basis version of the distribution (about 28 disks) for 89,-- DM, the "standard" version (about 38 disks) for 119,-- DM or the "full" version (about 59 disks) for 159,-- DM. The update prices are 69,-- DM, 94,-- DM and 139,-- DM respectively.
Documentation: S.u.S.E. is selling high-quality printed issues of the books from the Linux Documentation project (LDP) for people that would like to have a real book and not only printed loose papers. The prices are 59,-- DM for Matt Welsh's Linux Installation and Getting Started, and 50,-- DM for Olaf Kirch's Network Administrators' Guide. Additionally, S.u.S.E. offers the complete O'Reilly series which is the best documentation available for Unix in general. Of course you can order the well known German Linux books: Linux - Wegweiser fur Netzwerker; Olaf Kirch; DM 59,- Linux - Wegweiser zur Installation & Konfiguration; Matt Welsh & Lar Kaufmann; DM 59,-
Motif: Metrolink Motif for Linux is available for the price of 99,-- DM for the runtime system only and for the price of 239,-- DM you will get the runtime and development system.
Service and support for customers by Email, Fax, snail mail (every day) and phone (hotline Monday and Thursday from 13:00h-18:00h.) (email: support@suse.de) 24h support database on WWW helps solving common problems with Linux and S.u.S.E. Linux: http:/www.suse.de/Support/sdb in German or http://Riemann.suse.de/Support/sdb_e/index.html in English.
Free info material and catalogues of CDROMs and books. (All Infomagic Unix CDs available).
Selling commercial software for Linux.
Development of individual software for Linux and other Unix systems. Professional support for Linux and any other software ( psupport@suse.de).
Almost anything concerning Linux - just ask!
18 November 1996
Unifix Software GmbH
Bueltenweg 27a
D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
Vox: +49 (0)531 238800
Fax: +49 (0)531 338751
Net: support@unifix.de
POSIX.1 certified version 1.8 will be available at mid february 96.
This is a Linux CD-ROM distribution with emphasis on easy and fast installation. Though it is possible to install everything on the hard disk, we do not recommend doing so, because it runs fast enough directly from CD. For example starting emacs the first time (in text mode) takes:
From single speed Mitsumi: 24 s
From double speed Mitsumi: 11 s
From Toshiba 3401: 7 s
The dynamic buffer cache of Linux takes care of the second and subsequent times a program is started, which needs less than one second.
Our system requires about 5 MB on the hard disk for configuration files and system management tools. Additionally we recommend a 16 MB swap partition. The distribution contains most of the standard programs in current versions, e.g. Linux 1.2.3, XFree 3.1.1, emacs 19.30 and gcc 2.7.2. Full preconfigured source for everything is included.
Because Unifix is a European distribution it provides full support for iso8859-1 character sets. From the shells and emacs through ls, TeX and the print system everything supports 8-bit characters.
Printing is supported through System V compatible printer
drivers which can be controlled through lp's -o options.
Printer drivers are included for dumb text mode printers,
for postscript- or ghostscript- compatible printers and
for networked printing. These drivers know how to guess
the type of the files so e.g. compressed man pages or DVI
files can be printed directly.
Two versions are available: a small one called Quickstart and a POSIX.1 certified version with OSF/Motif (called developers release).
Unifix is available only on CD. It comes in a Unifix/Linux binder with two boot floppies and about 70 pages of installation instructions in German. An English version is available from Lasermoon (Email support@lasermoon.co.uk). The price is 99 DM for Quickstart and DM 298 for the developer's version, and includes taxes and shipping; Eurocard/Mastercard/Visa are accepted.
4 May 1996