Licensing and Support Duration/Lapse

A friend told me “You can download SLED 11.1 for free and run it as long
as you don’t care about support.” And after downloading an eval copy
yesterday it seems this is -technically- possible (in that you can
install without an activation code and you just don’t have access to the
repos or customer service). But I was wondering if this was in violation
of the software license agreement. From my read of the install
agreement, one needs a license for every copy of SLED they’re running,
whether or not they want support/updates. So, is it allowed to run SLED
without repo access, or would that constitute piracy (as not all
components are OSS)? What about a lapsed support contract? Could one pay
$50 and use SLED for a few years before renewing the support contract?
Obviously both of these appear technically possible, but I’m wondering
if these scenarios are allowed by the license.

Finally, I can’t seem to find information about the duration of
support/updates. A RHEL install appears to be supported upwards of 10
years, depending on the support contract purchased. If I install SLED
11.1 now and pay $50 annually, how long before I’m required to update to
11.2? Or rather, how long before the 11.1 security updates and software
repos are turned off?

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. None of the sub-forums looked to
be a good fit for non-technical questions.


bobpaul

bobpaul’s Profile: http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116723
View this thread: http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=444784

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:36:02 GMT
bobpaul bobpaul@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=blue]

A friend told me “You can download SLED 11.1 for free and run it as
long as you don’t care about support.” And after downloading an eval
copy yesterday it seems this is -technically- possible (in that you
can install without an activation code and you just don’t have access
to the repos or customer service). But I was wondering if this was in
violation of the software license agreement. From my read of the
install agreement, one needs a license for every copy of SLED they’re
running, whether or not they want support/updates. So, is it allowed
to run SLED without repo access, or would that constitute piracy (as
not all components are OSS)? What about a lapsed support contract?
Could one pay $50 and use SLED for a few years before renewing the
support contract? Obviously both of these appear technically
possible, but I’m wondering if these scenarios are allowed by the
license.[/color]

have asked my Novell contacts about the above.[color=blue]

Finally, I can’t seem to find information about the duration of
support/updates. A RHEL install appears to be supported upwards of 10
years, depending on the support contract purchased. If I install SLED
11.1 now and pay $50 annually, how long before I’m required to update
to 11.2? Or rather, how long before the 11.1 security updates and
software repos are turned off?

Apologies if this is the wrong forum. None of the sub-forums looked to
be a good fit for non-technical questions.

[/color]
When you pay for the basic support, you can upgrade at anytime to the
next release(s) as long as you have an active license.

The lifetime is here (Just enter SuSE Linux and wait for the listing);
http://support.novell.com/lifecycle/


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
up 3 days 0:05, 4 users, load average: 0.07, 0.15, 0.20
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 280.13

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:14:58 GMT
malcolmlewis malcolmlewis@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=blue]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:36:02 GMT
bobpaul bobpaul@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=green]

A friend told me “You can download SLED 11.1 for free and run it as
long as you don’t care about support.” And after downloading an eval
copy yesterday it seems this is -technically- possible (in that you
can install without an activation code and you just don’t have
access to the repos or customer service). But I was wondering if
this was in violation of the software license agreement. From my
read of the install agreement, one needs a license for every copy
of SLED they’re running, whether or not they want support/updates.
So, is it allowed to run SLED without repo access, or would that
constitute piracy (as not all components are OSS)? What about a
lapsed support contract? Could one pay $50 and use SLED for a few
years before renewing the support contract? Obviously both of these
appear technically possible, but I’m wondering if these scenarios
are allowed by the license.[/color]

have asked my Novell contacts about the above.[color=green]

[/color][/color]
Hi
Yes it can be used for as long as you like, with or without an active
subscription.


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
up 3 days 1:40, 4 users, load average: 0.15, 0.21, 0.17
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 280.13

malcolmlewis;2137883 Wrote:[color=blue]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:36:02 GMT
bobpaul bobpaul@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=green]

Finally, I can’t seem to find information about the duration of
support/updates. A RHEL install appears to be supported upwards of 10
years, depending on the support contract purchased. If I install SLED
11.1 now and pay $50 annually, how long before I’m required to update
to 11.2? Or rather, how long before the 11.1 security updates and
software repos are turned off?
[/color]

When you pay for the basic support, you can upgrade at anytime to the
next release(s) as long as you have an active license.

The lifetime is here (Just enter SuSE Linux and wait for the listing);
‘Novell Support | Support Lifecycle’
(http://support.novell.com/lifecycle/)[/color]

Thanks for that, Malcom! For those coming later via search engines, I
also found ‘SUSE Long Term Support Pack’
(http://www.suse.com/support/programs/long-term-service-pack-support.html)
page. It looks like you’re “encouraged to” upgrade to new service packs
within 6mo of their release, so the date on the lifecycle page labelled
end of life is for the latest service pack in a series only (ie, 31 July
2016 for SLED 10.4, not for SLED 10.3, 10.1, etc). But if you need a
specific service pack for longer (eg: 10.1), you can get Long Term
Support Packs for up to 5 years in 1yr increments. The lifecycle page
lists when service packs were released, so you can calculate off of
that.


bobpaul

bobpaul’s Profile: http://forums.novell.com/member.php?userid=116723
View this thread: http://forums.novell.com/showthread.php?t=444784

On Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:06:01 GMT
bobpaul bobpaul@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=blue]

malcolmlewis;2137883 Wrote:[color=green]

On Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:36:02 GMT
bobpaul bobpaul@no-mx.forums.novell.com wrote:
[color=darkred]

Finally, I can’t seem to find information about the duration of
support/updates. A RHEL install appears to be supported upwards
of 10 years, depending on the support contract purchased. If I
install SLED 11.1 now and pay $50 annually, how long before I’m
required to update to 11.2? Or rather, how long before the 11.1
security updates and software repos are turned off?
[/color]

When you pay for the basic support, you can upgrade at anytime to
the next release(s) as long as you have an active license.

The lifetime is here (Just enter SuSE Linux and wait for the
listing); ‘Novell Support | Support Lifecycle’
(http://support.novell.com/lifecycle/)[/color]

Thanks for that, Malcom! For those coming later via search engines, I
also found ‘SUSE Long Term Support Pack’
(http://www.suse.com/support/programs/long-term-service-pack-support.html)
page. It looks like you’re “encouraged to” upgrade to new service
packs within 6mo of their release, so the date on the lifecycle page
labelled end of life is for the latest service pack in a series only
(ie, 31 July 2016 for SLED 10.4, not for SLED 10.3, 10.1, etc). But
if you need a specific service pack for longer (eg: 10.1), you can
get Long Term Support Packs for up to 5 years in 1yr increments. The
lifecycle page lists when service packs were released, so you can
calculate off of that.

[/color]
Correct, encouraged :wink: AFAIK you just don’t upgrade (move to next SP
patch) and you will continue to get updates in the relevant channel as
long as you have a valid subscription.

I’m just a home user and I’ve been running SLED since 2006 buying the 3
year license which the first time was US$75.00 the last one was US$105
so for me only US$30/year :wink: I did also purchase the fluendo codec
bundle, but now packman is online for SLE or follow user mikewillie’s
Cool Solution multimedia can be fairly painless.

I do run SLED on this desktop, but spend most of my time in GNOME 3.0
on openSUSE. SLED also runs on my ASUS 1000HE netbook and it works
flawlessly :slight_smile: I also run a SLES11 SP1 server on a small system running
a VIA C7 cpu which is my web, ifolder and media server.


Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.4 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7-desktop
up 3 days 3:21, 4 users, load average: 0.20, 0.17, 0.15
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 280.13