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Following hard on the heels of Red Hat announcing that it was dropping support for its basic version of its Linux operating system distribution, SUSE has decided it will now pick up the reigns.

SUSE says it is not possible to make installation CDs from the download, however you can mirror the FTP directory on a local server to allow multiple installations

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on a network via NFS.

SUSE does not offer support as part of the free download, including installation support, but the company does offer support packages for a fee. The FTP version also lacks a 'few' program packages that are included in the retail version.

The decision should come as no surprise. Jack Messman, CEO of Novell, the company in the process of acquiring SUSE, said at the time of the acquisition announcement that he expected to take advantage of Red Hat's decision to gain market share.

Red Hat conversely is hoping to move customers of its free standard version of the operating system to its paid-for enterprise distributions, with special offers of buy one year, get two years' free promotion on both Enterprise Linux ES and WS for purchases before 28 February of next year.

Red Hat customers that are determined to stick with the free model are being directed to the Red Hat-supported Fedora project.