Arkateq                               appointed SUSE Linux Business Partner -                                                                2004/02/03 [Johannesburg, 3 February 2004] - Arkateq has a strong commitment to the Linux platform and delivers customised development solutions to provide customers with a competitive advantage. The appointment as a Business Partner will further strengthen Arkateq's current open source drive. "As a SUSE Business Partner, we will have access to product information before the product is released. This will enable us to advise our customers on the best strategy, and product, to adopt," explains Andre Coetzee, Operations Director at Arkateq. "Our customers will also have the assurance that they are dealing with an approved SUSE Linux Partner, who not only has the skills and knowledge needed, but also the commitment to open source to provide innovative and affordable solutions," adds Coetzee. Novell recently announced that it has bought SUSE Linux. Along with Ximian and Novell's own range of Linux-based products it has the makings of a very competitive business choice. "The reason we decided on SUSE Linux was threefold. Firstly, We have a lot of SUSE Linux experience at Arkateq. Secondly, SUSE has been gaining a lot of acceptance worldwide and winning awards for its latest distribution. Thirdly, with the buy in of Novell, I think we have backed a winner," states Coetzee. "Favourite Linux distro? It was RedHat. Now it's SuSE. Like a lot of folks I was running RedHat. While RedHat announced it was discontinuing support for the regular version of RedHat, the folks at Novell dropped the bomb that they were buying SuSE. The timing couldn't have been better to announce it. Expect to see a lot more little green geekos in 2004," was the comment the editor of OSDIR.com made on the recent SUSE Linux 2003 Editor's Choice Award. Arkateq is involved in many SMMEs, the CSIR as well as the Department of Defence. Arkateq further plans to expand its Linux offerings in 2004 with Linux training.