Effective Monday, December 10th 2001, after a lifespan of two years, SuSE
will discontinue support for the successful SuSE Linux distribution
SuSE Linux 6.3.

SuSE puts much effort into adding security improvements (patches) to the
software instead of publishing a new version; the same program with a fix
for a specific problem promises to work just as reliable as the original
version from the distribution, whereas new versions introduce new
functionality which changes the behaviour.
 In some cases however, especially if the security leak is based on
problematic design decisions or when the fix(es) are fairly large, the
only reasonable fix for a security problem is to update to a newer version
of the software. These newer versions tend to become incompatible with our
older distribution releases because of missing features in the operating
system environment. This forces us to focus on the distributions of a
newer release date.

The remaining distributions
 SuSE Linux 6.4
 SuSE Linux 7.0
 SuSE Linux 7.1
 SuSE Linux 7.2
 SuSE Linux 7.3

for the IA-32, IA-64, AXP Alpha, SPARC, S/390 as well as the PowerPC
platforms will continue to be supported for a two-year period after the
release of the respective product. Due to different maintenance terms, the
SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and other products based on the Enterprise
Server Edition are not affected by this notice.

The freshly released SuSE Linux 7.3 distribution is a stable, robust and
secure product that sets new standards in the Free and Open Source
Software world. We encourage our usership to make the transition to a
newer version of the SuSE Linux distribution.

Regards,
Roman Drahtmüller,
SuSE Security.