openSuSE is beautiful!

[ThinkBuntu]

I switched over to openSuSE this morning, and I'm really enjoying it. This has nothing to do with any major Ubuntu problems (I rotate distros fairly often) but I am really, really enjoying openSuSE. I went with the KDE, and no other KDE I've used can come close to it. Everything is finely tweaked for usability and functionality. I have yet to run into any problems with YaST software management, although it isn't as fast as Debian's combo of apt and Synaptic.

You should give it a try! Good to have an open mind and see what's out there. It's hard to resist when it's all free, too :^)

[Cows]

Yea I use to rotate distributions alot but I was already addicted to Ubuntu's simplicity/flexibility/security that any other distro I tried was either ugly or was just not for me.

[DreamcastJack]

I switched over to openSuSE this morning, and I'm really enjoying it. This has nothing to do with any major Ubuntu problems (I rotate distros fairly often) but I am really, really enjoying openSuSE. I went with the KDE, and no other KDE I've used can come close to it. Everything is finely tweaked for usability and functionality. I have yet to run into any problems with YaST software management, although it isn't as fast as Debian's combo of apt and Synaptic.

You should give it a try! Good to have an open mind and see what's out there. It's hard to resist when it's all free, too :^)

lol I know what you mean. I use alot of LiveCDs. (the newest puppy 2.16 LiveCD is awesome and extremely fast) but as a Hard Drive install I think i'll stick w/ Ubuntu. getting a laptop soo,n and gonna install Xubuntu on it and i'm also gonna build another PC, and put Freespire 2.0 on the one i'm using currently.

Linux Distros are kinda addictive...

[obocho]

hi guys,

i can also recommend to try pclinuxos...
everything you might need is inside and everything is working fine...

just a different flavor : )

[ThinkBuntu]

Ubuntu is certainly very nice. Debian was always a little more my speed (literally and figuratively), but I've recommended Ubuntu to many OS converts.

[rfs1970]

Hi there,

Yesterday I downloaded the openSuse 10.3 for amd64, but I didn't try yet... and it was nice to hear your point of view / experience on it.

What about codecs, flash player and java ? It is all there already, or do you have to make a manual installation?

r.

[ThinkBuntu]

hi guys,

i can also recommend to try pclinuxos...
everything you might need is inside and everything is working fine...

just a different flavor : )
Updates kept killing my configurations so I left PCLOS...it's also very nice though. Particularly, although it seems overdone at first, the K-menu is very well-organized and is really useful once you have a bunch of apps installed. I can say the same of openSuSE, however. Their menu is very space-efficient (if you've seen a SuSE menu before. Here's an image I cropped from a review the other day. Keep in mind, this menu is in Arch's KDEmod (specialized repository) and Sabayon as well:
http://703designs.com/images/susemenu.jpg

[ThinkBuntu]

Hi there,

Yesterday I downloaded the openSuse 10.3 for amd64, but I didn't try yet... and it was nice to hear your point of view / experience on it.

What about codecs, flash player and java ? It is all there already, or do you have to make a manual installation?

r.

10.3 is still in Alpha 3 or 4. Reviewers have found ti be buggy, so I'd recommend you go with 10.2 for know. 10.3 is expected out in October. Java appears to come installed. Many codecs and Flash are not, but this should be easy to resolve. Flash installed fine, as did Win32 codecs. I didn't find libdvdcss in my repositories, so I'll have to look into that. I know that it's out there. I'm also being careful about only installing the necessary codecs (i.e. gstreamer or xine or something else?), so I'll have to get back to you on that.

Complaints about speed in YaST package management are related to how long it takes to boot, which is about 1 minutes but could vary. Nothing compared to waiting six hours to compile OpenOffice from a Sabayon base install. But Synaptic is absolutely faster in this respect.

[JOrtiz8612]

Isn't openSUSE supposed to mimic XP?

[rfs1970]

cool man... thank you...
I will dowload the 10.2 version.

Just one more thing, Can I choose to use gnome instead of kde in opensuse ?

r.

[Andrewie]

Isn't openSUSE supposed to mimic XP?

not sure where you heard that, but it isn't correct

I switched over to openSuSE this morning, and I'm really enjoying it. This has nothing to do with any major Ubuntu problems (I rotate distros fairly often) but I am really, really enjoying openSuSE. I went with the KDE, and no other KDE I've used can come close to it. Everything is finely tweaked for usability and functionality. I have yet to run into any problems with YaST software management, although it isn't as fast as Debian's combo of apt and Synaptic.

You should give it a try! Good to have an open mind and see what's out there. It's hard to resist when it's all free, too :^)

welcome to Suse, the only problem is the slow package manager, but their working on it

[ThinkBuntu]

Isn't openSUSE supposed to mimic XP?
No. I have no idea where you got that from. If you want to see something that mimics XP, look at PCLinuxOS. its theme and sounds are clearly intended to make a Windows user comfortable. openSuSE just has a very nice, unique implementation of KDE. Much better than any I've used, and miles ahead of anything offered in XP.

[JOrtiz8612]

I'll check it out then, SUSE that is.

[ThinkBuntu]

not sure where you heard that, but it isn't correct



welcome to Suse, the only problem is the slow package manager, but their working on it

Package management is slow to add repositories, mainly. Searching is faster, and downloading/installation is identical to apt, pacman, you name it.

[ThinkBuntu]

cool man... thank you...
I will dowload the 10.2 version.

Just one more thing, Can I choose to use gnome instead of kde in opensuse ?

r.

Yep. When you install, really look into what software is going in. You get the opportunity to micromanage what's installed from the installer. But regardless, it gives you a very easy screen allowing you to choose KDE, GNOME, or "Other" which to the best of my knowledge includes neither Xfce nor *box.

[starcraft.man]

Hmmm, I actually tried openSUSE 10.2 months ago when I was trying different distros (also before stupid novell MS deal). While it was nice, I had two problems... I didn't like the package system (it was really slow for me... especially after starting with Ubuntu) and KDE just made me feel awkward. By that, I dunno... I just didn't like the way menu/taskbar was setup, nor after I customized it into oblivion.

Anyway, more to the point beautiful is subjective. I'd say my simple gnome/Beryl desktop is beautiful, its sleek, black, lean and runs on my almost 6 year old PC with no speed loss. Besides,
I don't really think its that much different from the KDE in Kubuntu, save maybe for the menu placement...

Lastly, I can't really use a product affiliated with Novell, even if its open... makes me feel dirty nowadays, like when I use windows.

[Andrewie]

Hi there,

Yesterday I downloaded the openSuse 10.3 for amd64, but I didn't try yet... and it was nice to hear your point of view / experience on it.

What about codecs, flash player and java ? It is all there already, or do you have to make a manual installation?

r.

no codecs are on any official Novell mirror, you get the dvd flash, mp3 support, and Java(with plugin) come pre-installed.

http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories#Packman

go to that site, and added that repositories, that will provide you with a *working* libxine, and mplayer(with plugin) and vlc

[ThinkBuntu]

If you're having trouble with package management, or want to know how to install restricted formats, look at the two links in my signature. Very useful!

[ThinkBuntu]

About restricted codecs and what not:
I was able to install them all via repositories, except for libdvdcss which I had to download (link provided in the page in my signature). I can't test it right now, but mp3 playback at the very least works fine. Later, I'll test AVI, WMV, M4A, and DVDs. Flash, on the other hand, isn't so pleasant. It crashes Firefox when I run into a page with Flash! I'd better figure that one out...

[Andrewie]

About restricted codecs and what not:
I was able to install them all via repositories, except for libdvdcss which I had to download (link provided in the page in my signature). I can't test it right now, but mp3 playback at the very least works fine. Later, I'll test AVI, WMV, M4A, and DVDs. Flash, on the other hand, isn't so pleasant. It crashes Firefox when I run into a page with Flash! I'd better figure that one out...

after you finish installing, there should be a update that provides you with the newest version of flash

[juxtaposed]

I switched over to openSuSE this morning, and I'm really enjoying it. This has nothing to do with any major Ubuntu problems (I rotate distros fairly often) but I am really, really enjoying openSuSE. I went with the KDE, and no other KDE I've used can come close to it. Everything is finely tweaked for usability and functionality. I have yet to run into any problems with YaST software management, although it isn't as fast as Debian's combo of apt and Synaptic.

You should give it a try! Good to have an open mind and see what's out there. It's hard to resist when it's all free, too :^)

Sounds good!

I've been thinking of a new thing to try since debian started acting weird (KDE and gnome seem slow and crash-y, and logging out to the GDM screen gives me an odd non GDM thing that is two colours and doesn't do anything).

I've been thinking FreeBSD, but i tried installing 6.0 before and it was hard. I just tried it in virtualbox today and it was really hard. I still don't know if it is supposed to come with a DE, it doesn't state that on the website that I can find. Then I looked at PC-BSD, but I realised that BSD wouldn't have that great hardware support (should have thought of that before :P).

Then I looked here and saw this thread. I'm downloading openSuSE now - I want a professional looking distro and all. The only things against it are that it is corporate backed (Novell doesn't do evil things that I know of though), i've heard yast is slow or something. That novell-microsoft deal doesn't bother me that much (am I missing something that everyone else knows or something?), the whole corporate thing bothers me more.

[ThinkBuntu]

openSuSE development goes upstream to SUSE, so if you helped to develop by actually developing, or by even submitting bug reports, you're indirectly helping SUSE and their nefarious little MS schemes...not that we know the full impact of the deal yet. In any case, it seems that Microsoft blinked first in this latest clash with Linux, so the deal may do little more than to make Novell look bad.

[rfs1970]

Yep. When you install, really look into what software is going in. You get the opportunity to micromanage what's installed from the installer. But regardless, it gives you a very easy screen allowing you to choose KDE, GNOME, or "Other" which to the best of my knowledge includes neither Xfce nor *box.

To be honest with you, I would like to try the openSuse for amd64... and if to install flash is already a problem for 386 architecture, I imagine it will be a nightmare for 64.

r.

[ThinkBuntu]

Nothing's perfect. This is the lone problem I've run into thus far. I posted my problem in a SUSE forum, so if I get it resolved anytime soon, I'll post back here with the confirmation. But something like that shouldn't keep you away...

Seems like a tiny software issue, so I bet it's (1) easy to fix, and (2) been fixed many times before, with the prevalence of flash on the web.

[FuturePilot]

I'd be willing to try OpenSuse but there's a couple things holding me back. One of them is the codecs thing. Specifically the gstreamer plugins. For example, in Ubuntu I can just go here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
and copy a command into the terminal and I'm all set. I haven't been able to find anything like this for OpenSuse.

[Adamant1988]

I'm just waiting for 10.3 myself. They're doing a lot of work with YaST and given that they have completely rewritten a package manager in between releases I expect that YaST as a package manager will behave completely differently than we're used to it doing, and preform better as well. :)

[j.miller565]

I using SUSE right now and I'm loving it too.

[karellen]

Isn't openSUSE supposed to mimic XP?

no

[msak007]

I've been there and back. I last used openSUSE 10.1 while waiting for Dapper because Breezy was such a disappointment. I couldn't wait for Dapper to be released soon enough (the 2 month delay really killed me) - my experience was that bad.

1. Package management was a nightmare - I know everybody's saying that it's being worked on and improved for 10.3, I'll believe it when I see it. My brother uses 10.2 and I can't tell you how many times he's borked his system simply adding a repository. I don't know how that happens. I've seen how slow that thing is when he's trying to add a repo, update / refresh the list of apps, search, and install.

2. An addition to point 1, installing packages wasn't too bad, but actually finding packages and resolving dependencies was hell. I once tried to compile KMyMoney and its 2 major dependencies (aqbanking and gwenwhyfar), but they had unmet dependencies and libs that I could not find anywhere in any repositories, official SuSE or otherwise. For me anyway, the list of available software wasn't good enough. I always have and always will prefer Debian based distros over RPM. No thank you YaST, I'll stick with apt-get / aptitude (I hardly use Adept, prefer CLI for updates / installs).

3. Overall feel was just way too slow. I tried multiple formats / reinstalls and had the same end result. It was just too slow and my system was always bogged down with something, although I could never find any processes or services eating my CPU and RAM. The constant format / reinstalls got old after a while and I immediately switched back to Kubuntu once Dapper was released. As much as I wanted to stick it out with openSuSE, I really couldn't stand it anymore.

Lastly, I can't really use a product affiliated with Novell, even if its open... makes me feel dirty nowadays, like when I use windows.

4. I'm with you on that one. It's nothing against the openSuSE developers as I know most of them are volunteers and don't get paid by Novell so it's not fair to them, but something in me just can't use an OS that contributes back to Novell (directly or otherwise) as long as they're working with MS. I'm not an "anti-MS basher", just an "anti-MS business practices" user. Some of their non-OS products are good, it's the way they conduct business practices and particularly when it comes to open source that I loathe and detest. I don't want to be associated with that in any way.

That being said, openSuSE devs continue to amaze me with how polised and professional their distro looks. From the installer, to the bootloader splash screen, the KDM login, and everything in between, the art and look n' feel is awesome. I get a little jealous when I see my brother booting up his laptop :) (granted my desktop is hardly ever shut down / rebooted, but you get the point). It's always been known that SuSE is the leader when it comes to KDE design and innovation. Just look at some of the recent implementations they've introduced, like the aforementioned SuSE Kmenu replacement, and even the handy sysinfo:/ KIO slave. Luckily, both of those have been ported and packaged for Kubuntu so I can use them too while using my favorite distro. I also like the idea of YaST (minus the software installer part) and a tool for sysadmins to administer everything in the system (kcontrol doesn't cut it). Even PCLOS has a really nice central control panel for all admin functions and GUI for all the mundane tasks. We really need something like that in Kubuntu (not System Settings). I haven't seen anything to that point, but maybe there should be something like that common to all KDE distros introduced in KDE4. Either way I'll be sure to give openSuSE 10.3 a try when it comes out, but something tells me I'll always keep coming back :).

[lox]

To be honest with you, I would like to try the openSuse for amd64... and if to install flash is already a problem for 386 architecture, I imagine it will be a nightmare for 64.

r.

just download the 64bit version, when installing also install the 32bit runtime library's... everything will work, either 32 or 64 bit, no questions asked ^^
suse 10.2 was the first distro i tried and i love it! although i'm @ ubuntu now.. will surely be going back once 10.3 is out!

[walkerk]

I just switched from opensuse10.2 to feisty.. I liked opensuse a lot but with the novell/ms mutterings I wanted to switch..

Can honestly say I like Apt a lot more than YaST.. but it works well too..

[lox]

I'd be willing to try OpenSuse but there's a couple things holding me back. One of them is the codecs thing. Specifically the gstreamer plugins. For example, in Ubuntu I can just go here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
and copy a command into the terminal and I'm all set. I haven't been able to find anything like this for OpenSuse.

http://www.justuber.com/blog/2007/02/09/mp3-on-opensuse-5-minute-fix

that's something that is pretty different from ubuntu, all the information you need are on these forums! with openSUSE you have to use google, and their wiki's that often link to outside pages!

[PartisanEntity]

I downloaded what appeared to be the OpenSUSE LiveDVD yesterday and burnt it to DVD, upon trying to boot from the DVD nothing happened, the laptop simply ignored the DVD and went on to the usual grub boot loader.

Is the LiveDVD even what I think it is?

[walkerk]

I downloaded what appeared to be the OpenSUSE LiveDVD yesterday and burnt it to DVD, upon trying to boot from the DVD nothing happened, the laptop simply ignored the DVD and went on to the usual grub boot loader.

Is the LiveDVD even what I think it is?

Did you burn it to the DVD as an ISO image? If not, thats your problem.. I use k3b to burn ISOs.. works well.

And yes.. the LiveDVD is what you think it is. Boots a runable version of openSuSE 10.2 from the DVD.

[DC@DR]

I have nothing against openSUSE, it's a good distro, but I really dislike the fact that Novell has chosen to live under M$'s shadow, that's why I will never touch openSUSE and SLED again. Just my $0.02 :-)

[brim4brim]

The las time I used Suse it was so unstable it'll take a miracle before I'll try it again. Especially given the other concerns with the distro mentioned above.

[zenkaon]

I've always used SuSe right back to 5.1 (1999!). It's a great distro. Its one of the main Linux's at work and the KDE interface is very very nice. They are defiantly innovators and are a major driving force in Linux.

I have 2 major problems with SuSe which mean that I probably won't use it again on any personal PCs.

1.) They are in bed with Microsoft. Novell and M$ have a joint lab where they are working on server compatibility and all sorts of other stuff. Novell have a deal with M$ where M$ will not sue Novell over any patent issues. Not that M$ will ever be stupid enough to wade into a patent litigation war. This is arguable good for business but is very bad for the soul.

2.) SuSe is based on rpm's. How I loath searching for rpm's to fix the dependence issues of other rpms's only to find that I need to hunt down yet more rpm's.....ad infinitum...... I love apt-get and .deb. Never had a problem installing ANY software in ubuntu.

[ThinkBuntu]

I'd be willing to try OpenSuse but there's a couple things holding me back. One of them is the codecs thing. Specifically the gstreamer plugins. For example, in Ubuntu I can just go here https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RestrictedFormats
and copy a command into the terminal and I'm all set. I haven't been able to find anything like this for OpenSuse.

It's just as easy in SUSE. Just add the packman repository and add the libxine plugin. It covers most codecs. Then add the win32 codecs and download libdvdcss rpm (30KB) and you're done! Worked great for me.

[Churnd]

The main reason YaST is slow is due to ZEN, which you absolutely do not need unless you're in an Enterprise environment. You can remove ZEN and all it's plugins, and YaST will work much faster. Configure it to use fast mirrors (packman & guru), and it's not much slower than APT. OpenSuSE 10.3 will not have ZEN installed by default, as they finally caught on that people were getting tired of it.

I agree that openSuSE is a well rounded distro. It's not the fastest, but it's stable and offers tons of options for customization.

[ThinkBuntu]

http://www.justuber.com/blog/2007/02/09/mp3-on-opensuse-5-minute-fix

that's something that is pretty different from ubuntu, all the information you need are on these forums! with openSUSE you have to use google, and their wiki's that often link to outside pages!
Ubuntu's rare in this circumstance. Whether you're using Debian or Fedora, often you need to go to multiple sources to find answers to a series of problems. I consult three wikis and two forums for openSuSE, and so far I've been able to solve everything.

[ThinkBuntu]

The main reason YaST is slow is due to ZEN, which you absolutely do not need unless you're in an Enterprise environment. You can remove ZEN and all it's plugins, and YaST will work much faster. Configure it to use fast mirrors (packman & guru), and it's not much slower than APT. OpenSuSE 10.3 will not have ZEN installed by default, as they finally caught on that people were getting tired of it.

I agree that openSuSE is a well rounded distro. It's not the fastest, but it's stable and offers tons of options for customization.
How did you do "disable Zen"? Of course, I already have guru and packman repositories keyed up.

[Anthem]

Suse was my first distro... years ago. They had a beautiful and foolproof dual-boot installer, which automagically repartitioned your NTFS drive and set up a dual boot system. In 2001.

Their version of KDE is far better than the one on Kubuntu... it just looks and acts a lot better. SUSE pays more KDE developers than almost anyone else.

Unfortunately, they were built on the idea of physical media instead of downloading from the internet. So their repositories are always a mess, you need a DVD instead of a CD, and their package management doesn't work well. Other than that, though, it's a brilliant distro.

[ThinkBuntu]

I've switched over partially because I'm bored with Ubuntu. Not bored in the way of needing a change of scenery, but bored in that I see very little innovation happening here. It seems all the new software development comes out of the Debian camp, while Ubuntu chips in small features (Codec fetching, Windows migration during install, Restricted drivers manager). Meanwhile, Debian has built a new graphical installer, jigdo, restructured APT to only download the changes to a package instead of the whole thing, and more.

But I see a very innovative spirit at openSuSE, and it shows in their software. UI is superb, and many other distros (Sabayon, KDEmod in Arch) take advantage of their development. Recently, the openSuSE devs where challenged to get the OS to boot to *DM in five seconds.

In my opinion, the very existence and prominence of Bug #1 shows that Ubuntu's more concerned with getting people to switch to Linux and grab market share than to create cutting-edge software.

[starcraft.man]

In my opinion, the very existence and prominence of Bug #1 shows that Ubuntu's more concerned with getting people to switch to Linux and grab market share than to create cutting-edge software.

Ummmm... yes... Ubuntu is concerned with providing and easy and painless transition to Ubuntu, without creating a windows clone. That of course is because they want to increase their adoption, and the world is 90% or more windows on the Desktop side. What would you have them do, snub the windows users and tell them find their own way to switch? I don't think suse is any less concerned with providing a transition.

As for cutting edge software, theres plenty of stuff on Ubuntu. I use Beryl for instance, theres also plenty of other packages you can put in that are unstable/dev versions if you must be on cutting edge of development (you can of course install beagle and AWN for instance). Most software though is 3rd party, like OpenOffice and Firefox and Beryl, and thus not Ubuntu's job to make/develop. I'm sure you are using plenty of such apps that also appear on Ubuntu.

It seems to me the only thing you mentioned really different was the UI which gets you to your programs (start menu seemed to be what you really liked with built in search, almost vista like...), seems really only a cosmetic choice from where I'm sitting though (like my fixation for Beryl over Compiz and metacity). Your of course perfectly free to choose another distro, do remember these are the Ubuntu forums though...

I'm sure future relases of Ubuntu will further integrate more UI improvements, I don't see any rush to them though. >.>

[ThinkBuntu]

Ummmm... yes... Ubuntu is concerned with providing and easy and painless transition to Ubuntu, without creating a windows clone. That of course is because they want to increase their adoption, and the world is 90% or more windows on the Desktop side. What would you have them do, snub the windows users and tell them find their own way to switch? I don't think suse is any less concerned with providing a transition.

As for cutting edge software, theres plenty of stuff on Ubuntu. I use Beryl for instance, theres also plenty of other packages you can put in that are unstable/dev versions if you must be on cutting edge of development (you can of course install beagle and AWN for instance). Most software though is 3rd party, like OpenOffice and Firefox and Beryl, and thus not Ubuntu's job to make/develop. I'm sure you are using plenty of such apps that also appear on Ubuntu.

It seems to me the only thing you mentioned really different was the UI which gets you to your programs (start menu seemed to be what you really liked with built in search, almost vista like...), seems really only a cosmetic choice from where I'm sitting though (like my fixation for Beryl over Compiz and metacity). Your of course perfectly free to choose another distro, do remember these are the Ubuntu forums though...

I'm sure future relases of Ubuntu will further integrate more UI improvements, I don't see any rush to them though. >.>
Ubuntu doesn't develop Beryl. Beryl's available for virtually every distribution. openSuSE develops its own comprehensive system management tool, YaST (like Mandriva's Control Center, but with package management too), and I'm sure that the more I use it, the more things I'll notice. I actually don't care all that much for the Beagle search in the SUSE Kmenu, as I usually know where my files are, but this isn't "Vista-like", it's Mac OS-like, innovated by their Spotlight tool.

And I do remember that these are Ubuntu forums. I think I've helped enough people here with Ubuntu or other distributions to warrant a criticism or two of Ubuntu.

[starcraft.man]

Ubuntu doesn't develop Beryl. Beryl's available for virtually every distribution.

I never said Ubuntu does, I said... that I use Beryl and that its an example of third party apps that are cutting edge and available on Ubuntu. Never mentioned it in any other way, please don't put words in my mouth >.>. I also know full well its available on numerous distributions... like most of OSS software out there.

And yes, everyone's perfectly free to criticize, I was never meaning to imply you couldn't. I just wanted to point out errors I saw in your criticism. I'm equally free to do that. Anyway, have fun. I'm sticking to my old gnome/Beryl. I guess I just don't like KDE at all.

[ThinkBuntu]

I'm not referring to the availability of cutting-edge software. If that were my target, I'd be using Sidux, Arch, or possibly Sabayon/Gentoo. I'm referring to the project's ambitions, especially in the way of development. And what I'm emphasizing is the development of original software. I know that SUSE and openSuSE are responsible for many key KDE applications. For example, they're the main developers of KNetworkManager, a near-essential tool for KDE users.

[Churnd]

How did you do "disable Zen"? Of course, I already have guru and packman repositories keyed up.

Here ya go: http://opensuse-community.org/Package_Sources/10.2

[dca]

KDE and Gnome desktops in openSuSE are second to none. Truly superior in its polish and overall use. It would take any other distro (even Ubuntu) years to come close to it.

Now, for the bad news. YaST is the killer. While waiting for three updates I can: take a bath, make a pot of coffee, finish the book I was reading, and frame a window... The more repos added, the longer it takes. A lot of the utilities in YaST are redundant as well. SuSE still ships w/ the control panel which also includes similar set-up routines. Regardless of what is said, openSuSE 10.2 is not stable. I would not recommend it for anything else than a desktop for a PC you don't like anymore.

All this aside, 10.2 is still a better release than Ubuntu 6.06 & 6.10 combined but comes no where near 6.06LTS as far as usability, functionality, stability, etc.

[ThinkBuntu]

KDE and Gnome desktops in openSuSE are second to none. Truly superior in its polish and overall use. It would take any other distro (even Ubuntu) years to come close to it.

Now, for the bad news. YaST is the killer. While waiting for three updates I can: take a bath, make a pot of coffee, finish the book I was reading, and frame a window... The more repos added, the longer it takes. A lot of the utilities in YaST are redundant as well. SuSE still ships w/ the control panel which also includes similar set-up routines. Regardless of what is said, openSuSE 10.2 is not stable. I would not recommend it for anything else than a desktop for a PC you don't like anymore.

All this aside, 10.2 is still a better release than Ubuntu 6.06 & 6.10 combined but comes no where near 6.06LTS as far as usability, functionality, stability, etc.
Using portage to emerge huge apps in the past has trained me to not just wait for the package management to wrap up. When YaST is running (it takes about a minute to launch for me) I just keep on doing my work, browsing, developing, etc. Strange to say, I have yet to notice any slowness except for that startup time and the 30 seconds or so it takes to update configurations at the end of the process.

On the other hand, I've already had one app not install properly (Inkscape) because a dependency couldn't be found. I'm trouble-shooting the problem right now; I'll have to get back to you guys on it.

[xadder]

I also used to be a Suse fan, but then the distro seemed to get worse after 9.3 or 10.1 or so, including horrible problems with yast hanging and v. slow USB transfers. A major problem with non-Debian distros such as Suse is that you basically new a clean install with each update. And a new install of Suse takes so long. I once spent an hour loading from CDs and pressing buttons, watching thousands of software packages install, before getting to the final re-boot and finding thet the X-server didn't work. With Ubuntu the install is very fast, and most software is loaded later. My first Ubuntu installtion was joyfully fast, and recently the switch from Edgy to Fiesty trivial - all over the net. No going back to Suse for me.

[floke]

Downloaded SUSE10.2 LiveDVD yesterday. Felt dirty but was curious.
Went to boot up. got past the welcome screen. Then black. Nothing.
Fan went crazy on laptop (Tecra A8), Hard shutdown required.
Tried other (older) laptop (Equium). Booted up fine.
Played for 10 mins trying to find way to start wireless. Realised it wasn't going to happen.
Booted back to Ubuntu. Guess what? Everything just works!

Seeya SUSE.

[misfitpierce]

Sellout :( Just messin go have fun with suse

[ThinkBuntu]

Downloaded SUSE10.2 LiveDVD yesterday. Felt dirty but was curious.
Went to boot up. got past the welcome screen. Then black. Nothing.
Fan went crazy on laptop (Tecra A8), Hard shutdown required.
Tried other (older) laptop (Equium). Booted up fine.
Played for 10 mins trying to find way to start wireless. Realised it wasn't going to happen.
Booted back to Ubuntu. Guess what? Everything just works!

Seeya SUSE.
I never used the Live DVD. I just downloaded the real thing and installed it. Worked perfectly. And a huge set of upgrades from the 10.2 install went smoothly. Maybe you should try actually installing it on a separate partition? As for wireless, I just added the Madwifi repository (Atheros card), installed the packages with YaST, and I was finished. After having to download the sources and build the modules myself in Arch and Zenwalk, this was a breeze.

[jsizemore]

I also liked it, but the KDE menu where is scroll through categories drives me crazy. I like Gnome more every day even if Linus does not .:o

[DigitalDuality]

I've been using Suse 10.2 now for about 6 months or so.

Package management is awful. That being said I have a far more stable system than anything i've gotten from Ubuntu or Fedora.

applications are much quicker to respond from a cold start, but the boot process is incredibly slow, which is ok, b/c unless i'm diong a kernel upgrade, i don't need to reboot.

I hate Suse's firewall program built into Yast, and as soon as i figure out how to turn it off and build Firestarter for Suse, i'm giong to.

I have 2, 200GB hard-drives attached, and it was nice Suse allows you to format the drives with encyption, which I have done to both. Now my drives require a password for access.

I was looking to have Novell AppArmor running (or SE Linux) when i was looking for my next drisro for extra security, which was part of my decision for switching to Suse.

I like that the Kickstart menu came default. The default artwork is pleasing to my eye. I think opensuse 10.2 wins hands down for having the best default wallpaper.

The integration of Beagle, Kerry Beagle, and Beagle plugins for Konqueror and Firefox make searching a snap.

The initial install process was painstakingly long, but i think looking back it was worth it. Flash came installed, nvidia drivers came with it, java came installed. Installing all my codecs wasn't much of a problem at all.

Yast as package management sucks. Yast's firewall sucks. But most of the other tools within Yast are pretty decent. I've gotten used to su rather than sudo and in some ways i prefer it.

I'm happy with my install. I've been wanting to try out Mepis, or Feisty, or PCLinuxOS, or Fedora 6, but i can't break myself away from my current setup. It's rock solid. I have my compalints, but i have a rock solid install more so than any other time before.

And while i'm on the GPL v3 side of hte Novell/MS deal, i really don't care. Novell is not an evil company. Look at the amount of open source projects they have funded for years. They're also a member of OIN which will get in a patent war with MS if they ever pull anything., and they've teamed up with the EFF for patent busting recently. So what they made one move i don't like? That's not going to keep me from using quality open source software.

[ThinkBuntu]

I also liked it, but the KDE menu where is scroll through categories drives me crazy. I like Gnome more every day even if Linus does not .:o
When you install, you get to choose between KDE and GNOME. From what I've heard, while the KDE is excellent, their GNOME is even better (relative to the average GNOME. I slightly prefer KDE, so...).

[starcraft.man]

Package management is awful. That being said I have a far more stable system than anything i've gotten from Ubuntu or Fedora.


Uhhh, I'm puzzled by your statement. What do you mean more stable? I've never had any crashes or failures to install with Apt system, it may be the cleanest easiest system to install I've ever used (mind I haven't tried them all). If your referring to unofficial repos going down or being slow, do remember those are unofficial like advertised... Ubuntu doesn't have any control over other repos you choose to add. Can you clarify a bit?

[juxtaposed]

What would you have them do, snub the windows users and tell them find their own way to switch? I don't think suse is any less concerned with providing a transition.

If they concentrate firstly on just making the switch, it leaves out the whole other part, which is more important: Actually using the software after you've switched to it.

A major problem with non-Debian distros such as Suse is that you basically new a clean install with each update

Really? Why?

I don't want to install openSuSE then need another DVD later for the next version.

I've gotten used to su rather than sudo and in some ways i prefer it.

Kind of minor, but is it possible to use sudo? Would I have to edit the sudoers file like in debian? (which is fine).

I have verry little/no problem with the Novell - Microsoft deal. Novell contributes alot to the open source community.

[starcraft.man]

If they concentrate firstly on just making the switch, it leaves out the whole other part, which is more important: Actually using the software after you've switched to it.


I don't know whether your making a hypothetical or inferring that Ubuntu does that. >.>

Anyway, after I was thinking about this for a few more minutes... I realize this whole topic has missed the boat. I guess we all got caught up arguing over suse / ubuntu looking good.

The bottom line is that Ubuntu's goal is not to provide the latest and greatest or even the prettiest Distro for everyone to use (I certainly don't think so at least). It's goal is written right into the slogan, "Linux for Human Beings". Its about trying to be a distribution that is easy to begin with and transition from Windows, provide a stable and functional platform for daily software use once installed and lastly include great support for both beginners and the advanced to learn and get comfortable with it.

I think Ubuntu accomplishes all those goals, and thus I can't help but think it does everything it needs to. It's not the fastest, smallest or prettiest by default. It holds a nice middle ground to everything and allows for customization once learned. Maybe since it doesn't really do any one thing exceptionally (except maybe package handling, I love apt) its only meant to be a stepping stone, to try and learn and move to a more customized and suited platform?

I guess thats it for me to say in this thread, we should probably let it go... everyone should use what their happy and comfortable with :). I'm sticking to gnome, call me a simple guy with simple needs.

[juxtaposed]

I don't know whether your making a hypothetical or inferring that Ubuntu does that. >.>

Hypothetical.

Well, off to install openSuSE alongside debian...

[ThinkBuntu]

If they concentrate firstly on just making the switch, it leaves out the whole other part, which is more important: Actually using the software after you've switched to it.



Really? Why?

I don't want to install openSuSE then need another DVD later for the next version.



Kind of minor, but is it possible to use sudo? Would I have to edit the sudoers file like in debian? (which is fine).

I have verry little/no problem with the Novell - Microsoft deal. Novell contributes alot to the open source community.

I use sudo just fine. as root, I activated visudo and enabled my user (not a big fan of the wheel method) and it works fine. Much like other distros I've used, you also have to edit the paths from your .bashrc file. In any case, sudo works just like in any other distro.

[juxtaposed]

I just installed openSuSE.

When I first put the DVD in the drive it had a black screen with an underscore in grey (like a terminal, but I couldn't type). It was like that for a few minutes, then booted into debian. I tried it again. I managed to get it installed (I like that I could choose things that it installs).

It looks nice, it's just different. Seems a little slow, but i'm not sure yet (i'll have to see how it runs with azureus). I have to figure out how to use YaST to install stuff, or get apt and synaptic.

And I need to find a way to set the mouse curser to look like the one in ubuntu or debian.

[Andrewie]

If they concentrate firstly on just making the switch, it leaves out the whole other part, which is more important: Actually using the software after you've switched to it.



Really? Why?

I don't want to install openSuSE then need another DVD later for the next version.



Kind of minor, but is it possible to use sudo? Would I have to edit the sudoers file like in debian? (which is fine).

I have verry little/no problem with the Novell - Microsoft deal. Novell contributes alot to the open source community.

when you open yast, there is a option to setup sudo for you

[juxtaposed]

when you open yast, there is a option to setup sudo for you

It was odd and seemed to only let me choose certain commands to let me do.

I try to sudo anyway, and it does this:

patrick@opensuse:~> sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list
root's password:
kate: cannot connect to X server
patrick@opensuse:~>

I've got alot of learning to do :)

EDIT: Now it says that there is already another package manager running (there isn't to my knowledge). Even after logging out and back in it says that. I can't use any package manager now...

I'm thinking I should just reinstall Debian to get rid of the odd bugs. I could still keep opensuse, but if it is acting all weird and such, I don't know if I would wan't to. I might want to just install ubuntu beside debian for emercencies and such. The worst thing is that I guess I might have wasted a DVD to do this :/

[ThinkBuntu]

It was odd and seemed to only let me choose certain commands to let me do.

I try to sudo anyway, and it does this:

patrick@opensuse:~> sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list
root's password:
kate: cannot connect to X server
patrick@opensuse:~>

I've got alot of learning to do :)

EDIT: Now it says that there is already another package manager running (there isn't to my knowledge). Even after logging out and back in it says that. I can't use any package manager now...

I'm thinking I should just reinstall Debian to get rid of the odd bugs. I could still keep opensuse, but if it is acting all weird and such, I don't know if I would wan't to. I might want to just install ubuntu beside debian for emercencies and such. The worst thing is that I guess I might have wasted a DVD to do this :/

You need to set the path in ~/.bashrc. I'll post mine ASAP.

[ben::zen]

OK, someone posted once about the sysinfo package. I'm still wondering where I can find that, since at KDE look the one they point to doesn't work for me.

[msak007]

OK, someone posted once about the sysinfo package. I'm still wondering where I can find that, since at KDE look the one they point to doesn't work for me.
That was me :) Here's the KDE-Look.org entry:

http://www.kde-look.org/content/show.php/KIO+Slave+sysinfo:++-+Kubuntu+7.04+pkg?content=58704

And here's a link to the direct Kubuntu .deb

http://www.kde-look.org/content/download.php?content=58704&id=1

I just tried it and it still works for me. It was initially broken when it was first released (formatting was off, no column header for filesystem type) but the linked deb is fixed. If the link still doesn't work, let me know and I'll either post it here or send it to you.

[screaminj3sus]

I tried OpenSuSE 10.2 it's gnome desktop was beautiful, and it was very nice, but it's package management is Horrible, I switched back to ubuntu as it eventually just froze during updates, also it's boot time is ridiculously slow. It's a very polished and stable distro, but they need to work on the horrible slow/buggy package management.

[ThinkBuntu]

I tried OpenSuSE 10.2 it's gnome desktop was beautiful, and it was very nice, but it's package management is Horrible, I switched back to ubuntu as it eventually just froze during updates, also it's boot time is ridiculously slow. It's a very polished and stable distro, but they need to work on the horrible slow/buggy package management.

What was wrong with it for you? I've had very good success with package management. for a minute, I had a problem with GNOME-based apps, but this was just a lack of knowledge on my part, as they were being installed in /opt/gnome, which wasn't in my .bashrc PATH string.

Boot is about a minute, plus 10 seconds to login (including Apache and MySQL which I've included in my daemons). My hardware's fairly average for a modern computer: 1.6GHz Pentium M, but with 1.5GB RAM which probably makes a huge difference.

[ThinkBuntu]

Impressions of openSuSE, a few days deep
So, since I installed openSuSE, I've used no other OS (except Windows at the office when I have to, and my Mac to go online because of better wireless), and these are my impressions of openSuSE:

* It's not brain-dead easy. I had to solve my own problems significantly, but I have yet to encounter a case where the OS failed on me. It's just been a matter of me knowing where things are, and how to work with it in general.

* It's slower to boot than Ubuntu by 1/3, but in general applications launch faster than in Ubuntu's KDE.

* My wireless performance, who knows why, is better in openSuSE.

* It seems a little bit more secure than Ubuntu, because, more in the Debian way of doing things, it asks for my Root password when doing something administrative, even though I have full privileges via visudo. I'm sure that I could adapt Ubuntu to do this, though.

* Package management, including updates, has yet to be a problem. It's a slightly different way of doing things, but in general it works fine. It takes a minute or so to launch (YaST package management, not Smart, although I'd like to try that when I get a chance) and I have five or six software sources. It's by no means prohibitively slow, however. I've installed most of what I'll need, if not all, and a great deal of apps I'd need to download in Ubuntu (JRE, KDEWebDevelopment, etc.) come installed via the DVD.

* The SUSE Kmenu really does step up my productivity a bit, and nice touches like the "My Computer" .desktop which I've renamed to "Laptop" (No Windows-y features!!!) actually are useful.

So as a whole, it's really superb! I have yet to encounter anything to turn me away from openSuSE, and with its lovely polish (and, in anticipation of KDE4/openSuSE 10.3) I'm hoping to stick with this for a while. Of course, I'll still be posting in Ubuntu Forums. The SUSE forums I use are just as helpful and informative, but you guys certainly have the edge in response time. And there's not much of a "community" feel to openSuSE, so I'll have to get my fix here :^)

[juxtaposed]

The things about opensuse that I didn't like were the fact it was overall, slower then debian. Also I just didn't like the different way of doing things - didn't seem very simple.

[ThinkBuntu]

The things about opensuse that I didn't like were the fact it was overall, slower then debian. Also I just didn't like the different way of doing things - didn't seem very simple.
I hear you on that. Ubuntu is also much, much slower than Debian, but I never found it to be that much more polished/complete to warrant this difference. openSuSE, on the other hand, is nicely polished. I trade off the raw speed for tools that help me to be more productive, and for the polish. And my system is definitely not a Turtle in openSuSE, and is generally quick with any distro.

[Erunno]

I finally had the time to install openSUSE so I'll provide some first impressions in no particular order:

1) I'm one of the people who still lives in the stone age of computer hardware and does not own an DVD writer and I'm too cheap to buy a DVD from a magazine. So it was downloading and burining six CDs for me. The downloading part wasn't that bad as there are many active seeders (BitTorrent ftw) but the burning part was especially bad as my current writer only supports up to 8x burning speed. During the installtion I found out that you only need CD 1-3 plus the NonOSS CD for a typical KDE install...there goes another half hour of my precious lifetime.

2) The NoOSSs addon CD provides some fonts, firmware, java 1.5 and flash and can be installed alongside the other oss packages during the main installion process.

3) Installation took over an hour for a the default KDE setup and the install process "features" several reboots (at least 1, more if you decide to use the online updater during installion). You have the choice either to install a default KDE or GNOME desktop or tweak the installation to your liking. Since I'm lazy and wanted to see what openSUSE has to offer by default I choose, you guess it, the default KDE installation.

4) Suspend to RAM and disk works out of the box on my 4 year old Toshiba laptop. Waking up from hibernation seems to be faster on openSUSE but still slower than Windows XP.

5) Very subjective but the default KDE artwork is simply beautiful. Blue is the dominant colour and used throughout the elegant bootsplash, KDM and window decorations / desktop wallpaper. Kickoff is also nice blend between usuability and good looks and really adds to the overall good impression of the desktop.

6) Speaking of kickoff, I read that some people had adaption problems but I really got used to it in mere minutes and already can't imagine living without it. Very space efficient and the beagle integration makes it a breeze to look for applications (although katapult is still THE killer applications when it comes to fast and conventient application launchers).

7) Since everybody and his dead grandmother claims that zmd is a big pile of poodoo I removed it right after the installation with the help of the suse wiki. The zmd updater applet was automatically replaced with the yast version.

8) Package management is as slow as I feared. Updating the system post installation took over an hour. The waiting time for the yast package manager to come up is especially bad as it does some lengthy checks during each launch. On the positive side searching for packages is quite fast. I will have to try out the smart package manager and see it if performs better.

9) openSUSE can be quite up-to-date if you use their build service. You will find recent versions of many major applications there including KDE, GNOME, wine, X, OpenOffice, the Mozilla products and things I already forgout about. Very appealing for people who want to use the latest version of common applications without compromising the base system.

10) I had to use over 15 repositories to get all packages I needed. Not good, especially because it increases the aforementioned startup time of the yast package manager. To be fair though, at least half of them were from the build service to stay bleeding edge. At least openSUSE gives me the choice to get newer versions of popular applications so I won't complain too much.

11) Boot time is a bit longer than in Kubuntu but applications seem to be more responsive and they start faster for some reason.

12) yast seems to be a very comprehensive configuration tool and provides a lot of gui configuration options. I've yet to encounter anything similar on another distro although I read that Mandriva also features their own configuration frontend.

Preliminary final words:

Overall openSUSE makes a great first impression and seems "polished" (whatever people accociate with the term). It beats the leaving **** out of Kubuntu in terms of look, integration and system management. If someone wants to give KDE a try he should first stop at openSUSE as Kubuntu really is the unloved stepchild of Canonical and it shows. If you still don't like KDE after that...well, just try openSUSE's GNOME implementation. I hear it's equally awesome :D

EDIT:

Some much needed cleanup ;-)

[Castar]

...

Overall openSUSE makes a great first impression and seems "polished" (whatever people accociate withe the term). It beats the leaving **** out of Kubuntu that for sure in terms of look, integration and system management. If someone wants to give KDE a try he should first stop at openSUSE as Kubuntu really is the unloved stepchild of Canonical and it show. If you still don't like KDE after that...well, just try openSUSE's GNOME implementation. I hear it's equally awesome :D

It is... It is really fantastic.

[floke]

Ok, am giving this a go for a bit. LiveDVD chucked kernel panics but install DVD went perfectly - although it didn't detect my 1280x800 monitor until the end, leaving me with a clunky-looking interface. Wifi worked OOTB perfectly, but my touchpad configuration was uncomfortable. using ksynaptics has reminded me why I loathe it - random disabling of tapping, sensitivity issues etc. - not a patch (even remotely) on Ubuntu touchpad detection. Beyond that, all's good. It looks great - even gnome (but again not as good as Ubuntu), kickoff works much better than the deb version, YaST is slow, but it's not as if I wasn't warned about it. Am in the process of following the wiki instructions for installing Beryl - step 1 to load dev packages is taking an hour!

Still feels 'wrong' though, given my feelings on the MS deal, but I can live with it for curiousity value.
Will see how it goes, but no way will it replace Ubuntu as my primary OS.

[starcraft.man]

Still feels 'wrong' though, given my feelings on the MS deal, but I can live with it for curiosity value.
Will see how it goes, but no way will it replace Ubuntu as my primary OS.

*begins yoda speak*
Noooooo, lose another, we must not. Fall to the darker side of the dark force of Linux, you will. Peril you will find down this path, care, you must use. Force a penguin wreathed in black to reveal his identity, you just may. :p
*end yoda speak*

Just kidding, have fun but I'm with ya... I gave suse a try a while ago, and I just don't see it being my daily OS >.>

Edit: I hope that wasn't too incredibly geeky :p.

[floke]

Fear ye not. I have ubuntu through me like a stick of blackpool rock.
Just playing with SUSE. Its good to see what's going on. But ubuntu is my #1!

[starcraft.man]

Fear ye not. I have ubuntu through me like a stick of blackpool rock.
Just playing with SUSE. Its good to see what's going on. But ubuntu is my #1!

Uhhhh... "stick of blackpool rock"? *blinks blankly at screen* I'll assume thats a good thing, its certainly not Canadian :p

Me too though, I'm actually setting up VMs of all the major distros, want to have access to em all (just for curiosity sake, including a kubuntu vm). Even set up VMbox, I'm tempted to abandon VMware cuz of it, its actually good enough for my needs (I didn't think they'd have snapshots since VMware had said that was under their patent).

And feel free to explain your expression, uh... english is it? :D

[thisllub]

I've always used SuSe right back to 5.1 (1999!). It's a great distro. Its one of the main Linux's at work and the KDE interface is very very nice. They are defiantly innovators and are a major driving force in Linux.


6.0 for me. Also 99. I paid about $80 for the boxed distro about a year before I could get decent internet speed.
Although I set up my first Redhat (6) mail server that year I didn't make the switch to Linux as my main OS until 2005 with Suse 10.0

There are three reasons I currently use Ubuntu over SUSE

#1 apt wins every time.
#2 I spent over two hours trying to stop SAX from trashing a working dual monitor xorg.conf for my nvidia card and failed. I got sick of starting nvidia-settings every time I logged in.
#3 The Ubuntu forums are now the most informative around. FInding answers to problems is easy.

[screaminj3sus]

What was wrong with it for you? I've had very good success with package management. for a minute, I had a problem with GNOME-based apps, but this was just a lack of knowledge on my part, as they were being installed in /opt/gnome, which wasn't in my .bashrc PATH string.

Boot is about a minute, plus 10 seconds to login (including Apache and MySQL which I've included in my daemons). My hardware's fairly average for a modern computer: 1.6GHz Pentium M, but with 1.5GB RAM which probably makes a huge difference.


It was just really slow and would often just freeze, I left it for an hour but it just stuck at 98% (This was installing about 40 updates after install). SuSE was relativity fast booted, but it took forever to boot, whihc is very inconvienent on a dual boot system, my computer specs are in my signurature and should be able to handle it fine. Opening yast did take way too long IMO though. I may try SuSE 10.3 when it comes out because I did like many things about SuSE, Fedora 7 looks promising too.

[FuturePilot]

I think you've convinced me. I'm downloading it now.:popcorn:

[floke]

Uhhhh... "stick of blackpool rock"? *blinks blankly at screen* I'll assume thats a good thing, its certainly not Canadian :p

Me too though, I'm actually setting up VMs of all the major distros, want to have access to em all (just for curiosity sake, including a kubuntu vm). Even set up VMbox, I'm tempted to abandon VMware cuz of it, its actually good enough for my needs (I didn't think they'd have snapshots since VMware had said that was under their patent).

And feel free to explain your expression, uh... english is it? :D

Its basically traditional candy from English seaside towns - comes as a long round stick/tube and it has writing through the middle of it.

[Pobega]

It was odd and seemed to only let me choose certain commands to let me do.

I try to sudo anyway, and it does this:

patrick@opensuse:~> sudo kate /etc/apt/sources.list
root's password:
kate: cannot connect to X server
patrick@opensuse:~>

I've got alot of learning to do :)

EDIT: Now it says that there is already another package manager running (there isn't to my knowledge). Even after logging out and back in it says that. I can't use any package manager now...

I'm thinking I should just reinstall Debian to get rid of the odd bugs. I could still keep opensuse, but if it is acting all weird and such, I don't know if I would wan't to. I might want to just install ubuntu beside debian for emercencies and such. The worst thing is that I guess I might have wasted a DVD to do this :/

What's in /etc/sudoers?

[juxtaposed]

What's in /etc/sudoers?

In ubuntu, the user account you create can automatically use sudo. In debian you need to add your username to the sudoers list to be able to sudo, which is what that is.

[motang]

Yea I use to rotate distributions alot but I was already addicted to Ubuntu's simplicity/flexibility/security that any other distro I tried was either ugly or was just not for me.

Yeah I used to rotate distros as well, one week would be Fedora the other would be something else. My friend would make fun of me and stuff. But since Ubuntu to came around I have stuck with it, enjoyed using Ubuntu, and addicted to it. Man I has been a few years now and I still love using Ubuntu, and will for a very long time.

Thanks Ubuntu team!

[kazuya]

I always come back to Ubuntu and use it the longest compared to many other distros with the exception of Mepis and Vector linux. I am currently seeing how long I stay with Ubuntu before flying back to Zenwalk. Opensuse is good, but just not as fast for my purpose. In time, one might appreciate it. I am just not as patient with it..

It is a prefoseeional looking distro though. I may try it out in the far future when something in it pulls my attention.. Right now, there are just too many other exciting distros to look out for...
rpath, wolvix, pclos, vectorlinux, dreamlinux, desktopbsd, kubuntu, arch, frugalware, zenwalk, puppy, etc.. the list goes on..., and ofcourse, true beauty,... Sabayon..!!

[strungoutfan78]

I'm a recent convert to Kubuntu from openSuSE. I must say I really miss the gui menu structure. It's really pretty. And VERY functional. It still does not make up for the fact that ubuntu does everything that it can do plus more without the bloat.

[Andrewie]

I wanted to test out the new xorg 1.3 so I installed Fedora. I had no idea how slow the package manager was, I like that yast package manager better but its so much slower. I hope we see a big speed up in suse 10.3.

[floke]

Thoughts on suse so far...

(1) Slow to boot up
(2) Looks ok - I don't think it's as 'professional' as is claimed - the mouse pointers/clock-timer is very amateurish - can configure ubuntu to look better than the suse defaults anyway (although some apps like Firefox display better in Suse).
(3) Like the suse-menu. Much better than the .deb version for ubuntu - but not as good as the Mintmenu in LinuxMint.
(4) Touchpad configuration was flaky, and still doesn't work right after forcing me to use Ksynaptics (a god-awful piece of software if ever there was one!)
(5) Getting beryl on aiglx seemed to be a nightmare so settled on the 'desktop effects' - but don't work properly (screen goes black/white randomly, and is laggy when it wants to be).
(6) Package manager is not as slow as I'd feared (disabled Zen first), but still not a patch on apt.
(7) They still have that crappy deal.

Am currently rotating distros in a trying-out spree. Currently have Feisty, Mint3, PCLOS and Suse. The next distro that I want to install is going straight over Suse. I've just not found myself wanting to use it; and I don't think it's that great. Will try 10.3 when it comes out, but IMO Suse doesn't deserve its high reputation.

[Fatec]

Thoughts on suse so far...

(1) Slow to boot up
(2) Looks ok - I don't think it's as 'professional' as is claimed - the mouse pointers/clock-timer is very amateurish - can configure ubuntu to look better than the suse defaults anyway (although some apps like Firefox display better in Suse).
(3) Like the suse-menu. Much better than the .deb version for ubuntu - but not as good as the Mintmenu in LinuxMint.
(4) Touchpad configuration was flaky, and still doesn't work right after forcing me to use Ksynaptics (a god-awful piece of software if ever there was one!)
(5) Getting beryl on aiglx seemed to be a nightmare so settled on the 'desktop effects' - but don't work properly (screen goes black/white randomly, and is laggy when it wants to be).
(6) Package manager is not as slow as I'd feared (disabled Zen first), but still not a patch on apt.
(7) They still have that crappy deal.

Am currently rotating distros in a trying-out spree. Currently have Feisty, Mint3, PCLOS and Suse. The next distro that I want to install is going straight over Suse. I've just not found myself wanting to use it; and I don't think it's that great. Will try 10.3 when it comes out, but IMO Suse doesn't deserve its high reputation.

1) Boots up faster than ubuntu.
2)looks alot more professional than ubuntu
3)same
4)not had a problem here
5)beryl is unbelievably easy to get running, suppose u should have bothered to read some docs.
6)is a lttle slow, still.
7) get over it.

[kelvin spratt]

Are we in the right forum here i thought this was Ubuntu Forum OOOPS i forgot the Suse forum is rather c****
is't it. Well as it happens Suse 10.2 was my 2nd distro and it took a day to get my etho working a week trying to get NVidia card set up for 3D got convinced it was the card so bought a ATI card another week trying to install drivers still no luck, could not get 1600x1200x75hz res, and support was worse than Microsoft yes worse it would spend hours updating nothing RPM packages are not always complete. But a nice shinny interface so i gave up. Installed Ubuntu and surprise surprise it all worked from the box even DHT for bitorrent works
3d vid acceleration yes it all works from the box. on the negative side wallpapers are not as nice as they could be the forum wallpaper is drab. The support is the Best on the planet where else can you go into a forum and openly slag them off?

[Fatec]

Are we in the right forum here i thought this was Ubuntu Forum OOOPS i forgot the Suse forum is rather c****
is't it. Well as it happens Suse 10.2 was my 2nd distro and it took a day to get my etho working a week trying to get NVidia card set up for 3D got convinced it was the card so bought a ATI card another week trying to install drivers still no luck, could not get 1600x1200x75hz res, and support was worse than Microsoft yes worse it would spend hours updating nothing RPM packages are not always complete. But a nice shinny interface so i gave up. Installed Ubuntu and surprise surprise it all worked from the box even DHT for bitorrent works
3d vid acceleration yes it all works from the box. on the negative side wallpapers are not as nice as they could be the forum wallpaper is drab. The support is the Best on the planet where else can you go into a forum and openly slag them off?

Wikipedia, manuals etc are your best friend, if you couldnt get 1600x1200 reso your not very smart. sorry.

nvidia drivers? a doddle t oget setup and running.

[igknighted]

Thoughts on suse so far...

(1) Slow to boot up
(2) Looks ok - I don't think it's as 'professional' as is claimed - the mouse pointers/clock-timer is very amateurish - can configure ubuntu to look better than the suse defaults anyway (although some apps like Firefox display better in Suse).
(3) Like the suse-menu. Much better than the .deb version for ubuntu - but not as good as the Mintmenu in LinuxMint.
(4) Touchpad configuration was flaky, and still doesn't work right after forcing me to use Ksynaptics (a god-awful piece of software if ever there was one!)
(5) Getting beryl on aiglx seemed to be a nightmare so settled on the 'desktop effects' - but don't work properly (screen goes black/white randomly, and is laggy when it wants to be).
(6) Package manager is not as slow as I'd feared (disabled Zen first), but still not a patch on apt.
(7) They still have that crappy deal.

Am currently rotating distros in a trying-out spree. Currently have Feisty, Mint3, PCLOS and Suse. The next distro that I want to install is going straight over Suse. I've just not found myself wanting to use it; and I don't think it's that great. Will try 10.3 when it comes out, but IMO Suse doesn't deserve its high reputation.

1) yeah, it is a bit slow... but this is linux, how often do you reboot? I've been running suse for 2 weeks with no reboot so far.

2) The mouse pointer is kinda lame, but especially compared to Ubuntu (or even windows) there is no comparison. Fedora is prettier, but suse just feels polished. Lets be honest, we've all puked up things prettier than Ubuntu (NOTE: I still love Ubuntu, thank god looks are easy to change :))

3) Suse menu is nice, I tend not to use menus much anyways because I put all the apps I use on the panel or a dock anyways, so its not a big deal for me.

4) Now that you mention it, I think the touch pad did wig out on my ancient Sony Vaio laptop, never really took the time to figure it out and that computer has long since passed away.

5) XGL is far easier to set up than Ubuntu (its a Novell project after all). Beryl is a fairly simple install, you just need to add the XGL repo from the opensuse homepage, and it should work with AIGLX if you have that enabled. There really should be no difference compared to Ubuntu (aside from the fact that beryl is now in feisty's universe repo).

6) If you use SMART it flies, Yast2 is a little slow, but again, once you get it set up theres no big deal, you don't use it that much. All in all, it does the job.

7) Novell has the deal. Opensuse is a community distro. And if you really look at the body of work, Novell is only challenged by Sun for doing the best things for the opensource/linux communities. If they felt they gained with this deal, then it is a good deal for linux and opensource in general.

In my personal experience, Suse makes setting things up insanely easy. Nvidia drivers? No worries, it even sorts out the kernel module issues that Ubuntu and other distros struggle with at times. Dual monitors? Click, click, restart X, done. It is crazy to me how little respect it gets for doing all this because the boot time is 5 seconds more (like you will ever reboot anyways) and "the package manager is slow and/or isn't apt". It probably seems slow because your setup is done so fast it hasn't finished updating :lol:. Opensuse is probably the most sophistacated desktop linux available today, give it its due (not that you should use it, and yes it has flaws, which you pointed out. But there is so much that it does better than Ubuntu/any other distro that you need to give it credit there)

[kelvin spratt]

FATEC
Wikipedia, manuals etc are your best friend, if you couldnt get 1600x1200 reso your not very smart. sorry.

Where did i say i could not get 1600x1200 reso please read again i said i could not get 3D to work on my
Nvidia card there is a world of difference between 3D effects and Resolution and according to the wikipedia that card is not supported cause its made under licence from Nvidia. But i was smart enough to dump the
ugly green monster for the best Distro for me. I don't have to play with this or that to make Ubuntu work i would say i'm a very smart Guy. As I actually spent all my time using Ubuntu for serious work and play with the rest of
Linux distros when I'm bored

[kelvin spratt]

FATEC
Wikipedia, manuals etc are your best friend, if you couldnt get 1600x1200 reso your not very smart. sorry.

Where did i say i could not get 1600x1200 reso please read again i said i could not get 3D to work on my
Nvidia card there is a world of difference between 3D effects and Resolution and according to the wikipedia that card is not supported cause its made under licence from Nvidia. But i was smart enough to dump the
ugly green monster for the best Distro for me. I don't have to play with this or that to make Ubuntu work i would say i'm a very smart Guy. As I actually spent all my time using Ubuntu for serious work and play with the rest of
Linux distros when I'm bored

[Fatec]

FATEC
Wikipedia, manuals etc are your best friend, if you couldnt get 1600x1200 reso your not very smart. sorry.

Where did i say i could not get 1600x1200 reso please read again i said i could not get 3D to work on my
Nvidia card there is a world of difference between 3D effects and Resolution and according to the wikipedia that card is not supported cause its made under licence from Nvidia. But i was smart enough to dump the
ugly green monster for the best Distro for me. I don't have to play with this or that to make Ubuntu work i would say i'm a very smart Guy. As I actually spent all my time using Ubuntu for serious work and play with the rest of
Linux distros when I'm bored

the fact you said not supported because under license from nvidia proves you are NOT very smart at all.

i guess you cant use ur brain long enough to work out how to go install 3d drivers, change reso and get things working. im glad you chose ubuntu.

[floke]

1) Boots up faster than ubuntu.
2)looks alot more professional than ubuntu
3)same
4)not had a problem here
5)beryl is unbelievably easy to get running, suppose u should have bothered to read some docs.
6)is a lttle slow, still.
7) get over it.

Good for you. I wasn't slagging anyone off though, but then I couldn't help but notice from your other posts that you're a bit of a troller. Incidentally, in December last year I see that you wrote the following (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=1912732#post1912732)

"i have tried video playback without beryl and it's exactly the same (sluggish, though tearing is gone) i have used automatix 2 in the past....i've never worked out how to get smooth playback, ever. i cant work it out, i see videos of people running ubuntu with beryl..and it's really smooth, i've had mine running like that once (didnt last long). but my main concern has been video playback, which after spending 3 months trailing without success, i am more than annoyed at having to reboot back into windows to watch a video....I'm already missing ubuntu & beryl (static windows, no 3d cube, no vwm really bothers me)."

Can't get beryl to work on ubuntu? Did you try reading some docs?
__________________

Wikipedia, manuals etc are your best friend, if you couldnt get 1600x1200 reso your not very smart. sorry.

Did you try wikipedia?
You're not very smart, are you?

[kelvin spratt]

i guess you cant use ur brain long enough to work out how to go install 3d drivers, change reso and get things working. im glad you chose ubuntu.

This type of personal attack on people shows the childish mentality of some individuals they need to read their own posts. what makes this forum the best is people can come here and and get help not be insulted by individuals that think they have a right the insult anybody that does not share their opinion cause that shows they are not really as smart as they think they are?

[kelvin spratt]

STEVE.K
Thank you

[floke]

My pleasure ;)

[ThinkBuntu]

Good for you. I wasn't slagging anyone off though, but then I couldn't help but notice from your other posts that you're a bit of a troller.
I agree. Some of this guy's posts are teetering on the edge of me reporting them.

[Fatec]

i guess you cant use ur brain long enough to work out how to go install 3d drivers, change reso and get things working. im glad you chose ubuntu.

This type of personal attack on people shows the childish mentality of some individuals they need to read their own posts. what makes this forum the best is people can come here and and get help not be insulted by individuals that think they have a right the insult anybody that does not share their opinion cause that shows they are not really as smart as they think they are?

Hardly, he obviously did not take the time to read manuals or howtos, if he did he wouldnt have had a problem, pointing that out does not make me a troll.

[kelvin spratt]

I think its time a line was drawn here before people start going to far and get themselves banned don't you
as people seem hell bend on causing as much trouble as they can to ruin a perfectly good thread.

[kelvin spratt]

Or if you want to carry on E-mail me.

[RedDwarf]

a week trying to get NVidia card set up for 3D got convinced it was the card
Is pretry difficult for me to imagine what someone could be trying to do for a week to install the propietary nVidia module in openSUSE... could you explain?
In that week you saw konvenientSUSE? http://en.opensuse.org/NVIDIA? The "SuSE NVIDIA Installer HOWTO" that is available in www.nvidia.com driver download page? Sax2?
Please, explain us what you did in that week, because I can't really understand how somebody can have so much problems. You can use the nVidia installer or install from a repository, and with sax2 you do not need to touch xorg.conf at all. So, where someone can have a problem installing the nVidia module in openSUSE?

[kelvin spratt]

Its Quite simple i bought this OEM Nvidia card and used it on XP for 3 years But Did not know it was not supported by Nvidia when i went to ugrade the drivers and could not find it listed so i tried thier all i one wonder
and got a black screen so went back to the original drivers When i loaded Suse i could not 3D to work with that card and played with drivers then i rememered about the card. On their site it says unresolvable issues for that card Now do you get it. I never said anything about screen resolution. i don't sit at my computer thinking life will
end if 3d does not work but over the course of a week i did try to sort it, Then i bought an ATI card tried that but
that had problems. i used suse for about 2 months and thought it was ok. But Ubuntu works Straight from the box, so does mandriva pclinux mint fedora Debian Gento etc and i prefer the Deb packages but not Suse so their you have it but Ubuntu is what Like and if people like you can't live with that i'm sorry for you

[RedDwarf]

I never said anything about screen resolution.
Ok, english isn't my first language, and I think neither is yours. Not really important, but since is the second time you say it... you said:
so bought a ATI card another week trying to install drivers still no luck, could not get 1600x1200x75hz res
And I think is clear that's what Fatec commented on.
Again, english isn't my first language... but I think you said something about screen resolution.

Did not know it was not supported by Nvidia when i went to ugrade the drivers and could not find it listed so i tried thier all i one wonder
and got a black screen so went back to the original drivers When i loaded Suse i could not 3D to work with that card and played with drivers then i rememered about the card. On their site it says unresolvable issues for that card Now do you get it
Well, I *really* have problems understanding this text. But since english isn't my first language...
I think you installed a driver that didn't support your graphic card? Well, _if_ that's the case, I think nVidia explains this clearly when you download the driver: http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_32667.html and I don't think much people will have a problem with this.

if people like you can't live with that i'm sorry for you
Sorry, what? Well... thanks.


Anyway, if someone is thinking about trying openSUSE he should know that it really doesn't supports propietary drivers in any way. It is very easy to install them but, like kelvin spratt said, they don't work out of the box.

[ThinkBuntu]

Aye aye aye...my bustling, lovely thread has been hijacked!

[igknighted]

Anyway, if someone is thinking about trying openSUSE he should know that it really doesn't supports propietary drivers in any way. It is very easy to install them but, like kelvin spratt said, they don't work out of the box.

Indeed, not officially supported. But Madwifi, ATI and Nvidia all support repo's for Suse that make installing the drivers even easier than Envy (well, how difficult is clicking... I mean the combination of convenience and reliability). So don't be scared away by the fact that they "aren't supported", just go to these sites:
http://en.opensuse.org/Package_Repositories
http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Repositories
and add the necessary repo's to yast, then install. Easy as pie, and very reliable.

[kelvin spratt]

Think Buntu
I,m so sorry this has happened to this thread I really don't know what they are ranting on about it was 3D I could not get not screen resulution, This has really been turned into a sham i think this is a wonderfull site and i have learned so much from this site but it seems some people are out to wreck all the hard work, that has been done by genuine people trying to help other people. So all i can do is apologise on their and my behalf.

[floke]

I would also like to apologise on behalf of Kelvin Spratt ;)

Also, in fairness, its true; I didn't read many docs - which was precisely why I said installing beryl with AIGXL 'seemed' to be a nightmare - not 'was', but 'appeared' to be, which was why I went down the desktop effects route. Maybe I wasn't explicit enough. Maybe people can't read. Maybe beryl is easy to install, but do you know what, I don't care. It's not enough. I just don't like SuSe. Its not big and its not clever. I'll try 10.3 for fun though. And if others like it then great, that's what its all about.

[stucky]

I have nothing against openSUSE, it's a good distro, but I really dislike the fact that Novell has chosen to live under M$'s shadow, that's why I will never touch openSUSE and SLED again. Just my $0.02 :-)

Ditto and now add Xandros to that group as well.

[srirambond007]

Cool man... i also tried the latest suse ....but ubuntu rocks .....really...

[Nekiruhs]

Whats the command line tool for openSUSE, I've got it in a VM and YaST is being a pain. :(
BTW, for those who like openSUSE's menu, theirs a kubuntu version on Softpedia somewhere, its great when you have beagle!

[Andrewie]

Whats the command line tool for openSUSE, I've got it in a VM and YaST is being a pain. :(
BTW, for those who like openSUSE's menu, theirs a kubuntu version on Softpedia somewhere, its great when you have beagle!

open a console type yast and you get a ncurse version of yast

[Castar]

Whats the command line tool for openSUSE, I've got it in a VM and YaST is being a pain. :(
BTW, for those who like openSUSE's menu, theirs a kubuntu version on Softpedia somewhere, its great when you have beagle!

If you mean the completely command-line tool, that's zypper.

[Nekiruhs]

If you mean the completely command-line tool, that's zypper.
Thanks, thats what I needed. Some times the gui is annoying when you gotta get like 5 packages and you know what they all are, the cli is just faster then.

[cancertoast]

I enjoyed my brief openSUSE stint too. However, I tried to install the newest nvidia drivers and the terminal commands are completely different, nothign worked. I couldn't even easily get it to reboot. So I reinstalled.

[K.Mandla]

Moved to OpenSuse subforum. ;)

[igknighted]

I enjoyed my brief openSUSE stint too. However, I tried to install the newest nvidia drivers and the terminal commands are completely different, nothign worked. I couldn't even easily get it to reboot. So I reinstalled.

There's a community repo that has the NVIDIA drivers, and special opensuse instructions on the nvidia download page. I would stick with the community repo (and read the forums @ suseforums.net for critical instructions!!!), as it always keeps the latest nvidia driver.

[Incense]

I beleive there is even a one click install for NVIDIA drivers on this page.

http://en.opensuse.org/NVIDIA

[some-guy]

I started with Fedora Core 4, tried gentoo (failed miserably) and have been using suse since, 10.3 is their best distro yet, I can't wait for suse 11
also got wubi set up with a computer where I can't do a real install, and don't really like 'buntu, but its better than M$
:guitar:

[icechen1]

I used Opensuse 10.2,it turned out that the sound is suddenly broken so i swiched back to Ubuntu(although i am using Ubuntu Mint now).