Who's tried OpenSUSE?

[tuahaa]

It's a must have for KDE fans. I installed it a few days ago.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Yeh its kinda became my primary now thanks to Karmic.

[madnessjack]

Years ago... I loved it, but couldn't get my wireless working so it had to go :(

Salrite though, I found Ubuntu :D

[Psumi]

Just wondering if anyone knew where that JAVA Test thing went that tested your hardware for use on open/SUSE.

[SmittyJensen]

don't really like it, something about it just bugs me (and it's not the microsoft/novell deal either).

I'm using Fedora 12 KDE x86_64 now.

[szymon_g]

it's great distro. it's devs are mainly focused on KDE- it's hard to find any other distro with so nice kde out-of-the-box.
yast is also nice (although, yast2 could be a bit faster).
And zypper- its one of the best package-managers i've ever used :)

[Pasdar]

I tried it a few months ago... great distro.

[~sHyLoCk~]

I used it a while ago. It's quite nice. My bro uses it now. I become bored with these newbie friendly distros pretty soon. The excitement just vanishes when I can't tweak my system as freely as I would with slack. But as the OP says, it's a must have for KDE fans.

[pwnst*r]

agreed, it's quite good.

[gn2]

I've tried it and didn't like it at all.

[Northsider]

I tried it years ago and wasn't that impressed, even though I love KDE.

[speedwell68]

Not my cup of char.

[squilookle]

It was my first Linux distro and I used it happily from version 9.1 to 10, and I've tried more recent versions since but never stuck with them.

It is an excellent distro, stable, very easy to use, thanks to Yast.

My only two gripes were that, I always found it a little bloated, and the package manager always seemed so slow, especially compared to apt.

[Xbehave]

about to try it because i broke my sound and can't seen to fix it, as i'm reinstalling i may as well try something new right?

I just hope zephyr isn't as slow as yum, apt is by far the fastest packaging tool I've used and that matters more to me than the GUI as i usually know what I'm doing now (plus aptitude is a damn good TUI)

[Techsnap]

I've used SuSE since 9.1 in 2004 and it's been a great system. Definitely give it a go if you've not done so.


and the package manager always seemed so slow, especially compared to apt.

That's true of old versions, 10.3 and older, but it's definitely not slow now, it's much faster than APT.


I just hope zephyr isn't as slow as yum, apt is by far the fastest packaging tool I've used and that matters more to me than the GUI as i usually know what I'm doing now (plus aptitude is a damn good TUI)

It's zypper and APT is no way near the fastest package manager, it's actually one of the slowest IMO.

[Exodist]

I havent tried 11.2 yet. But I used to use SuSE for many years. Other then me having the worst luck with YaST package manager. Its a good RPM distro.

[Simian Man]

I just hope zephyr isn't as slow as yum, apt is by far the fastest packaging tool I've used and that matters more to me than the GUI as i usually know what I'm doing now (plus aptitude is a damn good TUI)

If you think apt has a nice UI, you will love zypper (not zephyr) and yum as they produce much better output. I like OpenSuse alright, it's better than Ubuntu at least.

[RiceMonster]

I need to play with it more. From the small amount of time I've given it, I'd say it's pretty good.


If you think apt has a nice UI, you will love zypper (not zephyr) and yum as they produce much better output. I like OpenSuse alright, it's better than Ubuntu at least.

I don't remember what zypper looks like, but yum definitely has much cleaner output than apt. Speed wise? I haven't used apt in a while, so I don't think it's fair for me to decide.

[Xbehave]

If you think apt has a nice UI, you will love zypper (not zephyr) and yum as they produce much better output. I like OpenSuse alright, it's better than Ubuntu at least.
No my point is i don't want care about the GUI for apt-get install all i want is speed, and when i do want a TUI aptitude is that UI not apt.



It's zypper and APT is no way near the fastest package manager, it's actually one of the slowest IMO.
I've used pacman and yum, but apt runs rings around them on my hardware, d/l speed doesn't matter to me it's the actual installations that are slower with pacman/yum.

[Techsnap]

I've used pacman and yum, but apt runs rings around them on my hardware, d/l speed doesn't matter to me it's the actual installations that are slower with pacman/yum.

Wow what kind of hardware are you running, it takes forever for APT to read the database every single time here.

[Simian Man]

I've used pacman and yum, but apt runs rings around them on my hardware, d/l speed doesn't matter to me it's the actual installations that are slower with pacman/yum.

For me, apt does download packages faster than yum does, but installation is about the same. Doing updates, however, is much faster with yum thanks to delta-rpms.

I also personally like a nice command line UI, so I appreciate yum and pacman especially for that. Zyppher has a nice UI too, but I haven't used the more advanced features of it. For apt I can never remember if something's supposed to be apt-get, apt-cache, apt-file or whatever and always need to look it up, plus it pukes out way too much text.

[~sHyLoCk~]

LOL. This is funny, pacman is the fastest out there , followed by yum and zypper. Apt is slow, it's a know fact.

[~sHyLoCk~]

Simian Man

I also liked zypper, it's simple and pretty easy to use. I use yum in centOS, well it's true that it prints a lot of info and has an organized way of showing output. Installing packages using yum can be pretty tedious at times, suppose:


yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=reponame install package
To install a package from a particular repo.

Also you have to exclude 32bit arch in yum.conf else both packages will be installed. Anywayz, yum is pretty nice to look at.
The simplest is pkgtool :D no bloat. LOL

[Simian Man]

I also liked zypper, it's simple and pretty easy to use. I use yum in centOS, well it's true that it prints a lot of info and has an organized way of showing output. Installing packages using yum can be pretty tedious at times, suppose:


yum --disablerepo=\* --enablerepo=reponame install package
To install a package from a particular repo.

Also you have to exclude 32bit arch in yum.conf else both packages will be installed. Anywayz, yum is pretty nice to look at.

How often do you install from a specific repo like that though? And, under Fedora at least since version 10, installing a package by name on 64-bit will only install the 64 bit version. To install the 32 bit version, you'd append '.i686' to the name.

[~sHyLoCk~]

How often do you install from a specific repo like that though? And, under Fedora at least since version 10, installing a package by name on 64-bit will only install the 64 bit version. To install the 32 bit version, you'd append '.i686' to the name.

I had to install a few packages based on specific repos than official repo, lm_sensors being one for example. In CentOS I guess things are still different than fedora.

[Simian Man]

In CentOS I guess things are still different than fedora.

CentOS 5.x is based on Fedora 6, so that change must have come at some point after that. That would be really annoying :/.

[Psumi]

Just wondering if anyone knew where that JAVA Test thing went that tested your hardware for use on open/SUSE.

So no one knows about this?

[Grifulkin]

lol. This is funny, pacman is the fastest out there , followed by yum and zypper. Apt is slow, it's a know fact.

+1

[BrokenKingpin]

I have tried it, and HATE it. It just feels really bloated and slow compared to many other distros. If I was to use a RPM based distro I would go with Fedora.

[Grifulkin]

Yes it's KDE is awesome. Also it is one of the easiest distributions to use. If not the easiest most likely being Mint.

[Crunchy the Headcrab]

It installs way more than I'd prefer by default. Other than that, it's a pretty good distro. I prefer Ubuntu and Fedora.

[tuahaa]

As for the apt vs zypper issue, I've found zypper much faster. I have an 'alright' internet plan and my maximum download speed through apt is about 60 kb/s, while zypper sometimes jumps to 90 kb/s and has an average of 65-70kb/s

I'm using OpenSUSE 11.2 as I type this. The only drawback for completely new Linux users is adding more repositories as the default openSUSE repos don't have all the must have proprietary stuff. It's not a problem if you know that you need to add non oss and community repos since Linux is open source and all that and they have a thing against people taking credit for/making money out of their work (lol)

[Raffles10]

LOL. This is funny, pacman is the fastest out there , followed by yum and zypper. Apt is slow, it's a know fact.

Known by who ?

I've used apt on Ubuntu and Debian systems, I've also used Pacman on an Arch install I had for months and in my experience apt is superior. Pacman is slow, especially when you have to faff about trying to find an up to date mirror.

Not known by me. :P

[The Toxic Mite]

Tried it, it sux.

[Xbehave]

LOL. This is funny, pacman is the fastest out there , followed by yum and zypper. Apt is slow, it's a know fact.
Citation (with types of test) needed. For interactive tasks (search, pre-install-dependancy-checks, etc) apt is easily faster than yum and pacman (older version as i've not used arch in over a year) and not noticably slower than zypper, for non-interactive tasks i don't care if it takes 10s per package or 15s.
I would say zypper is fast enough, it's as fast as apt for most stuff even if it's slightly slower for search, but for a tui aptitude still takes the cake.

I gave openSuse a try over the weekend and while i liked the KDE implementation and Yast is a nice system configuration tool, i was underwhelmed by the rest of the system. The boot time was poor (probably due to the lack of upstart), xorg would freeze up everything as soon as i got to it, their bootchart was buggy (as xorg wasn't starting it filled my / too). After fixing the xorg thing, I decided I couldn't be bothered to struggle through fixing ALSA and ACPI and reinstalled kubuntu+kde ppas to get the same version of kde but a more familiar and stable underlying system. Obviously if i'd run into no bugs i'd have stuck with opensuse for longer but, i got the impression that a lot of the libraries were older and i prefer to live on the edge. Also the install was slow, the minimal install took about an hour for the actual install, i reinstalled ubuntu minimal (the minimal disc is about 10x bigger than ubuntus too) inside an hour (including time used to do configuration).

TL;DR I've found fedora and ubuntu KDEs to be almost as good and preferred the underlying systems.

[tuahaa]

Citation (with types of test) needed. For interactive tasks (search, pre-install-dependancy-checks, etc) apt is easily faster than yum and pacman (older version as i've not used arch in over a year) and not noticably slower than zypper, for non-interactive tasks i don't care if it takes 10s per package or 15s.
I would say zypper is fast enough, it's as fast as apt for most stuff even if it's slightly slower for search, but for a tui aptitude still takes the cake.

I gave openSuse a try over the weekend and while i liked the KDE implementation and Yast is a nice system configuration tool, i was underwhelmed by the rest of the system. The boot time was poor (probably due to the lack of upstart), xorg would freeze up everything as soon as i got to it, their bootchart was buggy (as xorg wasn't starting it filled my / too). After fixing the xorg thing, I decided I couldn't be bothered to struggle through fixing ALSA and ACPI and reinstalled kubuntu+kde ppas to get the same version of kde but a more familiar and stable underlying system. Obviously if i'd run into no bugs i'd have stuck with opensuse for longer but, i got the impression that a lot of the libraries were older and i prefer to live on the edge. Also the install was slow, the minimal install took about an hour for the actual install, i reinstalled ubuntu minimal (the minimal disc is about 10x bigger than ubuntus too) inside an hour (including time used to do configuration).

TL;DR I've found fedora and ubuntu KDEs to be almost as good and preferred the underlying systems.

Then it seems OpenSUSE is being nice to my computer as I've found it faster (and less buggier) than ubuntu. I'm thinking of replacing Ubuntu with Fedora just to try it out. I guess it doesn't really matter what you use, a lot of the apps are common as they are all Linux distributions.

[~sHyLoCk~]

Citation (with types of test) needed.

Here's a citation: Create a poll and ask.


Known by who ?

I've used apt on Ubuntu and Debian systems, I've also used Pacman on an Arch install I had for months and in my experience apt is superior. Pacman is slow, especially when you have to faff about trying to find an up to date mirror.

Not known by me. :P

Known by people who actually understands what a package manager is and how it functions, known by veteran and experienced Linux users and I'm not just speaking of Archers. I'm not an Arch user, but I still vote pacman to be the best Package manager. Since I've used it, and I have used apt as well for many years. Of course you wouldn't know, there's nothing wrong with not knowing.

Regards

[LowSky]

Whats the difference between Kubuntu and OpenSuse, What makes one KDE distro better than the other?

[tuahaa]

Whats the difference between Kubuntu and OpenSuse, What makes one KDE distro better than the other?

Ubuntu primarily focuses on Gnome, and so their Gnome distribution is much better than their KDE distribution. OpenSUSE, however, focuses on KDE, and thats why OpenSUSE KDE is better than Kubuntu by a long way

[Xbehave]

Ubuntu primarily focuses on Gnome, and so their Gnome distribution is much better than their KDE distribution. OpenSUSE, however, focuses on KDE, and thats why OpenSUSE KDE is better than Kubuntu by a long way
You assume that both companies spend an equal amount of time and split it between gnome/kde only, so your explanation doesn't hold up.

I think it's more to do with
1) A lot of KDE devs like opensuse, so i guess they use opensuse as their primary plaform
2) Yast is cross toolkit so all suse configuration can be done using supported qt tools
3) More testing is done on opensuse+kde than kubuntu

So i think your right but your explanation isn't that good as i'd hope most time spent by both canonical and novel will be on the core systems not the GUI trimming and i also suspect Novell put in a lot more total manpower than canonical.

As for the question, i think there are 2 reasons that using opensuse may be better
1) Yast
2) Better integration/test of kde with the rest of the system
3) KDE version is kept pretty current (is this relevant now kubuntu have a PPA that do the same thing?)


Known by people who actually understands what a package manager is and how it functions, known by veteran and experienced Linux users and I'm not just speaking of Archers. I'm not an Arch user, but I still vote pacman to be the best Package manager. Since I've used it, and I have used apt as well for many years. Of course you wouldn't know, there's nothing wrong with not knowing.
Nice and specific i see.
What i do know:

I have recently used YUM/zypper and apt and i can tell you that YUM ran slower than apt and zypper was about the same as apt, so speedwise apt does not suck.
In terms of versatility, apt can do almost everything everything can, the only missing features are in aptitude
In terms of UI, it comes down to personal preference
In terms of bandwidth usage, perhaps pacman wins, but then again i prefer to take a hit on bandwidth to get faster installs (rebuilding delta-rpm's was sloooow)

So if apt sucks so much please put up or shut up. As for pacman being the best, I did look for a list of reasons why pacman is better but all i could find were generic statements, so if you actually have a reason to say it's the best why not explain it.
I do concede that pacman is better than apt/zyper/yum for source/binary hybrid distros, but as a straight up binary package manager what are the advantages of pacman?

[ElSlunko]

I tried it for a couple of months and it's great! Only thing is I couldn't figure out an issue with hugin so I've returned to ubuntu. I was probably going to anyways since I'm very excited about Lucid Lynx. OpenSuse is great though, KDE was rock solid.

[l-x-l]

I tried 11.2 for a few weeks. But I'm a gnome fan so I couldn't get used to KDE. Also, I couldn't find a dellfan alternative on OpenSuSe to keep my laptop cool so I came back to Ubuntu 9.10

[Xbehave]

I tried 11.2 for a few weeks. But I'm a gnome fan so I couldn't get used to KDE. Also, I couldn't find a dellfan alternative on OpenSuSe to keep my laptop cool so I came back to Ubuntu 9.10
OpenSuSe do offer GNOME too, it's just that they offer KDE and GNOME on equal footing, whereas most distros favor GNOME.

[murderslastcrow]

OpenSUSE is a great distribution. They implement KDE very well and have a lot of extra touches to make the OS their own. I look forward to it continuing steady development alongside Ubuntu. Fedora, Ubuntu, And OpenSUSE are definitely my favorite distros. I really wish one of them would come up with an out-of-the-box e17 distro.

[Kingsley]

Whats the difference between Kubuntu and OpenSuse, What makes one KDE distro better than the other?
I can't think of many big things at the moment, but Firefox is a bit different in OpenSuse. The dialog box and notifications for Firefox are much better integrated with KDE4.

[PaulReaver]

I like the look of it, but...

Couldn't get wifi, mobile broadband or edge scrolling working.
I can forgive the missing touchpad edge scrolling but a laptop without wifi or mobile broadband is pointless.

it had to go.

[Xbehave]

I can't think of many big things at the moment, but Firefox is a bit different in OpenSuse. The dialog box and notifications for Firefox are much better integrated with KDE4.
Good news everybody, the opensuse,firefox+kde patches are going to be included in Lucid lynx (I didn't notice them in my short time in opensuse though, what exactly do they do? is it just:
plasma-notify? (http://www.andreas-demmer.de/2009/05/31/plasmanotify_-_firefox_spricht_plasma/)
ui.allow_platform_file_picker to Flase?
and putting a qtlike theme on firefox or is it more than that?)

[JBAlaska]

If you want to try a "non n00b=read Ubuntu" KDE distro, try Mandriva 2010, the KDE interface is just ..well sweet.

P.S. I don't really believe Ubuntu is a n00b distro..I guess Mint fills that bill Lol's

[HappinessNow]

It's a must have for KDE fans. I installed it a few days ago.
I have never tried it but would like too, one day.

[earthpigg]

how the heck are you folks claiming that apt-get or pacman or yum downloads packages faster than any other?

have you considered that maybe the repository you are using is what determines the speed of download????

if you don't think that is a consideration, then go ahead and update/upgrade your system using the package manager and default repos right around release time for your distro of choice...

i've seen ubuntu's default repos go as slow as 15 kb/s. how could that possibly be the package managers fault when switching repos brings it up to 300 kb/s instantly?

similar example:

lets say i am using fedora and i get 50 kb/s running this...

wget http://slow.website.com/fedora.package.that.will.slowly.download.rpm

and then on ubuntu i get 300 kb/s running this...

wget http://fast.website.com/ubuntu.package.that.will.quickly.download.deb

obviously correct conclusion...
wow, ubuntu's wget is TOTALLY faster than fedoras. fedora sucks! this has absolutely nothing to do with the actual servers i am pulling data from. yup, logic is absolutely being applied here.


excuse me while i bash my head into a brick wall.

[Xbehave]

how the heck are you folks claiming that apt-get or pacman or yum downloads packages faster than any other?
Some operations that don't require you to d/l anything, things like search and dependency resolution pre-install are much slower on yum than apt, even listing locally installed packages seamed slower (i did that grepping yum list, there may be a quicker way). Also when upgrading unless you pick a really bad mirror most of the time will be spent doing the actual install (dpkg/rpm) so the speed of the download speed is only part of the time.

However you are correct, perhaps the most of my perceived difference is that yum does a lot less caching by default (i'm sure there will be a settings somewhere).

[Techsnap]

Some operations that don't require you to d/l anything, things like search and dependency resolution pre-install are much slower on yum than apt, even listing locally installed packages seamed slower (i did that grepping yum list, there may be a quicker way).

YUM used to take a while initially but now it's much faster. Usually the first time you use it it will take a while because it's doing the following:

Downloading Package Information from the mirrors.
Checking Filesizes/Descriptions
Syncing Current package info with repos

After using YUM the first time it should be fast from then on.

[billsdesk]

I started with SUSE 7.0 and still use it. Currently, I am using openSUSE 11.1 on a Dell Inspiron 8100. Except for one wireless card that uses bcm43xx, it works fine all cards, USB Wifi, and Version USB modem. I am using Xubuntu on an old Micron TransPort ZX. The upgrade to 9.10 has been less than exciting.

[Icehuck]

OpenSuse was cool but not being able to resolve DNS when using WIFI kept me from using it. I even downloaded a patch for it and the patch didn't fix it.

[Twitch6000]

I have it installed as my primary. i am using 11.2 and I gotta say it has been the easiest distro for me.

[Pogeymanz]

I'm surprised so many people liked OpenSUSE. The twice that I used it (a few years ago and last month) it seemed a lot slower than any other distro I've used. YaST also seemed pretty slow to open and not super-responsive.

I really like the way it looks, but that's it.

[Twitch6000]

As for the apt vs zypper issue, I've found zypper much faster. I have an 'alright' internet plan and my maximum download speed through apt is about 60 kb/s, while zypper sometimes jumps to 90 kb/s and has an average of 65-70kb/s

I'm using OpenSUSE 11.2 as I type this. The only drawback for completely new Linux users is adding more repositories as the default openSUSE repos don't have all the must have proprietary stuff. It's not a problem if you know that you need to add non oss and community repos since Linux is open source and all that and they have a thing against people taking credit for/making money out of their work (lol)
I concur,all you gotta do is enable the community repos :p.

There are ones for firefox updates,openoffice updates,nvidia drivers,ati drivers,wireless drives,webcam drivers,and much more :].

[nomnex]

Linux for corporate users (can right click, left click, and middle click with 2 years of training & seminars). Enjoy the bloat. *******'s not far.

The covers of the em:t albums were interesting (mainly amphibians close-up), but the Suse slimy lizard appears as tasteful as a Birkenstock sandal.

Totally hate both, the ******* copy cat version KDE - or Gnome - and the lizard. Can eventually wear the German sandal).

[RiceMonster]

Linux for corporate users (can right click, left click, and middle click with 2 years of training & seminars). Enjoy the bloat. *******'s not far.

The covers of the em:t albums were interesting (mainly amphibians close-up), but the Suse slimy lizard appears as tasteful as a Birkenstock sandal.

Totally hate both, the ******* copy cat version KDE - or Gnome - and the lizard. Can eventually wear the German sandal).

blah blah blah

[FPSKing]

I tried it (11.2) and I absolutely HATED it. I still prefer Ubuntu over any other distro of linux. I have tried KDE 4.0, Fedora, OpenSuse, and mint.

I still find that Ubuntu is the easiest to use.

[crimesaucer]

deleted.

[Hyper Tails]

I tried it it was decent

[sudoer541]

I tried opensuse both KDE and Gnome versions and they look great!!!
I find suse easier to get used to but I still prefer ubu because its more popular.

[garryknight]

I used openSuse for a couple of years through the 8-10 versions, and I used Mandrake/Mandriva for about 10 years up to 2008 Spring, and I've used KDE since version 1, and I'm now running Kubuntu 9.10. What both openSuse and Mandriva have that Ubuntu lacks is something like Mandriva's Control Center or openSuse's Yast. With Ubuntu, if I want to configure something without using the command line (and I've been using command lines since the early 80s, so I don't really have a problem with that) then I look in the KDE System Settings, Computer Administration or System sections; and if I can't find what I want, I have to go digging around in the System menu. If I still can't find what I want, I have to dig around in Synaptic or just resort to using the command line.

Would be nice if Ubuntu developers could find the time to bring all of the system configuration stuff into one place, just to make things easier.

Anyway, to answer your question, yes, I've used openSuse and - once I've got rid of the green and substituted it with something a little less nauseous - it's one of the best Linux distros around.

[ElSlunko]

Yep Opensuse is a great distro! I loved it except I couldn't get hugin to work so I went back to Ubuntu. I mean I gave it a good try to fix but I felt it was easier to solve issues over-all with ubuntu's popularity. I missed all the ubuntu based ppas too :P.

[knavarathna92]

I tried it and found out that I like GNOME much more than KDE so I stopped using it. you're right though, If you like KDE, it's great.

[MasterNetra]

Tried it more recently on my desktop where Linux distros seem to love to freeze up for no apparent reason and did alright only occasionally doing it. (Its probably a driver issue) Though got Fedora 12 on it and its been behaving. Open Suse though seems to be very stable otherwise, gotta beat them over the head though for a lack of power management, or at the very least I never could find the GUI utility that handles power management anywhere.

[amitabhishek]

Ubuntu FTW!!! Nothing comes close.

[premamotion]

I have tryed openSuse for 10 minutes... after that it completely crashed...

[Roasted]

Linux for corporate users (can right click, left click, and middle click with 2 years of training & seminars). Enjoy the bloat. *******'s not far.

The covers of the em:t albums were interesting (mainly amphibians close-up), but the Suse slimy lizard appears as tasteful as a Birkenstock sandal.

Totally hate both, the ******* copy cat version KDE - or Gnome - and the lizard. Can eventually wear the German sandal).

Pardon me, sir, but what the hell did you just say?

[Khakilang]

Try it but a bit slow on my older computer and hence stick with Ubuntu. It will work best with latest computer no doubt.

[dspari1]

I'm using OpenSuSE as my main right now specifically because of the superior KDE experience. This distro has many strengths, but it has many weaknesses as well.

For example, the first thing I tried to do was install Google Chrome by downloading the rpm and clicking on it. Instead of fetching the dependencies for me like Ubuntu does, it gave me an error, and I had to manually launch YaST to solve the dependencies.

I know that solving dependencies is way better than it was in the 90s. At the very least, when I install something from the repositories, it does solve its own dependencies, but the fact that I have to manually launch YaST to solve dependencies from an rpm in 2010 is very disheartening.

Other than that, OpenSuSE does a lot of things right. For example, if I want to install restricted codecs, the only thing I have to do is go to http://opensuse-community.org/Restricted_Formats/11.2, and do a single click the ymp file, and it will do everything else for me.

It's a much more sophisticated processes then copying and pasting the commands found at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

My final verdict is that if OpenSuSE was debian based instead of rpm, it would be the perfect distro in my eyes. At the very least, if rpms solved their own dependencies, rpm would no longer be a problem.

Major Strengths:
KDE
YaST
ymp

Major Weakness:
RPM

[llawwehttam]

Personally I do not like OpenSUSE at all. Something about it feels wrong when you use it and YAST is like a bad rip off of control panel.



Other than that, OpenSuSE does a lot of things right. For example, if I want to install restricted codecs, the only thing I have to do is go to http://opensuse-community.org/Restricted_Formats/11.2, and a single click the ymp file, and it will do everything for me.


have you ever heard of ubuntu-restricted-extras ?

[Techsnap]

My final verdict is that if OpenSuSE was debian based instead of rpm, it would be the perfect distro in my eyes.

That would totally destroy OpenSUSE because APT is by far the worst package manager in terms of speed and how it handles dependencies.


Instead of fetching the dependencies for me like Ubuntu does, it gave me an error

Nothing to do with RPMS, thats because it never had those dependencies in its repository, I really commend that you add the packman repo.


At the very least, if rpms solved their own dependencies, rpm would no longer be a problem.

OpenSUSE uses zypper, it solves it's own dependencies.

[dspari1]

Personally I do not like OpenSUSE at all. Something about it feels wrong when you use it and YAST is like a bad rip off of control panel.



have you ever heard of ubuntu-restricted-extras ?

Yes, but that doesn't include DVDs.

[dspari1]

That would totally destroy OpenSUSE because APT is by far the worst package manager in terms of speed and how it handles dependencies.



Nothing to do with RPMS, thats because it never had those dependencies in its repository, I really commend that you add the packman repo.



OpenSUSE uses zypper, it solves it's own dependencies.

First of all, it did have those dependencies in its repository. I was able to go into YaST, search for it, and manually install the required dependencies that Google Chrome was asking for. However, if I simply click on the RPM, it does not automatically solve its dependencies like it should.

Here is someone else who ran into the exact same problem.

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=75a059e3242d3d33&hl=en


I have tried to install Google Chrome Beta on my OpenSUSE (11.1) Linux, but it comes up with this error each time I try..
Package /tmp/google-chrome-beta_current_i386-1.rpm could not be installed.

Details:
Subprocess failed. Error: RPM failed: warning: /tmp/google-chrome-beta_current_i386-1.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 7fac5991 error: Faled dependencies:
Isb >= 3.2 is needed by google-chrome-beta-4.0.249.43-34537.i386
Google Chrome version (type in about:version into the address bar):


Does anyone know the solution to this?
I usually install with packages from the OpenSUSE software directory, but there were none for Google Chrome.

The fix for this is to go to the packagemanager, and install lsb manually. To me, this is a complete failure, and Google Chrome is not alone when running into problems like this. I never ran into this kind of problem on Debian/Ubuntu/Mepis, and not even on Gentoo/Sabayon.

[Techsnap]

First of all, it did have those dependencies in its repository. I was able to go into YaST, search for it, and manually install the required dependencies that Google Chrome was asking for. However, if I simply click on the RPM, it does not automatically solve its dependencies like it should.

You do know that there is a Google repo right :)

[dspari1]

You do know that there is a Google repo right :)

Installing anything from the repository has never caused me a problem. It's those pesky rpm files that doesn't do what debian files do in other distros.

Trust me bro, I like OpenSuSE a lot, and it does things a lot better than Ubuntu does from a usability standpoint. However, it does have flaws, and those flaws have to be pointed out if it is ever going to be fixed.

By looking at the big picture, OpenSuSE is almost there.

[~sHyLoCk~]

Installing anything from the repository has never caused me a problem. It's those pesky rpm files that doesn't do what debian files do in other distros.

Trust me bro, I like OpenSuSE a lot, and it does things a lot better than Ubuntu does from a usability standpoint. However, it does have flaws, and those flaws have to be pointed out if it is ever going to be fixed.

By looking at the big picture, OpenSuSE is almost there.

You can't click on a rpm file and expect it to automagically download all the dependencies needed in a package. You can't do that even with deb files. This deb vs rpm argument is quite vague. If you are talking about the rpm and deb packaging procedure then the rpm scripts have a bit of bloat. Read this discussion (http://lwn.net/Articles/223183/).
No distro is perfect, every distro has it's flaws. Just pick and use the one you are comfortable with.

[Dutchmaster]

It worked ok as such. For me, package Mgr's a slug and auto shuts off with every program you load (nuisance). Several non-package mgr programs won't install that work fine with Mandriva, PCLinuxOS and the Debian distros. Several programs not in repo that are in others.

So I recommend Mandriva 2010 or PCLinuxOS if you want to try an rpm disto.

[dspari1]

You can't click on a rpm file and expect it to automagically download all the dependencies needed in a package. You can't do that even with deb files. This deb vs rpm argument is quite vague. If you are talking about the rpm and deb packaging procedure then the rpm scripts have a bit of bloat. Read this discussion (http://lwn.net/Articles/223183/).
No distro is perfect, every distro has it's flaws. Just pick and use the one you are comfortable with.

For the most part, when I click on a deb file in Ubuntu, gdebi does indeed fetch all the dependencies for me. The times that it doesn't do this is very rare and far between. I can't say the same thing about rpm files, I frequently have to install the dependencies that it is complaining about through the package manager.

I agree that no distro is perfect, and I acknowledged that in my original post. Apart from RPM, OpenSuSE is pretty close to being perfect in my own eyes.

[Roasted]

Personally I do not like OpenSUSE at all. Something about it feels wrong when you use it and YAST is like a bad rip off of control panel.


Off of... what control panel?

[dspari1]

Off of... what control panel?

He's likely talking about control panel in windows.

[Roasted]

He's likely talking about control panel in windows.

YaST is a "bad" rip off of control panel?

lol..

[~sHyLoCk~]

Mandriva controlcenter ftw!!!:P

[toupeiro]

It was my distro of choice for years before switching to ubuntu in around 2006. I've recently pulled down 11.2 in light of some recent decisions about the upcoming Lucid release that I disagree with fundamentally and am running it in a VM to get a feel for all the changes since I last used it. I may very well switch to it sooner rather than later.

[Wiebelhaus]

Yea , I prefer PCLOS because I wanted to kill YAST with fire to be honest.

[Roasted]

Yea , I prefer PCLOS because I wanted to kill YAST with fire to be honest.

Have you tried 11.2 with YaST2? I can't speak for the 10.X versions of opensuse, but I ran suse server 9.2 when I was in school. Oh. My. God. I wanted to shoot myself in the face every time I used it. Fast forward to last week and someone kept saying I should try it. YaST2 on 11.2 is incredibly fast for me, even on a machine with 512ram and a single core aging processor.

I'm not saying opensuse is the best thing ever, that's up to you to decide. My point is I was impressed by what I saw, and my anti suse feelings were reversed relatively quickly.

[sbrown1992]

Lack of Esperanto Support made me come back to Ubuntu

[Knowle]

Tried it today, loved the KDE integration, didn't really care for YaST. Having to use "Su" and then putting in a password was different and I liked that the text was highlighted when you are using root. Took me over an hour to get my broadcom wireless working. :l

[Roasted]

Tried it today, loved the KDE integration, didn't really care for YaST. Having to use "Su" and then putting in a password was different and I liked that the text was highlighted when you are using root. Took me over an hour to get my broadcom wireless working. :l

What broadcom card do you have? I just installed openSuSE 11.2 on my work laptop last night and got the wifi rolling in minutes. Just had to enable the packman repos, search in yast install software for broadcom, and select broadcom-wl to install, apply, reboot, and I had wifi.

My card in my laptop is a Broadcom BCM4322, for what's worth. This same method worked on Fedora 12 as well as Mandriva 2010, however Mandriva 2010's package was called dkms-broadcom-wl, whereas F12 and OS 11.2 was broadcom-wl.

[shuttleworthwannabe]

it takes ages to install OpenSuse...there are 6 clicks in Ubuntu's Ubiquity install, and how many in OpenSUSE? Also the system runs relatively slower than Ubuntu on my laptop.

Also I know where to find help for my Linux..right here. have you been to the Suse forums..the people there are a bit irate..not sure why, but community in Ubuntu makes a big difference.

But, must agree that the KDe rendition form SUSE is the best out there.

[fatality_uk]

Tried it, loved it, use it!

[Roasted]

it takes ages to install OpenSuse...there are 6 clicks in Ubuntu's Ubiquity install, and how many in OpenSUSE? Also the system runs relatively slower than Ubuntu on my laptop.

Also I know where to find help for my Linux..right here. have you been to the Suse forums..the people there are a bit irate..not sure why, but community in Ubuntu makes a big difference.

But, must agree that the KDe rendition form SUSE is the best out there.

You're also comparing a 4gb DVD install + additional software vs a 700mb LiveCD. Not only that, but OpenSUSE gives you the ability to choose which desktop environment you want, additional repositories, etc. I can assure you, OpenSuSE is not slow to install, but it is significantly larger since you have a wider range of software to choose from. I was able to (during the installer) choose all of the necessary administration software I needed to get my system rolling sooner. For Ubuntu, I have a flash drive with a script reading something like: sudo apt-get package1 package2 package3 package4 package5 etc to handle that same task for me.

[Knowle]

What broadcom card do you have? I just installed openSuSE 11.2 on my work laptop last night and got the wifi rolling in minutes. Just had to enable the packman repos, search in yast install software for broadcom, and select broadcom-wl to install, apply, reboot, and I had wifi.

My card in my laptop is a Broadcom BCM4322, for what's worth. This same method worked on Fedora 12 as well as Mandriva 2010, however Mandriva 2010's package was called dkms-broadcom-wl, whereas F12 and OS 11.2 was broadcom-wl.It's Broadcom BCM4312 b/g. It all looks so easy now looking at it, lol. I just messed through things from old posts in the suse forums trying to get it working without bothering anyone but ended getting help in suse irc. I'm also kinda spoiled by the "Hardware Drivers" option in *buntu distros. I'll also agree as a SuSE install may look or even be slightly slower than others but you get so many more tools and applications with it. The default desktop is beautiful as well imo.

[Roasted]

It's Broadcom BCM4312 b/g. It all looks so easy now looking at it, lol. I just messed through things from old posts in the suse forums trying to get it working without bothering anyone but ended getting help in suse irc. I'm also kinda spoiled by the "Hardware Drivers" option in *buntu distros. I'll also agree as a SuSE install may look or even be slightly slower than others but you get so many more tools and applications with it. The default desktop is beautiful as well imo.

So did you ultimately get it working, or were you just kind of adding 2 and 2 and assuming it could have been less stressful than it was?

It's definitely larger than Ubuntu, there's no denying that. But it feels more "systems administrator" like, while still being relatively easy to use with the extra stuff that comes with it.

[shuttleworthwannabe]

You're also comparing a 4gb DVD install + additional software vs a 700mb LiveCD. Not only that, but OpenSUSE gives you the ability to choose which desktop environment you want, additional repositories, etc. I can assure you, OpenSuSE is not slow to install, but it is significantly larger since you have a wider range of software to choose from. I was able to (during the installer) choose all of the necessary administration software I needed to get my system rolling sooner. For Ubuntu, I have a flash drive with a script reading something like: sudo apt-get package1 package2 package3 package4 package5 etc to handle that same task for me.

Granted. But my experience has been with the CD-ROM version of OpenSUSE--the GNOME desktop. and it took me through various hoops to install. In the end, on the same hardware that I had Ubuntu installed, OpenSUSE could not detect my wireless card (broadcom). I know this sounds like I am bashin OpenSUSE, but the contrary. I started playing with Linux because of SUSE as early at 2002. So I have a lot of respect for it.

YaST, compared to synpatic, is poles apart--synaptic being the rolls royce of application management.

[Roasted]

Granted. But my experience has been with the CD-ROM version of OpenSUSE--the GNOME desktop. and it took me through various hoops to install. In the end, on the same hardware that I had Ubuntu installed, OpenSUSE could not detect my wireless card (broadcom). I know this sounds like I am bashin OpenSUSE, but the contrary. I started playing with Linux because of SUSE as early at 2002. So I have a lot of respect for it.

YaST, compared to synpatic, is poles apart--synaptic being the rolls royce of application management.

I haven't used the LiveCD of OpenSuSE, only because the LiveCDs I've heard you tend to miss out on stuff due to the extra tools the DVD brings to the table. And as far as the wireless, for most broadcom cards you just have to install the broadcom-wl package after adding packman. Packman is the "medibuntu" (and restricted packages) of OpenSuSE. Any other distro is like this. I've used about 10 distros in the past 4 days heavily and the only one that bugs you about installing a driver is Ubuntu. I'm a long time user of Ubuntu as well, but my interests began to lean towards KDE, which then began to lead towards other distros since Kubuntu is kind of meh compared to other KDE implementations from other distros.

I'm sure the LiveCD of OpenSuSE and the LiveCD of Ubuntu would be more comparable. But it's nice being able to pick and choose extra packages (file server, nfs server, ftp server, etc) during the installer itself - and having YaST to pull it all together is just smexy.

I'll always love Ubuntu, and I'll probably always have it installed on one of my machines here. But I am beginning to see there's other bright areas of Linux besides Ubuntu.

[Randymanme]

About five months ago, I was a computer newbie (still am) and didn't know how to do a lot of things. I'd asked a friend at FreeGeek Columbus to delete the extaneous operating systems from my computer just leaving the one I used, and he accidently deleted them all. “No problem,” I said, “I'll just reinstall when I get home.”

But everytime I tried to reinstall K/Ubuntu, I got an error message saying:
Installation Failed
The installer encountered an error copying files to the hard disk:
[errno 5] Input/output error
. . .

That happened with two Ubuntu installation Cds, three live Ubuntu Cds, one Kubuntu live CD, and one Fedora live CD. However, openSUSE 11.1 and PCLinuxOS 2009 (a rolling distro) did install, so those are what I had to use.


The difference between openSUSE and Kubuntu? Mainly, every distro tries to brand whatever software it uses to at least make it appear to be unique. Kde on Ubuntu (Kubuntu) doesn't even seem like the same thing as openSUSE's version. OpenSUSE's Yast2 software packager is slow and bloated in comparison to Kubuntu's KpackageKit or Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager.


I eventually learned how to customize the OpenSUSE-branded GNOME desktop to look like Ubuntu's default GNOME desktop. I tried to switch OpenSUSE 11.1 over to Kpackage Kit to complete the customization. I find it amusing that Yast2 won't do it! Sort of like a human saying, “Oh, no, definitely not! I'm not going to train the person you want to replace me with!”


I had to use openSUSE 11.1 for about a month before I learned enough about partitioning to succeed in installing PCLinuxOS. It's KDE desktop is by far (in my experince) the most avant gaard. It makes Kubuntu seem like a wasted of time. When I first beheld PCLinuxOS GNOME, I regarded it as a slicker, more polished Ubuntu. I've since been made aware that PCLinuxOS was first – that Ubuntu is a copy of the former with a marketing emphasis. Talk about speed and effeciency, check out PCLinuxOS's rpm Synaptic Package Manager.


I've also learned that there's more to a distro than the system(s) itself. Community support is just as important. When I used openSUSE to ask Ubuntu Forums for help getting Kubuntu back, I was told to ask openSUSE Forum. OpenSUSE Forum, however, offered to help me get Kubuntu back. Overall, I've found the openSUSE community to be more friendly and helpful than any others.


OpenSUSE has a proprietary sponsor – Novell; which uses openSUSE as a testing ground for its proprietary software – opensource notwithstanding. I've heard that some of openSUSE's developers have day jobs at Novell.


Well Novell certainly did openSUSE an injustice with 11.2 – it's right on par with Kubuntu 9.10. A couple of places, Japan and somewhere in Indonesia, I think, had a single distro release parties for both Karmic 9.10 and openSUSE 11.2.


I guess that was appropriate. If you want to try openSUSE, go with 11.0 or 11.1; 11.2 will have you back at Jaunty 9.04 pretty quick.

[Techsnap]

OpenSUSE has a proprietary sponsor – Novell; which uses openSUSE as a testing ground for its proprietary software – opensource notwithstanding. I've heard that some of openSUSE's developers have day jobs at Novell.

Oh please, you'd be a hypocrite if you ditched OpenSUSE due to Novell, do you have any idea how much they contribute to so many opensource projects, heck you can't even using Ubuntu without running into Novell code you know!

[docus]

Oh please, you'd be a hypocrite if you ditched OpenSUSE due to Novell, do you have any idea how much they contribute to so many opensource projects, heck you can't even using Ubuntu without running into Novell code you know!

Not sure if I misunderstood, but I didn't read his post as an anti-Novell rant. But perhaps I missed something.

[tuahaa]

After using OpenSUSE for ages it's faults started picking at me. It just doesn't feel user friendly... I also think that Ubuntu is much cleaner. The debs are also another plus side, and OpenSUSE has a huge problem with shutting the lid on the laptop (for some reason it says battery not detected after and I can't increase brightness- it's stuck at the lowest setting), and plugging out the power cord in my laptop makes it think that I want to suspend my session to RAM (though only some times)! I won't go on, but the general windows (even the fonts) doesn't seem right. Too un-neat.

But I don't really hate it, and I am glad that others like it. But I guess Ubuntu is for me

[Randymanme]

Other than echoing some disappointment with openSUSE 11.2, I've spoken well about openSUSE -- especially its support community. Concomitantly, I think well of proprietary contributions to the opensource community, even though free source philosophy and politics are anathema to the profit motive (I don't think it has to be that way, though).

Furthermore, it could very well be that Novell gave some openSUSE developers jobs, rather than Novell employees, per se, doing R&D at openSUSE. Probably some of both.

At any rate, I stopped using openSUSE after 11.2's poor showing (Distrowatch refused to recommend it) and I figured out how to get Ubuntu back. [Used a Jaunty alternative installation CD to install the base system and grub (the live CDs automatically abort installation when getting to the input/output error, leaving a broken system written to disk; the alternative CD allows me to skip software installation). And then later manually installing Xorg, Firefox, and the Ubuntu desktop which allow me to get online and access a mirror to update and upgrade.] The only thing that makes Karmic better than openSUSE 11.2 is the Ubuntu Software Store and Ubuntu One.

I just burnt an iso of Debian 503 i386 Netinet (150 MiBs). I think I'll try custom building a system from that after backing up my Karmic files and personal tweaks for future reference.

[Roasted]

The difference between openSUSE and Kubuntu? Mainly, every distro tries to brand whatever software it uses to at least make it appear to be unique. Kde on Ubuntu (Kubuntu) doesn't even seem like the same thing as openSUSE's version. OpenSUSE's Yast2 software packager is slow and bloated in comparison to Kubuntu's KpackageKit or Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager.

The reason KDE on Ubuntu doesn't feel like OpenSuSE's implementation is simply because Kubuntu is lacking in the KDE department. Ask anybody who integrates KDE better, and hardcore KDE users will give the thumbs down to Kubuntu. It's very unfortunate, because while I do like Kubuntu, there's no doubt it's the red headed step child to Ubuntu, which is very unfortunate because it has potential.

I personally have not had any slowness of YaST2, especially in comparison to KPackageKit, even on a 512mb single core desktop, so I'm not really sure how to respond here except my mileage varied greatly.


I had to use openSUSE 11.1 for about a month before I learned enough about partitioning to succeed in installing PCLinuxOS. It's KDE desktop is by far (in my experince) the most avant gaard. It makes Kubuntu seem like a wasted of time. When I first beheld PCLinuxOS GNOME, I regarded it as a slicker, more polished Ubuntu. I've since been made aware that PCLinuxOS was first – that Ubuntu is a copy of the former with a marketing emphasis. Talk about speed and effeciency, check out PCLinuxOS's rpm Synaptic Package Manager.

PCLinuxOS is a great distro. I was going to try and run it full time but it sounds like they're on life support now due to the severe lack of developers. They don't have a 64 bit version - something I need in regard to the amount of virtual systems I run on my rig. That 3gb RAM limitation with 32 bit is kind of a stinger then, so I had to put the PCLinuxOS CD down and look elsewhere.



I've also learned that there's more to a distro than the system(s) itself. Community support is just as important. When I used openSUSE to ask Ubuntu Forums for help getting Kubuntu back, I was told to ask openSUSE Forum. OpenSUSE Forum, however, offered to help me get Kubuntu back. Overall, I've found the openSUSE community to be more friendly and helpful than any others.

I've had great luck in both forums, and no matter what distro I end up using I'll always post casually on both forums due to the atmosphere each one had developed.


OpenSUSE has a proprietary sponsor – Novell; which uses openSUSE as a testing ground for its proprietary software – opensource notwithstanding. I've heard that some of openSUSE's developers have day jobs at Novell.

Yeah.. And that is a good thing IMO. It's no different than Red Hat and Fedora. Red Hat uses Fedora as their testing ground. Whatever is stable with Fedora trickles up stream to Red Hat, which is paid linux enterprise software that businesses and corporations would often grab. I work in tech support, and I know how crucial having support is because 98% of technology support departments in the country are short staffed. Sometimes calling a 1800 number to just get the job done makes sense instead of posting on a forum (no matter how helpful they may be, sometimes it takes a few hrs/days to get an answer). And to see that SUSE existed as enterprise only, and Novell came along and kickstarted the openSuSE project, that speaks highly of how involved they want the community to be.

SLED (suse linux enterprise desktop) and RHEL (red hat enterprise linux) are both open source, but they just cost money to run, and bundled with it comes support. Canonical does the same thing for Ubuntu.

Canonical sponsors Ubuntu
Novell sponsors SLED/ + development for openSuSE
And Red Hat with Fedora

I think each company has their act together and is all doing great things. Red Hat and Novell have both contributed a ton to the open source community, and I look forward to see what will come out of these companies as time goes on.

[Randymanme]

Thank you. I find your post interesting and informative. You've given me a new appreciation for proprietary support -- especially in light of PCLOS's current, recent, and past difficulties.

Six or seven months ago, on a singles dating website, I ran across a woman's profile who listed the Red Hat Society as one of her interests. At the time, I didn't know what Red Hat was. I wish I could run across her profile again, but I haven't been able to find it. I've just recently (yesterday) read that RPM was originally an acronym for Red Hat Package Manager. Thank you, Red Hat. And thank you Roasted.

[gn2]

have you ever heard of ubuntu-restricted-extras ?

Yes, but I didn't post the comment you attributed to me.

[mamamia88]

so how does opensuse compared to suse enteprise linux? is it just the support?

[Roasted]

so how does opensuse compared to suse enteprise linux? is it just the support?

As far as I know, SLED goes through a higher degree of testing due to its nature of being commercially available. OpenSuSE is more bleeding edge, but even still it's pretty much the same.

Plus I think updates are supported for substantially longer on SLED than on OpenSuSE, so if you're a one man tech-department having to manage 2,000 systems, chances are SLED will be a blessing to have since you won't have to reimage the entire fleet of systems to the new version just to stay supported.

But feature for feature comparing the operating systems, the advantages of SLED are longer update support, actual commercial support, and a slight advantage in the stability department since it goes through more testing before it's pushed out to be available.

I haven't used OpenSuSE on 2,000 systems, but on my few systems it's been running great without any crashes or hiccups.

[inobe]

Whats the difference between Kubuntu and OpenSuse, What makes one KDE distro better than the other?

opensuse leans towards kde centric but still has a gnome option.

ubuntu is the opposite, it's gnome centric.

each are very good, it's just the matter of which environment you prefer.

i am more towards the kde centric distributions.

[Techsnap]

opensuse leans towards kde centric but still has a gnome option.

Actually I'd say that 11.1 & 11.2 are equal, neither KDE Centric nor Gnome Centric.

[inobe]

Actually I'd say that 11.1 & 11.2 are equal, neither KDE Centric nor Gnome Centric.

since that's debatable near 75% of opensuse end users prefer a default kde environment.

not having gnome as a default at least holds some weight.

[Knowle]

So did you ultimately get it working, or were you just kind of adding 2 and 2 and assuming it could have been less stressful than it was?

It's definitely larger than Ubuntu, there's no denying that. But it feels more "systems administrator" like, while still being relatively easy to use with the extra stuff that comes with it.Ah yeah, I got it working, played with it for a few hours then threw Xubuntu on my system. Wanted to see how much more battery life I could squeeze out of my laptop as Kubuntu seemed to drain my battery when I used it. I didn't really test it out as much for the short time I used SUSE. At some point within the week I'll reinstall it and give it more time as I was kinda unfair with my use of it.


I'm a long time user of Ubuntu as well, but my interests began to lean towards KDE, which then began to lead towards other distros since Kubuntu is kind of meh compared to other KDE implementations from other distros.Same here. Used a few random distros but stuck with Ubuntu, got interested in KDE moved to Kubuntu then I kept reading praise of OpenSUSEs KDE integration so I had to try it. I miss Ubuntu at times, I really feel its more polished/streamlined using Gnome and with the Ubuntu Software Center already replacing Add/Remove Apps and soon to be Synaptic and possibly even Update Manager.

[garibaldy]

I installed OpenSuSE 11.2 recently with a gnome desktop and I'm very pleased with it. Works really well and a nice clean desktop style. No clumsy gear icons :)
As an example, to install Google Chrome, download the RPM package and install using:

zypper install google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm

Before you run the above command you need to make the file executable:

chmod +x google-chrome-beta_current_i386.rpm

You must be logged in as root to run these commands.


Chrome installs quickly and successfully. Presumably this command resolved all the dependency problems I also encountered, when trying to install using the RPM command.


I'm using OpenSuSE as my main right now specifically because of the superior KDE experience. This distro has many strengths, but it has many weaknesses as well.

For example, the first thing I tried to do was install Google Chrome by downloading the rpm and clicking on it. Instead of fetching the dependencies for me like Ubuntu does, it gave me an error, and I had to manually launch YaST to solve the dependencies.

I know that solving dependencies is way better than it was in the 90s. At the very least, when I install something from the repositories, it does solve its own dependencies, but the fact that I have to manually launch YaST to solve dependencies from an rpm in 2010 is very disheartening.

Other than that, OpenSuSE does a lot of things right. For example, if I want to install restricted codecs, the only thing I have to do is go to http://opensuse-community.org/Restricted_Formats/11.2, and do a single click the ymp file, and it will do everything else for me.

It's a much more sophisticated processes then copying and pasting the commands found at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Medibuntu

My final verdict is that if OpenSuSE was debian based instead of rpm, it would be the perfect distro in my eyes. At the very least, if rpms solved their own dependencies, rpm would no longer be a problem.

Major Strengths:
KDE
YaST
ymp

Major Weakness:
RPM

[Shining Arcanine]

It's a must have for KDE fans. I installed it a few days ago.

I doubt that. Gentoo Linux has very good KDE support, with new versions becoming available within 24 hours of release from upstream. I think development versions are also available via overlays if you want to do beta testing.

[yester64]

I recently switched to opensuse with gnome as my desktop.
From what i see its is somewhat better than ubuntu and that is for some reasons.
For one, it detects my harddrives right away. In ubuntu i always had to modify the fstab to get my harddrive recognized.
Second, if updates are available, there is a pop up to remind me that there is an update.
Third, if you have two accounts and both are locked in and you have a cd or dvd in the drive, it was always a hassle to have the rights to eject the damn thing. With Suse i don't have the problem.

There is also a negative point which was my printer. Took me awhile to get my printer running. Works now.

To me, OpenSuse is a good distro and works for me. Ubuntu is great and got me started, but Suse is more what i use now.

So i tried and use it now, to answer the topic's question.

[fillintheblanks]

I liked the suse interface at first. I thought it was really well thought out, but after installing the proprietary nvidia driver it turned out to suck! the gfx card was making this high frequency sound and display choked up every 2 seconds. so I'm with lucid now, no such problems with 10.04

[MasterNetra]

On my old Gateway 500se most if not all modern linux distros were unstable, often freezing up randomly (OpenSuse was the worse) not the case with lucid, though from Alpha to early Beta2 it suffered from a few issues (some crashes, and when previewing antspotlight it would just die.) Thats been fixed though in RC. Though their is some issues with text and such being cut off or a tad distorted but thats from the monitor I think. Its a View sonic VA520, its as old as the desktop its connected to.