SuSE 10 vs Kubuntu

[uberlinux]

I have been playing with SuSE 10 on my WS for the past 2 days and felt like sharing, as this seems like the best distro to call second place to Kubuntu.

First off, I came from a long and torrid history of SuSE usership throughout my time using linux, and considered it to be pinnacle until Ubuntu was released.
I have used SuSE from the 8x time through to 9.3.


*PROBLEMS*
YaST, the all-encompassing control tool for SuSE has actually UN-improved since 9.3, It used to have a glossy silver look, but that was thrown out for some reason. Also, they changed the 'add sources for installation' menu around and for some reason it hung twice, which never used to happen, making adding software even more of a pain to find and install.

SaX2 had to be used to set up my CRT monitor, as the SuSE did not figure it out on it's own, like Kubuntu did ever since the XORG switch. This was a pain as there was lots of adjustment to be made.

The mirrors are slow; all of them.

Multimedia is actually MORE heinous in SuSE than Kubuntu, which really was surprising, as SuSE 9.3 it was very easy in the Yast Online Updater to just click the proprietary multimedia pack. There was no such thing for 10 that I could find. It looks as though I will have to install Xine, Mplayer, Kaffiene from source as they only included the crippled versions.

*PLUSES*

XEN is native, and apparently really easy to set up in yast.

YaST is still flipping sweet compared to setting stuff up individually.

Less random krashes in konqueror.

*The installer, and the menus are freaking sweet! I love being able to install a functional desktop, without having things like the 'default' games junking up my HD and my menus!

SuSE is more popular, and I could probably work out all these problems if I werent so used to having things 'just work' (Darn Kubuntu!)


*********UPDATE*********************************** *************************
I was going to submit this thread in Konqueror, but I got this error, and had ot cut & paste to firefox, ugh!:

An error occurred while loading http://ubuntuforums.org/newthread.php:
Could not start process Unable to create io-slave:
klauncher said: Error loading 'kio_http'.
.

[rykel]

i used SUSE 9.3 for a short while, and it really became my fav distro...

imho, SUSE deserves more popularity amongst newbie linux users as a LOT of thought & effort has been put in to make SUSE visually pleasing, and functionally user-friendly. much more than ubuntu, for now, i must say...

with SUSE, it is *almost* commandline-free operations...

not only tat, with 5 CDs to boot, i could work without an internet connection and could STILL play games like tuxracer, torcs and many others. i was on dial-up (broadband is EXPENSIVE in singapore!!) and so SUSE really helped in tis area...

however, i never really managed to get the official nvidia driver to work wif SUSE, and there were ALWAYS "RPM conflicts" whenever i tried to install new programs, from the SUSE CDs themselves.

it kind of looks like the developers were the ones who placed conflicting packages on it and didn't smooth out their conflicts.

well, with SUSE 10.0, i think SUSE has improved a LOT, with even much nicer wallpapers (can't we have high-res photo wallpapers for ubuntu like SUSE does out of the box, i wonder...) and of course, setting up Speedtouch USB and getting online at MacDonald's wireless hotspots was truly easy.

with ubuntu, i have to edit certain secret files in order to get speedtouch USB to work, and no matter wat i did, till now i still CANNOT get online via wireless... (SUSE detected the wireless network automatically and connected me)

the only thing tat made me come back to ubuntu for a while was the ease of finding programs in synaptic, and finding that installing a thousand and one programs would NOT conflict one bit with each other... while SUSE 10.0 gave me tat irritating "RPM conflict" problem again!

not only tat, many times, while adding new programs from the DVD, SUSE would give some kind of "RPM did not install properly" error, although i have MD-checked the disc to make sure it was burnt properly.

i wonder if ever SUSE will switch to using debs instead of RPMs for their repositories, and then it would be 99% perfect, reserving tat 1% for the inevitable possible blemishes.

i love ubuntu, but i am looking out for SUSE 10.1!!!

[uberlinux]

Thanks for the reply! I really hope that they switch to debs, or at least make them easy, or fix yast. If only it didn't have those shortcomings, I would use it more often.

[uberlinux]

well after two serious lock-ups and dealing with RPMs for two days, I have dumped SuSE again.