How good is Open SuSE ?

[drizek]

in all honestly, suse is way better than ubuntu.

i just wish theyd stop pulling all this mono/gtk crap. I dont understand why novell would aquire a very kde-centric distro and start developing gtk apps on it.

Edit: at one point in the beta process gnome was selected as default. now, neither one is selected, but if you read the descriptions you see that they try to make kde look bad. first they say that it doesnt include firefox(which is a flat out lie, its is the default browser) and they also put it below gnome, which is stupid considering kde on suse is still more mature at this point.

[prizrak]

I didn't like SuSE 10 when I tried it. It didn't select the right drivers for my GeForce card and even after installing the binary driver xorg still had vm as a driver assignment. In short I didn't like the GUI driven administration as it generated overly complex config files, which just didn't sit well with me as I'm used to that. There is also the fact that Ubuntu detected my hardware way better than SuSE. This is all very subjective of course I personally didn't find it as comfortable to work with as Ubuntu so try it out see what develops.

[drizek]

both detected my hardware perfectly(suse, for some reason didnt include wifi drivers though, ill file a bug). The difference is that with suse i was able to plug my printer/scanner in and was able to just configure it in a few seconds. Ive never really tried with ubuntu, but im fairly sure that isnt possible.

[HolyMurderer]

Each day that passes, each distro I try, I miss more my first real distro, Slack... i've used it for so long, and it gave me 0 problems... The only thing about it is the time it takes for me to configure everything.

Right now I only want a good distro for a normal Desktop, in which I don't do much more than web, mail, music, divx...

ok, I admit, I also run macromedia apps in wine, and program php, lol. But what I really need is a stable, simple, easily updatable and upgradable distribution with KDE.

Kubuntu is good, but after the problems I got for update breezy into dapper, I don't know if I'll continue using it... apt-get is good, but in my case, it didn't solve my problem, so I have to reinstal kubuntu with the CD, or install other distro...

Just to tell the problem: If I apt-get install kde, it asks for every kde section (kdemultimedia, kdeadmin, etc etc...). If I try to install each one, it asks for libs and stuff like that... the REAL problem is that if I install kdelibs4c2, it removes automatically kde-core, kdebase, and if I install kdebase, bye bye kdelibs... I'm in a strange situation. So, I prefer to reinstall everything, maintaining /home (hoping the new distro - suse 10.1 or kubuntu dapper 6.06 RC, still deciding - will recognize it and work with it).

i don't know why, but Mephis doesn't inspire me quality... lol

I know that Suse isn't using any specific Desktop right now, but they have been using kde for years, and I've tried it on another PC, and suse kde seams a lot more complete than kubuntu kde.

Another thing. Would you install a 64-bit distro? i heard it has some problems in multimedia, like wmv...

What do you have to say about this. Discussing this may help me and users in same situation

[ComplexNumber]

Would you install a 64-bit distro?

no. even if i had a 64 bit PC, i would still use the old 32 bit because everyone reports that the 32 version is faster.

[RAV TUX]

SUSE SUCKS...well atleast the install couldn't get it to load and that sucks.

couldn't tell you anymore since I couldn't get it to load on my Intel EM64T box

[drizek]

try with acpi_off

[ihavenoname]

Suse is one of the most polished distros Ive ever used. Yast (the Suse config manager) is IMO much better then Window's Control Panel or any other config tool ive used except maybe for Drake conf. The problem with Yast is its quiet bulky. Also what comes on the dvd is essentially what u get until a new release come out, ofcourse there are 3rd party repos, but U have to go get them urself, 10 IMO is slightly better then 10.1 for my comp. because it auto detected everything. Also in 10.1 they are using .exe files or something that many users feels abandons the spirit of Linux and FOSS. From my experience, although Suse is a very polished distro you would be better off with Fedora, just as long as u keep Fedora up to date. Fedora is faster, more bleeding edge, and more up to date then SUSE. Also you might want to try PClinuxOS, a very good distro Texstar is doing a fantastic job there. It is also very KDE centric, which is why I dont use it because i use gnome, and PclinuxOs is still on Gnome 2.10. If you have anymore questions about any other distro feel free to ask, its good to know that I can put my 6 month of distro hoping (and over 50cds worth of distros) to good use. Btw after all that Im starting to settel with Ubuntu, even thou it felt strange to me at first its now starting to fit alot better. Hats of the Ubuntu Devs. (yes that is a slight (and subtle) stab at Red Hat who I am upset with for letting Fedora be released with a crippled kernel.

[Kilz]

I started using Linux with SuSE 10.0. But I have recently switched to Ubuntu as my main distro. I have a 64 bit amd system and tried Linux because I didn't like the 32 bit windows that came with the pc.
Things I liked about Suse
1. Great 32 bit compatibility for a 64 bit system. You can install almost any 32 bit version of an application with yast. Dependencies for 32 bit packages automatically resolve for the most part.
2. Yast is a great system setup tool and package installer.
3. Ability to install multiple desktops like kde and gnome on the same machine with yast.
4. lots of applications pre installed.
5. Xgl setup in 10.1 is easy.

Things I didn't like about SuSE
1. Version 10.1;
a.It has the buggiest package system on the planet.
b. The updater is broken.
c. The new CD auto loader broke wine and cedega ( loads Cd's to /media/TheCD'sName and its different for each cd.)
d. Its slow to load and start programs.
2. No feeling of community.
3. Bugs are ignored if they are about games or emulators.
4. RTFM, Google it, and ignore people with problems.

All in all I loved SuSE 10.0. I stopped using 10.1 and started looking for another distro. Since I like gnome I tried Ubuntu first. While there were a few things different and 64 bit support wasn't the greatest. I have quickly fallen in love with the community and 64 bit Dapper.
My advice to people who want to try SuSE? Don't delete your Ubuntu partition. You may be back faster than you thought.

[ronlybonly]

in all honestly, suse is way better than ubuntu.

To each his own. Personally I prefer Ubuntu over SuSE, but that's just my opinion and I know that many of you will disagree. Here's a list of pros/cons of each distro IMHO.

SuSE (10.0 Eval) - Pros
1.) Includes tons of software (including proprietary codecs), which is i huge plus for dial-up users who want to install semi-common apps without being online for days on end.
2.) Has a very polished desktop environment - especially for KDE (this isn't a big deal for me since I'm a GNOME guy myself).
3.) Targeted to the average home computer user.
4.) Graphical Installer.
5.) Great hardware support (at least for my box).

SuSE (10.0 Eval) - Cons
1.) Configuration utility, YAST, is very bulky and very slow.
2.) Long start-up time.
3.) Overall, slightly slower than Ubuntu.

Ubuntu (Dapper Flight 7) - Pros
1.) Free CDs via shipit.
2.) Polished GNOME desktop.
3.) Light weight - i.e. only installs what you NEED.
4.) Easy package installation and maintanance with apt-get.
5.) Easy to tweak.
6.) Great community.
7.) Great community.
8.) Great community.

Ubuntu (Dapper Flight 7) - Cons
1.) Lacks a unified configuration tool.
2.) Text-based instalerl (although the Espresso graphical install tool on the LiveCD looks promising)
3.) Still a little "geeky" feeling. Not a distro for someone with 0 GNU/Linux experience.

Hope this helps!

-Andy