SuSE Linux 9.1 is the followup to an excellent desktop distribution. SuSE gave me the opportunity to use SuSE 9.1 Professional for a couple weeks. This is a review/personal thoughts on the distro.Review Systems
Dell Inspiron 5150
3.06GHz P4-M w/ HyperThreading
256MB RAM
30GB Hard Drive
64MB NVidia GeForce Go 5200FX
Broadcom 440x NIC
QSI CD-RW/DVD-ROM
Intel i810 Audio
HP Pavilion N3478
AMD K6-2 550MHz
64MB RAM
6GB Hard Drive
Trident CyberBlade Graphics chipset (4MB shared)
DVD-ROM Drive
3Com Etherlink III PCMCIA NIC
Integrated Audio
HP Pavilion Desktop
466MHz Celeron
192MB RAM
8GB Hard Drive
Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics
Integrated Audio
Generic NIC
CD-ROM Drive
Installation
SuSE 9.1 Pro comes on 5 CDs. (SuSE let me download them.) Boot off the CDs, and you’re at a nice, blue splash screen. For the record, SuSE’s installer is very easy on the eyes. You have a choice to either install or boot an OS off the hard drive. Start the installation, and the graphical installer will start loading a kernel off the CD. (You also have the choice of installing without ACPI or in safe mode.)
Choose your language. As per most distributions I’ve tried before, no Canadian English. Not like I expect it. As soon as you select your lingo of choice, you’ll move on to installation settings.
The installer typically does a pretty good job of detecting things like hardware here. For example, it noted that one of the systems I was testing was an Inspiron 5150, something I hadn’t seen before.
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At this point, you have to configure things like software selections, bootloader, partitioning, and more minor things like mouse and keyboard configuration. The partitioner automatically comes up with a partitioning scheme; it’s up to the user whether they want to use that or something more custom. If you want to go custom, the partitioner is easy to use. You have your choice of several file systems, including Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, JFS and XFS. SuSE defaults to Reiser, but some users may want to use Ext3. If you’re installing on a desktop system, don’t bother with JFS or XFS. It’s very self-explanatory, so I won’t go into details here. When it comes to your bootloader, you have the option of installing either LILO or GRUB. I selected GRUB. Although the installer will detect a Windows installation and add it to the boot menu, it didn’t pick up on the Debian installation on my main system. When you decide to start choosing software, you’re in for some fun. The default selection includes KDE 3.2.1, OpenOffice, and some other apps. You’ll probably want to add more software to the mix. At the bare minimum, you want to install Mozilla Firefox. In my opinion, it’s the best browser you’ll ever use. That being said, you’ll probably end up installing far more than the defaults. 5 CDs hold a lot of software. Take advantage of it. After you’re done selecting software and all other pre-install tasks, start the installation. For a nice touch, the installer shows how long each CD will take to copy to the hard drive. After the first CD is done, the system will reboot. Select SuSE at the GRUB boot menu, and you’ll start copying data from the other 4 CDs. For me, the whole process took about 40 minutes, but if you selected all available software, it’d probably be closer to 2/2.5 hours. After all data is copied to the hard drive, you’ll be asked to enter a root password. Do so. You can also select the password encryption scheme. The default is DES, but you may want to switch to MD5 or Blowfish, as DES limits password length, (and therefore reduces security), to 8 characters. Next is network configuration. The install detected network cards on all three of my systems without a problem, and configured them automatically. You can now test your network connection by having the installer check for release notes and updates; this is a good idea. If there are updates, you can download and install them; again a good idea. I have a DSL connection, and downloading all of the patches took about 30 minutes. If you have a dialup connection, you may want to consider running the update overnight. In addition, you can also download and install Microsoft TrueType fonts. Once the update is done, you can set up additional users. After you’ve populated your system with users, you can view release notes and set up graphics and sound. SuSE doesn’t come with the nvidia driver on the CDs, but you can download it later. Aside from that omission, SuSE 9.1 comes with an amazing range of drivers. You shouldn’t have a problem with your graphics hardware. Once your hardware configuration is complete, reboot.
General Experience and Application
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At your first login as a user, you’ll be greeted with a pleasant blue background of mountains and KDE 3.2.1. The default theme is Thin Keramik, with the Crystal icon set. It’s easy on the eyes, but without being too flashy. The menus, as well, are very well laid out. Most programs are not labeled by name, but by function. For example, OpenOffice.org is labeled “Office Suite”, but Mozilla Firefox is labelled “Firefox”. It may be a pain for the veteran user who is hunting for a specific program, but it makes navigating menus easier for the newer user. A newcomer to Linux may not know what XMMS does, but if it’s labeled “Audio Player”, they’ll understand. The default software is well-selected for the most part. Konqueror is the default browser, but some may think that Firefox does a better job of rendering pages. I’ve included a picture of the two browsers, side-by-side. You make your own call. OpenOffice.Org 1.1 is the office suite included. If you want, you can install KOffice during installation, but most people will be more than happy with OpenOffice. XMMS is the default audio player, while KsCD plays audio CDs. You have three choices for a video player, Kaffeine, Noatun, and Xine. However, none will play DVDs. For legal reasons, SuSE didn’t include support for playing DVDs. Your best choice for adding DVD playback to Suse 9.1 is probably Ogle, but veteran Linux users may have another favourite. Interestingly, PIM functions by default are handled not by Ximian Evolution, but by the built-in KDE apps. More than likely SuSE made this choice in order to keep applications as integrated as possible with the DE. Keep in mind that this is default, Evolution is included on the installation CDs. The GIMP 2.0 is included, and if you haven’t used it before, you’re in for a treat. It’s stable, fast, and ultimately easy to use. Going from applications to speed, SuSE 9.1 feels fast. This is probably a result of the new kernel. SuSE 9.1 uses kernel version 2.6.4 as default.
Miscellaneous and Conclusion
Laptop users will probably appreciate SuSE 9.1. With a simple edit of a file, SuSE 9.1 supports suspend and suspend-to-disk functionality out of the box. To enable these features, (SuSE disabled them by default, as they’re somewhat experimental), edit /etc/powersave.conf. Change the values of “POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_SUSPEND” and “POWERSAVED_DISABLE_USER_STANDBY” to “no”. For the record, standby, (suspend to memory), didn’t work on either of my laptop systems, but suspend to disk worked on my Inspiron. You can test to see if they work by typing “powersave –standby” and/or “powersave –suspend” at a command line. Most people will have better luck with suspend to disk, as apparently it is better developed.
In general, SuSE 9.1 Professional is a well-developed, stable, well-supported distribution. I tested their email tech support by sending them a newbie-level question about file permissions. This was on a Saturday night, around 7pm EST. Although SuSE tech support didn’t reply over the weekend, a well-written answer was in my inbox by Monday morning. Is it the fastest tech support you’ll ever use? No, but it’s better than what you’d get from Red Hat or Microsoft. So what are you getting for your money? A nice box, good manuals, a great software package, and good, if not incredibly fast tech support. Major drawbacks? The lack of a DVD player is annoying. For the amount of money you’re paying, ($100 USD), SuSE could (and should) have licensed DVD codecs. Is it a deal-breaker? No. But it’s one of those little things that push this closer to being a perfect product. In the end, will Windows converts like this? Yes. Will Linux users who want a simple, integrated OS out of the box like SuSE 9.1? Probably. Will veteran users want to buy SuSE 9.1? That’s a more difficult question. SuSE 9.1 is fast, but not as fast as, say, Debian or Slackware with a 2.6 kernel. If you’re a veteran user who likes compiling their own programs, you don’t really have a reason to buy. If you’re anyone else, at least take a look, it’ll probably be worth your while.
If you would like to see your thoughts or experiences with technology published, please consider writing an article for OSNews.
If this the default font, then they need to polish it. Look at how the letters s, r, and t are always scrunched together.
Two questions:
1. How long does suspend-to-disk (and resume-from-disk) take relative to WinXP? I got it to work on my Latitude C640 with SUSE 9.0 and Kernel 2.6.5 (Kraxel RPMs), but both suspending and resuming take a *long* time!
2. Do you know which of the three (swsusp, pmdisk, swsusp2) implementations of suspend-to-disk is used in SuSE 9.1?
Thanks!
M
Is ther /any/ differences in a Linux distrobution? This is getting boring. What can Suse do that I can’t do in Mandrake, Fedora, Gentoo, slack, debian, or the 100’s of other flavors.
Installing software is different but other than that, they ARE the same. Install is a one time deal (unless you are a reviewer). What is the real benefit of these reviews? They are the same.
> SuSE 9.1 Pro comes on 5 CDs. (SuSE let me download them.)
It came *for you* this way. SUSE 9.1 Pro in general comes with 5 CDs and 2 double-sided DVDs.
You said this
“Although SuSE tech support didn’t reply over the weekend, a well-written answer was in my inbox by Monday morning. Is it the fastest tech support you’ll ever use? No, but it’s better than what you’d get from Red Hat or Microsoft”
So where exactly is your proof? Did you buy RHEL WS and then send the same exact question on a Saturday night and wait for the response? Or were you just spreading FUD about Red Hat? Because Red Hat has been playing the pure OSS game for a long time now and unlike Suse didn’t keep key parts of their OS proprietary for years. Yast may be GPL now but that doesn’t change the past. Next time back up your claims or leave the FUD out.
Sorry man, but he is right. This is not FUD at all. For the record here we are talking about SuSE Linux Pro/Home in terms of support. This is not SuSE Enterprise Server. RH no longer offers a commercial Linux distro other than their enterprise product. So in the scope of the product being reviewed you would have to compare RH Fedora to SuSE 9.1 pro. In this instance he is right on the money. Especially since RH offers no support for Fedora.
Of course both RH and SuSE Enterprise editions come with excellent support (better than Microsoft IMO), but this comes at a VERY significant cost, and neither enterprise editions were being reviewed or considered here.
“Is ther /any/ differences in a Linux distrobution? This is getting boring. What can Suse do that I can’t do in Mandrake, Fedora, Gentoo, slack, debian, or the 100’s of other flavors.
Installing software is different but other than that, they ARE the same. Install is a one time deal (unless you are a reviewer). What is the real benefit of these reviews? They are the same.”
Maybe I should complain about the constant Longhorn updates and XP SP2 pre-reviews?
Maybe I should complain that Apple releases OS X too often.
Shall I complain about all the SkyOS news?
Seriously man, it’s a commercial OS and each version deserves a review posted on reputable news sites. Major distributions are actually all quite different. Suse is usually a sort of “mega distribution.” As it comes on I think 5 disks, or it used to.
Let me list some major ones so you don’t get confused in the future: Debian, Slackware, Fedora, Mandrake Suse, Gentoo, Crux; actually I’m just naming the ones that have been around for a while
.
In SUSE 9.0, cd burning was flaky at best. On one system I tested, the built-in cd authoring tools made 5 coasters and one good cd.
Same system, windows 2000, nero (hey, I own a legit copy so that’s what I tested with) no coasters.
Something with their authoring needs to be fixed. Other than that, SUSE 9 was great, albeit getting a bit bloated.
/still likes Slackware better.
You forgot Redhat on your list, maybe it’s you who’s confused.
Suse, a mega distribution… Wow, you’re right, that is /different/!
There isn’t more than very minor differences. Suse packages applications just like the rest of them.
Ray, do you run Linux, or just complain? The reason that I ask is that if you have ever tried different distros you KNOW there are more differnces than just the installer. That’s why the reviewers don’t talk about OOo other than to say it’s included. Because OOo is the same. They focus on Burning, DVD decoding, default screen set up, etc. They talk about the things that are different, or the issues they ran into. I find articles like this helpful. So do many other readers of OSNews. You really should save your trolling for some other site.
Nice article BTW.
If you don’t like reading about OS news on a sight dedicated to that very subject then yes, stop complaining, and find someone else to bother.
SuSE is VERY different from other distros. In fact, as someone who continuously tries different distributions for fun, I find most of them to be vastly different in terms of presentation, performance, stability, and support. Different distros also reach different audiences. Like Gentoo vs. SuSE. Yes, they are both Linux, but the comfortable SuSE user would probably go crying to mom if someone threw Gentoo or Slackware in front of him. In my experience, I’ve found SuSE 9.1 and Gentoo to be far superior to anything else out there. This is just my opinion. Gentoo lets me tinker on the bleeding edge and runs my primary server at home. I do hate the compiling sometimes. SuSE is a snap to use in virutally every aspect. Its extremely polished and just works….better than any other that Ive tried. This is why these reviews are posted here. So all the OS enthusiasts can read them and compare etc. Decide what they want to try next. Again, if this doesnt interest some ppl then don’t read the freaking review!
I have been using Suse since version 9.0(so not that long i know) and whats to fix never had a problem works just as well as nero and a hole lot better then just XP.
By the way great OS, 9.1 Pro is the first linux I payed for since Red Hat 7, I have not tried the Suse support yet but When I had red hat 7 support I got no answer from my email not even a “sorry can not help”
I currently run Mandrake 10.0. I also have a box with Lindows installed that my daughter uses. I have run redhat, gentoo, and suse. Both on personal systems and as servers for my business.
Burning – k3b, cdroast, and other minor ones
DVD decoding – libdvd
Default screen – ??? anyone can download themes.
I am not trolling. I too read this site everyday but I don’t see much difference in these reviews. I believe the reviews are the same because for all intents and purposes, the distro’s are the same.
Please tell me what suse can do that gentoo cannot and visa versa. Stability? In the kernel? In the window manager? Suse doesn’t write the software, they package it.
I agree support is differnt but how many of us buy the distro and the support? I would guess a pretty small percentage that frequent this site.
In many cases we could find/replace the name of the distribution in the reviews with a different one and it wouldn’t be much different.
I am interested in the reviews but it would be nice to read how one is better than the rest. If only possitive comments were allowed on this site, it would be pretty useless…
Ray
“I am not trolling. I too read this site everyday but I don’t see much difference in these reviews. I believe the reviews are the same because for all intents and purposes, the distro’s are the same.
”
if you are running something as diverse as gentoo and lindows you should already know the answers
1)package management
2)number of packages and defaults
3)documentation and support
4)focus of market
5)ISV support
6)custom tools
and so on
“Suse doesn’t write the software, they package it. ”
they have to write a lot of software too and package it.
1)package management
2)number of packages and defaults
3)documentation and support
4)focus of market
5)ISV support
6)custom tools
and so on
Good! Some differences! See, now lets include these in the reviews. That is my point, the Linux reviews don’t talk about what is different!
And mr. Anonymous – how about a list of what they write that other distros don’t or can’t have and how it is better?
“See, now lets include these in the reviews. That is my point, the Linux reviews don’t talk about what is different! ”
there are differences. its up to the reviewers to consider these and some others
“how about a list of what they write that other distros don’t or can’t have and how it is better? ”
i am that involved in what they do but if you are really interested you can read stuff like
planetsuse.org
if you consider novell as a whole there is quite a few
yast
devfs
udev,hal and project utopia
hotplug
ximian stuff
work on gnome
customisations on kde
sponsporing reiserfs and including it as default
technically a lot of these stuff could be included in other distros but they dont and that still makes a difference
“And mr. Anonymous – how about a list of what they write that other distros don’t or can’t have and how it is better?”
How about YAST and SaX for starters?
“technically a lot of these stuff could be included in other distros but they dont and that still makes a difference ”
Actually some of this stuff could NOT have been included in other distros UNTIL Novell GPL’d them. Yast and (Ximian) Connector are just two main examples.
I also have to say, the work that Novell is doing with the Ximian crew on Evolution is starting to look very promising
In just a few messages you fine folks have pointed out some examples of what makes Suse stand out. Why can’t someone who is putting themselves forth as a reviewer include this information?
The common response to criticisms of reviews is “do one yourself”. I would do a sucky job at it, that’s why I don’t. But those that do decide to write a review should at least try to do a good job.
Maybe it’s just my Internet connection is slow today and it took a while to load the “review” and it wasn’t worth the wait.
“The common response to criticisms of reviews is “do one yourself”. I would do a sucky job at it, that’s why I don’t. But those that do decide to write a review should at least try to do a good job.
Maybe it’s just my Internet connection is slow today and it took a while to load the “review” and it wasn’t worth the wait.”
I might be doing a review of fedora core 2 shortly after i download it. dont be so pissed off. you get some pretty good reviews every now and then.
Please take your time with the review and include the pluses and minuses of it over other’s you have used. For example, install some not included packages and share your experience, play UT2004 and let us know how it goes, plug in a cf reader and tell us what happens (i.e. go you get a icon on the desktop?), yank the power cord and tell us how it handles the recovery, upgrade KDE/Gnome to the latest and tell us how that goes.
Just some examples…
Ray
… adapters support under amd64. has anyone try it?
true….true.
Im supporting the Ray view.
Give some information … I know it use 2.6.5 kernel ,kde 3.2.2 ….just take a look at the changlog file … why you repeate ?
Please tell me what suse can do that gentoo cannot…
Install without waiting for software to compile????
C’mon it’s a joke.. no flame war here, please
God, that scarred the sh** out of me. So many options and that’s just the begining. Screenshots aren’t low res but the first menu almost takes 1/2 of screen.
p.s. By setting icons smaller menu would be just cluttered.
KDE guys should really fix that mess with kcontrol and start menu.
”
KDE guys should really fix that mess with kcontrol and start menu.”
its not kde but suse configuration problem
“I agree support is different but how many of us buy the distro and the support? I would guess a pretty small percentage that frequent this site. ”
I respectfully submit that you are missing the point. Frequent visitors to the site may not be the primary beneficiaries of such reviews. Many folks who google for OS reviews end up here whenever they need to see a review on a specific operating system.
Also, in case you have not noticed, Linux is gaining more and more momentum every day within the corporate environments (both on desktops and within production). Installing 5 different distros on systems in your lab at home is one thing but recommending a distro for your corporate production facility in a mission critical capacity is something else. It is precisely these types of reviews that give people in decision making capacities confidence to either move forward or delay a commitment to a particular distro. Your comment about not buying distro for support virtually advertises your ignorance about this movement within corporate environments.
For all of you taking the time to write objective reviews and share your observations pertinent to other distros, etc. I say Thank You and keep up the good work. And for those of you who find these reviews pointless or otherwise indistinguishable in their free standing merits, try to appreciate the time it takes to go through an installation while detailing events/thoughts along the way and then produce a well written document to benefit others afterwards.
Thanks Tyler for a job well done.
“With a simple edit of a file, SuSE 9.1 supports suspend and suspend-to-disk functionality out of the box.”
Does that mean I have to edit the file while the things still in the box? Just kidding, nice short, concise, but informative article.
If you think that a corporate decision to implement a Linux roll out will be based on this review, you are showing your ignorance.
In fact, if you think that corporate decision makers (for this type of decision) will make their decision based on a web review, you are very much out of touch.
This site and this review are not aimed at the corporate decision makers. If it is than this review is not worth anything to them as it does not talk about the superior support from Suse.
I believe its because you have got Lindows installed that you feel SuSE is not doing anything different. One thing SuSE does is allows you to install it free off FTP servers. What does Lindows do? Rename packages developed completely by the community (is this violating GPL, anyone?) and sell them to you at a premium via the maked running man thing (i hate its name) but I guess I’m trolling too.
If you’re really comparing distros and commenting, SuSE 9.0 is better than Mandrake 10 anyday!
This, from someone who has the following running on the machine:
1. Xandros Desktop 2.0
2. SuSE 9.0
3. PCLinuxOS
4. Mandrake 10
5. ArkLinux
6. Fedora Core 2
My wife, who is not a great Linux fan or even an IT person, has moved to SuSE all on her own — she was a Xandros Desktop user (No Windows in my home 🙂 ) and that says more about SuSE’s usability than any review can!
Although I am not a Lindow fan (it’s too slow) they do contribute to OSS. In fact, I’m running Nvue, Lphotos and Lsongs on my Mandrake box. That’s not to say there isn’t anything wrong with these applications, I’m just saying I can run them.
I also think you are missing my point which is there just isn’t anything different in these reviews.
Re: SuSe better than Mandrake – Why?
Ray
Just why wouldn’t you use the JFS or XFS filesystems on
a desktop computer? The great thing about linux filesystems is the ability to choose one that most closely
suits your purposes. All of the filesystems supported are quiet powerful. (excepting FAT of course)
Though, as a Debian user you probably suffer under the related delusion of what default settings should and shouldn’t be. I suggest you try JFS on those somewhat flabby desktops, you may be surprised.
“I believe its because you have got Lindows installed that you feel SuSE is not doing anything different. One thing SuSE does is allows you to install it free off FTP servers. What does Lindows do? Rename packages developed completely by the community (is this violating GPL, anyone?) and sell them to you at a premium via the maked running man thing ”
calling mozilla lindows browser is meant to simplify things and it is clearly acknowledged in the about box. redhat also tries to simplify it by calling it web browser. there is nothing wrong about it. its not violating the gpl in anyway either. nobody needs to bombared with all those new names when using linux for the first time. they only charge for proprietary apps and you can use apt-get anyway which is installed and perfectly working.
they contribute back
employ everaldo who designed the crystal icon set for kde
sponspor gaim, linux on xbox, kde-apps.org,kde-look.org, debconf etc
i dont use lindows either but there is no need to bash them
Ray, you have far too much time on your hands.
“If you think that a corporate decision to implement a Linux roll out will be based on this review, you are showing your ignorance. ”
I do make those decisions and I assure you I am reading every review that google finds on every distro of Linux (including Mandrake which you appear to favor) as well as talking with all vendors, reading research reports and installing every version I can get my hands on in a test environment. Tyler’s review reinforced my findings and if I can find 10 other reviews that either reinforce or challenge my own observations, then I have more confidence in my immediate exposure to the OS. Even if this review is only a fraction of one percent of the whole decision making process, it is still part of the process.
Do you make buying decisions for your work? Are you tasked with weeding through the overwhelming plethora of contradictory information of why one version is better than the other? People are very passionate about their Linux and I am trying to make an unbiased assessment of the options available to me. Why must you criticize others for taking to time to write a review and share their experiences? If you are not happy with a review then write your own. If you don’t make decisions in a corporate environment, don’t pretend that you do and assume you know what information others use to make their decisions. I can only guess that the guys paying for the bandwidth of this site would like others like me to find their site in a search engine but if all I get is the same rants and tirades from Linux zealots partial to their own favorite OS within reviewer comments, why should I come back?
I knew it was only a matter of time before you said “if you don’t like it, write one yourself.”
I am still trying to find the value in the review. What in this review makes Suse Linux stand out from other flavors? I like mandrake but I have tried others and with minor exceptions, there isn’t much difference.
OK the better distro’s have all improved dramatically in most aspects except one – getting new applications software onto your system.
SuSE is a very polished disro now, easily interchangeable with Monoply$oft’s offerings but what will drive non tech obsessed users nuts is lack of availability of applications prepackaged in the rpm format SPECIFICALLY for this distro.
e.g. New version of Mozilla comes out, you got 2 choices, wait for someone to indulge in the fiddly technical process of packaging it for you or try (& fail many times) yourself.
I eventually gave up on rpm distro’s & switched to slackware that, thanks to the excellent ‘checkinstall’ tool, allows me to take the sourcecode of any new application & create a slackware installable package with absolutely minimal knowledge in the majority of cases.
I know I will be flamed by the tech obsessed who think creating rpms is easy but I point out that it is not easy for a new user & requires far too much geeking about.
This is the next challenge for Linux.
I believe Checkinstall works with RPM and DEB as well.
So it is as easy to create an RPM. Whether it will be a high quality one is up for debate.
“I believe Checkinstall works with RPM and DEB as well.
So it is as easy to create an RPM. Whether it will be a high quality one is up for debate.”
It attempts to…
Try it, you will find that their are significant differences in file system layouts of rpm distro’s causing all sorts of headaches when it comes to the crunch of actually successfully making & installing an rpm package.
Do you have intimate knowledge of the different symlinks littering the file systems of RH/SuSE/Mandrake ?
Once again we are back geeking around unnecessarily.
In practice the addition & removal of software gradually corrupts the rpm database requiring a wholesale reinstall of the OS at some point. Reminds me way too much of Monopoly$oft where the registry corruption/reinstall dance still exists to this day.
The 2 challenges for FOSS developers – get a MUCH better dependency tool & for God’s sakes agree on a standard file system layout !
i’m just curious is anyone else having this problem with SuSE9.1, it seems everytime i eanble samba server via YaST, when i try to access network browsing/smb://;it tells me “internal error, blah blah blah, unknown error condition in stat: network is unreachable” and this problem only occurs when i enable samba server via YaST, but i can still access my network through //network/computername/harddisk
“How about YaST and SaX for starters”
I’ve been trying to get 3D to work on SuSE 9.1 with SuSE’s ATI driver in the sense that I been trying to get /usr/X11/bin/fgl_glxgears to show some gears rather than just immediately bombing out with the error: couldn’t get fbconfig. But so far no luck. Maybe I’ll try ATI’s driver or buy a Nvidia card instead.
My point is that SaX – actually SaX2 – puts a comment in /etc/X11/XF86Config to please not hand edit the file. On the other hand, SaX2 does not support tweaking the file for support of 3D.
I don’t know much about xml but maybe some of such problem would disappear if XF86Config instead was in xml format such that it could be edited both with an xml aware editor (=future SaX2) and a flat file editor without stepping on each others toes while still being human readable at a glance which it would not be if stored in a traditional database.
One of the reasons i use Fedora is the availability of RPM’s. Many applications come in a Fedora RPM, but more important even is the apt infrastructure that has emerged since RH9. There are *excellent* apt repositories for Fedora.
How would Suse compare to this? Is it as good, is it better? Where would i find the best Suse apt repositories?
How would Suse compare to this? Is it as good, is it better? Where would i find the best Suse apt repositories?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
At http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/
C’mon… if a new version of, say, Mozilla comes out you, all you have to do is close your eyes for a second and there you have your custom SuSE 9.0, 9.1 or whatever package — give me a break. This is true for other major distros as well, of course. I have seen this when switching to SuSE 9.0 for Firebird, Firefox, latest Sambas, MPlayer-stuff, etc… Now, after switching to SuSE 9.1, it was the same…
I am already eagerly awiting to see how well all those Software makers for Windows will alter their Software to make it work with XP SP2, though…
This is one of the premiere linux distros. And yet, it doesn’t have DVD support, plus the stupid default password limitation to 8 characters, wtf? And other issues. Let’s be brutally honest, this falls short of what a Windows consumer demands. He looks at his XP, and thinks, wow, this is way better than this linux stuff… and guess what, he sort of has a point.
We linux supporters gain nothing by burying our heads in the sand and pretending all is ok and we’re living in the year of linux conquering the desktop. If we don’t demand that these PREMIERE TOP linux distros go head to head with the best MS can throw at them, well then we can’t blame the broad public for thinking that linux on the desktop is inferior and not read for prime time
1) Does the home-user care about account passwords anyway? How many XP Home users have protected their computer with a password?
2) Real professional users could also use Solaris. Now what is the biggest problem?
A. Needing to use YaST to switch to md5 passwords (SuSE)
B. Needing to create the (undocumented) file /var/sadm/webstart/.nodisplay to be able to finish the installation if your video card isn’t supported (Solaris)
C. Not being able to install custom NIC drivers, because the network configuration wizard throws away all third-party drivers (Solaris)
D. Having any Linux live CD trash your OS because it looks like swap space (Solaris)
3) How much would it cost to license DVD playback for unlimited computers?
Answers:
1. No; Not many.
2. B, C or D.
3. Much, I would think. And this is necessary because you are allowed to install your SuSE copy on an unlimited amount of computers.
Huh.. guess what, The premiere Windows distribution, called Windows XP, doesn’t ship with DVD support either 😛 As a matter of fact, no Windows ever shipped with DVD support.
Whilst you were busy deleting my post, I was busy debunking some of your favorite arguments:
It has been said SuSE can’t be copied for it carries stuff like Nvidia drivers, Java, etc…
Well, go do the drivers download section of NVidia an search their license document, with Ctrl+F you will only need 5 seconds:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/nv_swlicense.html
2.1.2 Linux Exception. Notwithstanding the foregoing terms of Section 2.1.1, SOFTWARE designed exclusively for use on the Linux operating system may be copied and redistributed, provided that the binary files thereof are not modified in any way (except for unzipping of compressed files).
… And in the readme:
Q: Why does NVIDIA not provide rpms anymore?
A: Not every Linux distribution uses rpm, and NVIDIA wanted single solution that would work across all Linux distributions. As indicated in the NVIDIA Software License, Linux distributions are welcome to
repackage and redistribute the NVIDIA Linux driver in whatever package
format they wish.
Do you acknowledge that it would be pretty stupid to not allow distribution of something that is in your best interest to be spread + and which you accordingly spread everywhere, anyways? I am even bored to check this for Flash , etc… it will be the same. I know 5 gazillion places and CDs from which this and other Software can be had — if you really believe Macromedia is employing 10.000 lawyers who don’t do anything besides granting the allowance to every last unimportant magazine to put their file onto the cover-CD, where they want this to be spread + had anyways, then you are utterly wrong.
And I am 110% sure that everybody using Linux here is having Decss for playing DVDs on their systems (this in fact may be an issue in certain parts of the world) — yet you start freaking on copying a distribution where the stuff is actually meant to be had by the manufacturer..
I think what you really want/need are distro comparisons…..not reviews. When I read a review of a distro, I expect just that. Not a feature by feature comparison to other distros. So stop bagging on reviews because they are what they are.
On the other hand I will agree that it would be nice to see more ‘comparisons’ Like Mandrake 10 vs. SuSE 9.1 vs. Fedora 2
Xandros and Lycoris are too ‘Windows ripoff’ for me….with outdated packages to boot. No thanks. Lindows I would never allow on to my computer. Mainly because I hate the company and their “lets rip off everyone elses stuff” attitude. Secondly, they defeat Linux’s inherent security by running you as root.
What does any of this have to do with this article?
B. Needing to create the (undocumented) file /var/sadm/webstart/.nodisplay to be able to finish the installation if your video card isn’t supported (Solaris)
Real professionals use the serial console to install Solaris. Or boot from CD1 to get the display firendly one. BTW most video cards come up as vga mode on x86. There enough install methods for installing solaris on a machine, real professionals would know that.
C. Not being able to install custom NIC drivers, because the network configuration wizard throws away all third-party drivers (Solaris)
man add_drv(1M). real professionals would use this. I am not aware of which Network configuration Wizard you are talking about. But Solaris has well documented interfaces for adding device drivers. Atleast adding a device driver doesn’t mean recompiling the kernel.
D. Having any Linux live CD trash your OS because it looks like swap space (Solaris)
Well there is a partition ID conflict if you are running solaris and want to run linux on the same box you better know what you are doing. BTW linux distros shouldn’t assume everything with a partition ID of 83 is swap space, they should use only swap space assigned to them during initialization/installs. Live CDs shouldn’t even use swap on disk, they shouldn’t touch the disks period, which distro’s live cd does this, file a bug with them.
Well real professionals would know what they are doing and not just nitpick on silly points to troll on Osnews.
http://www.planetsuse.org
Incredible. Planet Gnome, re-transplanted with Suse colours to make us believe that that is the direction things area heading in. You’ve got to give them marks.
well, you picked a bad example with Mozilla, as to my certain knowledge that compiles perfectly on a stock Mandrake box with the appropriate development packages installed, and I’d be amazed if that wasn’t the case on other major distros. File structure on Linux distros pretty much is unified, at least for the purposes of building packages; static distro-packaged data in /usr, static user-built data in /usr/local, configuration in /etc, dynamic stuff in /var. Easy, and standard across distros. The need to rebuild comes from the use of non-compatible versions and packages of common libraries, not incompatible directory structures.
Replying to a post about SuSE-unique features, I could point out that Mandrake includes udev, devfs, hal and hotplug. And I don’t believe SuSE actually includes Ximian GNOME, at least not yet.
Hello,
everybody using SuSE should have a look at packman.links2linux.de, as this site offers a wide range of current multimedia-packages. So everything SuSE had to omit for legal resons can be found there as well as the latest versions of a range of different applications – all packaged for SuSE and optimized for ix686 CPUs.
Cheers
“How long does suspend-to-disk (and resume-from-disk) take relative to WinXP? I got it to work on my Latitude C640 with SUSE 9.0 and Kernel 2.6.5 (Kraxel RPMs), but both suspending and resuming take a *long* time!”
Sounds like you’re in need of some good powerbook loving. My powerbook only drains about a percent an hour when it is asleep, and it wakes up in an astonishingly little amount of time. Let me test now, it’s been sleeping for about 6 hours: 2 seconds for screen to come on, 4 more seconds for cursor to work and everything to be operational. That’s 6 seconds of wakeup time from a 6 hour nap, with only 6% of the battery life lost.
Anywho, just thought I’d mention that “other” *nix.
“You can also select the password encryption scheme. The default is DES, but you may want to switch to MD5 or Blowfish, as DES limits password length, (and therefore reduces security), to 8 characters.”
I encountered this issue, and I consider it a lack of polish, especially since (IIRC), YaST does not indicate that it is the choice of the DES encryption scheme that limits the password length, so one has to have the technical knowledge to know to switch password encryption schemes if one wants longer passwords.
…and other inane expressions..
Disti’s aint the same!
What I look for in a disti. is:
Ability to find hardware
Installation method (apt-get, rpm, red Carpet)
Documentation.
Whether it runs on my old laptop
Suse 9 has kept me happy, more so than RH9 and Fedora on these points. Not to say RH documentation is poor – it certainly aint, but SuSe’s aims directly at its target audience.
RH is ‘all things to all men’. Proof? D/L the Enterprise RH, and check it against RH9. Almost the same, yet one is presumably aimed at power-users, the other for ‘<‘trollbait’>’ “enthusiasts” ‘<‘/trollbait’>’.
So this is one disti. I’ll be buying.
I am very new to the OS thing but trying my best. I purcased the SUSE 9.1 pro as my first Linux product.
I am still trying to figure out what a lot of the “stuff” is in the system. Like Yast for instances. Any tips on how to do a good install for dual hard drive, dual OS.
Thanks