“SuSE is one of the oldest and most recognized GNU/Linux distributions in Europe, provided by SuSE Linux AG. Even though it is not quite as well known in the United States as Red Hat, the leading Linux distribution (commonly called distro) it is one of three distros that you are most likely to find in stores that carry Linux software (the others are Mandrake and Red Hat). There’s ongoing debate about which of these distros has the easiest installation style, which of the vendors has the most interesting and useful packaging, and which of them is the “best”.” Read the review at ExtremeTech.
Review of SuSE 8.1
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
IMHO, SuSE 8.1 simply rocks. I have tried RH 8.0 (which is awfully close — I really enjoyed it) and Mandrake 9.0 To me, SuSE has the most beautiful implementation of KDE around. The YAST tools are superior any other distro’s tools (with the exception of the lack of a SAMBA config modules). I love the fact that acrobat 5, flash, realplayer, and java are all installed and enabled by default. I also love the fact that the first time you run the Yast Online Update, it will fetch the latest 3123 nvidia drivers — and they work great! Nothing like 6600fps in glxgears with my nvidia geforce4 ti!!!
It is stable, super-fast, and the default freetype2 and antialiasing settings are almost as good as Red Hat’s. Add in apt4rpm at: http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/ and you’ve got one helluva system.
It’s available in stores now — I recommend the Professional since you get everything under the sun for US$80.
Kudos to SuSE’s development team!
The author clearly seems to approach things from a Red Hat/Gnome point of view, neglecting to mention that SuSE has never tried to support Gnome. It is an optional component and he shouldn’t criticize them in the manner he does.
SuSE’s tech support will not help you w/Gnome as well, so you can’t really criticize them on that account.
IMHO, the author seems one of those people who first got Linux from RedHat and can only see the world from this pov. He may realize the value in Deb-based distros but this and his other review of Mandrake seem to indicate that he takes RedHat’s way of doing things as the standard to which he hold other RPM-based distros.
I disagree, he should let people know that if you’re a Gnome fan (like I am), Suse isn’t really for you. I don’t think he should hide those disadvantages..
I like Gnome but SuSE is still my favorite distro.
after all, he does mention the very slick KDE, the nice installer and the very good software selection on CD.(A very compelling argument for people like me, with only a 56K modem.)
And Gnome does feel left out. It isn’t even installed by default.
What I missed in the review, is the meager development support: make isn’t installed by default, and (contrary to SuSE 7.3 – my first Linux – ) the kernel sources aren’t either. And I felt compelled to buy the professional box, because it told me that the personal box misses development tools.
Yet, the default software selection is good; very user friendly. I like it.
And the automatically-forward-RPMs-to-YaST2 makes installing new software (like the PRBoom DOOM port) very safe and easy, especially since this resolves many dependency problems.
n-t
In their summary of all three, they say that SuSE always seems to have something wrong – something that doesn’t work. This has not been my experience at all over the course of time. We all argued about this in the Mandrake review Eugenia did and I don’t want to start that up again but, in my opinion, if any one of the three is lagging a little behind now, it has to be Mandrake (and I have nothing against Mandrake). This summary just about showed an anti-SuSE bias…they say they are disappointed by it, but don’t say what it is they’re disappointed about.
Absolutely. Your comment reminds me of a recent PC Mag review of Corel WordPerfect Office 2002. It said, “We can’t find anything in it we didn’t like.” But then at the end it said, “We recommend Office users stay with their solution.”
Perfect demonstration of bias.
And again, the author did not note in the article that SuSE is quite upfront in steering people over to KDE. Yet, there isn’t much to complain about since they have shipped a nice (and continue to provide updates for) generic GNOME for Gnomes who want the real thing
That is M$ Office users
See this: http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/kde3.html
They never advertise GNOME. They merely bundle it. I feel the reviewer should play down his geekish personal preferences (prefs a novice would never have) and check out thoroughly SuSE’s default desktop. Heck – he might even like it!
SuSE just spens its time making a good GNOME package to be bundled – it doesn’t do all the stuff Mandrake and Red Hat do. I’m suprised by this review, seeing where it came from.
VERY Biased, I’ve tried Libranet and Mandrake, there is no way they are bette rthan SuSE.Mandrake recuieved a 9 SuSE a 7! That is so unfaira nd biased.