It takes less than one hour to install SuSE 9.0 Personal edition on a slow system. For that one hour investment, you’ll get a slick, well-organized Linux desktop that you should be able to live with, says Librenix.
SuSE 9.0 Personal: One hour to a slick Linux desktop
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
What kind of default software selection gives you no gcc and no Mozilla?
<p>A software selection designed to suit end users. Newcomers don’t need a C/C++ compiler, and although the author prefers mozilla to konqueror, newcomers to Linux would appreciate the UI consistency.
Find ONE applet on the net that runs with Sun’s Java, and not Microsoft’s Java. I can find plenty where the situation is reversed, though. Face it, Microsoft’s Java (and soon to be C#) is the industry standard.
Although I’d never considering a big and memory intensive distro like SUSE, I decided to give this article a quick read. Unfortunately, he spends about half of the paragraphs complaining about the lack of gcc and mozilla in a default install.
While very little information is given about the installer, the post install configuration tools are given no mention at all. A discussion of some the included apps, unique features or anything else AT ALL would have made this review worth reading.
The SUSE 9.0<a href=”http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5157“>review on OSNews embarrasses the pants off this piece of text
Yuck, sorry I haven’t posted at OSNews for a while.
Forgot we can’t use html tags :'(
Whoever complained about that not working it is because xftconfig is deprecated.
Edit the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf which is where fontconfig puts its config file. You will get nice fonts using bitstream vera or microsoft’s truetype fonts.
Some like the bytecode enterpreter some don’t…
It won’t be “the standard” for long. Due to the lawsuit they can’t distribute it anymore, so it will soon no longer be “the standard.”
> Find ONE applet on the net that runs with Sun’s Java, and not Microsoft’s Java. I can find plenty where the situation is reversed, though. Face it, Microsoft’s Java (and soon to be C#) is the industry standard.
Tell me one of these applets (preferable with URL) that doesn’t work with Sun’s VM. Face it, but Sun’s VM is *the* reference impl, and every applet that doesn’t work with it is non-standard-conformant and IMHO crap.
Average Joe. if the GPL is indeed declared invaild then the copyright then falls to the orginial authors. If SCO then proves it’s case the linux kernel could not be distrubited as is. The rest of the software, KDE Samba, Gnome, and the rest go back to the people who orginially wrote it. SCO caqse that it should be made public domain is invaild, and american judge cannot tell the citizens of other countries that they no longer have the rights to the work that they own. The GPL is supposed to protect those rights. If it is found invaild, the judge must grant the orginial copyright holders their stuff back, and they must reliense it for use in These United States. That means even if SCO wins they lose both linux, and all the great features of their Unixware that come from GPL software.
Its slow. Bootup takes 3 or 4 minutes, compared to 15 seconds or so for Windows XP.
I don’t get Windows XP takes only 15 seconds.. is it from suspend mode or something? I guess you used different (NEW) machine for Windows XP. Then not an acceptable comparison.
It seems to use a lot of RAM. I have 96 Mb,
This seems proving my guess above. On Windows XP or even on Windows 2000, 96 MB is too little to run flawlessly!
Mozilla has problems displaying some web sites I frequent, such as MSDN, ZDNet, and WinInformant.
Oh, aren’t those sites mostly are Microsoft-specific? It lets me know you are a Windows user making troll here. :p
I tried installing a software package — it came in .tgz format, but when I double clicked on it in explorer, it opened a ZIP program (?).
What you mean by this? I can see you have no knowlege on *NIX side installation stuffs. You even used question mark because you don’t really know what it is!
RedHat 8 junk that took several attempts to install, and almost trashed my computer.
Unless specific hardware problems there should no need of attempting to install several times.
SCO is just the beginning
No one here thinks SCO is just beginning but rather dying! Current staffs in SCO don’t even know about the history of their copywrighted source files. They are just deserved to die. Short on money even before the lawsuit on 2005, aren’t they?
In conclusion, you, Windows average joe user are trolling :p
> Even opening the “emacs” notepad app
I wouldn’t compare emacs with notepad, it’s much more like an IDE with integrated mail, browser, …
You should rather take a look at KWrite if you’re looking for something like “notepad”.
> I tried installing a software package — it came in .tgz format, but when I double clicked on it in explorer, it opened a ZIP program (?).
You seem to know free(1), but you don’t know how to compile software?
Oh, I seem to have forgotten that SuSE doesn’t install gcc by default.
But you should rather be using RPMs if you’re using SuSE and just want to “install” software packages.
> but there does not seem to be an implementation of Microsoft Java included
Do you really think M$ ships a Java VM for Linux?
> Bootup takes 3 or 4 minutes,
Heck, is SuSE now completely bloated or is this just plain true.
My debian boxes (unstable, default init system) take less than a minute to boot and log in.
> compared to 15 seconds or so for Windows XP.
Hmmm, on the same hw?
I’ve never seen an XP install that took less than half a minute to boot.
s/RE:Bootup takes 3 or 4 minutes/RE: My review of SuSE 9/
s/or is this just plain true./or is this just plain wrong?/
> However, I worry about the long term survivability of Linux.
You are free to use *BSD or GNU/Hurd instead.
I use SuSE 9 Pro daily after trying a long list of others.
I found it to be more polished and far better suited for, say, a windoze power user migrating across or even newbies wanting something to grow into.
Really, the big difference between distro’s is Q.A. and SuSE has far more of it than many others.
So what if Mozilla is not the default browser? A few clicks in Yast2 and now it’s installed… etc.
People that still try to bad mouth Linux are to be quietly pitied, they are showing how far they are behind the times.
1. The file that configures your X setup is called XF86Config and most often resides in /etc/X11. Trolling the web for anonymous files is not the way to go. Tell us about your video card and your monitor and people might decide to help you.
2. 96 megs is very low for any Unix, or modern Windows. Your machine is swapping. By the way, emacs is one of the largest programs on the planet, not a “notepad”.
3. I’m not surprise that a few sites that cater to MS fans display differently in Mozilla. Be happy that, unlike, IE, Mozilla isn’t a honeytrap for compromising your machine.
4. I’d guess you’ll never see MS Java on a Linux machine. Unless MS decides to release it under the GPL.
5. Linux and other Unix-like systems use ram for filesystem buffers and such. So, for that matter, does Windows, but the way Windows displays memory to the user doesn’t show that. My Linux box has a gig of memory and 160-plus gigs of drive space (hence, a large filesystem), and free shows I’m using more than 50 percent of that right now just running this browser.
Regardless of the the GPL’s legal validity, open source code will not be “owned” by SCO or any other business. It belongs to the original developer and is protected by copyright. Even if every bit of kernel code is proven to be lifted from code SCO bought, that says nothing about any other Linux code.
Any one know of a reliable Gnome 2.4 for SUSE 9? I like SUSE. but don’t especially like KDE.
Average Joe (IP: —.cpe.net.cable.rogers.com)
…
Java that works on sun but not MS version? How about pogo.com!
Although I’d never considering a big and memory intensive distro like SUSE,
It uses the same software other KDE-based distributions include. A box with SuSE on isn’t much more memory intensive than Debian or Gentoo, assuming they both have equivalent services running.
All the distributions run the same software–do you really think SuSE has intentionally crippled their performance?
He is a troll. He doesn’t want your help..he wants you to get mad at him.
Hello…
XP does not boot up in 15 seconds, and from what other articles I have read, 9.0 boots in less that 3 minutes. I currently have been using 8.2 for sometime and it does everything I need.
In addition, XP only appears to be booted in the first 30 seconds of start up.
It displays a desktop and lets you start to select an application, but it still is loading fo about a minute.
It is a good feature and provides an illusion of faster boot up, but it still takes about as long as SuSE or other GUI OSes.
And I agree that it is a goal to be worked on by Linux, but most people I know, techies and non-techies alike, they leave their PS’s on most of the time and booting up is not an issue of whether to buy or not.
I’ve come to love SuSe because for the first time, I was able to play realplayer streams out-of-the-box using Kaffeine. Go on SuSE.
I just tested boot up times on my machine. I guess SuSE must have a million daemons and startup scripts or something.
Windows XP: 30 seconds, add an extra 20 for Norton AV and ZoneAlarm
Gentoo Linux: 20 seconds, add an extra 15 for X + KDE
So they seem pretty comparable. I think that the commercial distros must be really fat…
> It uses the same software other KDE-based distributions
> include. A box with SuSE on isn’t much more memory intensive
> than Debian or Gentoo, assuming they both have equivalent
> services running.
That’s exactly the point. SUSE, Redhat and Mandrake enable a huge number of services by default. Most users don’t need sendmail, httpd, atd, anacron, kudzu, pcmcia or even sshd running by default on their systems. Also, SUSE init and configuration scripts have complex and nonstandard internal structures that make maintenance from the command line a painful task.
> All the distributions run the same software–do you really
> think SuSE has intentionally crippled their performance?
I’m not suggesting that SUSE intentionally cripple their software. Merely that they can be a bit slack when it comes to keeping their distros performance reasonable.
SuSE has a good reputation as being a Linux distributor, so good in fact that Novell decided to buy them. I personally don’t think this review did them justice at all.
Also I would like to see a review of SuSE 9.0 professional which centers around the development tools, specifically for C++/Qt and Java as up till now I’ve been doing all that on Mandrake Linux. Just to be fair though some coverage of C and GTK should also be included to keep the Gnome users happy.
BTW. Contrary to what average joe (troll) was saying Sun’s Java implementation is the industry standard, Microsoft’s is very dated and if I remember correctly doesn’t go beyond java 1.1 before swing was implemented if I’m not mistaken. Sun is currently working on 1.5 and 1.4 has been available for quite a while.
Please keep the discussion regarding SuSE and not between Sco/GPL. All these off topic comments will be deleted.
joe trolled you all. period.
96megs and 30s XP?
ms java being standard?
sco owning linux?
move along, discuss of SUSE and damnit, this troll is dead, thanks, nothing else to see, we all known how it is.
I’ve been using SuSE since 7.2 version… after reading all these comments, I just don’t understand why would someone have any probrlems with. Every version I have used has installed flawlessly, and I mean flawlessly.
My only gripe is… “Dependencies” this is something I could live without the mentioning of a perfect distro.
Open Source… for the people, by the people.
Cygen
How well does SuSE work as a platform for Software development?
BTW. I think there is an apt-get like tool for SuSE, you can do a search for apt4rpm although I think there are also others.
i been running it for over a week now and find it to be an exellent distro…
i would even reccomend it to soccer moms, and any avarage joe…
> s/RE:Bootup takes 3 or 4 minutes/RE: My review of SuSE 9/ s/or is this just plain true./or is this just plain wrong?/
Well, I decided to find out.
I’m running SUSE 9.0 on a very modest AMD Duron box running at 1.3GHz w/512 MB of RAM.
From cold and dark to the login manager prompt (KDM is SUSE’s default) took 80 seconds. This included the Bios initialization and about 15 seconds of SUSE waiting on my ISP’s DHCP server to respond.
I run a fairly heavy KDE desktop. From login until the KDE splash screen was completely gone was about twenty-five seconds. Didn’t bother to time Gnome (2.2 is SUSE’s included version), but it will be quite a bit faster.
Comparing Linux and Windows boot times is rather apples-and-oranges. The two systems are doing different things. Windows is always faster, but why does this matter? Linux users have little reason to reboot. I just log out, and logging back in is about as swift as a Windows reboot.
I suppose Windows users have more opportunities to see how fast their machines reboot. By this, I mean software installs and the like, not system freezes.
A comment on the article: if the author had more closely studied the manual he mentions, he would have better understood package selection. I’ve found the Yast2 install to be about the easiest of the distros. Other than SUSE’s distinctive mid-install reboot, there are no suprises.
Comments on other comments:
> It seems to use a lot of RAM. I have 96MB.
SUSE recommends 128MB for a graphical install, which seems reasonable. I can’t imagine running a recent Windows install on anything less.
> I tried installing a software package — it came in .tgz format, but when I double clicked on it in explorer, it opened a ZIP program (?).
Huh? I just clicked a .tgz file via Konqueror, and it properly displayed the contents. Right-click to extract (or encrypt or burn to disk or any number of things).
I suspect the post was a troll, knowing that tarred files aren’t executable installers.
> SCO is just the beginning
Probably not. SCO will get spanked in court — if it ever goes to trial — and that will discourage future suits.
> Edit the /etc/fonts/fonts.conf which is where fontconfig puts its config file. You will get nice fonts using bitstream vera or microsoft’s truetype fonts.
SUSE 9.0 Pro installs these fonts via software update. SUSE’s fonts have looked great since 8.2
well, Suse and RedHat are both probably as Big Brothers in the Linux playyard. Yet it is not concluded that they are the best distro(s) on earh. You like Suse, He like RedHat, she likes MS for example, that is your taste. it is fair to say once we talk about speed, no one else could refuse the speed of OSS Distro w/o a GUI in boot/install. Slackware/FreeBSD are as very particular instances. Both of these have built based on simplicity, stability, and so the more simple the more efficiency. But some would be quizzed why both Slackware and FreeBSD keep silent while some other Distro(s) keep gaining position in market. That is the art of business (I think so :-)_ .
Yeah Suse is a quite good Distro ( nothing else is easy to convince uncle Sam to buy :-), however, the habit to pronounce Su’Se in future, maybe disappear. Would we have chances to read more Suse review (Suse10 for example)?. To objection the said “linux could be died”, I dun think so – Linux is not a private company, no one owns linux, it could not be extincted. But a private Linux Distro, can be extincted, and leave no traces in next 5 years.
Is anybody know there are any linux system built in a space station or on a spaceship for even experiment purposes?
To end up this shot, it is fair to say Linux is just a part of your life, just do it, enjoy it, contribute it if you can. More things you have to concern about rather than linux itself. And as said by Emerson: “To be simple is to be great”. Are you agree with me this Emerson’s point?
//end
Your original comment stated,
Although I’d never considering a big and memory intensive distro like SUSE
That does seem to imply that sluggishness is an immutable property of SuSE. It is entirely configurable.
Replace “distro like SuSE” with “OS like Windows 95.” You can’t change the fact that memory leaks and poor software design make a box running Windows 95 “big and memory intensive.” However, you can change that with SuSE. There is a considerable difference that I thought was worth pointing out.
I think SuSE is about the same as any other major disto in software develpment department. Being a programmer myself using gtk along with programming widgets gets a bit tedious for me at times.
I initially started with Mandrake 6.0 or 6.2 and thought it
was the best thing in the world, it was then I said goodbye to windoze. I still run Mandrake (9.2) on my laptop.
Suse 9.0, along with Solaris 9 on my desktop.
OpenBSD 3.4 on my old P11.
Sorry if I really had no input on your question, but the major distros are the same to me as far as development goes.
Cygen
Yuck, sorry I haven’t posted at OSNews for a while.
Forgot we can’t use html tags :'(
You can use HTML tags, remember to close them. Simply putting <p> isn’t going to do a blood thing with out the closing tag.
You can use HTML tags, remember to close them. Simply putting <p> isn’t going to do a blood thing with out the closing tag.
usually <p> does work on its own but as quoted from under the comment text area:
“The only HTML/UBB tags allowed are for bold and italics.”
I think SuSE is about the same as any other major disto in software develpment department.
Ok
Being a programmer myself using gtk along with programming widgets gets a bit tedious for me at times.
I’m learning Qt although I wouldn’t mind taking a look at GTK one of these days just to see what its like on the other side.
Sorry if I really had no input on your question, but the major distros are the same to me as far as development goes.
No problem 🙂
Thanks.
Wasn’t only the personal edition supposed to be free?
I got like kit’s (IP: —.pn.at.cox.net) box (1.3 Duron+512mb ram). I installed Kde, all Kde, Gnome, Help & Support, C/C++, Tcl/tk, Games and Office. I use autologin to Kde, and when I want other DE’s or WM’s I just logout. My boot-up time is around 1 minute.
What I don’t get is all the fuss about boot-up time. So what if it takes 2,3 or 4 minutes? How many times do you boot your computer? What is the big deal about a few extra minutes? Linux is an OS that works; it’s almost free and it’s getting better. SUSE is a fine OS that needs some finetunings which Novell will do. Until then, enjoy what works (most work very well).
Autologin with Gnome (when splash is disabled) plus disabling a few daemons will bring boot-up time to 30s or less. I don’t know how to disable Kde’s splash. Bottom line, Linux is not Windows; the first is OSS, the later is EULA. Bear that in mind.
are there any seeds here? I am getting crap downloads becasue no one needs what I have to upload.
I posted the torrent file 2 times…since then I have seen an exponential rise in my peers 🙂
There has been a link in the last Suse 9 review for custom Suse Gnome 2.4 rpm, haven’t tried it though:
http://www.usr-local-bin.org/
Does anyone know if you can do an FTP install of suse and get grub to do a dual boot?
On boot time – not a big deal to me as long as it is not too long. I measure 60 sec from power on to login screen running kernel-test11 on SuSE9 on SATA on AMD2700. Running services that are not used or probing hardware that does not exist doesn’t help. By the way, test11 has experimental support for booting off a ram image written to disk on suspend but I haven’t tried it. One thing that IS slow with SuSE as compared with Redhat is loading certain web pages in Konqueror as for example
http://www.reuters.com/
http://www.informit.com/
http://www.vnunet.com/
I don’t know why. Or maybe it’s just my box.
Screenshots???
Does anyone know if you can do an FTP install of suse and get grub to do a dual boot?
Yes, you can. Make sure you install Win before Linux. Though you can configure grub after you install Win on top of Linux, it’s much easier the other way. (YaST recognizes pre-installed OS on your HDD and let you setup a dual boot system)
and FTP installation is NOT personal edition. It’s Pro version with fewer packages (e.g. no mainactor) and no support. Otherwise it’s a full working OS.
If you like it, it’s always a good idea to buy a retail box to support their work.
I’m using an AMD XP2100 (overclocked to XP2600) with 512 Mb ram and XP boots in less than 10 secondes. And I think I’m not using extremly fast hardware nowadays.
When booting Mandrake 9.2 it takes about 26 secondes to get to the login prompt. (Getting up eth0 takes up a huge amount of time)
BTW I takes Windows 98 a few secondes longer to boot and BeOS a seconde less
Just wanted to add that the boot time a mentioned where measured from selecting the OS in a bootmanager. So BIOS startup ISN’T included here.
‘BE the difference that takes a difference’ – JEWEL
PS: Mandrake 9.2 text login used.
> Any one know of a reliable Gnome 2.4 for SUSE 9?
The packages in ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/GNOME2/update_for_9… work fine for me.
Comparing windows boot times with Linux is somewhat unfair, since Windows loads services post-graphical-boot, which Linux does not do.
For a more realistic metric, you need to wait until Windows actually returns full control and operation to the user. For example, when windows starts up, I can’t then immediately click on an icon on the desktop and have it load. I have to wait for other things to finish, first.
The best comparison, would be to test the times between Windows and Linux booting and *stopping using the hard disk*. This would give a fair indicator of when the user has full command of system resources and the system is fully usable.
Windows should also be tested in a state where it is fully loaded with drivers and applications (including, especially AV software, since it takes ages to load, and we all need it), preferably with server apps, if the Linux box is being compared with those as well.
All in all, in my opinion, it is more or less a dead heat between the two, give or take ten seconds. Moreover, the annoying wait while Windows is loaded and unusable is intolerable. Windows’ suspend does help the situation, although if my next Linux install has it, I’ll probably prefer Linux in both cases.
We shall see
And that’s the review ?
A person installing it, without checking any of the easy to configure sections and then moaning about gcc and mozilla ?
I think it’s about time someone wrote a decent review for SuSe 9.0 – if I get the time this week, I’ll knock one together that includes more than just a “review” of the install, but what the distro includes and how it functions !
The author says he’s been using SuSE Personal since 6.3. Having done the same myself, it is very odd that he would not immediately go to YaST to install more software (Mozilla, etc.) rather than re-install. That is almost unbelievable.
And, not a word about about the look and user experience of 9. I wonder why these types of articles are becoming so standard – so brief and lacking in substance? It isn’t the fault of OS News, it isn’t the fault of those who submit the articles, it just seems to be the way of things right now. It is unfortunate.
The guy couldn’t be bothered to try YAST to install Mozilla? That review wasn’t worth publishing. More like a one page blurb than a review.
I’ve just installed suse9.0 ftp-version. I did a minimal + X install and after that i installed gnome….i know this is version 2.2, but i think they’ve done lots of backporting, since i don’t really see a difference with gnome from slack-current or debian unstable…the difference i do see is; suse gnome is a lot faster compared to the slack en debian version!!! and it has got a really nice look.
I’m still wondering if this is really a review, since the review barely gets past the install!
Plus, in an ad hominem way, what qualifications does the review have, if they simply bypass the (relatively easy) step that lets you see what packages you install?
If they have any experience at all with Suse, they would know that the development tools are an option, not part of the base install-the base install gets you a bootable desktop with KDE and X, not much more.
If you want more, there are certainly ample opportunities to do so, either via an “everything” install, or via update in YAST.
To damn Suse for the “reviewer’s” own incompetence is, in a word, silly.
(BTW-I’m using the term reviewer VERY loosly, since in my view, saying “I installed linux” hardly constitutes a review)