Open SUSE

[viking60]

Is it Windows Linux?

[dedanna1029]

Linux in general is becoming another Windows, with it's "must-have-point-and-shoot-interface-and-gui's-the-best" crap.

So, when Suse comes 'round, I'm like, "who cares" any more.

[viking60]

Well that is a good thing. I like to watch TV you like to listen to the radio. The GUI is the key to success on any desktop. So the new user cares (coming from Windows) - and he is important.

[iceycooler9]

i love opensuse, sure it has its problems, but i am happy to say i run a Windows 7/ Opensuse 11.2 dual boot. I also used this release as a stopgap of the time of ditching mandriva and waiting for my dad to finally buy Windows 7 3 ppl pack (it went out of stock, and then later found that microsoft discontinued it right before Christmas time, and i ended up geting W7 for christmas)

opensuse could be a very annoying distro when you first use it ( i used to hate suse) but after a while it can be the home distro.

[viking60]

I find the repos confusing. It seems like they have one repo per program. But it is second only to Mandriva in the area of user friendliness.
I don't like the "protection" deal they have with Microsoft tough.

[dedanna1029]

Well that is a good thing. I like to watch TV you like to listen to the radio.

Eeeeeeeeeewww the radio? Heaven forbid! No, I find my music online. I check with my favorite bands here and there, see what's up with them, sometimes even check up on old bands, to see if they have anything coming up.

Radio here in the states is a big computerized botch job of b.s.

[dedanna1029]

I think the evening he was installing it, icy was saying something to me about the repos also (that he was having issues or something).

What's the deal specifically with them? I'd like to know what I'd be in for. I'm thinking of making a complete about-face with my secondary hdd.

[viking60]

Well there are so many of them and all the programs are in different repos. Bluefish is in "Education". How is that logical? I will get flamed over in the SUSE forum for this, but for a newcomer it is confusing. They seem to think of it as "more possibilities" . It probably is Ok if you dive in to it.
They will also tell you that Suse is faster than Mandriva - And it is not. Not with Gnome anyway.
But their Susestudio is appealing I made myself a little distro there.
Yast is a disappointment compared to yum (It is a fair comparison because I do not know any of them well) and there are way to many "control panels".
People who know this stuff, tell me that the integration of KDE is very good in Suse - but you do not care about that.
I think Suse has an appealing look and feel on the first impression and then you start to get frustrated. In Arch you are frustrated in the beginning, and then you start to love it. I have been a member in the Suse forum longer than in Mandriva I think - so I started there. Mandriva was just better - so I switched.
But you know these tings change and Suse is not a bad distro. And probably the distro with the most possibilities.

[dedanna1029]

Yeah, that's pretty much what icy was saying, too.

I'll think about it, and go from there. I have to do something starting tomorrow night. The issue is, I really really really want Arch back, but it takes the longest to configure, and with the project with majorlinux, I'll be short on time.

[iceycooler9]

Well there are so many of them and all the programs are in different repos. Bluefish is in "Education". How is that logical? I will get flamed over in the SUSE forum for this, but for a newcomer it is confusing. They seem to think of it as "more possibilities" . It probably is Ok if you dive in to it.
They will also tell you that Suse is faster than Mandriva - And it is not. Not with Gnome anyway.
But their Susestudio is appealing I made myself a little distro there.
Yast is a disappointment compared to yum (It is a fair comparison because I do not know any of them well) and there are way to many "control panels".
People who know this stuff, tell me that the integration of KDE is very good in Suse - but you do not care about that.
I think Suse has an appealing look and feel on the first impression and then you start to get frustrated. In Arch you are frustrated in the beginning, and then you start to love it. I have been a member in the Suse forum longer than in Mandriva I think - so I started there. Mandriva was just better - so I switched.
But you know these tings change and Suse is not a bad distro. And probably the distro with the most possibilities.

i will have to disagree with you here. In my personal experience (not denying your experience) they are extremely nice at the forum, one of the most mature out there. But i only been a member there on and off for about a year roughly.

And now about speed. Suse and Mandriva are both bloated( and much of linux is that way, needed some sort of plan to put linux on a diet) but Mandriva recently is a PIG. Mandriva Gnome uses 500mb of ram IDLE ( im only at 360mb with pidgin, firefox, banshee, and uploading a file on suse gnome) and suse is not lightning fast, i will be the first to admit that, but its still fast and acceptable, bootup is lightning fast, distro is stable, packages are little behind, but not by much.

YaSt is honestly fairly nice and tiddy, so are the menus in gnome. And for the many control centers, there are only 2, unless you are talking about an about an older release. There is only the simple gnome control center, and then YaSt.

i am debating on switching to kde, but gnome works good enough, i just kinda miss kde. Suse gnome again is very decent. But i would agree, the ease of use in the package management could use a little work, but its not horrible.

YaSt i personally find is Wine while MCC is Kool aid. YaSt runs nice and tidy, and Mandriva draketools is an ugly dumbed down slugger.

[dedanna1029]

I can't say anything here, because I don't use the GUI stuff anyway. I got quite used to Fedora with their lack of what some call "real tools", because I need only one tool, and it doesn't include a Yast or MCC or anything else of the like. And, the tool I use is lightning fast compared to any of it, whether it's Yast or MCC or whatever.

[viking60]

Then why on earth are you considering SUSE. I seem to remember an attack on Fluendo here, for reasons you very well might transfer to Novell. With your angel, Arch Linux seems to be the best. If you get the deamons right in rc.conf it should not be that hard to set up. And Pacman is OK isn't it?
If you want ease of use Mandriva is no. 1 SUSE is no.2 -(No emotions - just a comparison of distros). But that is not for you. I am more impressed with YUM (Fedora) than Yast - I think you will be in for a disappointment too.

When it comes to the bloated Linux thing I don't follow any of you there. SUSE is clearly one of the most bloated distros out there.
Is Mandriva more bloated - who cares?
The kernel is bloated? - Ok Linus says that, so it is kind of "chique" to say it. Still he is very much responsible for the kernel.
If you want to use Linux for something, then Mandriva and Suse are good. If the distro is the target, and not the instrument, then you could go for LFS or Unity etc.

The important question is: does it work (for you)?