Is Suse Lixux a good way to go?

[WildHorse]

I 'm thinking of trying Linux. I've used to Windows SP Professional Edition for a long time, so that's the basis I'll be transitioning from.

It's super important that I quickly become able to work productively using Linux. It affects my income, so downtime hurts. Using both my good desktop & my old Dell Latitude laptop computers.

Plan: still keep the WinXP and MS Office 2007 Pro on another desktop box for use as needed.

Is Suse Linux a good one ? openSUse better? Ubuntu better?

 

[Nothinman]

That's like asking whether Ford or Chevy is better, it's all personal preference.

 

[WildHorse]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
That's like asking whether Ford or Chevy is better, it's all personal preference.

Thanks for replying.

I didn't know that.

I thought maybe some brands are more stable or mature or have more developer support, or may be suited to different primary uses. (My primary use is business office)

Guess I'll burn a Live openSUSe Linux dvd, & start playing around with it on the side while continuing on Windows for mainline work for a while.

 

[Nothinman]

There will be differences otherwise it wouldn't make much sense to have different distros . =) The main difference will be in software packaging, what is packaged, how it's packaged, etc. But in general the software will be the same, AbiWord is AbiWord on any distro.

 

[Brazen]

I wouldn't touch SuSe under any circumstance. I've tried it and right now I'm too lazy to say why. Stick with Debian, Ubuntu Dapper Server, or CentOS on a server, and Ubuntu or Fedora on a workstation.

Edit: the Linux FAQ is back. Go read it.

 

[Goosemaster]

1. I call it SLED

2. The SLED menu system is very "windows" like and integrates Beagle (desktop search) really nicely. In addition, it does small things that are nice, like quick access to recent programs, files, and control panels. In addition, the control panel is very well laid out and makes configuring stuff pretty intuitive.

That said, all of it can be superimposed/integrated with ubuntu or any other distro rather easily, but I like the fact that it comes with it.

3. In terms of l33tness, the YAST and YAST2 Configuration tools (stands for YetAnotherSetupTool) are pretty simple are carefree for the unadventurous fellows/gals.

THAT SAID...it is still focused on rpm packages and if you try to install anything that it doesn't already lsit, you may have some issues.

Frankly I think it is a beautiful linux implementation that seems to be more ready-out-of-the-box-and-keep-it-that-way and business-oriented than the rampant customization that you can pull off with any other the debian-based or redhat-based distros.

For what it is, it is great.

What I usually use is centos for servers, and for the desktop osx

for linux I like Suse a lot (OpenSuse is the non-commercial one) but usually keep to ubuntu

 

[SSP]

I used opensuse 10.1 until they released 10.2. I really hated the new menu so I switched to ubuntu (then to gentoo). But 10.1 really was a pain for me, cause I had trouble with installing nvidia drivers and the yast manager was really slow and had some problems at the time, which I'm sure they've fixed by now. It's of of the nicest looking distros out of the box, but I prefer aptitude and portage over yast.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: SSP
It's of of the nicest looking distros out of the box, but I prefer aptitude and portage over yast.

Agreed

 

[WildHorse]

Thanks guys!

I'll go read that Linux for Beginners thread. Thanks for pointing that out Brazen.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: scott
Thanks guys!

I'll go read that Linux for Beginners thread. Thanks for pointing that out Brazen.

Well, what can I say. I mean, I did write it and all. [/shamelesssellfpromotion]

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: SSP
I used opensuse 10.1 until they released 10.2. I really hated the new menu so I switched to ubuntu (then to gentoo). But 10.1 really was a pain for me, cause I had trouble with installing nvidia drivers and the yast manager was really slow and had some problems at the time, which I'm sure they've fixed by now. It's of of the nicest looking distros out of the box, but I prefer aptitude and portage over yast.

???

menu is easily changed to the old one. both in gnome and kde.