Possible Move From Ubuntu 8.04 To Opensuse

Hi all,

New here. I have a few questions. I'm really considering moving to OpenSuse from Ubuntu. Not there's anything wrong with Ubuntu. I just fancy a change. Also OpenSuse came highly recommended by a work colleague who is a professional Linux user and programmer.

My questions are! In no particular order, can I do on OpenSuse what I do on Ubuntu.

1. Can I run Crossover Games?
2. Is it easy to run mp3s, divx and DVD's etc.
2. Do the repos contain mostly the stuff Ubuntu does. In this case Tux Paint and other educational programs for my daughter.
4. I take it you can burn CD's and DVD's just as you can on Ubuntu using K3B.
5. Is KDE 4 stable and can you use Compiz on it.
6. Can you use Compiz anyway.
7. Can you use Avant Window Manager in Gnome. (Although I'm probably going to migrate to KDE)
8. Does OpenSuse update it's self with all the latest security updates, aka ubuntu style.
9. What packages can I run on OpenSuse .deb files? .rpm files? I'm thinking of the new beta here.
10. When a new version of OpenSuse comes out can you upgrade or do you have to re-install, again aka ubuntu style.
11. How extensive is the repos in comparison to Ubuntu?
12. Is it easy to configure GL Screensavers and an nVidia G8400? Also for working with games on Crossover.

That's it for now. Can't think of any other questions.

Thanks in advance for any input.

Also can I run VMware Server on it? Can you install Azureus on there, and DC++ for Linux? Sorry if these questions seem simple or n00b like. I have only ever know Ubuntu, would like to know how easy OpenSuse is.

I have the OpenSuse 11.0 Beta 2 disk.

Hmm, there are better people than me to answer your questions, but I don't know where you get the idea in #10 that you have to reinstall, either with Ubuntu or OpenSUSE. You can upgrade Ubuntu too. I did 7.10 to 8.04 not so long ago on a machine I run Kubuntu on.

I used both distros on my computer. Both have advantages and inconvenients.

But there is 2 things that takes Opensuse above all distros :

- Yast : Or how to manage Hardware/Software easily. There is no equivalent in Ubuntu, and its definitely something which is missing.
- Packman : The repos of Ubuntu are nice, Packman is packed with good things, very quickly, and sometime with a "flavor"

Basically, all the operations you can do on the Ubuntu, you can do it as well on the Opensuse. But there is things you will be able to do on the OpenSuse in a much easier way than with the Ubuntu.

1. Can I run Crossover Games?
2. Is it easy to run mp3s, divx and DVD's etc.[/b]

Yes

2. Do the repos contain mostly the stuff Ubuntu does. In this case Tux Paint and other educational programs for my daughter.[/b]

I'd say yes but you can double check for particular apps at http://packages.opensuse-community.org/ . Only up to 10.3 is listed but if you find it for 10.3 then that is most likely going to be where it is for 11.

4. I take it you can burn CD's and DVD's just as you can on Ubuntu using K3B.
5. Is KDE 4 stable and can you use Compiz on it.[/b]

Yes

6. Can you use Compiz anyway.[/b]

I believe so though I don't use it so can't say 100%.

7. Can you use Avant Window Manager in Gnome. (Although I'm probably going to migrate to KDE)[/b]

Not sure.

8. Does OpenSuse update it's self with all the latest security updates, aka ubuntu style.[/b]

There is an updater.

9. What packages can I run on OpenSuse .deb files? .rpm files? I'm thinking of the new beta here.[/b]

RPM packages are used.

11. How extensive is the repos in comparison to Ubuntu?[/b]

Couldn't tell you, don't know what Ubuntu's repo's are like.

Hi all,

New here. I have a few questions. I'm really considering moving to OpenSuse from Ubuntu. Not there's anything wrong with Ubuntu. I just fancy a change. Also OpenSuse came highly recommended by a work colleague who is a professional Linux user and programmer.

My questions are! In no particular order, can I do on OpenSuse what I do on Ubuntu.

1. Can I run Crossover Games?
2. Is it easy to run mp3s, divx and DVD's etc.
2. Do the repos contain mostly the stuff Ubuntu does. In this case Tux Paint and other educational programs for my daughter.
4. I take it you can burn CD's and DVD's just as you can on Ubuntu using K3B.
5. Is KDE 4 stable and can you use Compiz on it.
6. Can you use Compiz anyway.
7. Can you use Avant Window Manager in Gnome. (Although I'm probably going to migrate to KDE)
8. Does OpenSuse update it's self with all the latest security updates, aka ubuntu style.
9. What packages can I run on OpenSuse .deb files? .rpm files? I'm thinking of the new beta here.
10. When a new version of OpenSuse comes out can you upgrade or do you have to re-install, again aka ubuntu style.
11. How extensive is the repos in comparison to Ubuntu?
12. Is it easy to configure GL Screensavers and an nVidia G8400? Also for working with games on Crossover.

That's it for now. Can't think of any other questions.

Thanks in advance for any input.
[/b]

First of all; Linux is a kernel. Most of the functionality you mention is part of the Linux kernel, not a distribution. You can do all the same stuff with every Linux distribution that uses the same kernel tree.

One thing I really like about Suse is when I click on a file like an MP3 or WMV file and it doesn't know how to play it, Yast pops up, offers a solution and automatically installs what you need to play the file. Very nice.

Remember that Ubuntu uses apt-get and Synaptic. Suse uses RPM and Yast. They are quite different but easy to use.

Haven't tried KDE4. I tend to wait awhile before upgrading to the latest software. Once I have a stable system, I like to stick with it. Of course Suse uses some KDE4 packages and I have not had a single problem with Suse.

My questions are! In no particular order, can I do on OpenSuse what I do on Ubuntu.

..
5. Is KDE 4 stable and can you use Compiz on it.
6. Can you use Compiz anyway.
7. Can you use Avant Window Manager in Gnome. (Although I'm probably going to migrate to KDE)
...
9. What packages can I run on OpenSuse .deb files? .rpm files? I'm thinking of the new beta here.
...
[/b]

Hi Chris & welcome!

As for KDE4, it's quite stable and how Compiz will work depends strongly on what graphic card you have and if you have an optimal and 3D enabled driver (needs to be separately installed for NVidia or ATI cards). As KDE 4.1 will bring features many are waiting for, KDE 4.0.4 is getting good reviews.

Compiz works fine on all my systems but it might need some tuning before you get it running smoothly. Again this strongly depends on your video card and it's driver.

openSUSE does not support .deb format installs as far as I know, and seeing it's a different dependency system I would not even try to go there, but there are others here who can give a better explanation on this.
RPM is the way to go, and only when not available fall back to building/installing your software form source.
The thing with building from source is that the install does not get a listing in your RPM database so you can get issues along the way.

I don't use Avant Window manager but have seen posts of people using it... so I guess that is a yes.

As for your other questions, like others here have expressed, openSUSE can do the same things Ubuntu can so as long as you have the software available for openSUSE you should easily be able to match what you are doing with Ubuntu.

I would recommend the openSUSE 11 version as it will be released next month and has matured greatly in certain aspects like software management (one thing that used to be much faster in Ubuntu but now seems matched).

Enjoy,
Wj

Also can I run VMware Server on it?
[/b]

Yes, you can run VMware on OpenSUSE. There's actually a good tutorial on installing and using it as well...

Installing VMware on OpenSUSE 10.3

You may want to wait for openSUSE 11 to be released, or even try the beta.

The package management is phenomenally improved. Spectacularly, actually. You'll find speed and performance more comparable to apt-get/synaptic, despite being rpm based (which often causes performance issues due to the higher volume of meta data to deal with).

The KDE4 packages will have patches and improvements incorporated from the upcoming 4.1 release, which will make it one of the best KDE4 desktops, at least until 4.1 is released (which will be an easy upgrade on openSUSE). And generally speaking, just from the number of KDE devs involved with openSUSE, it generally has one of the best KDE desktop period.

Yast as a management infrastructure is a remarkable thing, and Ubuntu has nothing comparable. A single management interface, available with text/ncurses, Qt and GTK GUIs, that can configure virtually every aspect of your system. Imagine configuring hardware, network connections, display, services, printers, sound, user setup, grub/boot manager settings and all the other usual stuff, from a single interface. For power users/admins, it also configures apache, samba, ldap, ftp, mail, kernel parameters, partitions, hardware PCI configurations, and a number of other things I'm probably forgetting. For 11.0, it has had many improvements, performance among them. It is really one of the pillars of openSUSE that sets it apart from the competition.

Then there is also the build-service, which offers add-on packages for openSUSE, ranging from updates to current packages, through beta/development builds of packages, packaged kernel modules, customized packages etc. Last I saw there were more than 40,000 packages available, although there is some overlap among them (due to the testing/developmental etc. nature of some of them).

As for compiz, I'm currently using KDE 4.1 (development build), and the improvements in compositing with kwin are staggering. You'll probably find you miss little from compiz with KDE 4.0/4.1, unless there are particular plugins you really depend on. It would be better to stick with KDE's native compositing rather than using compiz, but compiz will still work regardless if you want to go down that route.

Anyways, just my 2c...

Cheers,
KV

Yes, you can run VMware on OpenSUSE. There's actually a good tutorial on installing and using it as well...

Installing VMware on OpenSUSE 10.3
[/b]

I'm using openSUSE 11.0 beta 2.