Which openSUSE version should I install? 10.3 or 11.1 ?

[dreamsis]

I tried both and in my opinion 10.3 version has less bugs... I googled up some internet boards and there was a lot of complaints about 11.1 version... The users were saying there were many things which worked flawlessly in previous versions and didn't work quite well in 11.1 ...
I have a regular PC, i386 ...

[Loki657]

In my personal experience, I see no real reason to not use 11.1 unless something which is working in 10.3 doesnt work for you. I think saying 10.3 is better than 11.1 is stretching it a bit far..

[mmarif4u]

And that most of the bugs are from kde4. 10.3 is with kde3.5.10, which is super stable. In this case kde4 was still in building stage. If you want to enjoy 11.1, i would recommend update to kde4.3.
Other than that, 11.1 has more hardware compatibility because of the latest kernel(2.6.27) that time.
Even 11.0 was more buggy than 11.1, because of the early release of kde4.

[john_hudson]

You also have the choice of Carlos' KDE3.5 version at openSUSE News » Unofficial KDE 3.5 Live CD for openSUSE 11.1

or the KDE4.3 live version at KDE/KDE4 - openSUSE

[gregosmith]

I can't remember did 10.3 use the improved zypper yet. In 10.2 zypper was terribly slow and annoying

I remember around that point it took forever to load the package manager and do anything. I used to commonly leave that add remove program in yast open if I was doing installing, just in case I wanted to add more software later, just because it felt like it took forever for that to work.

If it was a slower package manager in 10.3 I would move to 11.1 just for the improved zypper alone

[oldcpu]

dreamsis, there were some excellent replies to you in this thread.

I agree with Loki657 than in general, 11.1 is superior to 10.3, unless you can point to a specific area of concern.

mmarif4u's note about KDE-3.5.10 being super solid in 11.1 (as opposed to KDE-4.1.3 which was not as stable) is definitely true (I'm a big KDE-3.5.10 user myself) and the 2.6.27 kernel in openSUSE-11.1 is superior to the kernel version in openSUSE-10.3

And finally John Hudson's links to two superb openSUSE community produced liveCD's (one for KDE-3.5.10 and one for KDE-4.3) is essential to note if one is a KDE user. If your PC supports a DVD, then you can easily select "Other" for desktop and select the rock solid KDE-3.5.10 from the DVD. But you can't easily from the openSUSE DVD install KDE-4.3 without getting into factory repos, and hence John Hudson's link to the KDE-4.3 live CD is an excellent, safe, and easy way to get KDE-4.3 in openSUSE-11.1.

I've used both community openSUSE-11.1 liveCDs (for KDE-3.5.10 and KDE-4.3) myself and they work well for installing. One comment, and that is for some hardware, one might need the DVD as it tends to have more applications/drivers on it than the liveCDs. ... But overall, the openSUSE-11.1 liveCDs are a smaller download, and should work most the time.

My view is going with openSUSE-11.1 is a "no-brainer" and with my now having played with the openSUSE-11.1 KDE-4.3 live CD, if I had another nVidia based PC that did not yet have Linux on, I would not hesitate to install from the openSUSE-11.1 KDE-4.3 live CD as it is now IMHO as good, if not superior, to the rock solid KDE-3.5.10.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by gregosmith

If it was a slower package manager in 10.3 I would move to 11.1 just for the improved zypper alone

This is also a good point. The zypper (Software Package Management) in 11.1 is faster than the zypper in 10.3 (and also faster than the zypper in 11.0).

[growbag]

Originally Posted by mmarif4u

And that most of the bugs are from kde4. 10.3 is with kde3.5.10, which is super stable. In this case kde4 was still in building stage. If you want to enjoy 11.1, i would recommend update to kde4.3.
Other than that, 11.1 has more hardware compatibility because of the latest kernel(2.6.27) that time.
Even 11.0 was more buggy than 11.1, because of the early release of kde4.

I would have to disagree slightly there, awful things like pulseaudio and beagle weren't included, and the whole 10.3 experience was a lot smoother and stable than any of the 11 series so far.

The 11 series introduced repo problems, update failures, wireless connection woes, and of course the KDE4 saga.

It was the first Linux version I had on any computer for close to a whole year without having to fiddle or repair anything.

Actually, no I tell a lie, redhat 5.1 on an old Pentium 133 laptop back in circa 2000 was the longest at well over 2 years! But to be fair, that was way before wireless, suspend-to-ram, and the fancy hardware we have today.

But for later distros, openSUSE 10.3 was (through my rose coloured glasses anyway) a gem of a distro, beating the pants off all competition.

The OP could simply try both out and see what works best, it costs only download and time to do so.

Plus he could simply use a later kernel on 10.3 to avoid any "security" vulnerabilities and gain all the modern juicy hardware compatibilities I guess .

However, with all that said, after test driving 11.2-milestone2 I was extremely impressed, and KDE 4.3 is now very nice. But that is another story all together.

[growbag]

oh yes, I forgot about the slow zypper

[mmarif4u]

Originally Posted by growbag

I would have to disagree slightly there, awful things like pulseaudio and beagle weren't included, and the whole 10.3 experience was a lot smoother and stable than any of the 11 series so far.

The 11 series introduced repo problems, update failures, wireless connection woes, and of course the KDE4 saga.

It was the first Linux version I had on any computer for close to a whole year without having to fiddle or repair anything.

Actually, no I tell a lie, redhat 5.1 on an old Pentium 133 laptop back in circa 2000 was the longest at well over 2 years! But to be fair, that was way before wireless, suspend-to-ram, and the fancy hardware we have today.

But for later distros, openSUSE 10.3 was (through my rose coloured glasses anyway) a gem of a distro, beating the pants off all competition.

The OP could simply try both out and see what works best, it costs only download and time to do so.

Plus he could simply use a later kernel on 10.3 to avoid any "security" vulnerabilities and gain all the modern juicy hardware compatibilities I guess .

However, with all that said, after test driving 11.2-milestone2 I was extremely impressed, and KDE 4.3 is now very nice. But that is another story all together.

And i will agree with you in this, because most of the users found 11.1 good than 10.3(not including kde3.5). Its because most of the hardware works out of the box. And yeh, hardware like wireless card is more concerned here. But for some of the them, it is not because of again that hardware issues. Other than that, i have no problems with repo updates, update issues.
And updating to KDE4.3 will at least give some breath.
I think, not including beagle is a good move. As we know about it. when it starts indexing , then just sit........and a cup of coffee and wait..
Also, 11.1 was released soon after 11.0, which was IMO was in rush.

As mentioned by all above, Yast find some decent form to stay at the field.
10.3 with kde3.5 was much better, no doubt in this.

But i hope, 11.2 will bring some joy for all of us.