Oh my God! Kubuntu works where openSUSE fails!!!

[growbag]

I downloaded Kubuntu 9.04 and installed it on my spare 80 gig drive basically for a laugh.

I am both shocked and also sad that Kubuntu functions perfectly in the areas where sadly openSUSE 11.1 fails miserably.

Suspend to RAM works for the first time EVER on my HP dv6645 laptop!

I thought it was a fluke at first, but I have now done it several times. I couldn't believe my eyes!

KDE 4.2 works unbelievably good, it is smooth, simple, fast, and fully functional. Especially the really annoying systray graphics corruption that I assumed plagued only KDE 4.2, it is non-existent under Kubuntu's build of 4.2!

I set all the effects to be the same as I run under suse, even running Firefox fullscreen doesn't cause any problems .

The system starts faster, package management is lightning fast, when you first play a movie file you are asked if you want to install the codecs and the whole lot is done in one hit, and my printer/multifunction was detected and setup perfectly without any hassles or problems!

I don't get it, what's going on here?

[FeatherMonkey]

4.2 has never been officially released, regardless of the many mentions of upgrading to it.

In fact it has only just been frozen as factory goes to 4.3 and the live kde4.2 has its own repo.

So I for one am not sure that is a comparison to be made, now comparing 4.1.3 to kubuntu 4.1.3 would be a fair comparison as for suspend to ram without comparing driver configuration it seems a bit unfair. I always did hate sax2 though. Suse leaves you to configure it.

Though not to belittle what Kubuntu has achieved I have to admit I'm seeing a few more praises for some of the later releases even in the more technical distro's. So I have to admit I'm getting more and more intrigued to try it.

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by growbag

I am both shocked and also sad that Kubuntu functions perfectly in the areas where sadly openSUSE 11.1 fails miserably.

Good on ya for finding a distribution that works better on your hardware for you.

Originally Posted by growbag

I don't get it, what's going on here?

Thats just the way it is. Its always been this way in Linux as long as I have been using Linux, since 1998. Sometimes, some distributions work better on some hardware than others.

It means some times PCLinux OS will work better than other distributions on some hardware. It means sometimes Fedora will work better than other distributions on some hardware. It means sometimes basic Debian will work better than some other distributions on some hardware. It means sometimes Ubuntu will work better than some other distributions on some hardware. And it means sometimes openSUSE will work better than some other distributions on some hardware.

This is just the way it has always been.

Linux is linux, and IMHO if one finds a Linux that works better for them, they should use that Linux.

Now, let me qualify that by saying, when a user becomes more familiar with Linux in general, and also becomes very familiar with a specific distribution, things that will BLOCK and FRUSTRATE a less experienced user, are often trivial for a more experienced user to solve on their distribution of choice.

Now some things, are simply not apples to apples in a comparison. If one takes KDE-4.2 on Ubuntu and compares it to 4.1 on openSUSE, thats not apples to apples. Instead, if one wishes to compare oranges to apples, then compare KDE-4.2 (on the latest Ubuntu) to KDE-3.5 (on the latest openSUSE).

But IMHO if you find a Linux version that works for you, then use it.

My complaints against Ubuntu have NEVER been their hardware compatibility. Instead I dislike their not having things that are important to me . Specifically, I

• note Ubuntu do not have software as good as YaST,
• dislike their not having a group of packagers who are as responsive and helpful as Packman packagers (IMHO),
• note Ubuntu do not have anything as good as the openSUSE build service, and
• note Ubuntu do not have a desktop as good (for me) as KDE-3.5.10, and
• dislike Ubuntu's weaker implementation of openSource free software (as they do not keep them selves as distant from proprietary software as openSUSE), and
• find completely and totally blocking to me the shaky Ubuntu policy of passing their fixes to Debian for vetting, instead of passing them directly upstream.

But those complaints of mine are not important to many people, and hence for such users, Ubuntu may be the best thing since "sliced bread" ... And to them I say good on ya. ...

PLEASE enjoy using a Linux distribution that works for you. I hope we can together help Linux move forward.

[zak89]

IMHO, all you are seeing is the general advancement of Linux. Newer versions of any linux distro usually work better and on more hardware than the previous version. I'd reckon the latest Mandriva release probably would wok well for you too.

So comparing the latest and greatest Ubuntu release (which features a newer kernel, xorg, and so on) with the older openSUSE 11.1 is not really fair. Just like it would be unfair to compare the upcoming 11.2 (when it comes out) with Ubuntu 9.04. openSUSE will then be a ways ahead in it's included software.

Of course, as oldcpu said, some distros work where others don't, but in my experience this is somewhat rare. Usually it's one generation of distros works where another (usually, hopefully, older) fails.

Have a lot of fun!

[oldcpu]

Another view (of mine) on something related to this thread.

This is the soapbox area? Right ? ... Ok, then let me jump on my soap box.

When I started back in Linux in 1998, it was very common that some hardware worked better on one Linux than on others. It was common that some software worked better in some distributions than others. It varied from software to software, from hardware to hardware, and from distribution to distribution.

But back then, instead of posting of the horrors and horrors that some other Linux distribution did things that our Linux distribution did not yet do, we would not only complain. No we could contribute with a positive contribution. Not with a negative gripe. Positive. I did say positive, didn't I? No? Let me say again. P O S I T I V E .

It appears to me that many in the new generation of Linux users do not like to contribute. They don't like to figure out what another distribution is doing, and then turn around and apply to their own favourite distribution.

And IMHO thats a sad, a really sad and pathetic state of affairs.

Linux distributions live and die by their positive contributions. They do not live by their rants and negative complaints.

If one wishes openSUSE to move forward, and capture features that one sees in another distribution , but is not yet in openSUSE, then may I recommend one set up a sandbox PC (preferably), or if one is very confident in their ability to handle a misbehaved grub, set up a sandbox partition, and install openSUSE-11.2 milestone1, and write bug reports on the things that are missing in openSUSE-11.2. Thats the way to complain. And stick around and monitor the bug reports, and help the developers improve openSUSE.

The constant negative tirade that users like to do to make themselves feel good, at the negative expense of the distribution, when there are many positive contributory things all users can do instead to help, is IMHO a sad reflection on the users that our community attracts.

But despite this being the SoapBox, since I did volunteer to be a moderator sometime back, in truth I can't say much more on my disappointment with some in our own community who prefer trolling over contributing (and I am NOT saying the posts in this thread are like that. I'm just jumping on a Soap Box as the "Oh my God!" title in this thread struck a MAJOR PET PEEVE). To that, my title in reply is "SO WHAT ? ".

What I can also say is I urge openSUSE users to contribute in a POSITIVE manner, and only after one is established as a contributor, will your complaints have a much higher impact.

[oldcpu]

Now that I'm off my podium ... here is a positive (hopefully) reply:

Originally Posted by growbag

Suspend to RAM works for the first time EVER on my HP dv6645 laptop!

growbag, just reply to your own thread on this (where you did not get any help). Maybe by "bumping" that thread, someone who knows the solution will chime in, where they missed your thread the 1s time.

Originally Posted by growbag

KDE 4.2 works unbelievably good, it is smooth, simple, fast, and fully functional.

Thats great to read. Its thus very promising for openSUSE when 4.3 is implemented in openSUSE-11.2.

Originally Posted by growbag

I set all the effects to be the same as I run under suse, even running Firefox fullscreen doesn't cause any problems

Firefox should work full screen. If you started a thread on this and got no response, reply to your own thread to bump it up, and maybe someone will help. What graphic driver are you using? What graphic hardware?

Originally Posted by growbag

The system starts faster, package management is lightning fast,

I find myself zypper faster than apt. Did you compare Ubuntu's boot logs to openSUSE's to see what they are doing different?

Originally Posted by growbag

when you first play a movie file you are asked if you want to install the codecs and the whole lot is done in one hit,

Thats asking for a law suit. If Novell tried that someone would try and sue them and walk away with millions. Ubuntu are walking a very thin line there.

Originally Posted by growbag

and my printer/multifunction was detected and setup perfectly without any hassles or problems!

Printing has always worked fine for me on openSUSE. Again, if you started a thread on this and got no help, reply to your own thread to bump it in priority. Also, compare the Ubuntu config files (for printing) to those of openSUSE to see what they are doing different. That may shed some light on where openSUSE may be screwing up.

[growbag]

There must be a kernel compile option that is different under ubuntu, is there an easy way of finding out?

[FeatherMonkey]

To find kernel flags but to find patching may be harder I can't help as I have no clue how to get a src deb as such, with suse you can get src.rpm and look at the patches.

As for flags zcat /proc/config.gz on both then do a diff on them. Also as mentioned the kernel is newer on Ubuntu so may just be kernel. Also suspend will be related to graphics driver too iirc with the kernel.

[growbag]

Thanks feathermonkey, I'll give that a try .

I'm downloading the latest build right now to give it a tryout.

openSUSE-KDE4-LiveCD-i586-i686-Build0098-Media.iso 10-May-2009 04:27 636M


I purposely made 2sets of partitions on this disk so I can try 2 distros side-by-side.

I'll report back on how it went just in case anyone is interested .

[oldcpu]

Originally Posted by growbag

I'll report back on how it went just in case anyone is interested .

Yes please. Anything that we can learn from this is most welcome. Even bad news can be helpful at times.