#3 Questions

[weverjames]

1. Is opensuse a sub par, imperfect version of SLED?
Is SLED in a any way more stable, safe and polished than Opensuse?
Any advantage or disadvantage of using SLED?

2. Who is the people that is using linux?
Is the average linux user someone that like spending hours in front of a computer, that does not want to give up with their old pcs? that takes meto the next question.

3. If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop, with no budget limitations, would you still use linux? would you prefer buying a mac or a windows?
Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or ubuntu? (Would you do that?)

honest answers please

[caf4926]

Originally Posted by weverjames

1. Is opensuse a sub par, imperfect version of SLED?
Is SLED in a any way more stable, safe and polished than Opensuse? NO not in my opinion.
Any advantage or disadvantage of using SLED? Support

2. Who is the people that is using linux?
Is the average linux user someone that like spending hours in front of a computer, that does not want to give up with their old pcs? that takes meto the next question.
Take your pick, anyone and everyone. Male, female, the undecided.

3. If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop, with no budget limitations, would you still use linux? would you prefer buying a mac or a windows? Duh! Linux only, no question about it.
Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or ubuntu? (Would you do that?) That would be the sensible thing to do, then you would know all your hardware is NOT vendor locked.

honest answers please

I think secretly you knew the answers to those ?'s

[MattBClassic]

1. No. SLED is the Corporate supported version of SUSE. Advantages: Tends to be geared towards Corporate Desktops thus it will not contain all the Bells and Whistles but has Support. Disadvantages: see Advantages.

2. All kind of folks use Linux from little gray haired old ladies to people who milk cows. Some will love tinkering and others just love the freedom that it provides. You have to be careful when you define Linux since it is in many things these days.

3. When I build a new computer I love the fact I can throw on a Linux Distro and not pay MS for the privilege of using it or require their permission to make it work. Unlimited Budget would just mean better components. Laptops are not interesting for me so I would not wish to have one. Though I do like the netbooks as a option for the future.

[TaraIkeda]

Is opensuse a sub par, imperfect version of SLED?

No it is not, and one can use OpenSuse on enterprise desktops if they wanted to.

Is SLED in a any way more stable, safe and polished than Opensuse?

Perhaps SLED is more stable, as it only uses proven packages that are known to be stable sort of like debian stable.
But safty and polish, eh I think its probably on par with both.

Any advantage or disadvantage of using SLED?

Commercial support I would say be the top advantage, but the disadvantage would be not having more up to date versions of your favorite apps.

Please note that I never quite used SLED personally but I know a few people who have so I do some things about it.

Who are the people that are using linux?

Linux attracts many types.

Is the average linux user someone that like spending hours in front of a computer, that does not want to give up with their old pcs?

No not really, as I said above linux has many types of people using it.
I will take myself as an example:
I consider myself a "average user", not a average linux user but a average computer user who uses their computer for the following things:
Internet (Browsing, chat, E-mail)
Multimedia (Listening to MP3's, watching DVD's, etc)
Gaming (Though Linux has a low gaming ratio compared to windows, but meh I am not a computer gamer anyway)
Home office (Word processing, spreadsheets)
Graphics editing

I dont compile any software unless I have to, I never spend a long time configuring my system settings, I rarely open a terminal and use command line.
And you know what, these days you barely have to compile or use a terminal and most modern linux distros dont have a lot of configuration needed.
I use linux because it has worked better for me then Windows, no viruses, no spyware, no defrags, easy application installation...
For me Linux is easier to use in general despite the "linux is not ready for the desktop" BS

If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop, with no budget limitations, would you still use linux?

Yes, heck I did that once already.
I had an older computer that I ran linux on after having so many issues with windows.
When I got this computer it had windows on it, but as soon as I got it XP was no more...

would you prefer buying a mac or a windows?

No, and also a computer with Windows on it is not called a "windows", its usually referred to as a PC if you take the Mac Vs PC adds with a grain of salt...
I know I dont, I call a Windows computer a windows box or windows PC, a Mac a Mac and a Linux computer a Linux box or PC...
Linux box for the sake of argument.

Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or ubuntu? (Would you do that?)

No, as Linux has great hardware compatibility so new hardware or old hardware Linux will be my OS of choice.
Its the kind of hardware that goes into it that matters here.
Like I would never buy a ATI card, or a Foxconn Motherboard.
No it's Nvidia and gigabyte for me.
And as for AMD vs Intel, it doesnt matter anymore though I would buy from Intel to be honest with you... AMD never worked with one so I cant judge it.

[ijbreakey]

1.) As far as my understanding goes, openSUSE is the testing grounds for SLED. So openSUSE is more bleeding edge then SLED but is still stable. I've never used SLED so I can't speak of the quality of it, but I've never had problems with openSUSE on my laptop that haven't been an easy fix (wireless is the only thing that I need to do manually, and there are two rpm packages I need to install - easy.)

2.) Can't really answer that for anyone else. I own a laptop that I had windows vista on for college. At the beginning of one of my semesters Vista crashed and the IT dept wouldn't reinstall it unless I had my install disks, which I did not have. I found out about linux and read that openSUSE was a great distribution for beginners. I installed it with KDE 4.0 (yikes! I stuck with it throughout its development and now I can't imagine being without it! 4.3 is the future!) and have been in love with it ever since. I finally got my install disks and had my school's IT reinstall Vista but after tasting the freedom and flexibility linux gave me I decided to stick with it. Anything I've learned about computers I've learned from using linux. But I don't spend hours in front of my computer for more than just school work, socializing with friends, and listening to music (and showing off how easy to use it is to my friends).

I've installed it for a number of friends who also enjoy using linux in conjunction with windows. Some have started using openSUSE as their main OS as I have.

3.) If I had the opportunity to get a new desktop or laptop system with no budget limitations? I'd wait till windows 7 and opensuse 11.2 come out then get use both windows and linux, with openSUSE being my primary OS. I'd get a big enough hard drive to dual-boot. And I'd also go with an Nvidia graphics card. It would probably be partitioned like so:

/dev/sda1 NTFS Windows 7
/dev/sda2 NTFS Data partition
/dev/sda3 Extended
/dev/sda5 Swap
/dev/sda6 Ext 4 /
/dev/sda7 Ext 4 /home

(This is my setup now! Except I have vista instead of windows 7)

Of course if it were a desktop I'd get a separate hard drive for each operating system and then one hd just for data, but would still use openSUSE as my main OS.

I do not think it's stupid to buy new hardware. Look at Vista, many people had to buy a lot of extra hardware to get functionality out of it. I myself opted to upgrade my RAM just so my computer would speed up to how it was with XP. I bought a bigger hard drive so I could dual-boot openSUSE with windows Vista on my laptop and let me say openSUSE blows Vista out of the water with speed and conservation of memory resources.

There are my honest answers, but being still pretty new to linux (I joined this forum when I started with linux in January of this year!) you can take my views however you want.

Take Care,

Ian

[TaraIkeda]

[QUOTE=TaraIkeda;2007855
No Nvidia and gigabyte for me.[/QUOTE]

Please note that Nvidia and Gigabyte are the companies I would buy from, I am not taking them out of my hardware companies to buy from...
Just making that more clear, I would use edit but no edit button after 10 minutes...
Ugh.

[didencool]

@Sun, 05 Jul 2009 02:36:01 +0000, weverjames write:

> 1. Is opensuse a sub par, imperfect version of SLED?

NO, just think about that opensuse main desktop is KDE and SLED have a GNOME

> Is SLED in a any way more stable, safe and polished than Opensuse?

aum
in the perfect world maybe yes, but when I try SLED 10 1st I have made is switch my inkscape to last. and same for blender and gimp.
as for opensuse it have up to date applicaiton, 9 month testing before the release, by wide range of people(did you think any company can make this better then community).

> Any advantage or disadvantage of using SLED?
I am using SLED wo any support. So my bet is only old software as for SLED (personally it is disadvantage)

> 2. Who is the people that is using linux?
as for me I am architest, and owner of my architectural family buro.
My son is student of computer college(16 yo)
My another son is studies @school(10yo)
My wife use opensuse at home and on shes daily work use windows
My friend is stone artist it is use opensuse for safe browsing, wordprocessing, listening music/watching video and some artwork
My another friend is network administrator
My another friend is owner of internet cafe who is swith to linux because of price
and many others...

> Is the average linux user
> someone that like spending hours in front of a computer, that does not
> want to give up with their old pcs?

I am don't know nobody like this man you describe

> 3. If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop,
> with no budget limitations, would you still use linux?

this is very related question
I'll prefer more powerfull system, more productive video, better color transmission monitor, more productive printer/scanner, plotter, 3d printer/3d scanner, calibration equipment,



> would you prefer buying a mac or a windows?

windows just no because i call this drug

mac definitly NO, I did not have it and always think that it is really good platform, but now I install hackinosh on my system to look on it... I have no words. ****, sotware from late 80th with some polished style
multi windowed interface everyware.

> Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or
> ubuntu? (Would you do that?)

I will not comment about u*u but opensuse I already made this. 4 year ago I buy desktop to put linux on it, two years ago i buy laptop and it works on opensuse. in this year I buy new Desktop and it already operates by opensuse

> honest answers please

i was too honest (I should be less)
--
WBR

[JopSway]

Originally Posted by weverjames

1. Is opensuse a sub par, imperfect version of SLED?
Is SLED in a any way more stable, safe and polished than Opensuse?
Any advantage or disadvantage of using SLED?

That's been answered already, I would just add that new technologies are tried in openSUSE and then, when proved stable, brought to SLED

2. Who is the people that is using linux?

I don't know everyone that is using linux and it'll probably surpass the posting limit to name them all...
But I can tell you that here the wife, the kid and myself are using openSUSE. I can also tell you I installed it in many more computers and the owners are using it happily.

3. If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop, with no budget limitations, would you still use linux? would you prefer buying a mac or a windows?
Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or ubuntu? (Would you do that?)

No, it woulnd't be stupid at all... are we stupid?
See, you can install Linux in new and shiny hardware or in old and dusty, that's one of the advantages.
When I buy new hardware I always install openSUSE in it. If by a chance, laptops normally, Windows was installed in it, it rapidly (and not so mysteriously) goes to limbo leaving the space for the real thing
I just keep the product key in case I need to install a Windows copy in a virtual machine.


Yeah MattB, you're right. I think you just forgot that many, including the people who milk cows, also like the fact that it works, making it easy to achieve uptimes of more than 100 journeys with the jugs on the mule.

[caf4926]

An interesting sub-point here related to question 3.

Build a machine yourself (which I'm doing all the time). Then try installing a Stock Edition of Vista. See how easily it doesn't find drivers! Man is it a PITA. People rave on that in Windows it just works. Maybe, with OEM pre-installed and molested Vista Editions on a Vendor PC/Laptop. But it does my head in, the time it takes to get all the drivers for a Windows on a self build. Don't even start me on the re-booting every time you install the smallest thing!!

Linux on the other hand, really does 'Just Work'. Save for maybe you need to get a graphics driver and possibly wireless. But for me, Linux beats Windows hands down. So why on earth would I even consider installing Windows (for myself that is! - I install it for customers all the time)

[ken_yap]

Originally Posted by weverjames

3. If you had the opportunity to buy a new desktop and a new laptop, with no budget limitations, would you still use linux? would you prefer buying a mac or a windows?
Would it be stupid to buy new hardware just to install opensuse or ubuntu? (Would you do that?)

Others have answered the first two in much detail but I'll answer this one because of my personal viewpoint.

I certainly will not buy Windows because you are then hostage to their software (upgrade treadmill), and to all the faults. I don't like watching over my shoulder all the time guarding against new malware exploits and so forth. Though things have improved a lot, especially if you use open source alternatives. Also there is a lot of black magic. Most things will work, and then you bump against a failure that can't be explained and people tell you to reinstall and deal with it. With Linux, you can find out what the problem is and usually fix it.

So no Windows OS for me, what about OS/X which is based on BSD then? Even if I could afford a Mac, I wouldn't buy one. Sure it pretty much just works, but you are limited to what Apple supports, plus developers who have decided to go into this market. Because of the relative scarcity of users compared with Windows, and the upmarket cachet, they can and do charge more. Want to do more and explore under the hood? You will find that user experiences and advice are harder to come by because the audience is much smaller.

Of course I install Linux on new hardware. Provided you choose your hardware carefully, it will work very well. I have tinkered with software (as opposed to developing software at work) in the past, but these days, I spend too much time just surfing, outside of work.

Here's a tip: keep your workhorse and your playpen machines separate. This will save you a lot of frustration. You won't find yourself suddenly be unable to read forums or answer email because you installed a bleeding-edge package on your workhorse machine. Do your experiments on the playpen machine, and you won't panic when things go pear-shaped. You can go away and think about it, seek advice, etc, without affecting normal usage. Also good for family harmony if the workhorse happens to be a shared desktop, shared server, etc.