Ok, to start I just want to say I have always had interest in OpenSuSE, but I have never used it in any serious manner. I currently am using Ubuntu Budgie as my two primary work machines, but would like to try making OpenSuSE at least one of them. I’ve installed it before, and am pretty familiar with configuring Linux DEs. I have experience in Red Hat, Slackware, and Ubuntu, desktop usage mostly. Just wanted to give you a little background…
My primary question is, I have a few software packages that I make use of and they typically have Ubuntu/Debian installers, which seems to be the only distro that major companies are supporting these days. So, are there any reliable ways to install .DEB files or the like on SuSE? Or are there repos which support the packages I’d like to install? Any pitfalls I should be aware of before trying this? Do I need to worry about what Desktop Environment I run? I was thinking KDE or maybe even Enlightenment, or maybe installing all DEs so I can play around with them.
Day-to-day software use:
Chrome
Firefox
VMWare Pro
Slack
Spotify
Cisco AnyConnect client
As a potential SuSE user, please feel free to give me any advice you deem beneficial. I’ve always been looking for a solid distro with a strong community. Ubuntu seems to be a great distro with a large support base, but the community tends to be loose and not nearly as fanatical as I’d like haha. Slackware has a super fanatical user base, and they’ve been crazy helpful through the years, but I find the distro to be antiquated. RedHat is great for servers, and I work with it and Amazon Linux regularly, but don’t appreciate it for a DE (Fedora is better, but again I’m not huge on it). So, what I’m getting around to saying is that I’d like a usable OS with a fanatical user base that I could join and have fun with. Maybe OpenSuSE is this for me?
Awesome, so that is good to know about Slack. Which is a fantastic product by the way! Well those packages would have all been roadblocks, as I need them to get my work done day-to-day. I may give OpenSuSE a shot then, and see how it works on one of the computers. And it’s too bad you aren’t fanatical! haha.
Can you tell me a little bit about Suse repositories? Do I need to add multiple? Use the defaults? Something else?
Re. DEB packages, no openSUSE is rpm based. One can use ‘alien’ to convert DEB to rpm though. And, many packages that are built for debian and it’s derivates have their rpm version in the repositories.
Yes, we are no fanatics, but look a bit around at the openSUSE websites, including this one, and see how openSUSE is spelled. Many would appreciate it when you tried to do likewise.
The others who’ve already replied to you are experts, & most helpful ones [if you decide to hang around here you’ll see lots of them]. I’m a rank amateur, & have only been here about 2 months ahead of you [not that long in the fora, but ~that long since i downloaded ISOs for Leap & TW to play with in VMs]. People here have been extremely generous in their help to me. Almost all my prior Linux use has been in the *buntu-based distro world, so climbing over the hill into openSUSE-land has been a big adventure for me. I am so impressed with what i’ve found that my secondary pc [Lappy] no longer runs Maui Linux, but Tumbleweed KDE. It is simply very impressive. I remain teetering on the brink for my primary pc [Tower]; stay with Maui or also bring it over to oS TW KDE? Really, there’s only one significant package issue still holding me back - if i can solve that, then i suspect my decision will be automatic. Good luck to you.
On 07/13/2017 09:36 AM, Ratmonkey wrote:
>
> hcvv;2829764 Wrote:
>> Yes, we are no fanatics, but look a bit around at the openSUSE websites,
>> including this one, and see how openSUSE is spelled. Many would
>> appreciate it when you tried to do likewise.
>
> Little open, big SUSE. Got it! Lol, I will try to comply. Still sad
> that you aren’t fanatics!
>
>
We all are, we just don’t like to brag about it. LOL
–
Ken
linux since 1994
S.u.S.E./openSUSE since 1996
