11.2 has been getting some mixed reviews - should I worry?

I’m just about to upgrade (well in fact, perform a complete new installation), and I was intending to move from 11.1 to 11.2. However, some reviews have been less than laudatory: Stability 2/5 and overall 3/5 (from here); “…this version of openSUSE acts more like a point-0 release or even a release candidate. Everything feels rough around the edges…” (from here); “I must say I found openSUSE 11.2 to be a major disappointment.” (from here).

Now I know that any release of any distribution will have its detractors, but I must say I’ve been a little surprised at the vehemence of these reviews

I have no special affiliation with openSUSE; it’s just that I’ve been using it on my desktop for a while now, and mostly it’s been OK (except that on my system there’s an issue with zypper which makes zypper unusable), and I don’t really mind switching to another distribution.

So before I re-install, I’d be happy of a few other thoughts on people’s experiences with 11.2 as a work system.

Thanks,
-A.

11.3 is due in a couple of months. Since 11.1 is still in support and it works for you, why not wait?

My perspective is a LOT depends on :

  • one’s hardware, and
  • the application one wishes to use

Years ago I stayed with an old SuSE version because a scientific application I used would NOT run on newer SuSE versions. I think I stayed for 3.5 years on one SuSE release, well past the support.

Currently I have one laptop PC running 11.1 and I have no intention of moving it to 11.2 nor as it stands today, 11.3 , as every indication points to graphics not working well with every kernel after 2.6.27 with this specific hardware (intel i855GM).

But we have 5 other PCs in our family all running 11.2 and I have to say I am very happy with those, obtaining a much better experience than I did with 11.1 on those PCs.

IMHO it all depends, and YMMV (your mileage may vary).

Thanks - but 11.1 doesn’t quite work for me; zypper is unusable, and so my system can’t be upgraded (see lots of my previous posts on these forums). And I do need to upgrade in a matter of urgency, to use a webcam which I need for communication with off-shore students (I’m an academic).

Thanks,
-A.

Not sure why zypper doesn’t work in 11.1 for you, but 11.2 has been fine for me, but your experience may vary depending on your hardware. You could try the LiveCD.

As already mentioned, it depends on too many parameters to give you one answer. For me the 11.2 is the best version of openSUSE so far, but this will not really help you.

[QUOTE=AussieGuy;2169297]… some reviews have been less than laudatory: Stability 2/5 and overall 3/5 (from [

That reviewer has marked down stability, and marked it down pretty heavily, due to a boot problem that he had intermittently. That can’t be a common problem, or we would see this forum full of complaints and queries about it, but, if you try it on only one machine, and it goes badly on that machine, you have no alternative but to dock points for it - you can’t dismiss the only one that you’ve seen as a ‘one off’.

He admits not to being a KDE fan, and is not blown away by the comparison between the KDE that he got by default and Mandriva’s kde (not that SuSE’s is bad, per se, just that he had been given the expectation that it would blow Mandriva’s away, and it didn’t). I guess that I wouldn’t be blown away by a kde that looked like his screenshots, but that I would tolerate it for about 15 minutes, just as long as it takes to fix it.

At this stage, the kde that came with 11.2 is a bit old and what he’d have got if he hooked up now the factory update would have been fresher; kde is developing quite quickly, so that would have been a better experience (but, if you didn’t adjust it to your tastes, I still think that might not have done it for him).

As a habitual gnome user maybe he doesn’t have a ‘tweak things’ mindset (…although, even I would admit that if someone delivered a kde that was tolerable to me out of the box, I’d be very impressed…very, very impressed). In any case, a recent review in the Linux Format Magazine put SuSE’s KDE ahead of Mandriva’s , and that was a review with input by KDE enthusiasts.

“…this version of openSUSE acts more like a point-0 release…”

I’ve heard this point-0 releases are expected to be a bit rough around the edges quite a few times, but I don’t really notice the correlation myself; that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like a few less rough edges, just that I don’t notice point-threes to be noticeably better.

In general, although I wouldn’t claim the review was unfair or biased (he did also have some quite positive things to say) I was a bit surprised how heavily he dinged points stability and for KDE not being better than Mandriva’s. It is his review of course.

(except that on my system there’s an issue with zypper which makes zypper unusable), and I don’t really mind switching to another distribution.

While I guess that shouldn’t happen, it also means that I haven’t been looking hard enough, because I haven’t paid much attention to posts on that subject.](“Distro Review: OpenSUSE 11.2 – DanLynch.org”)

You could test it with a 11.2 LiveCD, if ti does need work for your hardware, You will know.

You can also install 11.2 alongside 11.1 (don’t use the same home partition for both if you do) and only change over if you are happy with the results,

that only requires a bit of partitioning (very little risk if you have checked your backups).