Folks,
I’m new to Linux and Suse. I’m an older person who doesn’t use social media (except watching YT). I have a very little understanding of how software interacts with hardware. I’m educated. So, wanting to come away from Win11 and the future of MS/Google et al I chose the Linux route. I posed a question about my install here:
And was met with a good deal of helpful advice. The thread was nice (for me) it was welcoming and my issues weren’t that challenging, it was just a handholding for someone going from something known to something completely unknown.
But then there was one guy who suggested I should Google my irritating questions and use forums appropriately. He and others were far too expert to have their time wasted.
Yes, perhaps my single thread could have been split up but where do I post?
Where does a beginner, like me post such simple questions without annoying “experts”.
Is there a “Beginners” section of the forum? If there is it is not easy to find.
If there isn’t perhaps it would be a good idea to create one?
I doubt if my use of suse matters to anyone here and I came very close to just choosing a different distro. Fortunately there are a few great participants on the forum who were patient with me and helped me through the issue.
This video explains the problem nicely.
I can understand where you’re coming from. When you’re new to Linux, even knowing where to ask a question can be difficult.
There isn’t currently a Beginners section on the openSUSE Forums. The categories (navigate via the categories tab) are mainly organised by subject, such as Install/Boot/Login, Hardware, Applications, Network/Internet, etc. But that doesn’t mean the forum is only for experienced users. It’s a community for everyone using, including those just starting out with openSUSE. The learning curve is part of the fun!
Personally, I don’t think you should worry too much about asking “simple” questions. We were all beginners once, and something that is obvious to an experienced Linux user isn’t necessarily obvious when you’re coming from Windows.
There is nothing wrong with asking questions that could technically be answered by a web search (or AI tools ). A beginner often doesn’t know which search terms to use, which of the many answers they find actually applies to openSUSE, or whether something they have found is outdated. (With AI tools in particular, it can be difficult for someone new to the subject to know whether the answer they’ve been given is actually correct or applicable). That’s where having people who know the current openSUSE releases can be particularly useful.
As you’ve already discovered, there are always people around here who are happy to help. Welcome to openSUSE.
May I add, several threads, one simple question at a time, with a meaningful title (not just “Leap is not for beginners”) are welcome, since everybody can choose what to answer at a glance rather than “wasting precious time” reading a never ending thread with a mix of problems with overlapping answers.
And be prepared for the occasional outburst, we are human and get tired at night (yes, even that guy you refer to that is very helpful here even to beginners).
Bruno, yes, apologies for the title, it was a question but should have read “Is Open Suse considered appropriate for beginners?”.
There is a great deal on YT about Mint and Zorin. I initially used Mint on one of our laptops and it was easy, but I wanted to be able to expand and develop my experience with Linux. I felt that Suse was one of the historically earlier distro’s that I would like.
So it was meant as a question. So far, I have had a few minor issues that have been resolved by the good people on here. I maybe went too far with changing from Leap to slowroll…I don’t know. My biggest confusion is with references to YAST which seems to be the answer to most issues on the web. Leap didn’t ship YAST but now with slowroll I seem to have lots of programs with YAST in the title, there aren’t a lot of user guides for Myrlyn so I don’t really know where to start with it.
YaST is on its way out, so I wouldn’t spend much time learning it; it uses old standards, so it might not be a good point to start with a fresh install, while it might be still useful for older installs updated for years.
Myrlyn is a substitute for YaST-Software and works basically the same way.
Other setups are best done with Cockpit, several threads on the Forums but feel free to ask if you need help.
Many YaST modules are no longer needed in current systems and might not work even if still provided.
I get where you are coming from. But there’s a couple of things to consider:
openSUSE is a worldwide community of people from different cultures and languages. Even amongst native English speakers this easily leads to misunderstanding, different perception of the same wording. If you feel you’re being “barked at”, that doesn’t mean the other person intended to “bark” at you. “Anger and madness” are not the best consultants in such cases. Try to read that differently: People often are not telling you you are doing things wrong, they are trying to tell you how you could do better.
Many people in here had (linux) computers around them from childhood on, and have a hard time remembering how they themselves started. Just compare that to you having to teach some analphabetic person to read and write, it’s hard to remember what was so difficult when you yourself learned to read and write, yet it helps to help someone else to learn those skills. Finding out where such a person doesn’t get what you’re trying to teach them, can be hard to deal with at times, please understand that side too.
People in here are all ( no exceptions ) volunteers, trying to help others in their own spare time. They all have their own expertise and field of knowledge. If f.e. someone puts “NVIDIA” in the title, I know I can skip that topic, since I haven’t had any NVIDIA hardware for ~15 years, so most likely cannot contribute anything helpful. A poster can help being helped by tagging their post properly (f.e. slowroll + plasma6) and a clear one subject title, all this in the appropriate subforum. If you’re not sure, simply suggest in your post that mods can move it somewhere else if that would be better.
Sometimes feedback one gets may not be the message one was hoping for. This can be frustrating, but what do you prefer: others saying what you want to hear, or ( maybe formulated badly in your perception ) a harsh, but factual truth? Mind, this is not some kind of criticism towards you, or others.
On searching the web: Most search engines support searches like this: “site: opensuse.org <search_text_here>”. That narrows down your search to the openSUSE wiki, forums, docs etc. hence excluding all the opinionated click bait on YT and the likes.
Take your time, Rome wasn’t built in a day, keep learning and try to have fun in that.
A: What to ask. When you don’t know anything yet, you don’t know how to explain what you don’t know. Throw in a bunch of people with different languages and it gets complicated quickly.
There aren’t trolls here. They would not survive more than a few moments, but some of our experts can seem like trolls, but remember, your language might not be their language. On a different forum, I had to answer questions with google translate. I can only hope that I was not offensive.
AI Generated,
The principle that one should assume no ill intent when uncertain is commonly known as Hanlon’s Razor , which advises: “Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity” (or incompetence/negligence).
Key aspects of this heuristic include:
Avoiding Negative Assumptions : It suggests erring on the side of believing others are struggling, unaware, or simply incompetent rather than malicious, especially since random individuals rarely expend energy targeting you specifically.
Focus on Impact Over Intent : While assuming good intent can improve interpersonal interactions, it is noted that intentions do not excuse actions ; outcomes and harm to others often matter more than the actor’s internal state.
Practical Application : This mindset helps prevent unnecessary conflict by considering alternative explanations for behavior, such as a driver cutting you off being a “student driver” rather than a deliberate attack.
Maybe we need to take a look at how other Desktop Operating Systems deal with new users – for example Apple …
<Mac User Guide>
In particular the sections –
“Get started with your Mac” and
“Switched from Windows to Mac?”
OK, the openSUSE documentation is quite good → <Start-Up>
And, there’s also this: <Agama Installer Guide> – not really non-technical text and, there’s no simple default installation path – as opposed to the “expert” advice in this document.
And, there’s another point – Linux is UNIX® – and therefore, the applications are sorted into categories.
MS Windows doesn’t have this – there’s only an alphabetical sorting of the application names.
macOS default is to list all the installed applications sorted alphabetically by application name but, they have a row of category buttons at the top of the “Apps” window called from the “Dock” …
With Linux, you can either sort the applications by description or, by name …
And that, AFAICS, is a point which is often not mentioned …
Donald,
This would be helpful. @shundhammer wasn’t wrong in suggesting that a search of the internet can resolve a lot of problems. The problem I had was knowing what I didn’t know, trusting the information given and most of the answers talking about YAST.
The problem, as I see it, is that Opensuse doesn’t have the overall attention of youtubers and others.
I have installed Debian with Gnome on another laptop. The installation was straightforward. As you know Debian comes with very little “bloatware”. I was a bit apprehensive at first but there are loads of “what to do after installing Debian 13” videos and documents. I was able to cross reference them so was able to trust the sources. (I had been using Richards great video Here)
I had the same problem trying to get that iso/app to startup, but a quick search pointed to an Ubuntu app which I couldn’t get to work, but there was a similar appimage file creator app in the store. (To create a document/path to place in the startup folder, using inbuilt apps)
I haven’t once had recourse to post a question on the Debian forum (which does have a beginner section).
Obviously the more issues I resolve add to my experience so I’m probably much more confident around Linux processes.
Some of the feedback and advice here has been very helpful. Some of it has been quite patronising and uncalled for considering that I have first started using a Linux distribution a week ago. My life has been spent, before retirement, in the Emergency Services and being a family man raising children. I used Windows at work but could never justify the continued expense of a PC except for a brief period in the early 2000’s.
I really do appreciate the patience
some of you had for me.
In answer to my question: “Is OpenSuse not suitable for beginners?” I would have to say yes, it is not suitable. Without a good deal of people coming directly to suse from Windows and detailing their experience, producing current, up to date guides, walkthroughs and solutions, you are left with needing a Linux using friend or the forums.
That document is quite useful but relies heavily on YAST. In fact nearly everything from soundcards to installing programs seems to be done with YAST.
I took a look at Myrlyn but couldn’t understand what it could do except update programs, but there was nothing to see in it.
Yes, the reality is that many of the YaST modules have become deprecated, and things have evolved. Some configuration is better handled by other actively managed tools these days.
YaST Sound is primarily concerned with the kernel/driver side of sound, and its capabilities are limited. The modern audio stack involves PipeWire/WirePlumber. As you found, your recent audio issue was simply about selecting the correct audio profile, (which is outside what YaST Sound was designed for).
Myrlyn is a graphical package manager (replacing the old YaST Software Management module). It uses the same underlying libzypp package-management system as zypper, but provides a graphical alternative to the zypper command line. It isn’t just for updating programs…you can use it to search for, install, remove and manage packages, and it can also help resolve package conflicts interactively when required.
You might also find it worth having a look at the openSUSE documentation for Cockpit. It’s another option for graphical system management and may be closer to what you’re looking for.
Installing Linux for the very first time in your life.
Please remember that, the people who build a PC from components and install the OS themselves are few and far between.
Most people simply buy a box with a pre-installed OS.
Using a Linux Desktop for the every first time in your life.
From an openSUSE view, the GNOME handbook is quite good – <Getting started with the GNOME desktop>
Unfortunately, as a KDE Plasma user, I must admit that, the KDE doesn’t really have anything equivalent – the nearest that I’ve found is a short overview → <Discover Plasma>
In my copy of “UNIX® for the Impatient” (Second Edition published 1996) there’s a short section – “Installing a New System”
You may be in the awkward situation of having to install a UNIX system without yet knowing how to use UNIX. Most modern UNIX systems include a menu-driven installation program that guides you through the installation process.
I’m glad you wrote this…
I was wondering about writing/posting a “how to” for Icedrive, although I’m the least informed.
The guides tend to be about installing and using the software alone. One of my biggest issues was, and still is, dealing with appimages. Take Icedrive. Once downloaded I needed to set permissions. My next issue was getting it to load at startup. I now understand that a text document needs to be created by or for the appimage. It wasn’t happening. After some research and some trial and error, I discovered that you can get an app from flatpak called gearlever. Gearlever opens the app, grabs its icon and places the text document in a place of your choosing (I’m currently using GNOME, I moved the appimage to local/share/applications and I placed the icon when prompted in the apps view menu. Startup on Tweaks was then able to see the app and it all starts nicely.
There is a way to write the document yourself but with typos and so on Gearlever just got on with it.
I think there may be a mass migration soon to Linux. I heard that several European Governments re coming away from MS and people, like me are fed up with the enshitification of the whole tech industry. The constant need to upgrade. My T430 ran Win10 but couldn’t run 11. My University suggested that I needed a Win11 machine to use their free access to Office365. I ended up getting a newer reconned laptop, but my annoyance made me look at installing Mint (at first) on the T430. It was a breeze so I distrohopped. I have since learned that I can access all the material, type the work, join online tutorials all using Libre office, Vivaldi, Proton and Icedrive.
As a further answer to your distinctions above, I would say that I’m an experienced Windows USER (I have a triple screen racing rig with lots of peripherals) but NOT a programmer. I can understand some of the logic of computing. The transfer from Win to Unix based systems these days is a breeze. However there are some very different ways of doing things to get your head around.
The start guide you linked is very basic as an experienced Windows/PC user. I learnt a great del from videos entitled “so you think you know how to use Gnome” to learn about window sizing, virtual desktops and so on, I’m now a convert.
With the exception of “rolling release” distributions such as Tumbleweed …
I have the following point-of-view: “If KDE Plasma then, Tumbleweed.”
The reason why is, the KDE Release Schedule: <Schedules>
I have absolutely no idea if, the KDE community have plans to slow down their development speed a little bit but, that doesn’t prevent me from preferring to use their Desktop Environment.
). A beginner often doesn’t know which search terms to use, which of the many answers they find actually applies to openSUSE, or whether something they have found is outdated. (With AI tools in particular, it can be difficult for someone new to the subject to know whether the answer they’ve been given is actually correct or applicable). That’s where having people who know the current openSUSE releases can be particularly useful.
