I am not new to Linux. I’ve been using a few distros for some time but may be forced to move to another distro based on decisions made outside of my control. I haven’t used any variant of SUSE since 2005 and haven’t been following the development. With that said, I also don’t mind spending money on Linux or Linux products.
I am currently looking at openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop as a possible switch for my primary desktop distro. This is primarily for Home / Home based Business machine. I’m not afraid of the command line or compiling my own drivers / packages. I like dinking with Linux and try to make everything around me Linux as much as possible. I need my Linux machine to do pretty much everything. I like to watch movies, scan documents, listen to music, connect wirelessly without fuss, manage lots of data worry free and long walks on the beach.
So, what is REALLY the difference between openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop.
Simply put, openSUSE is the test bed for SUSE Linux Enterprise. As a result, openSUSE is more current and more up to date with current technology, but tends to be like what Fedora is to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
I would like to add that in just 15 days the latest version of openSUSE 11.3 is schedule to arrive. There is a business version of SuSE called SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and can be purchased for around $50 a copy, single user download. However, watching DVD’s is not what SLED is all about.
Whereas, openSUSE tries to be all things to everyone. The download is free and most often a boxed set for purchased will also be available. On July 1st, openSUSE 11.3 RC2 will be posted online which you could play with until the final version comes out in a couple of weeks.
Once you start using openSUSE, you can come back to our online forum and ask for assistance on any issues. The more common the problem, the more help you will get and everyone tries the best they can if they think they know the solution.
However, you can download (free) and evaluate for 60 days including
updates, after that you need a subscription for updates, but it will
keep functioning. At present SLED 11 SP1 is between 11.2 and 11.3 with
the 2.6.32 kernel KDE4.3.5 and Gnome 2.28.4. I payed US$105 for a three
year update subscription. I also use the fluendo-codec-bundle and
fluendo-dvd player which provides all my multimedia requirements. I
would have to say though that SLED is more oriented to the Gnome
desktop, however KDE4.3.5 runs nice on my netbook. For some of the
additional items like devel packages, Apache, mysql etc you would need
to grab the SLE-SDK which has these items on. I also run crossover to
run a couple of windows products, Garmin Mapsource, Google Sketch and
MS Office (which I never seem to use…) and some Uniden Scanner
software.
Again there are the Novell forums which run exactly the same way at http://forums.novell.com which you will find other users here hang out
helping where we can in the SLED/SLES subforums
Is the key difference between openSUSE and SLED just commercial software like fluendo? I would rather have things more “up to date” if that is the right phrase for it. What about Flash and Java? Do I need SLED to get those? Also, if I were to get a subscription to SLED, could I install it on more than one machine without penalty?
The Fluendo codecs Malcolm mentioned, he will have purchased separately.
Flash and Java are all there in SLED and some M$ inter-polarity.
If you want up to date, then openSUSE is the one, SLED does lag some, however it is often the additional repos that you add to openSUSE that make it more up to date. So really a openSUSE install with just the basic updates will be only slightly up on SLED.
SLED is aimed at business end, long term and stability.
Okay let’s see if I can explain this. We here at Opensuse are the R & D for NOVL. Before something is put into or even thought to be put into SLED chances are it was tried here first!
Now if you really like to be at the forefront & you really like to
watch movies, scan documents, listen to music, connect wirelessly without fuss, manage lots of data worry free and long walks on the beach.
Then for your home use Opensuse is what you want. For business purposes you might want SLED because business(unless your a DOD or DOH contractor) doesn’t do edgy stuff like us.
Sorry we can’t help much on those beach walks.
I hope that explains it.
Futureboy, Welcome to OpenSuSe & its forum! We may not be the best for some but we try.
futureboy wrote:
> So, what is REALLY the difference between openSUSE and SUSE Linux
> Enterprise Desktop.
one difference that others have not mentioned (yet) is useful product
life…
if you install 11.2 today you will be forced to install/upgrade again
by May 12th 2011 or, live with a system which is not security
patched… (cite: http://en.opensuse.org/SUSE_Linux_Lifetime)
whereas, if you install SLED 11 today you can expect patches until 31
Mar 2016 with self-support available out to 31 Mar 2019 [no, i don’t
know what “self-support” means] (cite: http://tinyurl.com/34gyy3)
so, if you are (for example) wanting to run a stable, dependable,
reliable, predictable and secure desktop for years without taking
the chance of breaking something every year by moving from 11.2 ,
11.3, 12.0 etc etc etc…then you need to think carefully about SLE_
otoh, if you can take an update broken machines every three to six
months (when a newly patched kernel comes out) then hop into 11.2
The main differences are support (5-7 years lifetime and hardware certification for SLED, 18 months lifetime for openSUSE), number of packages (much less for SLED), and stability (old package for SLED, wheras openSUSE is more up2date).
I appreciate all the input from everybody. I am going to install openSUSE on a test system today and play around with Yast for a little while. I have been playing with it in VirtualBox but I feel that VirtualBox doesn’t do it justice.
When openSUSE 10.3 comes out, is there an option to upgrade distros without having to burn a DVD to do so?
Withdrawal of support for openSUSE is not really that serious. As one who used
openSUSE-10.3 till long after its lifetime, I found out (of course, from the forum)
repos (Index of /pub/opensuse/discontinued/distribution/10.3/repo/oss non-oss debug) that would keep the machine uptodate. I now have 11.2 and am looking forward to
11.3.
I echo: welcome to opensuse.
P.Rudra.
I have another question about openSUSE. This is not a question to be critical of any other distro but rather I want to know what to you is the selling point of openSUSE vs any other distro to you. I am looking at distrowatch.com at the top few distros and I want to know why openSUSE over Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva? I’m sure “personal preference” is a big part of it but, why?
For me openSUSE is the most trouble free desktop distro that I use, and I use several for work reasons. Solid engineering. Of course a lot depends on the hardware also. If you have a problematic shiny new peripheral, there may be hassles. So do some research before committing to hardware.
Hi
The color green openSUSE is innovative, aside from the fantastic
distribution that always seems to work for me, there are things like
the build service and SUSE Studio to complement and build my own
customized system with the features and applications I want. Plus I’m
more comfortable with the ‘rpm’ way
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (i586) Kernel 2.6.32.12-0.7-pae
up 2 days 11:52, 3 users, load average: 0.15, 0.11, 0.09
ASUS eeePC 1000HE ATOM N280 1.66GHz | GPU Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME
>
> I have another question about openSUSE. This is not a question to be
> critical of any other distro but rather I want to know what to you is
> the selling point of openSUSE vs any other distro to you. I am looking
> at distrowatch.com at the top few distros and I want to know why
> openSUSE over Ubuntu, Fedora or Mandriva? I’m sure “personal preference”
> is a big part of it but, why?
Don’t overlook the value of this forum and the user community around
openSUSE - beats any help desk I ever tried!
I have actually installed it on a test system that, unfortunately, doesn’t have a wireless nic on it but I am playing with it. I am trying to understand what the other one-click repositories consist of yet. Is there a “meta” package that installs all the codecs for watching / listening to media?
I am a little nervous about the default network manager. I’ve been reading on the forums that it is a bit flaky. I’ve become rather accustom to a very slick and reliable network manager and I’m a bit afraid to give that up.
I’m considering installing it on my main system as I am now rather familiar with Yast, which I do find to be an incredibly powerful tool. Very similar to what I am used to. I also like the fact that there is a link to Yast in the KDE 4 SystemSettings. Very smart. I also like how verbose the package installation manager is too. I was a little confused by all the software installation icons as my first time installing software I had to try a few. But overall, I really feel like openSUSE is real nice so far. Something that messed me up when I first started using it was how you would single-click to open things… which I changed to double-click. I am confused on that decision as it is not what most non-Linux users would be used to. Also, I am a bit old-fashioned, so I changed my desktop to be more traditional with it being set to “Folder View” instead of “Desktop”.
I am going to keep running it on my test system for a few days and play with it to become more familiar and after July 5th, I’ll make the decision whether or not to switch over my primary system. I will, however, continue to run it on my test system.
Also, so far, I feel very welcomed at the openSUSE forum. Thanks everybody!
