Former "Ubuntu - 11.10" user now "OpenSUSE -12.1" user...

First, I wish to say “Hi” to everyone. Yes I’ve decided to switch from Ubuntu to OpenSUSE and must say that I’m very pleased. KDE is far better than Unity in usability and more customizable. I was getting frustrated with the slowness and Firefox freezing that I had enough. OpenSUSE seems so far to be more solid and polished.

But there is one thing that I would like to point out that I would like to see addressed:

As far as I can tell, there seems to be more than one way to choose from when accessing software such as the command line (zypper) or gui ( YAST2 or APP ). This can be confusing to the new user and sometimes frustrating. By consolidating to simply command line and YAST2 and maybe dropping APP, this will make things less confusing. Or make YAST2 more of a system control manager and give APP more control of software tasks.

I would like also like to see a face lift on the software manager screen. Like Ubuntu’s software center, I would like to see a similar one with a more appealing screen, more information and user experience ratings.

So I would be interested to hear what you think?..

Welcome and thanks for the comments. The choice of how to update is part of a general approach to choice in FOSS; virtually everything you can do with the desktop can be done with the command line. So it would be inconsistent with the general philosophy of FOSS that openSUSE pursues to limit people to one way of updating.

I think you will find that YaST looks different depending on the desktop you are using; I have KDE and LXDE and YaST looks quite different on each of them. Perhaps you would be happier with the Gnome themed YaST.

Like Ubuntu’s software center, I would like to see a similar one

No thank you

Yast QT as in KDE is the better of any

It’s just a learning curve

Welcome to openSUSE and to openSUSE forums. Our forum is run pretty much only by unpaid volunteers. We are mostly openSUSE enthusiasts and we try our best to provide support to openSUSE GNU/Linux, but we don’t chose the design, develope nor package for openSUSE.

Here is a link with an indication as to the openSUSE communication channels: openSUSE:Communication channels - openSUSE . In particular note the reference to the Mailing Lists. That is the ‘area’ where one has the best chance to communicate with the openSUSE developers and packagers.

For a nominal user to request changes to openSUSE , one way besides raising the topic in the Mailing Lists, is to make an openFATE submission, and via other venues try to convince openSUSE users to vote for the feature. Information on openFATE is here: https://features.opensuse.org/

Ubuntu has apt-get, Synaptic, and the Software Center; how is that less confusing? No one’s forced to use all three. Just pick the interface you like and stick with it.

I would like also like to see a face lift on the software manager screen. Like Ubuntu’s software center, I would like to see a similar one with a more appealing screen, more information and user experience ratings.

Someone started a poll on that a couple of months ago. What you think about the software (app) center that Ubuntu has? - View Poll Results

Personally, I wouldn’t use it myself, but if other people want it, I have no objection to it so long as I still get my preferred interface (YaST). Linux is about choice, and IMO, the more the better. What I do object to is having choices taken away from me in the name of making things less confusing for newbies.

On 12/31/2011 02:36 PM, dimesio wrote:
> What I do
> object to is having choices taken away from me in the name of making
> things less confusing for newbies.

+1


DD
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

Thank you for all of the great responses.

Having many choices to choose from when accessing software is indeed what makes running openSUSE a joy to use.

Happy New Years Everyone!