PLEASE DO NOT REPLY IN THIS FORUM. My goal is for it to be kind of a blog for people to read through continuously. Thanks.
Preface:
I’ve only been using Linux for 2 years in total although the first year was more of a dual booting, learning experience.
When I made the permanent switch, I chose Ubuntu simply because it was the most popular. With my limited knowledge, popular meant better.
Another reason for choosing Ubuntu was the fact that they gave me a cd at a Linux World conference. Novell gave me a nice cap, but I was after the actual operating systems to try them out.
Needless to say, my learning curve was spent using Ubuntu. As I became familiar with Linux, I explored my software options. You see, I am a bit of a software junkie and seek out software that does the best job. Soon I realized that KDE apps were superior.
I had installed Kubuntu before but didn’t like the appearance of the desktop. It seemed to cartoonish and clunky. As a noob at the time, I didn’t see much else and quickly reverted to Ubuntu. This time, however, I was serious about a KDE centered distro.
Well…Kubuntu crashed numerous times and I realized that Kubuntu for Canocial seemed more of an afterthought and began a search for a KDE centered distro that might bring justice to KDE.
This brings me to openSUSE.
Day 1:
Popping in the disk I was treated with an incredible interface. Very nice.
I did have some difficulty with partitioning but the rest was easy as pie. I wonder if there shouldn’t be a default desktop environment for noobs though.
After installation I was again greeted by a very nice looking desktop. A tiny bit choppy because I haven’t yet installed a video driver, but non the less, very nice.
My first order of business was to install updates if there were any, unfortunately I was met with a repository dialogue and didn’t know what to do with it. After a little research on the net I understood what to do and went ahead with the updates.
I’m beginning to understand that openSUSE is not really for noobs. A noob won’t even know what a repo is, little own know what to do with them.
Ubuntu has a noob friendly way of adding software and getting updates so if openSUSE wants to capture the noob market, I suggest some rethinking. In any case, I’m no longer a noob so I knew what to do.
Now that my system was set up and up-to-date I revelled in the stability and functionality of my new KDE desktop.
This install was more to fool around and compare it to Kubuntu.
So far there isn’t anything I don’t like. I still have to get used to YaST but the preinstalled software make openSUSE a breeze to use.
The pre-chosen software packages and add-ons for others is a very nice touch. I’m beginning to think that good Linux distros can no longer fit onto CD’s. Nevertheless, the pre-chosen software choices have made this KDE desktop a joy to use.
I’ve had no real problems and considering I’m using KDE virtually for the first time this is a big compliment.
I think I’ve learned enough now to attempt to create my working desktop in just one day. Kudos to openSUSE and the KDE teams.
I hadn’t realized we were all going to get a private blog space here 
Neither did I, but I haven’t been keeping up with our inter-office memos. 
Suffice to say, I salute garyedwardjohnston for documenting his efforts to transition to openSUSE from Ubuntu, particularly from Ubuntu, but I think that something is lost if we don’t encourage two-way communication. Even blogspot et al. allow comments, it’s the whole Web 2.0 thing and such.
Seriously though, this thread will be helpful for many people, and the usual requirements for keeping posts OT apply, but it is certainly not read-only. Nothing is on this forum, aside from certain stickies and locked threads, sort of defeats the point of a forum otherwise…
Cheers,
KV