My 2 cents on OpenSuse 11.1

English Open Chat
1

first off, i have to say that i use ubuntu, debian, and mandriva. so with that, i got bored yesterday and pulled out an extra hard drive i use for testing. it had been over 6 months since i tried opensuse. here we go.

installation of 11.1 gnome went smooth as usual. no news to report.

get to the desktop and was greeted by the wrong resolution. huh? this has not happened to me in a couple years of trying various distros. ok, i managed to finally get 1440x900 after about 10-15 minutes of dicking around.

could not find an update button, so did not do that. getting the non-free repos definitely was non-intuitive. they could at least have them ready to be checked off if the user wants to use them.

the slab menu (i believe it’s called) is something i think i could not get used to. i have to click way too many times to get where i want to go.

the overall feel of it was just too alien for me to enjoy it. opensuse’s rendition of gnome is terrible. more power to you if you like it, but i’ll never use it again. perhaps kde will be better in my next test.

overall i thought it was ok at best, nothing that’s unusable, but i won’t be using it. ubuntu/debian works flawlessly for me and don’t plan on going anywhere for a while.

but to each their own. that’s why choice is good. don’t rip me too hard, or bash other distros. i don’t want it to turn into that. the freedom to choose is what we as linux users should cherish. peace.

2

In other words it wasn’t what you’re used to and it “sucked” because of it.

Another useless post…

3

Nothing critical to say about that – seems to me you just aren’t used to what you’re not used to. But maybe you’ll find KDE a bit better if you try it next time you’re bored.

Luck to you.

4

and what would be useful? to say i like it? to say something you want to hear? and everything is hugs and kisses? i see posts about people that don’t like ubuntu all the time on this board, but i don’t see people calling those posts useless.

secondly, it’s something i don’t want to get used to. is that ok with you? you’re just another fanboy pissed off because i don’t like what you like. get over it.

i hang out here because it seems like a decent community. i think we all realize that not every distro can please everyone. i was just reporting my experience with it. if suse used a more “regular gnome”, i would be more likely to use it. i have nothing bad to say about it as far as how it ran. aside from the minor resolution issue, it worked pretty good.

finally, if someone comes to the ubuntu boards saying they don’t like it and want to use another distro, we, as ubuntu users are ok with that and invite them to stick around and chat in our forums. we have alot of people at UF that don’t use ubuntu, because it is a great open arms community. i was hoping this place was similar. (tolerant) if you can’t handle criticism, then maybe you should not hang out on the message boards.

lastly, is there an xfce edition? i’d like to give that a try next.

5

Hi
You do realize that you can right click and add the classic menu and
remove the slab one?

Yes, xfce 4.6 is available to install via the repositories. Search here;
Get It or use the webin
search from the cli;


/sbin/yast2 webpin_package_search

You should try openSolaris :wink:

–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (i586) Kernel 2.6.27.15-2-default
up 1 day 0:19, 1 user, load average: 0.27, 0.62, 0.84
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 180.35

6

Since I have not used mandriva and ubuntu, I cannot say anything about them.

But I have used redhat linux, debian both sarge and etch 4.0 and suse sled 10, opensuse 10.2 and presently opensuse 10.3. My experience is that opensuse is more user-friendly.

Since debian does not have firefox browser many online channels
like bbc, nationalgeographic.com cannot be watched live.

Debian saturates very quickly and I had to frequently remove all message files from /var/log and /var/adm. This was a great botheration.I suspect that debian needs more memory space for smooth operation. My small laptop with only 18GB available for linux has no problem with suse asit had with debian.

Writing .tex files by vi had many bugs in debian, at least in the etch 4.0 version.

I have often tried to switch to debian but after about a week I migrate back to suse.

The debian forum is, however, equally helpful as suse forum.

Overall I’ll recommend opensuse to all who are not system managers.

7

in ubuntu, when you try to play a video or audio file for the first time, it will ask if you would like ubuntu to search for and install the required codecs. and enabling non-free repos is just a matter of checking off a box. how friendly is that?

debian does use firefox. it is just rebranded to “iceweasel” for legal reasons. look it up. i had no problems viewing anything online.

how did you come to this conclusion? debian is widely known to use very little memory compared to other distros. i know plenty of users that use debian with 128ram or less with no problems.

and that is ok. that is the beauty of open source. there is something for everybody. it is one of the main reasons i fell in love with linux in the first place.

that may be, but i found the debian forums to be less than stellar when it came to attitudes. i could not deal with the elitist attitudes i found there. i simply stopped going there and research answers on my own.

i hope you would be there to help set it up for them, because as we all know, the average person can’t install and setup any OS, let alone linux.

i did not know that the classic gnome menu was available in suse. i will remember that next time i try it. i just can’t stand the slab menu. thanks for the tip.

peace.

8

My first thought was “how long did you try openSUSE?”

While you call it “alien” it is just different and that doesn’t mean good or bad, just different.

I have not had the smoothest migration to openSUSE but I’m still trying to work it out.

9

First: What you like and what you don’t like should be in your user profile, not in posts. Read it anyway you like it.
Second: What realy bothers me, is the religious fanatism amongst users of various distributions. In a true open community we all take profit from eachother’s contributions. Ask yourself questions like: what could X learn from Y and the other way round, to make a great Z.

10

please don’t tell me what i should put in my posts. this is the chit-chat section, and will post what i want within the rules.

11

On Thu, 2009-03-12 at 06:36 +0000, tuxr99 wrote:
> first off, i have to say that i use ubuntu, debian, and mandriva. so
> with that, i got bored yesterday and pulled out an extra hard drive i
> use for testing. it had been over 6 months since i tried opensuse. here
> we go.
>
> installation of 11.1 gnome went smooth as usual. no news to report.
>
> get to the desktop and was greeted by the wrong resolution. huh? this
> has not happened to me in a couple years of trying various distros. ok,
> i managed to finally get 1440x900 after about 10-15 minutes of dicking
> around.

Not sure… I do know that Ubuntu quickly falls back to vesa which
gives you the illusion of function… albeit at a heavy performance
penalty. Perhaps openSUSE is trying hard to make accelerated video
work?? I’m just guessing.

With that said, I think it’s a valid criticism of openSUSE.

>
> could not find an update button, so did not do that. getting the
> non-free repos definitely was non-intuitive. they could at least have
> them ready to be checked off if the user wants to use them.

I’ve always been concerned with what liability there might be for
making access to “illegal” software available easily. But you know,
apparently it doesn’t matter… I think it could be easier, the fact
that openSUSE allows it at all leaves them open to the same
liability with regards to the DMCA, etc.

I think this is also a valid criticism of openSUSE.

>
> the slab menu (i believe it’s called) is something i think i could not
> get used to. i have to click way too many times to get where i want to
> go.

I’ll have to agree with you… but the design was supposedly done
AFTER many, many hours of actual non-Linux user usage. So, apparently
the slab is preferred (??).

What you and I think here doesn’t seem to matter… someone more
important than us has real evidence that we’re wrong.

>
> the overall feel of it was just too alien for me to enjoy it.
> opensuse’s rendition of gnome is terrible. more power to you if you like
> it, but i’ll never use it again. perhaps kde will be better in my next
> test.

Not sure. I guess if openSUSE had an orange/brown theme, it might
go better for you?? :slight_smile:

I don’t use Gnome. People that use Gnome just need a basic
window manager IMHO… Gnome does a lot of things wrong. But
it’s the politically correct choice… so …

>
> overall i thought it was ok at best, nothing that’s unusable, but i
> won’t be using it. ubuntu/debian works flawlessly for me and don’t plan
> on going anywhere for a while.

That’s the important thing. Use whatever you’re comfortable with.
I have friends that switch periodically to Ubuntu. I warn them that
they are quite cavalier with a lot of their settings and enterprise
level configuration (which is usually missing)… and quite often,
after some time… they return to openSUSE because they need the
extra stuff to work. But if you don’t spend $10K/year on your
home lab… you’ll probably never notice anything.

>
> but to each their own. that’s why choice is good. don’t rip me too
> hard, or bash other distros. i don’t want it to turn into that. the
> freedom to choose is what we as linux users should cherish. peace.
>
>

Ubuntu fails miserably at configuring services… it makes more
assumptions than openSUSE (and openSUSE has gotten progressively
worse in this regard). I predict the first major Linux attack
will come through Ubuntu installations…

Ubuntu is what it is… they have a great community and are
very zealous. But they show a general lack of knoweledge about
enterprise level integration with regards to services and hardware…
and similar to Red Hat/Fedora, they don’t seem to be that
interested in playing in that space.

I prefer the knoweledge pool among SUSE users… they seem to
deal with far more complex scenarios than Ubuntu users.

IMHO, gray hairs for the win when it comes to Linux distros.

12

The codecs thing isn’t done as it would be ‘too borderline’ in novells opinion from what I understand.
As far as enabling repositories goes, software management > repositories > add repository > radiobutton “Community repository” > next
And then you’re free to mark as many checkboxes as you want, easy as pie.

Think it’s mainly the fact that you’re not used to it opposed to it not being intuitive as you put it. I feel just as lost under ubuntu.
The modified menu is just an extra that openSUSE throws in, some like it better, some don’t… if they don’t it can be disabled.

If you decide to give KDE a spin make sure you upgrade it to 4.2, it’s getting so much better with every version.

13

Tux99,
I’ve used Ubuntu & know what you’re talking about. Ubu’ has its merits as does Opensuse.I use Opensuse you Ubuntu. Yes, indeed CHOICE IS GOOD!:slight_smile:
Hail Open source! Hail Linux!

14

thank you cjcox for your insightful opinion. now i’ll throw another pennies worth of thought.

if you do not need 3D capabilities, the vesa driver is just fine. never had a problem. i’m not sure i understand this performance penalty you speak of. ubuntu runs (for me) as fast and uses about as much ram as any other distro.

the fact that you can install codecs on any distro kind of makes it a moot point.

if i had known the classic gnome was available, it would have made my experience 10x better. next time i’ll know.

actually, i can live without the brown theme, but that is easily and quickly changeable.

yes, all i need is a basic window manager. i have no problems being productive with it. being able to manipulate every pixel and sub-nuance of my system does not interest me.

agreed.

what is this extra stuff they need to work that doesn’t in ubuntu?

examples?

i will worry about that when and if that day comes.

a knowledgeable IT person will take the necessary measures to shore up anything that’s needed. but let’s face it, ubuntu is targeted to the average user, not NASA.

how much time have you spent in the ubuntu community to really have that much confidence in that statement? remember that alot of the ubuntu people have a debian background and are very knowledgeable. plus, being such a great community, alot of non-ubuntu users spent tons of time there.

like you pointed out, IMHO.

peace.

15

Tried Mandriva1 live cd today, looks like thousands of tiny icons for thousands of oddball programs. Mandriva users must have tiny monitors, at my 1680x1050 the desktop start menu is covered with tiny bugs rotfl! As for the 30" screen, well, no!
SUSE kde4.1 has what I need where I need it. Gnome is os9 mac.

16

One should not cast stones when one lives in a glass house!

Perhaps you could follow your own advice.

That said, I can’t stand gnome no matter what distribution it is rotfl!

Welcome to the forums, please hang around, there are folks who can benefit from everyones constructive input.

17

The OP has got a point about the resolution. I find openSUSE does not detect the proper resolution for my laptop automatically. However, the OP’s post also demonstrates the advantage of ‘knowing the system’. When they mentioned 10-15 minutes to fix the resolution…that sounded quite long for openSUSE given YaST+Sax2, but how would the OP know those tools?

In a similar fashion, installing from DVD and not using automatic config means the correct display can be set manually before the installer is finished. But again, how would the OP know?

I think the main difference between openSUSE and Ubuntu is that openSUSE tends to strive toward rational solutions, while Ubuntu tends to strive toward intuitive solutions. Implicit in both positions are assumptions about users and what they should bring to the table. Having community repositories available as an option in the Software Repositories module makes sense - the user wants something, the system handles software through repos, new repos will solve the problem so place them in the appropriate place. Conversely, Ubuntu tries to anticipate user problems and automate the solution.

The openSUSE method assumes you have an idea how the system works. If you have no such idea…working through the solution will teach you reusable skills for the future. Conversely, Ubuntu assumes you have less (or no) knowledge of the system and tries to compensate - sometimes with solutions that teach the user nothing, like codec automation. Which method is “better” changes depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

18

do you use all four distros at once? I am curious how this works.

19

That’s been my experience as well. I used Ubuntu/Debian for over 3years before giving openSuse a good try. The first few weeks were terrible. I deleted openSuse more than one time just to tun around and install it again. It has been so foreign to my Debian experiences I might as well be starting over with Linux again.

I have persisted with Suse, however. I love a good challenge. Now I prefer it to any other distro I’ve ever tried. It definitely has up-to-date software, something Ubuntu severely lacks in a lot of cases. Yast, which I love and hate at the same time, is superb for configuring your system. I probably like Mandriva’s Control Center a wee bit better because to me it seems a bit more user friendly. It lacks the power of Yast, though, at least to me.

I’d say overall, that Ubuntu is for the home user and new user. It works hard for the ease of use that most of those users want. openSuse is more for a experienced Linux user who is more into configuring things for themselves. To me, comparing the two distros is like comparing apples and oranges.

I work as the computer guy in a small company. I would definitely recommend openSuse over Ubuntu for that environment. For someone just starting out with Linux, I probably would recommend for them to start with Ubuntu and then move to either Fedora or openSuse if they got to the point where they wanted more.

Anyway, my 2 cents.

20

a command line install of ubuntu will give you the opportunity to configure from the ground up, giving you complete control over what and how things are installed.

what do you mean by more? i am a fairly experienced linux user, and find ubuntu meets or exceeds all my needs. why does something have to be more complicated to be better? name something i could do in opensuse that is not possible in ubuntu.

not trying to stir the pot, but i just want honest answers, as i am trying to learn more about the differences.

but as a last sentiment here, isn’t it all about what works for the individual? if ubuntu runs 100% flawlessly for me, what would be the advantages of switching to opensuse, only to set up my computer and use it exactly like i did with ubuntu? i am not going to change my computing habits just because i change distros.