Hello, I tried openSUSE 11.4 Milestone6-Build1034… whatever number it’s at…
I will give my impression while I tried the LiveCD:
Yast2 - not as good as Synaptic - also, for some reason, it starts downloading (packages?) seemingly forever and I don’t know why… was it going to download every possible package? I am not sure whether I need to add further repositories… that would then take longer?
KDE - I am losing interest in KDE - I had various issues I had in other KDE-distros or distros in which KDE was installed. I was curious whether they would be repeated in openSUSE and sure enough, they were.
many wireless devices are probably a pain to configure in openSUSE (might apply to Fedora as well). For whatever reason, openSUSE doesn’t have the required firmware available or at least, there’s no indication of where to get it. I know it’s a non-free repository in Debian-based distros but I haven’t read of an equivalent method in openSUSE. I don’t think downloading from the associated website counts.
Well, those are my initial impressions. I think like many other corporate-funded distros, they make it look good.
May I ask why you tried the pre-release 11.4, and not 11.3? I mean, sure there are reasons to try these pre-release milestones, but I am a little puzzled by the comparisons to Synaptic, i.e. totally different distros.
I just read I can’t edit after 10 minutes. Would anyone be willing to guide me along if I sometime install 11.4 on my computer? I would probably wait for the release in March, though, when it’s officially released.
In the meantime, maybe I can learn how you add repositories and what the method is for configuring hardware (i.e. for packages/firmware/files not in the standard repositories?)?
I might have sounded a bit harsh in my original post. There was no intent. But, it did seem like a strange system although I guess it’s because I’m not used to it.
I read that 11.4 will be released about a month from now. I thought to get an experience that will be more relevant a month from now. No other reason, I guess?
I compared to Synaptic because it seems like an effortless process. I suppose it seems more intuitive to me. Although, I am comparing to Sympatic Package Manager (GUI).
You may want to ask specific questions in the betas group (since 11.4 is
pre-release at the moment). A few comments below, though.
On Wed, 02 Feb 2011 03:06:01 +0000, kpenguin wrote:
> 1) Yast2 - not as good as Synaptic - also, for some reason, it starts
> downloading (packages?) seemingly forever and I don’t know why… was
> it going to download every possible package? I am not sure whether I
> need to add further repositories… that would then take longer?
It doesn’t download everything, but it does download what it needs to
fulfill dependencies in what you’ve selected to install. What you might
be seeing is it downloading the repository catalogs (which aren’t very
big) if you haven’t asked it to install/update anything.
> 2) KDE
> - I am losing interest in KDE - I had various issues I had in other
> KDE-distros or distros in which KDE was installed. I was curious
> whether they would be repeated in openSUSE and sure enough, they were.
KDE is maintained upstream, but you might ask specific questions in an
appropriate support group.
> 3) many wireless devices are probably a pain to configure in openSUSE
> (might apply to Fedora as well). For whatever reason, openSUSE doesn’t
> have the required firmware available or at least, there’s no indication
> of where to get it. I know it’s a non-free repository in Debian-based
> distros but I haven’t read of an equivalent method in openSUSE. I
> don’t think downloading from the associated website counts.
The firmware in question isn’t open-source, and the openSUSE project took
the decision to not include proprietary drivers in order to push for more
open driver development in Linux. You can add repositories for NVidia or
ATI video cards, but for help with wireless issues, visit the wireless
forum - there are some experts there who can get your wireless issues
sorted in no time.
I skimmed over the Community page and the Wiki. I understand that many drivers are proprietary. But, the reality is, many many current wifi devices use proprietary drivers and I am inclined to seek one that just needs the required (proprietary drivers) via firmware. I am currently without a usb wifi adapter and hope to get one within the next few months. I haven’t decided yet which one but I intend to get a wireless n adapter. I was just curious how other distros provide the required packages. I know how to do it in Debian and have some idea in Fedora (although, not exactly 100%) but totally unfamiliar with the method in openSUSE.
As there are probably several write-ups, instructions and notes for video drivers (both Nvidia or ATI), I wasn’t too concerned for those methods. Although, I think they can be a bit complicated or extensive in any distro.
Perhaps, I should have done my test with openSUSE 11.3 but I thought the pre-release 11.4 would be sufficient for taking a quick look via Live media?
If you are comfortable with using synaptic, then there should be no reason that you cannot use opensuse. The problem I see is that you have used the pre-release version (that too, which is still not in beta/release candidate also). If you will use the 11.3 version (you can easily get to the latest version of any other software which you require, except perhaps the kernel.
The basics of any linux-distro are the same.
The documentation and the forums in opensuse are extensive and very well written. Most of the problems can be solved through them only. Otherwise, you can always post your issues or get help in the irc.
The iso which you dl will mostly contain the open-source drivers and software only. After that you can always get other non-oss stuff.
btw, what debian did you use- the original or a derivative?
> But, it did seem like a strange system although I guess it’s
> because I’m not used to it.
exactly…but your can cure your “not used to it” through experience
and, more important, reading…
is it different from other distros? of course, else why not have just
one distro!
–
DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD
[NNTP posted w/openSUSE 11.3, KDE4.5.5, Thunderbird3.0.11, nVidia
173.14.28 3D, Athlon 64 3000+]
“It is far easier to read, understand and follow the instructions than
to undo the problems caused by not.” DD 23 Jan 11
