newbie -> would like to put opensuse11 on mac pro

hello folks. i’m a long time mac user here (minimal coding experience), so please be gentle. we have a decent, new mac pro in our lab (2x 2.8 quad xenons and 14GB of RAM w/ an nvidia geforce 8800gt). we’re working w/ a 3d modeling program called AMIRA and found out the linux version is where it’s at.

i’d like to install openSUSE11 on a new harddrive w/in this system - but i was wondering if anyone out there:

  1. has a version of openSUSE11 running and working well on their MacPro.

  2. from what i’ve found so far in the threads, macbooks and macbook pros have been used. should the install be similar on a macpro (using bootcamp and tossing SUSE into the new partition)?

  3. how bad are the hardware headaches when running the os?

i’m very dedicated to get linux up and going. my other alternative is to put together a pc strictly for linux use. but since we have a beefy mac, w/ a bit of ram, i figured i’d try this route first.

any input, help, suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.