Linux Critic has a good OpenSUSE 11.2 Review for those of you who may be looking for one. Covers the KDE and GNOME desktops
Distrowatch has three more reviews as well.
11.2 is clearly the best I have used to date and I go back to 7.x days.
Interesting! I’m a big KDE fan, but the gnome example looks pretty neat to me.
Thanks for posting that refreshingly simple review, showing the installer and both desktops to advantage. Interesting comparison made by the author (gnome fan) on stability and KDE implementation. Who won? read the review…
You’re welcome. It’s a nice review with plenty of good screenshots. I’ve since installed it and I’m in love!
It is still too difficult for the novice to install. I installed it on a new MSI laptop with Windows7 on C: and D: drives. I had to use Windows 7 to shrink the C: and D: partitions. Then manually go in an adjust the size and mount points of the swap /root and /home partitions. Only then could I install it without messing up Windows. I had hoped that the Opensuse11.2_LOCAL.exe would work, but it didn’t. I still like OpenSUSE better than other distros because it includes a gnucash in the DVD.
I disagree. Firstly I wouldn’t rate it as novice-skilled installing an OS on top of another; you can be a very experienced user and get a lot of trouble when configuring double/triple/quadruple/x-le-booting OS’s.
Let’s be fair an compare the same thing. A clean install on a clean hard drive. I think a distro like Ubuntu has the upper hand then - so simple! But for me that’s not enough. I want to set up more parameters pre…
Installing a lot of OS for more then 15 years (soon 20!) I really am amazed by Open Suse 11.2 install enviroment and result.
I’ve installed it 5 times already and I’ve seen one flaw/issue (*). It’s by far the best intallation disc (DVD) I ever mounted.
Period. Hope you’ll give it a try on a clean HD and THEN compare it with win 7. Or why not install win7 afterwards?
(*) - disabling IP 6 during the installation phase didn’t render the proper result. Had to reassure myself, so I actually reinstalled it (11.2) one more time and carefully documented the settings, but I still had support for IP 6 loaded. Not a big problem though, easy to switch of afterwards (or simply pu disable_IP6=1 as a boot option).
Peace!
openSUSE should be able to shrink automatically Windows partitions and make room, it’s a very usual configuration to have a restore partition, plus a C: drive which is way over-sized. It was important that that typical configuration “just worked”, more so than those with multi- Linux installation who are more experienced and can spot (& mend) mistakes by automatic configuration in installer.
There are mistakes in the Perl Bootloader, which configures GRUB, they were found but not in time for a proper fix to be tested, so the Release Notes referred to checking the GRUB settings instead.
Ensure Generic Boot Code is selected
Install Grub is installed to the extended or /boot partition (usually /).
Have the partition active, to boot GRUB via the Generic code; that permits a 'dows user to switch to a Windows Boot Manager like EasyBCD with the Windows boot partition can be made active. The MS boot loader is pretty ghastly and vastly inferior in UI compared to GRUB, or especialy the GUI YaST Bootloder (even with current bugs).