I’m thinking of putting SUSE on a work computer. Thankfully I’m a SysAdmin and I largely have the freedom to put whatever software on my computer I choose, even though we’re largely a Microsoft-only shop. The company isn’t going to purchase a copy of SLED for me, so I assumed my only option was openSUSE.
I’m curious what I’m missing out on. What are the advantages of SLED over openSUSE? And given that openSUSE just had a new release (one that I’m quite fond of) does SLED need to catch up (such as adding LZMA compression to their RPMs, and other package management improvements)?
I need my desktop to work in Active Directory, and I’ve read some people having issues getting openSUSE 11 to do exactly that, which concerns me. I need my desktop to talk to an Exchange server for calendar, contacts and mail.
If SLED provides enough advantages, I’m tempted to purchase a copy out of my own pocket, even for a work computer. I’m also wondering I can just download and use it. If the cost of SLED basically covers support (which I might be able to forgo) does the license actually forbid running the software without paying for it?
Essentially SLED is intended for businesses that want something to last for several years without having to update things too often (except security updates); OpenSUSE is intended for users who expect to update at least once every two years and try out things as soon as possible after they appear.
You can purchase support for SLED but not for OpenSUSE.
Yes, openSUSE is and always will be ahead of SLED in terms of new features.
As for the cost, you can run SLED 10 without paying the license, using a 60(?)-day demo. The “demo” refers to updates. If you don’t buy a license, not only will you not get Novell support, but you won’t get any updates from Novell.
Just to correct what john_hudson said, you can purchase support for openSUSE via purchasing the boxed set.
As for openSUSE vs. SLED: I’d recommend signing up for the 60-day eval. of SLED to see if you like it. The differences are that SLED is older (kinda based off of openSUSE 10.1, but still a little different), has an older packages, but everything is throughly tested and 100% stable. I too am a Network Admin (prolly the same thing your company calls Sys Admin - at my company Sys Admins deal w/ nothing but the SQL servers, and even then only the databases themselves - I handle the servers) and my company is also “mostly” Microsoft, although we utilize Xen (via Citrix XenServer Enterprise) for visualization, and I have a couple of SLES (SUSE Linux Enterprise Server) boxes running VMware-Server since they don’t have HW Virt. and can’t run Windows on XEN. At work I have two desktops at my desk - my “main” machine is a Dell Precision Workstation (Core2Duo) running XP x64 Edition, and my “second” machine is a single-core AMD64 running SLED. At home I have a “homebrew” Core2Dual running openSUSE 11.0 - I want to keep up w/ the latest and greatest, plus I think openSUSE makes a nicer home system, and I also have an older IBM Thinkpad R40 w/a Intel Pentium-M 1.3GHz running SLED.
Thanks. I think openSUSE 11 was a big jump over openSUSE 10, so I think I might wait for SLED 11 before trying that then. I’ll stick with openSUSE for now.
I’ve yet to try really integrating a Linux box in a Windows network (other than samba shares with my triple-boot box at home). Does anyone have any good advice to help with AD and Exchange integration?
We do have Linux and Solaris servers here at work, but I think I’ll be the first employee with a Linux desktop. I intend to show it off the in the IT department so people can see what I’m always talking about.
Well, I have my “second” desktop which is SLED joined to our Domain - just select “Windows Domain” as the authentication method in the install process - worked seamlessly - it’s not AS integrated as a Windows machine, but it works, and I can access all of our corporate shares, and print to any of our network printers. I don’t have our SLES VMware Host servers joined to domain, simply b/c they don’t need to be - they just need to be IP accessible - however the Windows Guest servers on them obviously are.
As much as I love Linux, both on servers and on the desktop, I don’t think I could function at work w/o Windows on my main workstation - that could change though as we are about to start streaming some key apps to the desktop via XenApp (formerly known as Citrix Presentation Server), and of course there is a Citrix ICA Client for Linux (it’s installed by default in SLED, but easily installed on openSUSE as well). So, theoretically, I could publish myself some of my key apps that have no Linux counterpart and access them via Citrix, but I think I’ll keep my current dual-PC set-up. I have Dual monitors, which function as dual monitors on my Windows PC, and my secondary monitor is attached to a KVM so I can “switch” my secondary monitor to the Linux box.
Alot of the “windows guys” at work are starting to become more interested in Linux for various reasons, so it’s definitely nice having that box there I can switch over too and show them something, but I do admit I spend probably 90% of my desktop time on that Windows PC
One of the systems I support is a Citrix server with some apps pushed out through it, so I’m certainly familiar with it.
Eventually I’m going to run into some apps I can’t install on my Linux box, so I plan to put an XP VM on top of it. But I’m curious how far I can get with a Linux-primary desktop at work with all the crazy Windows-only proprietary apps I have to support.
When I do the install, and it asks me to create a user account, you said I can select “Windows domain” for authentication. Can I type in my AD account info during the install process, or do I still have to create a local account on the computer during the install?
You can supply your AD credentials during the install process.
Best of luck man! Let me know how it works for you - seems we are in similar work situations, so I’m definitely curious as to how it works out for you!
I have a more basic question. My school district is a MS shop and I have been trying to get them interested in opensuse. I have been unable to surf the internet (never tried anything else and don’t care to) when I connect to the district wi-fi.
If I change to AD authentication, will that do the trick of getting me out on the web? Just as important, what will happen when I try to use my non-Windows LAN at home?
I’m guessing your school network uses a proxy server. Your box likely isn’t configured for that proxy.
I’ve plugged an openSUSE box into our network at work. I didn’t turn on AD, but I set the proxy settings to “Autodetect” and opened Firefox. Firefox then prompted me for my active directory credentials for the proxy. Your proxy may not even prompt for a password.
With autodetect, I could use it here with a proxy, and at home without a proxy.
Does your School district have a proxy server in place? If so you’ll need to setup openSUSE to access the internet through that proxy (YaST->Network Services->Proxy).
>
> Essentially SLED is intended for businesses that want something to last
> for several years without having to update things too often (except
> security updates); OpenSUSE is intended for users who expect to update
> at least once every two years and try out things as soon as possible
> after they appear.
>
> You can purchase support for SLED but not for OpenSUSE.
I made the mistake of purchasing SLED for my office machine when openSuse
10.2 was current. I returned it to Novell for a refund because of the
following reasons:
There was a very limited selection of programs available, and no extra
repositories for the ones that were missing, although it was suggested I
could use 10.1 repositories.
The dvd had errors that wouldn’t allow me to install it from the dvd,
although you could install it from cds.
The default install is Gnome. (Yes you can install KDE, but it’s clear
they expect you to use bloody Gnome!)
The lack of decent manuals was astounding. When I bought Suse 9.3 it came
with two manuals - a reference book and an install guide.
John is quite correct in his evaluation above. I’d add that it’s probably
best suited for corporate installs where you’re not going to get a lot of
requests for tinkering. If you want to try out new programs from time to
time, stick with openSUSE.
“I’m not one of those who think Bill Gates is the devil. I simply suspect
that if Microsoft ever met up with the devil, it wouldn’t need an
interpreter.” - Nicholas Petreley
Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding also is once you stop paying
for SLED you lose access to updates like RedHat’s RHN. The biggest problem
for me, as has already been said is that you constantly feel out of date
because you don’t have access to the latest and greatest, or if you keep up
with the latest and greatest, you basically nullify your support contract.
That’s why I use OpenSuSE. Now, having said that OpenSuSE can be a bit of
a treadmill to keep on top of.
> I’m thinking of putting SUSE on a work computer. Thankfully I’m a
> SysAdmin and I largely have the freedom to put whatever software on my
> computer I choose, even though we’re largely a Microsoft-only shop.
> The company isn’t going to purchase a copy of SLED for me, so I assumed
> my only option was openSUSE.
>
> I’m curious what I’m missing out on. What are the advantages of SLED
> over openSUSE? And given that openSUSE just had a new release (one
> that I’m quite fond of) does SLED need to catch up (such as adding LZMA
> compression to their RPMs, and other package management improvements)?
>
> I need my desktop to work in Active Directory, and I’ve read some
> people having issues getting openSUSE 11 to do exactly that, which
> concerns me. I need my desktop to talk to an Exchange server for
> calendar, contacts and mail.
>
> If SLED provides enough advantages, I’m tempted to purchase a copy out
> of my own pocket, even for a work computer. I’m also wondering I can
> just download and use it. If the cost of SLED basically covers support
> (which I might be able to forgo) does the license actually forbid
> running the software without paying for it?
> Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding also is once you stop
> paying for SLED you lose access to updates like RedHat’s RHN. The
> biggest problem for me, as has already been said is that you
> constantly feel out of date because you don’t have access to the
> latest and greatest, or if you keep up with the latest and greatest,
> you basically nullify your support contract. That’s why I use
> OpenSuSE. Now, having said that OpenSuSE can be a bit of a treadmill
> to keep on top of.
>
> > I’m thinking of putting SUSE on a work computer. Thankfully I’m a
> > SysAdmin and I largely have the freedom to put whatever software on
> > my computer I choose, even though we’re largely a Microsoft-only
> > shop. The company isn’t going to purchase a copy of SLED for me, so
> > I assumed my only option was openSUSE.
> >
> > I’m curious what I’m missing out on. What are the advantages of
> > SLED over openSUSE? And given that openSUSE just had a new release
> > (one that I’m quite fond of) does SLED need to catch up (such as
> > adding LZMA compression to their RPMs, and other package management
> > improvements)?
> >
> > I need my desktop to work in Active Directory, and I’ve read some
> > people having issues getting openSUSE 11 to do exactly that, which
> > concerns me. I need my desktop to talk to an Exchange server for
> > calendar, contacts and mail.
> >
> > If SLED provides enough advantages, I’m tempted to purchase a copy
> > out of my own pocket, even for a work computer. I’m also wondering
> > I can just download and use it. If the cost of SLED basically
> > covers support (which I might be able to forgo) does the license
> > actually forbid running the software without paying for it?
>
Hi
I’ve been using SLED for almost two years now and it’s great, I expect
SLED 11 will be out sometime next year which I should be covered for
under the updates. I have Xgl/compiz running, multimedia/games from
ppc-services and compiled libdvdcss2 from source. Then I use vmware
workstation 5.5 for playing around with vm’s.
Now if you add the SLED SDK, you essentially wind up with SLES bits and
bobs, apache2 etc which are supported with the update subscription.
As long as you can find a source rpm, it will build in most cases, the
only thing I build from a tarball is claws-mail as I need to modify the
compose.c to work with my ISP’s new server.
I have other machines I run openSUSE, Solaris and Ubuntu on, but my main
desktop will always be SLED…
They have improved a lot with SP2.
There are two points to work on though:
an updated xorg. They stayed with 6.9 when opensuse 11 has 7.3; and
a little issue with usb device unmouting which didn’t happen with original SLED.
Anyway, i installed SLED10sp2 dual-booting with fista using Lilo as boot manager on my brother’s pc and the difference is huge, especially speed-wise!!
Now he’s starting to like & grow SLED. I installed it a week ago and he has barely used windblows during this week.
