I am curious, what is it about openSUSE, other than Yast, that makes you choose openSUSE over all of the other distributions? What other advantages does openSUSE have over the hundreds (+/-) of other distributions?
I realize some people may have started with openSUSE because of Yast, and has since chosen to stick with it because it is familiar. So “familiarity” is a legitimate reason.
Each distribution seems to have their “niche” or something distinct to the distribution that isn’t available, or isn’t a prevalent with other distributions. For example, I find Fedora with SELinux and strong dedication to FOSS while Ubuntu has Unity, Ubuntu One, ecryptfs (encrypt /home) and ease of installation.
What features do you find for openSUSE? SUSE Studio? OBS? KDE? FOSS dedication? Gnome? Installation? OwnCloud? Community? Documentation? Customization?
Hello, there’s a remarkably similar thread already, http://forums.opensuse.org/english/other-forums/looking-something-other-than-support/459058-why-opensuse-better-than-other-linux-distros.html Either way, i said zypper in that thread, and still i think zypper is really great. It gives you, ease while still allowing for flexibility if you desire to do something non-standard. Pacman is the only other package manager that meets these qualities, in my eyes. Opensuse also releases slower than many of the other distros to ship the distro with stable software. To my understanding, the Opensuse release schedule is being reviewed. I really admire Debians release procedure, with their Stable, Testing, and Unstable branches, and i will applaud Opensuse if they come up with a similar release procedure for Opensuse, release ‘stable’ “When it’s ready”. I will admit, that i am not a loyal Opensuse user and tend to swap around, mainly between Opensuse, Debian, and Slackware. If Opensuse switched it’s release schedule to what i describe, i’d never look back at Debian again. lol got off topic there, but you can make what you want out of that.
Too lazy to switch to something else after 17 1/2 years.
Seriously: The community is great.
There is no distro/operating system/software on this planet where you do
not run into trouble sooner or later with something if you really use it.
The most important thing is not
“How good does it work out of the box and how much do I like the
default behavior?”
but
“Can I find answers which solve my problems which will definitely
occur at some point with something and is it flexible enough to make it
work like I want it to work?”
So I usually do not even need to ask a question and just find the
solutions in already given answers here (sometimes also of course by
looking into other forums for other distros and do the transfer of the
answers there into what is needed in openSUSE).
If you go for 1) you probably end up as a distro hopper and never become
completely familiar with one of them.
I decided to go for 2) and that let me stick to openSUSE, I do not
regret it.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.5 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
I found it easy to use and configure. Mostly because of the extensive documentation available and the help I can get from the online community.
But the biggest draw to openSUSE for me was the well maintained Application:Geo repository. I swear, this is open source’s greatest GIS secret ever.
I say secret because most of the open source GIS users I connect with tend to use Ubuntu and I don’t really see too many GIS related questions on the forums here. The GIS support from the openSUSE community is amazing and the most up-to-date I have found so far.
I think that each distro has a range of expected uses and needs and caters to that which is all well and good, except when you have to move outside that scope and forge ahead on your own.
Ubuntu, for example, caters to new users and making things easy and uses guil to help. You can go beyond their focus due to the nature of Linux but the further away you move the more you have to do for yourself. Meanwhile some other distro may already be positioned to install to a point closer to what you want and give you the tools (or get out of your way) to make it the rest of the way.
On 2012-08-22 15:16, dragonbite wrote:
>
> I am curious, what is it about openSUSE, other than Yast, that makes you
> choose openSUSE over all of the other distributions? What other
> advantages does openSUSE have over the hundreds (+/-) of other
> distributions?
I started using it in 98, after using some other distro at the job place (Debian? Redhat?)
installed by someone who really knew. I then tried to find magazines with samples, because
downloading one was totally out of my mind, with a plain modem and metered connections. I did
install RedHat, but could not make head or tails of it. Then I hit a magazine article doing a
comparison of the distros then available, and said that SuSE was the easiest by far - and when
a magazine included 5.2 on two CDs, that clinched it. SuSE it was.
And I don’t change to others because of familiarity - not only with the distro, but also with
the community.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
I would like to say that once you become familiar with a Linux distribution such that you can get what you want to do done as you like, there would be a tendency to stick with it in my opinion. I now know so many inner details in openSUSE, why would I want to learn them all over again with a different Linux distribution? Surely your first copy of Linux that really works for you, will be your home. You may stray from it, but in the end, it will bring most people back, just like going home. Any way, it is what I believe on the subject.
Great topic. Lately I have fully moved back to openSUSE because it has a great balance of well tested software and easy to install backports of newer software. I also like the rpm packages much more than Debian ones. I find them more reliable. Overall, package management seems much more flexible and I have had a great experience with it. I like the community as well and was able to just continue posting here with no problems after my long absence.
It feels more like a coherent os, and that I can just hand out install dvds and say, have a lot of fun.
> I would like to say that once you become familiar with a Linux
> distribution such that you can get what you want to do done as you like,
> there would be a tendency to stick with it in my opinion.
I dunno, I mean my first exposure to Linux was Slackware, then came this
distro with a GUI called RedHat (I think it was fvwm at the time). I got
along well with both of them, but then I started playing with various
distros and DE’s until I came across SuSE which just mostly worked out of
the box (so much so that I bought many versions in retail boxes) and a KDE
that was well polished so I stayed with it. I’ve toyed with Ubuntu but it’s
not for me.
IMHO, you can’t find a better KDE distro period and the community is great
if sometimes a bit cranky. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. It’s a
bit simplistic review since there were all sorts of politics along the way
with RedHat/Fedora spinoff and the Novell acquisition but in the end I
think OpenSuSE was the best choice for me even though I do wish for LTS
versions. I’m running 11.4 with KDE 4.8.4 right now, but I have some boxes
running 10.3 which I suppose is now approaching 5 years of pure
fermentation.
Have touched my first UNIX system in 1988, so many _NIXs to recall, I an not impressed thus far with SUSE… First, why use Redhat RPM format? yes Redhat made a nice package manager so why use SUSE anyway? I think my #1 thing I dislike is YAST! All that I see is shell game to move the config files around and the need to use it… In time I will figure the game out, like I did with Redhat, AIX, Solaris, .etc. etc… but menu and GUI are not the way UNIX does things, that’s the MSFT or Apple folks…
@uzinx:
I wonder why you use openSUSE after I read your post, would expect you
more to be a BSD user as it is nearer to the original Unix philosophy
than Linux.
–
PC: oS 12.2 x86_64 | i7-2600@3.40GHz | 16GB | KDE 4.8.4 | GeForce GT 420
ThinkPad E320: oS 12.1 x86_64 | i3@2.30GHz | 8GB | KDE 4.8.5 | HD 3000
eCAFE 800: oS 12.1 i586 | AMD Geode LX 800@500MHz | 512MB | KDE 3.5.10
> Have touched my first UNIX system in 1988, so many _NIXs to recall, I an
> not impressed thus far with SUSE… First, why use Redhat RPM format?
> yes Redhat made a nice package manager so why use SUSE anyway?
Because a package format doesn’t a distribution make.
> I think
> my #1 thing I dislike is YAST! All that I see is shell game to move the
> config files around and the need to use it… In time I will figure the
> game out, like I did with Redhat, AIX, Solaris, .etc. etc… but menu
> and GUI are not the way UNIX does things, that’s the MSFT or Apple
> folks…
YaST makes the configuration of the system more accessible and
consistent. Yes, text files are a form of “consistent” as well, but
syntax can be a pain to remember from one file to another. Some use ini-
like formats (SAMBA comes to mind), some use param=value formats, and a
few use XML now.
Tying it together under a unified interface makes sense to a lot of
people, and not just those from the Apple or Microsoft world (myself I
come from a *nix background primarily as well, and I moved to SUSE from
RedHat myself).
The beauty of any Linux distro though is that if you don’t like something
about it, you can certainly change it. Don’t like YaST? Fine, don’t use
it.
I like how predictable openSUSE is. It’s been a little buggy for me, but they’ve all been easy fixes, and it’s rock solid after. It never does anything unexpected. It’s also super quick, customizable, I love SUSE studio and the OBS, respect SUSE as a company, and in general just am really pleased with it. I came back from Ubuntu after Ubuntu wouldn’t play nice with my ThinkPad T530, and now I’ll probably switch all my computers to SUSE.
YAST and Zypper are also fantastic. Right now using 12.2 RC2, and it’s very stable, the bugs are very minor at this point, haven’t booted into Windows, or used my Ubuntu machine in weeks…
I just installed openSUSE 12.1 Gnome on my spare desktop (actually I will be eventually wiping it off and putting openSUSE on as a headless server). I do like how Gnome isn’t modified too greatly (from what I can tell) which I like.
Zypper isn’t too bad, though am just getting used to it compared to apt-get. I haven’t had a chance to dig too deep into it yet, after it downloaded and ran its 300 MB of post-installation “updates” but I tried installing 3 things and only 1 worked (the others were not found). I added the packman respository but am thinking of holding off and updating to 12.2 (no loss if it borks) after tomorrow.
Like others in this thread have said it’s the KDE integration. I’ve been using KDE since forever, I never could get into GNOME, I just don’t like the way GTK+ looks and have always like the KDE applications better anyway.
That, and the green themes, love the green themes.
