Suse and Ubuntu?

English Soapbox
#1

I am not trying to start a who’s better than thread here. I just want to know somethings.

Why would I want to go with Suse instead of Ubuntu? Is there any real difference? Is that like asking the difference between KDE and GNOME?

I came to openSuse from Ubuntu. Suse was the first flavor of Linux that I liked. I am a little upset that the cool Suse feature I saw a while back isn’t standard no more. If it don’t really matter I’ll probably take the time and go back to Ubuntu, but if its worth to stay with Suse I will.

-thanks

#2

I migrated from debian based distros to openSUSE and have not looked back. I am curious though, what feature is missing now that you ‘saw a while back’?

#3

From the login or DE you could restart in windows without see the good ol’boot grub screen. What was nice about the feature was how it worked also.

Anyways, why did you migrate from debian?

Thanks

#4

Me it was because the Opensuse desktop look is way more refined, it looks more like a full workstation at the office.

The Ubuntu looked totally out of place , looked more like a kids toy here. Did not have that business “get ready to work and be productive” feel.

Heeter

#5

Yeah, but you can fix that but changing DEs. Suse has the Windows feel IMO and I don’t like that.

#6

I try and help out with both distros as I feel these two have a good future in desktop Linux, especially for Windows addicts. I find SuSE has GUIs for a lot of configuration, unlike Ubuntu.

For example,sax2 in SuSE
Try configuring your graphics card in Ubuntu?
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
and answer a lot of questions :smiley:

I have written more tutorials for SuSE than Ubuntu for that reason. I simply couldn’t write some tutorials for Ubuntu as I felt that the process would be too complicated for new users migrating from Windows.

Try telling a new user he/she has to open a terminal and type pppoeconf to configure his pppoe ADSL connection, and then pppoe start from a terminal each time he/she wants to connect?! I tried rp-pppoe but even that was a big pain to configure. Finally for those having metered pppoe broadband connections it’s easier to turn off their modem/router when not in use, than go through all this circus. With SuSE it’s different :slight_smile:

#7

Ubuntu provides a fairly vanilla desktop. They advertise they have a speedy desktop, but I’ve found openSUSE is just as fast.

Even Gnome lovers have professed that openSUSE puts out a polished Gnome better than what Ubuntu offers. Ubuntu’s installer is the simplest, only because it gives you basically zero options.

openSUSE provides arguably the best KDE desktop out there as well, where as Ubuntu is Gnome only. Kubuntu is a seperate project and is treated like a ******* stepchild. They aren’t included on Ubuntu development, so they always have to play catch-up. Kubuntu releases are buggy, and have the features from the previous Ubuntu release. Their KDE desktop is basically the KDE 3 default.

openSUSE’s packages feature tons of patches and great improvements.

Ubuntu and openSUSE both feature great package managers, though before 11, I’d say the advantage clearly went to Ubuntu here.

I really fought to get wireless and ATI drivers to work in Ubuntu. The community chided me and offered zero support, repeatedly insisting I should buy hardware that has open drivers.

Ubuntu does have Cannonical behind it, but openSUSE has Novell, which is a bigger company and I feel they provide better support.

However, the biggest advantage openSUSE offers is YaST. YaST is really an incredible configuration tool, and they put a lot of support into the ncurses, GTK and QT versions.

#8

I grew up with older computers so terminals aren’t beyond me. In fact the GUI was just shell until windows changed that. However, I can see how terminals can confuse people.

Also, I would say the Ubuntu desktop is faster. Infact the Suse desktop seems noticably slower and I was later going to post something about that, wonder if I can change something.

I will agree also that configure graphics is a lot easier on Suse. That didn’t go unnotice, but I am able to configure graphics on Ubuntu or did, may take some refreshing.

Although I will agree the Ubuntu desktop is plain and Suse looks more polish. However, I don’t know the extent of Suse’s gnome, yet. (how I can configure it) I looked at the KDE desktop for Suse but it looks a lot like gnome. So how its better I am not for sure.

#9

KDE 3 or KDE 4?

#10

The Suse KDE, I think its KDE4, I downloaded and installed it to look at it.

#11

The DVD installer has KDE 3, KDE 4 and Gnome. The live CD is KDE 4, but it is KDE 4.0.4 which isn’t very good. The KDE 4.1 beta packages are much better.

#12

I have KDE 4, what I don’t know if its beta (I doubt it). So what’s so good about 4.1?

#13

4.1 has tons of new features, not to mention that KDE 4.0.4 is pretty unstable.

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/KDE4:/Factory:/Desktop/openSUSE_11.0/KDE4-DEFAULT.ymp

1-click installer there.

#14

Thread moved to Soapbox

#15

I’m done with this thread apparently the differences between SUSE and ubuntu are opinions. And obviously ubuntu is superior simply because of a better community. Other wise questions about the difference in two flavor of linux would not be in an opinion area.

#16

Who was that masked man?

#17

What makes you think that was a man?

#18

It was just the 1st thing that came to mind after reading this thread. After posting it I thought about the original question you asked. I’ve used Ubuntu & Suse my preference is Suse why? Well for me & I stress for me. I had 3 problems with Ubuntu that I don’t have in Suse.

  1. trivial as this is it was a trifle that bothered me it was that there was no real root in there. If you put in your password as root it was both user & root, sudo or not. Fixable yes but I didn’t feel like doing the fix.
    2)Synapatic is good but Yast is better
    3)I’m an Open DNS user & Ubuntu no matter what I did through the network GUI or CLI just would not hold it. After a reboot I’d be right back on Comcast’s servers. Which I didn’t want there’s sevices Open DNS has that CMCSA doesn’t.
    Finally woman or man Welcome to Suse.
#19

Here is another reason to use suse, they innovate whereas ubuntu just uses what others create.

#20

I have good friends who use Ubuntu, and they are happy. However they live in a different continent, so any information we exchange via Linux tends to be via email.

I also have many work associates who use Fedora and are quite happy.

IMHO in the most part, Linux is Linux. Once one becomes more familiar with Linux, what works on one distribution can also be migrated to another.

My view has always been the primary criteria in deciding to go for a distribution (whether it be Ubuntu, or openSUSE, or another distribution) should be the day-to-day “in-person” support one gets from people one knows, and meets on a daily basis. I give that priority over Internet contacts.

Because of that, I have been sorely tempted to move to Fedora a number of times, because most of my work associates use Fedora at home, and also at the office.

What has “held me back” in making the switch to Fedora are some unsatisfactory initial foray’s (I primarily missed YaST and the state of the art multimedia rpms has, which is IMHO superior to that of Fedora), and also my 7 years background/familiarity with openSUSE (together some other factors have kept me on openSUSE).

In openSUSE I like:
a. the openSUSE community on IRC channels and also on the forums;
b. the the state of the art (second to none) packaged rpms created by the Packman packager volunteers (for multimedia) are as good, if not better than what is available for other distributions;
c. YaST configuration tool (in comparison I do not like the fragmented nature of the various tools offered by other distributions),
d. the openSUSE KDE implementation, which is IMHO superior to the KDE implementations of all other distributions;

I have spent time on IRC #ubuntu, and also spent time surfing the Ubuntu forums. The sheer volume is there in Ubuntu (which IMHO says a lot), and that volume can lead to some neat technical solutions. But I also find this high level of technical accuracy is sporadic, forcing one to wade through a lot more posts to get an accurate answer. I also find their forums are more controlled than the forums of most other distributions with a larger amount of censorship, which by virtue of it being censorship is not readily observable (unless one is watching careful, or have friends who tell one about it). But as noted, I do get decent reviews from my Ubuntu user friends about Ubuntu, so I would not disparage anyone who wishes to use Ubuntu. IMHO Linux is still Linux.