I am currently using Ubuntu, but I have been reading that openSUSE is ‘better’ than Ubuntu. I have been wondering for a while now about giving openSUSE a try, but I have always been put off (misguidedly perhaps?) by the fact that Microsoft is lurking about somewhere in the background.
I’m just wondering then what people who use it think.
Can anyone give me some encouraging (or even discouraging) thoughts about their experiences with openSUSE?
Depending on the response I get, I might bite the bullet and give openSUSE a try!
Welcome. ‘Better’ is always in the eye of the beholder. Every distribution has its strengths and weaknesses. Of course, most of those who use openSUSE think it is a better distribution.
It’s largely irrelevant but there are advantages. Novell gambled that having a deal with MS would encourage customers to adopt Linux in mixed environments and that deal seems to be paying off. So in effect MS is supporting Linux development through Novell.
The collaboration means that SUSE customers sometimes gain advantages like the ability to import MS Word 2007 files since 2007.
My experiences with openSUSE have been generally positive. Apart from one update which broke the updater (and for which a fix was supplied within 36 hours) and a couple of versions where the upgrade option did not work properly so I had to reinstall to upgrade, I’ve had no problems with the software in over three years or with hardware compatibility except that I don’t have wifi access on my four year old laptop - something that has not been a problem for me as I don’t normally need it.
My view is openSUSE is different, …I myself would not say better. I have friends who use and like Ubuntu. We compare notes, and try to help each other.
The things I like about openSUSE are:
- KDE implementation (KDE-3.5.9 in openSUSE-11.0 and in openSUSE-11.1 there will be KDE-3.5.10 and KDE-4.1.2) superior to that of all other distributions;
- YaST configuration tool. One either likes or hates YaST. I like it.
- Packman site/repositories: package 3rd party packages/applications: PackMan :: home Packages from this site gives one the multimedia that one does not get with openSUSE
- Excellent community support in this forum, the IRC chat, wiki’s, mailing lists, etc … Communicate - openSUSE
One aspect of openSUSE that frustrates many newbies to openSUSE, is the fact that openSUSE is openSUSE. Note the emphasis on “open”. This means openSUSE places high emphasis on the use of free opensource software, and not proprietary software, and not software that is not opensource. OpenSUSE makes a bigger effort here than most other distributions. Philosophically, if one believes in opensource free software, then this is good. BUT the downside to this is often openSUSE will sometimes not work out of the box with proprietary hardware, where other distributions may work. Instead with openSUSE one needs to go to a 3rd party web site (often setup by the openSUSE community) to download and install those proprietary drivers (or codecs, or software). The technique and method to do that is easy once one knows, how, but it takes some effort to learn, and that can frustrate some initially.
Some openSUSE concepts:
Concepts - openSUSE
I’ve used openSuse 11 for a few months and I like it very much. One thing about it is the openSuse forum is it’s more responsive to your questions compared to Ubuntu’s forum. So for a newbie, that’s important.
DeePee,
As a former Ubuntu user myself I’ll say this. Opensuse is not better it is different.
This is an overall general purpose OS. Opensuse is not a specialty OS like Mint.
So if your heavily into media Mint might be your OS pick.
I personally am not a specialty guy so Opensuse does well for me.
If you aren’t a specialty person then I’d say to you give this distro a try, kick it’s tires, look it over, & give it a test drive.
One of the reasons I stayed was YAST you can do updates, add apps
& configure your hardware through it. It’s a one stop shop if you will. Unlike Ubuntu where you add apps through Synaptic & configure your hardware in separate apps. Also DeePee, through Yast should you decide you want to use OpenDNS set up to do so is much easier here than in Ubuntu. You can do it here without going through CLI you won’t have to sudo anything & after 1 reboot It’ll Stick!
Like any Linux distro if you don’t like it you can always try another.
As far as I’m concerned if one is using Linux(no matter the distro) it’s all good.
As to the MSFT/NOVL venture to most of us here it is for the most part unnoticed.
IMHO the MSFT/NOVL joint venture is not the bad thing it’s been made out to be it has been mutually beneficial to both. There are people out there that will always be convinced no matter how much fact & action show otherwise that MSFT is up to no good.
It is very likely safe to ignore them.
I’ve spent time with openSUSE and Ubuntu. Currently I am all Ubuntu at home but that’s subject to change with the next ADHD-wave.
As been mentioned, there is no “better” between Linux distros, just different. Ultimately each distro is mostly like each other, the difference being when you are done installing where does the distribution leave you? Server up-and-running? Laptop on the go? Ready to hack? Media-producing guru? Games? Pretty Pink Ponies?
I’ve found Ubuntu is good for getting up and running and maintained without having to get too technical unless you want to. After installing the LiveCD you’ve got the apps they included for you which is what many people have asked for.
The flip side of this, though, is that they do a bit more for you and give you fewer choices for customizing unless you know what you are doing and can do it manually.
Overall, it’s a great distro to get you up and running easily and is easy to maintain and use. This is exactly why I have Ubuntu on my laptop and desktop, because I don’t want to be spending a lot of time tweaking things like I did with Gentoo. I don’t have the time and the family doesn’t have the patience (anymore).
Now for openSUSE, I look at it as the next step of Linux evolution. Ubuntu gets you in and comfortable and openSUSE gives you more power if you are willing to take it! It all starts with the installation (via non-LiveCD) where you can choose whatever you need to go in whatever direction you want to (server, desktop, programming workstation, media diva, etc.)
I had it running my server until just recently and Yast over SSH made things pretty easy (too easy… I kept getting MYSELF into trouble) to maintain if you know or have an idea what you are doing.
I’m not so afraid of the Microsoft boogeyman, partially because I’m doing .NET at work so I can’t get too far from Microsoft in the first place 
Yet, if openSUSE plays nice when I need to bridge the two worlds then I’m all for that!
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Experiences:
When I was setting up my home network (samba) and trying to be able to see the computers and shared folders on every system, Ubuntu makes it very easy and without doing anything I can see the other computers. With openSUSE I had to open specific ports in order to see the server!
Simple tweak that makes life easier and is one reason why I’m using Ubuntu.
On the other hand, I have found openSUSE the winner when it comes to hardware detection between my systems at home as well as a server at the computer club’s resource center. This server didn’t want to install anything because its RAID driver was no longer available in CentOS or Ubuntu. On the other hand openSUSE didn’t even bat an eyelash.
So, ultimately it comes down to “what do you want to do” and which distro is going to support that idea and drop you off along the road to this?
I found admiration for SuSe when learning on an old laptop that could no longer be upgraded. Installed WinXP and that was TOO much for the thing. Tried Red Hat then Mandrake until Suse 9.1 did the trick…Configuration tool “YaST” was a blessing and made the difference that allowed me to enjoy using the old thing again.
Goal was to set it up as a sever later and continue using it, But I found out that a kid down the street didn’t have a computer and his folks are not into computers so it worked out well and he is hooked on SuSe now and that thing is still as good as new.
Have used 10.1 and now 10.3 with dualboot on 2 laptops that have no problems… Can say from my own experience that YaST is great for configuration.
This Community has been Excellent for helping each other.
MS is having a difficult time trying to stay up with the Open Source Community as Vista has proven. Trying to copy the concept of “File Protection” that confuse and underwhelm users is but one example. Open IE and “About” will explain how they still have to pay tribute to Mark Adreessen for Mosiac from that many years ago.
Tech News…Some where just read yesterday…One of MS former top developers has a new book out that promotes Open Source and is reminding MS, as others that they will have to get on board.
MS culture would have to change dramatically to be any threat.
Open Source is a pure concept of “Word of Mouth” where MS needs millions$$ to do the same.
Thanks for your attention.
tom
I never thought that i would even bother about reading such posts. But now i turned to it on my own. I have openSUSE 11.0 installed on my desktop and in my workplace Fedora 10 has been installed. Right in the beginning i had difficulty connecting to the network. Then i found out that it is a bug. But thats acceptable.
I also struggled adding their repos. And i do not find acroread and flash-player there. The PackageKit is not working well though yumex is good.
The most irritating aspect of FC is their forums. Quite unresponsive! Wonder if they think that the average user feels highly at home with linux. Imagine how irritated i would’ve been if openSUSE was my starting point for learning Linux.
Actually i started Linux with ubuntu 7.10, and i had no net connection. So i learnt very little then. And once i greated a new ext3 partition in with ubuntu’s gparted. Since i did not know well how to mount, i very enthusiastically edited fstab giving the same options to the new partition as the root partition. I never recovered the grub after that and had to go for a fresh installation. But i am a bit wiser now.
But as of now i definitely feel openSUSE is a better choice although some rps that i installed are actually FC’s since i did not find openSUSE’s equivalent.
- samrat rao wrote, On 12/07/2008 07:46 PM:
> But as of now i definitely feel openSUSE is a better choice although
> some rps that i installed are actually FC’s since i did not find
> openSUSE’s equivalent.
Did you ask in the applications forum?
Uwe
NO i did not. I have oss, non-oss, packman and updates as repos. Webpin is there to search. How can i keep asking for every bit of software?
How does one find out about software?
I know my Mac and MS Windows friends typically:
- ask other friends
- surf the web (with some sites being better than others for listing applications)
- ask on chat channels or forums (like ours]
I do not see openSUSE Linux being that different, except that I find installing Software (when one’s repos are setup and where one finds the rpm on an openSUSE repos) is very easy on openSUSE.