Currently, I’m a Linux Mint user. I have not been happy with the latest release (11) however, as I feel it is filled with a variety of upstream bugs curtosey of Ubuntu. With that in mind, I can see why the Linux Mint team is switching its focus to Debian. Although I think getting away from an Ubuntu base is a good idea, personally, I still need a stable system to put on a production machine, and I have a lot of trepidation about running a distro based on Debian testing. I suppose I could change the repos and point them at Debian Squeeze, but if I have to monkey around with a distro’s packages to get what I want, then I’m probably not using the best distro for me.
With that in mind, I’m looking for a new distro. What is awesome about OpenSUSE? What is annoying about OpenSUSE?
Currently, I’m a Linux Mint user. I have not been happy with the latest release (11) however, as I feel it is filled with a variety of upstream bugs curtosey of Ubuntu. With that in mind, I can see why the Linux Mint team is switching its focus to Debian. Although I think getting away from an Ubuntu base is a good idea, personally, I still need a stable system to put on a production machine, and I have a lot of trepidation about running a distro based on Debian testing. I suppose I could change the repos and point them at Debian Squeeze, but if I have to monkey around with a distro’s packages to get what I want, then I’m probably not using the best distro for me.
With that in mind, I’m looking for a new distro. What is awesome about OpenSUSE? What is annoying about OpenSUSE?
Thanks!
openSUSE was simply the first Linux distro in which I was able to get all of my major needs fulfilled and working. Most all software can be found to have some issue or another. Once you find one that fits your bill, you need to stick with it so that you can find out all of the small details that then allow your favorite version of Linux to really shine. The openSUSE forum is a good place where you can find out such details and ask anything related to openSUSE that you could think of. Like most versions of Linux, there can be very specific hardware related problems, most often with very new or limited released hardware. But with openSUSE, there are ways to get the very latest kernel and desktops installed to see if that is what you need. Distro hopping does allow you to see how the other folks live, but at some point, you got to stick with something and put some extra effort into it. And, the more you try to help others, the more that you learn yourself. Give openSUSE a try, I am sure you will find it an excellent Linux OS to use.
I use Mint too. Though openSUSE is my primary OS.
Mint is great and there certainly is a dilemma with the Ubuntu mess.
You’ll need to do a little more leg work in openSUSE but overall I think you’ll find it meets all your needs in a beautiful way.
The next release (12.1) will use gnome 3. Though gnome 3 can be added to the current 11.4
It depends what you mean by a production system and what you want to produce with it. openSUSE offers plenty of choice for a variety of circumstances and therefore, as caf4926 suggested, some extra work may be needed.
I use debian-squeeze and opensuse-11.4 and love both. My only complaint against opensuse for all the versions (10.2, 10.3, 11.1, 11.3 & 11.4) is that
downloading texlive-latex is frightening — some 224MB. In debian for all the versions (sarge, etch, lenny and squeeze) one does not even notice it.
In everything else including the forum-mates they are equivalent. I dont remember whether it is debian or opensuse forum there was a survey/poll to
determine (based on answers to questions) which distro is appropriate for the particular user. In my case it suggested debian/opensuse.
It’s all Linux. Whatever the problem, if it can be solved it will be solved in pretty much the same way whatever the distro. Having said that, I use openSUSE because it doesn’t add any problems to those Linux has anyway (unlike Ubuntu or Fedora) and is pretty much rock solid. It must be if even I can’t break it… Another reason is that whenever I do have an issue, the forum has been instantly effective. No need to plough through millions of fanboy webpages before finding a solution, like with Ubuntu.
If you need stability and to put on a production machine, and you are interested in SUSE, I would suggest SLED SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
It is Linux for business, like RHEL. It is not free like OpenSUSE, but you get older (hence more well tested and theoretically more stable) packages and official support from Novell