Slashdot Mirror
Best distribution award goes to .... SuSE
ZDNet UK reports that people who voted for best Linux distribution at the LinuxWorld, chose SuSE. Congratulations SuSE! (and if I might add a comment, please improve the GUI installer, maybe even release a beta version before going gold).
I know we have to impress the suits and everything, but it seems like installers are the only thing anyone is interested in anymore. If the OS is designed correctly (or if you're really lucky), you should only install once.
Fixed. DAMN ISP!
Hetz (Heunique)
I haven't messed with SuSE--the more than complete distribution. Apparently it's *so* big, we need *two* slashdot stories on it, wow! :)
:)
But--big deal. A survey where people pick their favorite distribution. Wow, I've never seen that before. That's about as cool as a Slashdot Poll!
At least FreeBSD wasn't voted as the "best Linux distribution"--I think that'd get some attention!
---
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
An 80's song by Foreigner comes to mind all of a sudden.... ;-)
The Tick - "Spoon!"
"Bah!" - Dogbert
the only problem that i had with SuSE is that it uses a REALLY old version of libjpeg, and upgrading can be a royal pain in the ass... otherwise, it kicks ass... though it could get better at detecting video cards in the beginning, too...
... hi bingo
"Patience is a virtue, afforded those with nothing better to do." - I don't remember
"Patience is a virtue, afforded those with nothing better to do." - I don't remember
Personally I like Slackware, but to each his own. That it what I love about Linux: the variety in choices. If one type doesn't satisfy you, find another. Anyway congratulations SuSe!
1. Yast2 pretty much sucks. A GUI install tool is nice, and I've seen it done well (as in Caldera), but the SuSE one holds your hand in the wrong places and glosses over the wrong places. Plus, the first time he ran it it blew up in his face just for running the "Recommended" setup. Once you got further into the nitty gritty (like, *gasp*, naming the partition on which you want linux installed) it went fairly well.
2. Neither Yast2 nor my preferred Yast include any provision for sound. There are many sound cards now supported by the kernel, so it wouldn't even need to include commercial software like OSS to work for many people.
3. This isn't quite as big a deal, but the CDs are very difficult to browse. There is no real standard directory structure, so looking through the CD to find useful software becomes a bit of a chore (add to that the fact that there are *6* CDs in the latest version!...)
Beyond that, I've loved just about everything about SuSE; once it is installed it is truly a joy to run, and the wealth of useful applications and utilities is very nice.
------
"He's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."
umm, are you stupid? this wasn't two different people posting the same story, this was the same person accidentally submitting the thing.....get a clue, man.
You are a disgrace to every thinking person in the known world.
(mean, maybe, but i feel it needed to be said.)
The article sould have come from the "Don't let the fact that they've just won an award stop you from sticking the knife into them" department.
"and if I might add a comment, please improve the GUI installer, maybe even release a beta version before going gold."
Congratulating someone and then finishing off by saying something like this. I hope HeUnique doesn't start throwing any compliments my way.
It's just a way of saying that the installer is weak. That doesn't detract from the fact they won the award. In fact, I think it offers CONSTRUCTIVE feedback.
Who needs five CDs
Simplicity is the key
Yggdrasil Linux
--- HAIKU MAN.
I'm being facetious, of course, but it does reflect at least somewhat on the integrity of slashdot/Andover that they weren't won over (or bribed) by superior moneyed interests and went with what they felt was actually the best product.
I do have to wonder at people's insistence on these general rankings. Clearly SuSE isn't best for all people, since last I checked Slashdot isn't running on it.
"If one is really a superior person, the fact is likely to leak out without too much assistance" -- John Andrew Holmes
Why SuSE deserves it:
/etc/rc.config {or in YaST for newbie}. 'rctab' is a great tool for editing /etc/rc.d/* scripts and changing the order of execution of
:)
+ They came up with X servers for variety of cards -- back when X configuration for Linux/XFree86 was a pain {remember XF86Setup and xvidtune} they improved X configuration tools.
{ X servers, config tools: SaX, now iSaX }
+ 'YaST' does a good job of centralizing system admin. For most users -- though some of us may hate its SuSEconfig script that overwrites manual changes (unless told otherwise). It is much better than linuxconf in RH.
+ SuSE has a nice database of supported HW on their web page.
+ nice startup scripts with central configuration through
the startup scripts.
+ Can't beat their price.
{ I am not considering {CheapBytes/FTP} users }
Some quirks that SuSE needs to correct:
- GNOME RPMs were late for 6.1 version.
- GNOME RPMs are named differently preventing users from upgrading using non-SuSE rpms.
- SuSE keeps on changing files in a package from
one version to next. This is not documented so is painful for people who wish to upgrade. {i.e. el cheapo ftp from suse guys}
e.g. nkita and nkitb contain different tools in
6.1 and 6.2 some tools cross over from nkita to nkitb in new version!
- SuSE was late in upgrading to libc6. {6.1+}
- During 6.3 release -- Their mirrors contained incorrectly marked rpms e.g. ppp-2.3.10 contained
ppp-2.3.8 ! They need better use of RPM naming and consistency of its contents.
Overall I liked SuSE more than RH. Besides it gives a good competition to front runner RH. That is always good.
- ak
I've only "used" two different distros, but I've installed even more and fielded questions from other people who have been running them. I installed SuSE once, and I hope that I never have to again. Yes, it's installer is very powerful and can be customized as you see fit, but I like RedHat(6.1) & Mandrake (7.0)'s system of installing.
RPM is a great way to add onto an existing Distro as well. I like that. SuSE is a good solid, stable distro but I would like to know how it beat out Debian, RedHat and Mandrake.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Congrats! If you're in the US, do us all a favour and get piss drunk tonight, kay? I'll be sure to have an extra Heineken, just to help you celebrate!
.sig: Now legally binding!
I agree, SuSE is very deserving of this. I mean, SuSE provides us with a powerful hacking platform. It comes with so many options, the hacker can tailor it to his or her needs with minimal work. The time saved allows for more free time to hack with. Bravo SuSE!
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings. -- John Keats
I tried installing a new machine with the GUI (I swear I didn't know I was going to get a GUI. I just popped in the first CD like I always do...).
It omits a few questions that I find essential. I fogot which. One thing I do remember is that it tells me that the root password that I've been using for way too long now has illegal characters. Jee, and I've been using those illegal characters all those years, and NOW it tells me!
Booted the other CD and installed the system.
Roger.
I just recently got my paws on a second-hand Digital Alpha, and in the process of (re)installing Linux on this beast, I found that the only distribution that would work correctly was SuSE.
This isn't exactly true. Let me expound: RedHat 6.1 wouldn't let me partition my hard drive the way I wanted it to be. At least, not by default (I'm sure the 'expert text' mode would have allowed it, but after booting an Alpha 50 times, you don't want to do it again). Debian wouldn't even boot. I tried every tangled conglomeration of kernel boot parameters I could find, and nothing worked. The debian-axp mailing list was of no use.
Out of frustration, I finally turned to SuSE, which I had never used before. It installed like a charm! And every time I had a problem, the suse-axp mailing list was there to help me. Now I have a running SuSE-AXP system that's blindingly fast. It's so fast that I have trouble tearing myself away from it to sleep at night.
There are some things that I feel SuSE is missing. Most importantly, RedHat's very nifty printtool. I miss that bugger. I'm going to see if I can get it working on SuSE tonight.
Fool@WorkThe bad news: Yeah partitioning choices would have been nice. Having the DVD version also forced you to use YAST2. Since I couldn't partition the way I wanted, I told it to just use the empty 7 GB of unformatted space after my C: Drive. Sorry YAST 2 says...can't do that. OK, whatever SuSE programmers. So I exit and waste some time creating empty partitions for YAST 2 to overwrite. The *really* bad news: After installing between my C: and my existing extended partition everything seemed to be OK at first. But SuSE's install changed my EPBR slightly causing a serious problem. First Partition Magic operation was disabled due to the partition error, and after correcting this, my entire extended D through H drives were obliterated. Yast needs to be fixed quickly. This partition record corruption is scary and they aren't warning customers, many of whom are using Partition Magic. Powerquest says its a known problem with SuSE installs. Sent complaint to SUSE, got no reply. The good news: I got lucky and I eventually recovered my EPBR, most users are out of luck. I had no problem getting my $50 refunded for the overpriced DVD. Mandrake 7.0 is ten times better than SuSE
Having just installed the newest (6.3) version of SuSE on my home PC - I would like to congratulate SuSE on their excellent distro. Only 1 problem I had with YAST2 - installing LILO in the Boot Sector of the Hard Drive would crash it. (Although it is documented by a last minute errata sheet included in the box.) I had to download the latest XSVGA Server for X to support by Nvidia GEForce 256 but it has been smooth ever since. Another small complaint is that if you select ('Install Almost Everything') it seems to default X to the German Language? There is no Spoon.
This isn't a real surprise for me. I've been using suse from version 6.0 (i've had 6.0, 6.1, 6.2 & 6.3 till now) and I think it's better than RedHat. I've seen somebody mention the X efforts from SuSE as as comment, but that isn't the only thing. /etc/sendmail.cf. You can find my version in /etc/sendmail.cf.YAST (or something like that).
For users with ISDN SuSE is the best distro available. Also, I think it's both great for workstations and servers. Yast is a really great tool for administrating your computer if you don't like editting scripts, but that can still be done. The last time I editted my sendmail.cf YaST warned me with a message like:
You seem to have editted your
I do have some experience with redhat, but I think SuSE just outperforms RedHat on a couple of points.
--
If code was hard to write, it should be hard to read
I suspect Europeans love SuSE because its half dozen CD's save DAYS of download time over those state owned and/or regulated wires. Sometimes throwing in the kitchen sing is a good thing. API
Commentaire puerile!
I'm very dissapointed that they could vote for that as their favorite distribution. I tried Suse 6.2 recently, installing it on both my laptop and home workstation. The hideous ordeal of getting everything to work properly made me question my faith in Linux itself. Happily I reinstalled Caldera 2.3 on my system in enough time to resurrect my optimistic high hopes for where Linux is going. Now to Suse's credit, I guess it's a hobbyist delight, with the most software being thrown in of any distribution. After looking over all that, I discovered plenty of 'neat' applications and scientific gnuware which is great for some people, but does nothing for me. The install was not intuitive at all, and it didn't even configure X... I had to do that as an afterstep. Even then, it was very difficult to get the setting right for ATI card (a very common card everone). After many wasted hours I did get it running. I've been playing with Linux since way back when Slackware was still the best game in town, and I have to say installing Suse brought back visions of those days but worse. Maybe I would have agreed with the best 'best distro' designation if it were renamed 'best distro for geeks', indeed for those who love to spend hours in front of their screen tweaking and configuring, Suse it for you. For everyone else though, throw it back.
Blender And Linux Fan
With regards to people saying that different distributions meet different peoples criteria, I have to agree. 1) At home, I have 64k of bandwidth - I don't want to have to download anything. SuSE's 6 CD's helps a great deal here. 2) At work, on my desktop, I have 100 megs of bandwidth and a local mirror. apt-get (debian) is my friend. 3) On work servers, I use redhat, because it's got the cleanest, fastest install of a "minimum" system, and I know it's gonna work. 4) for hacking, I use slackware, cause you can install a REAL minimum of software and learn loads just by building everything yourself. 5) To newbies, I recommend corel, cause it installs SO cleanly and effortlessly, and can be upgraded to a debian mirror quite easily. that's 5 distributions I use on a regular basis!
that more people voted for SuSe, not that it is the best. Unless of course everyone who voted has also tried all of the other major distributions.
The person who said that you should be able to configure sound easily is right. In RH you just run sndconfig and you're away. With SuSE I had to compile sound directly into the kernel. Totally ruined the unofficial "smallest kernel" competition I was having with a friend who runs RH.
I find all these "the best distribution" awards are really popularity contests and not really designed to show what is the best. But really, is there a best? More importantly, should there be a best?
I dont think so on both counts. Every distribution has quirks, pros/cons, etc that turn some users on, some off, and make some indifferent. Not to mention that having one "best" distribution that *ahem* "everybody" would use would be a Bad Thing(tm) for various reasons.
In the end, SuSE is a quite popular distribution, but the best? No, I dont think so, and I'm glad its not.
-- iCEBaLM
... and keeps on tickin'.   That's SuSE for ya!   I am running 4 different Linux distros (Red Hat 5.2, Caldera 1.3, Mandrake 6.5, SuSE 6.1) on 4 different machines on my home lan, plus a 5th machine has NetBSD 1.4.1, and all I have is kudos kudos kudos for my SuSE on my laptop.   I have recompiled the kernel a hundred times, installed a million apps, re-installed Netscape, oh..   about a billion times, reinstalled KDE twice... just really did everything I could to it, 'cause this is the distro I learned on, and the damn thing keeps on going!   Unbelieveable!
:-)
Thank you Europe for this...
P.S. - The one thing I do miss is something like Red Hat's sndconfig utility...
-- Win2k: "It's not so much that it's only 65,000 bugs, it's just that they stopped at 65,535 to prevent an overflow."
Re: /'s comments, including "Why not LinuxOne?"
... the beanies sort of capture some small slice of opinion in some small slice of time. Slashdot has evolved to use what it does, and I know the authors use a variety of distributions (lots of Debian, seems like). SuSE has at least one advantage over most other distribs. that a lot of poeople have pointed out, which is the vast quantity of included software. If you don't want or need it, POOF - ignore it, it's gone! But if you want a few GB of software without tying up your modem till next Xmas, well, it's all there for the taking.
... whatever you want to use them for.
I doubt the slashdot guys are likely to accept bribes for good press. Maybe for a chance to visit the moon -- not for a few bucks.;) Credibility (along with relevance, timeliness and interest) is their stock in trade.
And / points out: "Clearly SuSE isn't best for all people, since last I checked Slashdot isn't running on it." Well, right -- no one says that slashdot (or anyone) is required to do whatever's currently most popular, or grabbing the most press
Rankings like this are as useful as you want them to be. They won't tell you what *you* should like, but they might give you an idea of, say, what it might take to convince your boss to try it, or what distrib. might be interesting to try next time you feel like experimenting, or
Just thoughts,
timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
Ahh ... CNN.com ... sure, you don't see duplicate stories that often ... but how about:
Of the two, I think I would hold CNN.com, who is the webfront for one of the largest communication companies on the planet, to a much higher standard than /.
It is more productive to voice thoughtful opinions (reply) than to judge (moderate) others.
Here we go with the "When I was your age..." vein of sob stories. Cry me a fucking river. If you really feel that way, go back to Slackware 2.0, or Yggdrasil, or another old distribution.
While you're complaining about the "corruption" of Linux, I'll be happily writing C code for my programming assignments in Cooledit with it's nice syntax highlighting, writing reports and proposals in Maxwell, playing MP3s with XMMS, making some *damn* purty graphics with the Gimp, playing Quake, watching TV with XawTV, playing SNES games with snes9x, and eagerly awaiting news that I'm (hopefully) a beta tester for Corel Draw 9. It's called progress. Cope.
What'll you be doing?
Probably complaining about the influx of "EVIL CORPORATIONS!!!" and "clueless idiots". Here's an idea, buddy. Stop trolling.
I know it's a troll, but I've spent the last three minutes typing this and I really can't stand people who are really like that. Yeah, I'm venting.
. . . and if I might add a comment, please improve the GUI installer . .
Oh, fuck you. You can't just make the announcement without including a complaint, can you? For God's sake, not everyone is so stuck in their M$ mindset that that can't install an OS without GUI widgets.
We all know that Andover.net was bought by VA a short while ago, so now is Slashdot obligated to start knocking anything that doesn't use the VA kernel?
Btw, have you seen the VA web site? LOL! Click on "About VA". Not only do they unecessarily put that paragraph in GIF form, but it's twelve separate GIFs. I guess that Linuxers are too l33t to use font and heading tags, huh? Not everyone has bandwidth pouring out of our asses, you know. I'm reading this on a 28.8.
Just wait. The next site revision will just be a collection of PDFs.
***
I've just put a flute in my ass
Dude, I hate to break it to you, but -- that's not a flute. And the guy that sold it to you, he's probably still walking behind you, isn't he? Now you see the truth... The flute is not magical.
Give it a few minutes.
***
I think that the installer is one of the more important thing in the distribution. Anyone with tons of "l33t skillz" can actually make slackware work, but if you want a linux desktop environment that actually works, you have to go with something that has a decent installer. Go redhat!
hey ho
earlier today I bought SuSE 6.3 on DVD due to the fact that I managed to lose SuSE 6.1 Install disks 3 and 4 8)
I've literally just finished installing 6.3. I've yet to reboot. Tapped in my network details and here I am!
Anyway, just to add my 10p: SuSE is great, because it *works*. None of the ole redhat shite (I can't believe poeple put up with redhat. I have to use it at work, and it's dreadful at best. Seriously. Probably worse than that, and I've given it every chance since 4.2 (as in evaluate *every* version since 4.2))
SuSE "works". Promise. Drop in the CD/DVD, install, and it drops into a sensible shell. You don't even need to reboot on the latest version. And to be frank. the installer is precisely 1,023,473,121 times better than the DIRE redhat effort, provided you're not phased by a little german (if you're US citizen, you'll need switch the language to english on the first screen. If you're a moron, stick to windows - it's all you deserve).
Debian's good (providing you don't mind a 2.0.x kernel for a stable distro for the next month or two) as is Slackware (which I'd also recommend without pause but *please* avoid redhat. I can't emphasise this enough. And if you *do* have to install it, *promise* me you'll do a "minimum" and compile the rest from tarballs.
Having said that, I wish redhat very success - some of the stuff they come out with is utterly fantastic - but the distro (generally) is dire. Great ideas, but the implementation sucks.
(I mean that the "further up" the distro chain you go, the better redhat is. Gnome support is great, as are highre level OS functions - it's just lower down the OS that it's piss-poor)
Anyway, sorry about the rant; it probably won't do any good, if not for the fact that SuSE is European (and NIH), and RedHat is US. Which is a shame.
Do yourself a favour - install SuSE: and never look back! 8)
Chrimble
Read my online journal: http://chris.carline.org
impressive. got root? we do. goy poot? we foo.
shazam! oh mighty isis!
Re Getting Sound
/etc
Assuming you've got SuSE 6.1 or newer (heck, it might even work with the older stuff), getting a soundblaster PCI 128 to work is *very* easy.
Su to root, and cd to
edit conf.modules, and there should be a section pertaining to sound, with commented out soundcard modules list a little down from the top...
uncomment out the appropriate card the lines for the es1371.o -- it will be commented as sb/pci 64/128 when you reach it.
exit, and you can usually count on sound working right after that (it did on my system anyway).
Just a note, the soundcard has no hardware support for midi iirc so you may have to find a different prog for that.
Hope this helps.
~FnkyAlien
Female geek in human clothing
it doesnt mean you have to follow the trend you fucking retard. Do whatever you like - linux may be moving towards the im an idiot crowd, but there are plenty of coders who dont give a shit and code on UNIX because its the best platform there is..and lets face it - linux *is* one of the best unix development environments there is. The influx of money helps a lot of us who get free webspace at several free sites, get listings on freshmeat and have instant help via irc channels run by companies such as VA. and damn - i like having a friendly distro like redhat which i can whack on a box with the minimum of fuss that can be turned into a real unix dev environment without too much trouble - just install a couple of rpms, run a few scripts and delete off the redhat crud and youre all set.
Not to take any glory from SuSE, but I'd not take this one too seriously.
Thanks
Bruce
Yeeeee Haaaaa !!!! Yes, I like SuSE.
papason
ftp://ftp.twoguys.org/suse/evaluation -6.3.iso
and if you care
ftp://ftp.twoguys.org/suse/live-6.3.iso. gz
have fun,
Roland
ups,
just replace the comma in front of gz with a dot in the 2nd URL.
sorry,
Roland
Well everybody is complaining about sound configuration... How the heck can I do that just as simple as typin "alsaconf" on the console and then active "rcalsasound" on the boot script???
;)
Must be my fault then I guess 8^)
I love the SuSE distribution because it fits my needs but its not everyones distro... Its TOO complete to fit everyones needz
-Will work for bandwidth
Debian packages are much easier than the alternatives. apt-get does all the work - even finding and downloading the package file. RPM's are only slightly easier to work with than tarballs, and as more of the "easy-to-use" distributions realize this (Corel, Stormix), more packages will be available for Debian.
I recently (two days ago) decided to get "back into" Linux, and searched out an old Red Hat 4.1 CD. It was a little out of date, not recognising FAT-32, LS-120, my NC, my graphics, etc. So, rather than try and download all the neccasary upgrades, I decided to go out and buy a brand new distribution.
:)
I stood in the shop um-ing and er-ing between Suse 6.3 and Red Hat 6.1. Suse came with more CDs, so I plumped for that.
The installer (YaST 2) only did half a job; it got as far as trying to configure the graphics card (where it changed over to the German language for some reason) and not much further.
I managed to get most things working eventually (SaX really is easy) but no thanks to the useless manual (500 pages of wasted paper) or thier multitude of unnavigable CDs.
"SuSE Linux 6.3 features a new, revised easy installation" it says on the box. Pah!
(I suspect it was because I only had 1GB left to install it on, and it would probably have installed a lot more smoothly if I had had space for everything).
I installed SuSe 6.1 on virtual PC 3.0. It worked pretty well considering it was my first linux install. I had to learn a few things to get it working right, but that was to be expected. (I do have some unix experience)
I had to figure out about the boot partion and lilo. I did have to configure X manually (load additional video driver) and then reconfigure Xserver. Also had to configure DNS too. The manual they provide is pretty good. It runs well (X could run faster though. i'm on a 400 mhz G3, and its kinda sluggish in a way emulated NT isn't)..
Yast configured most stuff out of the box..Its was a good experience though, and I've got my "running Linux book" and am going to town learning what everything is (they're is a lot of stuff going on in linux and it isn't really intuitive). This is the price of power.
Next up is linuxPPC when they release a new version (CD Bootable it is rumored)
Okay, I bought a GeForce 256 card and the install script won't work, I'm a total newbie to linux, so I dropped it there, but I'd like some help if you (or anyone else can), it just says something to the effect of (I know) bad command or file name.
As for why I chose RedHat over SuSE: It was there, and there wasn't three new versions before I installed it.
If I had to buy a distro, it'd be SuSE, because of the massive amount of stuff on there.
HOWEVER!
When I got home with my New 6.1 box, I read on-line that 6.2 was out. I wasn't happy. It just left a bad taste, even though I know that's the hazards of buying open-source (or any, for that matter) software.
I dunno, so, while my next linux installs will probably be SuSE until I get a faster net connection, I'm not happy about using 6.1, and no, I don't have the measly 30 bucks to get a new copy, because I want the manual.
Later
Dan
I used to use Slackware, but I couldn't get X working properly (Maybe it's easier now?). I went to RedHat 5.2 it was pretty good and stable. I then got the GPL CD for RedHat 6.0 and found it was pretty dodgey, so I went down to the computer shop and there was a RedHat 6.1 boxed set for $199 but the sales guy (who never tried any Linux before but wants to) said there is a new SuSE 6.2 just come in and it was only $99, but since at that time I had my heart set on RedHat I didn't want to buy SuSE. Then I went to another computer shop and found the Deluxe Edition of Mandrake 6.1 for $79 and so since I knew it was compatible with (and optimised for Pentiums) RedHat. So I decided to buy it, it came with Star Office 5.1 and heaps of other cool stuff and now I don't need windows at all (except at work because they make me use it 8( ). Anyway Mandrake rocks, but I don't think I'll upgrade to 7 just yet.
-Jasa -- Linux - The SOURCE will be with you, ALWAYS
a> I suspect Europeans love SuSE because its half dozen CD's save a> DAYS of download time over those state owned and/or regulated a> wires. Sometimes throwing in the kitchen sing is a good a> thing. API
I don't think that is important: I pay by the hour for Internet access (in Switserland) but it's only the equivalent of 35 dollarcent per hour (and the ISP is free) so downloading the ISO still is much cheaper than buying the distribution.
ISDN in europe if far more used than in the states
and SuSE has the best tools for configurating ISDN
"THERE ARE BETTER THINGS IN THE WORLD THAN ALCOHOL, ALBERT"-Death
42
Good or not, but as long as they do not GPL the YAST, it is not going to run on my machine.
I consider it utterly inexcuseable to put any other licence than the plain old GPL onto such a crucial pieces of software as installers and system-configurators. Especially installer: Since you cannot install a system withouth it, in effect YAST-licence becomes a licence of the whole SuSE distribution. This is imoral.
ESR believes passionately in Open source and I see nothing wrong with that. Why do you mock someone how has worked so hard for the Linux community! And anyway I think you'll find he runs Red Hat.
I suppose LinuxWorld voters are mostly comprised of new users, and those who would do personal computing such as internet browsing and writing documents, storing files, listening to mp3, etc.
Of course, that cannot weigh against the SuSe distribution, since making it easier and friendly for people is extremely good for free software (some prefer calling it open source). That is one of the necessities for reaching the masses out there.
After all, most of the Linux users are now interested in normal, everyday, personal computing! It's almost the same user profile as Windows or Mac users! Still, we may hold the largest developer/user ratio. And that's just why Linux has the best technical support! 1 out of 20 people using Linux will be highly skilled in computing, either as a developer, as an artist, or as a webmaster, etc. And although suse's graphical installer is far from perfect (as I understand), it does appeal to the typical Linux user.
On the other hand, I don't know if slashdot people are biased towards SuSe distro, but personally I like the Debian distro because it's highly geared towards developers, and I am a developer! I think, among developers, Debian would get the highest vote. We should also not forget that it's outstanding as *the* free distribution, so to speak, but that's not the only reason to go for Debian.
--exa--
I have to agree having used and installed RH(I've been using it since version 1(!) and had 6.1 on one of my desktop boxes), OpenLinux, Debian and Suse 6.3. SuSe clearly provides more features and a more complete package of software than any of the others (I admit I haven't tried all of them).
/, /usr and /home on separate partitions. This way, I can blow away everything except /home and still keep MY stuff untouched. I suppose you could put everything on just / & /home and achieve the same thing
The one drawback to SuSe is their installation utilities, YAST 1 & 2. YAST 1 provides a somewhat flexible TTY based installation, but still prevents you from specifying exactly what you want to install. At least it allows you to specify more than one partition. YAST 2 is easy to use, but completely brain dead in its approach to partitioning (let alone package selection). I started to install using it, but after seeing what I would be forced to do, installed with YAST 1. RH 6.1 has a much better installation tool, too bad you can't mix and match. In fairness, I haven't seen Debian's last 2 releases and only installed OpenLinux once at a customer site last summer (hated it). One "feature" all of the Linux distributions' installation tools seem to share is brittleness. None of them recover from mistakes well.
I prefer to put
d4,...,Nf3, or maybe I should use a Ratfaced Mcdougal?
1n 5l4ckw4r3 0.99pl4
h0h0h0
void this_is_a_stack_issue(){this_is_a_stack_issue();}
i just bought suse 6.3, and after installing, uninstalling, partitioning and eventually running OpenLinux with Win98 on the same machine, i felt quite confident in my ability to install linux. little did i know. 6.3 comes on a dvd packed with so many installations that my 6 gig HD couldn't hold them all. eventually i resorted to installing the default package and nothing else, figuring i could upgrade later. well after over 18 hours with yast and yast2 i still could not get kde configured to run properly. after 3 e-mails to tech support (i paid $50 for that priveledge) rereading the hundreds of pages long manual, purchasing SuSE 6.2 for dummies and SuSE Unleashed, i still couldn't solve my configuration problems (although i had narrowed it down to a hardware problem with my video card (surprise surprise)). i had checked the distribution box though, and my video card was listed as supported hardware. just as i was about to give up the ever handy altavista came to my rescue (after running across several distressing discussion posts from people with my same problem) with an obscure link to my video card (ati rage 128). turns out the link led to the SuSE support archives and low and behold i found out that "unfortunately the X server [for the ati card] is missing on the US version of SuSE Linux 6.3" but i could download the driver (xrage.rpm). after all of this i definately not recommend SuSE to the faint of heart. although my problem may be obscure, i still have gotten no response from tech support, and their only US number is long distance. buyer be warned i guess.
I've been a SuSE user for about two years now, off and on, and only lately more on than off. I became committed to SuSE's distro when it configured X for me (6.1, maybe? Kernel 2.2.5 is all I recall for sure) and I didn't have to go through the migraine of getting it configured and running myself.
If anything, 6.3 may be too easy to install ... I prefer a commandline prompt, and wasn't given the option to boot to ASCII during the much-too-simple-to-screw-up graphical install.
Yes, this is a mighty step forward in getting Linux to the masses; installation was quick and painless, with minimal intervention required. And while I'll continue to fret about the dumbing-down of software to the lowest common user, the fact is that Linux installs have to be simplified if it's going to take over the desktop.
My first Linux install was an old Yggdrasil system, kernel 1.0.something, on a 20MHz 386SX with a whopping 4Mb RAM. Sure, it was a pain (don't even ask how long it took to recompile the kernel on that thing), and it was something that I honestly have to admit that the average user wouldn't have the patience to do.
The patience factor has now been taken out of the equation. All anyone has to do now is answer a few simple queries, swap out some CDs, and they've got a system that boots straight to X. The most complicated thing an end user is now expected to know is how to get into BIOS to make the system boot from CD.
And still ... I worry. I don't want to see Linux get dumbed down strictly for the purpose of competing with Microsoft -- if that happens, Microsoft wins anyway.
I see the results of lowest-common-denominator coding every day -- I wouldn't have a job in tech support if Microsoft wrote code that encouraged users to think about what they were doing as opposed to making them helpless the first time their mouse conks out. Point and click is convenient, but it's also mindless.
The long and short of it is - huzzah for SuSE, who IMO deserves the best distribution recognition; it's the most reliable release I've used, a straight up config is easy, and all the tools are there for the more complex configurations ... just make sure they stay there.
ikaros, anyone who says ignorance is bliss has not seen our call center stats.
You're only as young as the last time you changed your mind -- Timothy Leary