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)
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
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."
Six CD's, three install diskettes, and it optionally comes on DVD-ROM!
/opt it's fine.
You really should try it. I went SuSE over RH and Slackware, and I like it. It feels a little more, um, 'Solaris'ey than the others, but as soon as you get into the habit of using
Word of warning! Recompile the kernel from the main-tree RPM (Not the SuSE sources) or it will spit the occasional German error into the log, and you don't want to see a kernel panic! I hit one, half drunk, and almost wet myself. 'Sie hast Corrupteded die Kernal! Sie ist a eine Moron! Gehen sie back to Microsoft!' or something to that effect. I was drunk, okay??
.sig: Now legally binding!
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!
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
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.
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
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
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.
impressive. got root? we do. goy poot? we foo.
shazam! oh mighty isis!
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.
Please stop spreading misinformation about Debian. The Debian Slink distribution is not tied to a 2.0 kernel. You can compile, install, and run a 2.2 (or 2.1 or 2.3) kernel with no special tools.
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You're right about that. I checked out the license for YaST2 over the weekend (totally on the spur of the moment) and was relatively disgusted that it was a custom roll-your-own license that restricts distribution, therefore fails the
Pity, as with it the way it is no-one would want to hack it and make it work better, even if the rest of the distro is tolerable.
~Tim
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Rushing on down to the circle of the turn