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).

Comments

SuSE eval

[ak]

Why SuSE deserves it:
+ 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 /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
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

Different Criteria

[redd]

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!

Is there really a best distribution?

[iCEBaLM]

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

slashdot and bribery

[timothy]

Re: /'s comments, including "Why not LinuxOne?"

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 ... 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.

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 ... whatever you want to use them for.

Just thoughts,

timothy