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Best distribution award goes to .... SuSE

Posted by HeUnique on from the now-this-is-a-surprise dept.

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).

2 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. SuSE eval by ak · · Score: 4

    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

  2. Different Criteria by redd · · Score: 5

    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!