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SuSE 7.0 Available For Download
solusthewizard writes: "SuSE, probably Europe's top Linux distro, is available for download as a 'live evaluation' iso image for version 7.0. Not quite sure what that means as opposed to the shrinkwrapped version as I haven't finished downloading it yet! Check out here for the iso (or better still, look for a local mirror). Can't be any worse than Red Hat 7.0, my laptop is still recovering." Read about the things that make 7.0 beam with pride here, if you'd like. I will make a sizeable contribution to The Human Fund in the name of everyone who establishes or points to a mirror :)
I got 7.0 within 2 days of the release here in Austria (end of August), and installed it on my desktop SMP machine as my workplace OS, and have been using it almost daily since. As potential stumbling blocks for Linux my box has got a new Geforce 2 (purchased at the time of the 7.0 install - before it was SuSE 6.3 and a MGA Millenium), and a USB CompactFlash reader. To be adventurous, I also opted to use the KDE 2 beta as my main and only desktop - the new KMail being the most compelling reason to leave KDE 1 behind.
And everything went just fine and continues to work "right out of the box" (of course only after the compulsory day or wrestling with it until everything is right; but that is apparently common to all new distros and releases anyway).
The Geforce 2 performs quite well; the only problems there are with the beta binary-only NVidia driver, which guns the machine down about once per week (but that's what one has ReiserFS for anyway, right? Besides, this is hardly the fault of SuSE).
The only problem with the CompactFlash was that - out of habit - I tried to build my own kernel with appropriate USB support before it dawned on me that the stock 7.0 kernel already had all the support I needed compiled in (2 hours down the drain).
KDE 2 is, well, beta, but that again is hardly the fault of SuSE, who explicitly tell you that it's not quite there yet. I'd only wish that they'd post updated RPMs for new betas on their website from time to time (with the same disclaimer).
These are my personal experiences - maybe I was just lucky, but IMO 7.0 is quite a nice distro and worth the upgrade from previous SuSE offerings. But of course YMMV.
The SuSe Live Eval lets you run a Linux system off of a CD so you can check it out without doing a full install. Pretty cool.
And as usual, I'm sure you can download the SuSe install disc as well.