On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 12:17 PM, Fred A. Miller
John Andersen wrote:
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 7:33 AM, Jerry Feldman
wrote: I've been a happy SuSE user for a number of years now (since 5.0) as well as Linux since about 1993 (Yggdrasil). However, I just purchased a new workstation with CentOS5 preinstalled and I've decided to move to Centos for the time being. I do like SuSE, and will continue to support it at the BLU installfests, and I may remain on this list if I have the time. As I had previously mentioned, I put Ubuntu on my laptop because of a work requirement. One of my plans is to create a SuSE VM under my Centos/Xen system.
Still on Opensuse. But wanted to report:
Yesterday and new Dell XPS laptop arrived here with Ubuntu installed.
Everything worked out of the box. Everything. No dicking around with repositories, no fighting video drivers, no manually loading WIFI drivers, music played perfectly, DVDs played perfectly, if found my local windows network, found my HpPrinter/scanner/fax and printed scanned and faxed perfectly thru it. The DVD burner software worked. The automatic update software found, reported, and installed updates. Everything, even non-core features worked. *cough*.
Even the Fingerprint reader worked.
There was at least 30 hours of work that would have been beyond the capability of the machines owner (wife) that was completely avoided by ordering Linux pre-installed. Too bad it couldn't have been Opensuse, but Ubuntu will do for her needs.
Yep.....I'm running into the same thing, John! People want new systems and they CAN get them preloaded from Dell....just not with openSUSE. To make that new Dell "better," just install KDE 3.5.9 from the package manager, then any apps. she may need, choose KDE as the default gui and you're all set.
Fred
I might, after she gets used to Linux. But right now its all she wants and fast. I think the simple Gnome interface will stay for a while. It seems odd that the the GPL makes it easier for Dell to install linux on their boxes and sell it with no risk of lawsuit and no open source vs close source hassles than it is for Opensuse itself to release an "off the shelf, ready to use distro". Dell does not have to worry violating the GPL by adding proprietary linux drivers for video card or WIFI. They buy a gazillion WIFI chipsets and integrate the drivers directly into the system and everybody is happy. The unintended consequence of the GPL seems to have handed the hardware manufacturers a defacto monopoly on bundling the "free" software with hardware with any degree of we might call "user friendly". But imagine if you will, that Dell had chosen Kubuntu, or Opensuse+KDE instead of Gnome... Can you imagine the disaster that would have befallen them if, after years of selling KDE 3.5 they swapped in KDE4? Stuff stopped workin, no CD burning, Desktop half working, etc? Vista was bad enough, but Vista _worked_, given adequate hardware. You could still burn CDroms, do all the things with the desktop that you had come to expect. A KDE desktop would have been a financial disaster for Dell. -- ----------JSA--------- There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those that can read binary and those that can't. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org