Mailinglist Archive: opensuse (1123 mails)

[brian.jones3@xxxxxxxxxx (Brian Jones)]

Just some personal opinions.

I have just moved to SuSE 5.2 from RH 5.0. I like both distributions for
different reasons: I guess it depends on your hardware options but I
believe that it would be easier for a newcomer to install RH than SuSE
because the installation process is more linear. SuSE puts you more in
control but requires that you know just a little about what is
happening. The tradeoff, of course, is that any post install tweaks are
very much easier in SuSE. We should be thankful that we can buy
distributions from competitors and move our software between them with
such ease.

My philosophy on buying Linux stuff is to get it from the people with
the right attitude. I switched to SuSE because of their support for KDE.
I believe this has the potential to tempt people across the divide. KDE
always looks crisp, clean and professional, and then once you use it you
find that it is very well integrated. RH are also to be commended on
their adoption of glibc but seem to have got stung for burning CDs a bit
hastily. They are commercial and will no doubt learn from this.

When I apply this to office suites I find myself using StarOffice. It
has glitches but these are being ironed out rapidly and the company,
again, has the right attitude - it acknowledges the help it gets from
the Linux community & rewards us (yes, I realise there is cunning
marketing in there as well).

Finally, there has been a lot of talk about the added value of
purchasing a distribution. I view the extra cost as a subsidy to
SuSE/RH/etc. that allows them to polish the product for more general
consumption. If I get some tech. support then great, if I get a nice
book then great again. Despite it being "free" I will probably spend
more money on Linux than I would on Windows but then Linux is nice
enough to make a hobby out of.

Brian.
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