My 2 cents! I can't honestly agree with you guys! I haven't actually timed the response time from a submitted question to an answer, but I am reasonably sure it has not been a week on any one question. SuSE support has even given me help on things that don't actually deal with installation problems and have been very prompt with their replies. I can think of one just recently dealing with an Nvidia graphics card update. I am glad to hear also that Linux is showing up more in the stores there, I wish it were so in the USA. Finding Linux anything in most stores is unlikely yet. I am sure they are busy, considering the many updates of KDE seen recently on their site as well as getting v7.3 ready for us. I can only offer you this, use the list for your questions as that is what it was created to do. I didn't know about it for a couple of months after getting my SuSE, but it has been invaluable for help and hand holding learning this great new OS! I also have found it to be one of the most user friendly distros available. For a desktop replacement, it is an install and go pretty much. The biggest problems I have seen are just hardware incompatibilities and if you understood PC hardware, you would better understand the problems associated with it. Plus users become so excited to be using a good OS for a change, they begin to tinker, which causes further problems, usually this list can help with. I find the Linux community in general one of the best groups of people I have ever worked with on something. Thanks SuSE and SuSE users worldwide for having and being the best distro available! SuSE Rocks! end of line Tracer ------------------------------ On Friday 21 September 2001 01:55 am, Timothy Mason, babbled about:
Hello
My own experience is rather less dramatic than is Hing's : my initial call for help, posted last Sunday, lead to a request for further information, which arrived yesterday. This is certainly far slower than one could hope. One wonders what the 90 days free support really means, once divided by turn-around time.
On top of this, the higher profile of Linux in general, the recent antics of Microsoft, and the proselytism of some sections of the Linux community, have all lead to the deeper penetration of the market. In stores such as the Fnac - not a 'geek' hangout, by any means - gaily coloured boxes of different distributions of Linux are in great prominence - often, like Suse, pushing the ease with which their particular system can be installed and maintained. This means that people - like me - who are not regular programmers, and who have usually had nothing more complex to do than to click on an icon or two, are finding themselves confronted with a rather more formidable system. This, I would surmise, leads to overload of such support staff as has been maintained.
"Some OS are 'user friendly' ; Linux is expert friendly' proclaimed someone on this list. This clashes with the blurb on the Suse box. It does seem that the system has become more usable for the un-initiated since last I tried it : I have been able to install it on my portable with no trouble at all (it's the Packard-Bell desk-top that freezes at the first screen). Sledging my way through the documents, I find some leads that suggest to me that my problem (like Hung's) just may be something to do with my DVD player. But if the Suse people don't manage to answer my request fairly soon, I will have to come to this forum instead - and I don't see why you should spend your time doing what Suse ought to be doing..
So I think that, unfortunately, Linux is making it into the mainstream at a very bad time. Newbies will encounter frustrations that cannot be quickly answered, both because the system is more complex than those who live with it ever realize, and because the economic downturn will lead - has lead - to glitches in the support system.
Best wishes
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