DES vs. MD5 passwords

I was just wondering why SuSE defaults to using "plain old" DES encryption for passwords, instead of MD5, like most other distros. I'm not a crypto guy. I've been meaning to get _Applied Cryptography_ for awhile now, but I still haven't, so I don't know the difference. I just like using a 10-place password for root. A quick Google search doesn't turn up anything on this. Does anyone know why this is the situation? Does anyone know why I should or shouldn't care? Thanks, dk