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From: S. <sb56637@gmail.com> To: opensuse-project@opensuse.org Subject: Re: [opensuse-project] Handling of openSUSE "paper-cut" issues Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2014 08:09:59 -0500
Regarding openSUSE paper-cut issues, another 13.2 review appeared in Spanish on openSUSE Planet: http://www.lasombradelhelicoptero.com/2014/11/opensuse-132-cosas-que-mejorar...
The reviewer starts by saying that he likes openSUSE and doesn't want to bash it, in fact he had declared 13.1 to be the best Linux distro he had reviewed to date. But he had quite a few issues with 13.2.
Regarding installation of extraneous packages, notice what happened when he installed Spanish language packages: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YxAPbyJJ7Wo/VGtnX4b23wI/AAAAAAAAFTw/x0XQpKsE-Xc/s1... In his screenshot, I can see the additional dependencies, including Sane, Skanlite, Synaptiks, tcpdump, telnet, unrar, and a whole plethora of mostly unrelated packages. He says that step pulled in a sizable 500MB of packages, when all he wanted was some small languages packs. The glut of packages that are pulled in after the initial installation continues to create a bad impression on almost every review I've read of openSUSE to date. I think that the recommended packages for already installed packages option should be disabled by default, and those "pullin-this-or-that" updater packages should also be eliminated.
The reviewer also ran into the codecs difficulty. He mentions: "Something that I know by experience which a novice user has no way of knowing is that due to license issues openSUSE does not incorporate hardly any multimedia codecs that are usually employed. However, Ubuntu doesn't include them either, but this is not an obstacle to a better multimedia experience thanks to a the simple checkbox during installation. This is, in my opinion, the main defect of openSUSE, easily remedied if one knows a bit about the distro or by reading articles to the tune of 'What to do after installing...' But I try to look at it from the perspective of a less experienced user, who after trying to open a video sees a Kaffeine message that warns about needing to search for 'codecs'. This takes us to YaST, where we have to choose an option to add community repositories, which then takes us to a list of sites whose names, sometimes in English, do not make at all clear which of them to enable or which packages to install. And the worse of it: after adding Packman, Main OSS and Non-OSS, the result is the same: No codecs are found to play the file. Where is the problem? Well, the addition of these repositories will activate a series of packages that will be installed as recommends in YaST, something that an inexperienced user is completely unfamiliar with."
I think he stated the point very well from the viewpoint of a normal user. The comparison with Ubuntu is perhaps a bit wearisome for the openSUSE devs, but it's definitely the elephant in the room here. Any thoughts? -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org
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