Rob OpenSuSE wrote:
2009/2/6 James Tremblay aka SLEducator <fxrsliberty@opensuse.us>:
I think the reason things like this keep going Ubuntu is not that Ubuntu is better but that LTS makes Ubuntu more usable and more re-installable because its less update intensive.
HP have a lot of Debian experience, ironically at http://lwn.net/Articles/318270/ there's discussion about the lack of Ubuntu branding.
Ubuntu LTS gets point release updates. Security updates are also free, no subscription.
In long term Ubuntu getting foot in door via desktop with a solid system, is going to get them into the server room, and income generating contracts, rather than deployments which cost.
I completely agree and this is what drives my "Joe Plumber" comments.
It's our duty to find a way to keep the libre\free version of SUSE as close to enterprise as possible without stealing it's thunder. We have to find a blend of reliability and pioneering edge. SLED moves to slow for personal usage yet, IMHO , openSUSE seems to move to fast.
On forum, new Linux users are getting unsettled and confused by bugs, and useability nits. Experienced users are often turning off the newer features that cause issues, or bloat eg) Pulse Audio, Beagle etc
I'm one of those who turned off\uninstalled Pulse also I usually ignore Beagle and use the "gnome File Search" tool. Mind you , I don't know enough GREP to save my life.
To me openSUSE's strengths are :
o On Desktop, enhanced GNOME, enhanced & most polished KDE 3. OTOH KDE 4.1 with backports with KDE 4.2 so soon after our release, seems to have missed the market. o YaST & zypper, very simple hardware configuration, but very flexible. Hand hacks still an option with a little care. Configuring a dual NIC machine with Ubuntu tools was not straightforward, and involved rolling sleeves up, getting into detailed config o General technical excellence, and contributing to the "state of the art" But how to translate that into a short term user benefit? o General Purpose, so time invested on transferable skills
For some reason, zypper & YaST are not fully appreciated, the meme "apt is better than rpm" is rather entrenched, and repeated by Magazine journalists. When I actually did my evaluation, I was shocked by Debian's issues with over-lapping tools, non-unified dependency calculations causing gotcha's, and noted the user base, weren't switching over to the recommended tool (aptitude) but using CLI. Perhaps we can focus on perceived useability issues in YaST modules, and do performance comparisons, but changing peoples minds is always hard, even when you're loaded with solid facts.
The weak point of an LTS, with frozen software, is that it supports less and less new hardware.
I don't think it's as important as you think to keep hardware support up to date on the LTS, We want the guy who says I'm fraking tired of malware\viruses and registry hacks. Get openSUSE to load mindlessly on the PC he bought 2-3 years ago, then when we have his heart and mind , what do you think he will look for when he buys new? AN OEM that supports SUSE of course! The guys in education that I work with never run the newest version of Ubuntu they all run either the current LTS or the previous one. Why? because we all have older hardware. look in the forums for problems with 1-3 year old hardware versus 0-1 year old stuff.
To really overcome the perceived #1 statuses of Fedora/Red Hat & Ubuntu in different fields, don't we have to find something significantly better, that pre-disposes folk running proprietary UNIX or Windows to consider OS & SLE as a front runner?
Find something significantly better? No , YaST IS significantly better, is it helping? We need to produce something significantly more usable, Significantly more reliable when it comes to the expected output of an installation and significantly less visible after installation. Joe Plumber does not care that gnome is stale or that Banshee is missing MP5 support as long as the function he expects is there. What concerns Joe is the ability to install or update a particular function when he needs it, not his entire installation. Why do you think so many people resist change? Why was XP given a stay of execution. Why don't people quit jobs they hate? Because change = work! -- James Tremblay openSIS Product Specialist http://www.os4ed.com CNE 3,4,5 MCSE w2k CLE in training Registered Linux user #440182 http://en.opensuse.org/education -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help@opensuse.org