Can password security be improved using MDE in suse70

I understand that the password security of linux can be improved in RH70 by selecting MDE, kerberos or something similar. I personally is a little tired of having to restrict passwords to max 8 characters because it reduces the security of the password. If anybody knows how to improve the password security on a SuSE 7.0 system i would appresiate the information. Thanks in advance Bo Jacobsen bjc@image.dk