New KDE builds usually lag the ones for debian and RedHat. GNOME 2.4, try again in 2004! (pun intended), you get the distinct feeling SuSE doesn't much care for GNOME and RedHat doesn't much care for KDE, though IMO KDE is much easier to deal with - GNOME makes DLL hell look like paradise, but it has some great apps folk like. I don't want to start a slanging match, but if you see a new/updated GNOME app 2 weeks from now, it almost certainly won't make under 2.4 without upgrading a multitude of packages. For openssh, SuSE patched the 3.5.1 version rather than update to 3.7.1. As a long time SuSE user, I also can't understand their Beta "CLOSED" programme, so I never even looked at or considered it, but I usually try out Mandrake and RedHat Betas, even went over to Mandrake on two of my boxes based on what I saw in the Beta. Before 8.2, I found I would install SuSE, then have to download lots of the latest sources off the net and compile them in order to get other sources to compile or run, e.g FlighGear 0.92 built locally had some strange problems until someone on the FlightGear mailing list suggested I updated to a package that was several levels above and maybe around a year old. Just yesterday I built scribus 1.1.0 only to find it won't accept anything alpha or numeric in a text box. I hope this is changing, the adage that anything old is stable is a fallacy for obvious reasons other than that developers are incorporating new and fixed stuff in their releases, so that way behind distros are a source of trouble. SuSE ought to recognise that the greater number of their customers aren't just appliance operators. One other annoyance with SuSE is that there seems no way to do a full install, you find out that several development packages do not get installed and you have to grab them off the CD/DVD when your make of something fails. I expect to see all the accompanying development packages installed with a development install of the PRO distro, if an app has a -devel package with it, it should be installed or at least there should be an option to include all the accompanying development packages. Regards Sid. Felipe Alfaro Solana wrote:
Hi!
I'm new to SuSE Linux. I've been using Red Hat since the very beginning and, now I've switched, there are a few things I'm starting to miss. There are others I like very much like the great collection of KDE software and Yast2, which is very superior to the admin tools bundled with RHL9.
Red Hat mantains a special, public RPM repository called RawHide (ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/redhat/linux/rawhide). This repository is updated timely (nearly every day or two) with the latest versions of every package. If you want to stay on the bleeding edge by running the latest bits, even when they're not oficially supported, you simply pull them from the RawHide repository. For example, GNOME 2.4 or KDE 3.1.4 are there waiting for people to start using and testing them. You can even fill bugs against Bugzilla for RawHide components.
Is there something similar for SuSE Linux? For example, when I saw the KDE 3.1.4 announcement, it was ready for Red Hat Linux 9 and Debian, but not for SuSE Linux. I love KDE and I wanted to install 3.1.4 but I haven't found RPMs o SRPMs for SuSE Linux. The same happens with GNOME 2.4, OpenSSH, OpenSSL, MIT Kerberos (or Heimdal) for example.
I miss the fast update times of Red Hat. Yeah! I know I can download the sources and compile by myself, but...
Another thing I miss out is the openness in the development cycle of new Red Hat Linux betas. Have you seen the Red Hat Linux Project? I was very disappointed when I was informed that I could not participate on the SuSE Linux 9 Beta. Will this change someday? Will there be a public beta of SuSE Linux 9?
Thanks for listening.
Felipe Alfaro Solana