Hi, I think you make a great choice, because I tried before other distros like RH, debian, etc, but trust me since I am using SUSE I have very good results in everything I am doing and I am less than newbie. Also a very good thing is that you have very good support from the mailing list. I can't recommend you a book because I learn everything on the fly and from personal experience, I mean I mess it up and then I try to fix it by reading the man pages or the mailing list or searching in the internet. But I am sure many people here could recommend you very good books. Jose Filipe Joel de Almeida wrote:

Thank you all for your comments. I have placed a post like this one in some RH lists, and I got no useful answer.

Patrick, thankfully I have nobody telling me what to do (one of the good things in being my own boss), so the reason I posted this question was basically to be sure I wasn't doing a wrong choice.

I plan on starting to use Linux as my desktop system and then starting to use it as a Server to see how can it replace our clients servers. The biggest problem on moving from Windows to Linux is that most clients are small companies with only one server, and almost all of them have some windows apps that need to run on the server, so the server has to be windows :(

As a newbie that I am, I'll need some support in the beginning, and this list is much more "user-friendly" than the red hat ones. Comparing all the comments I got from the lists, I decided that SUSE was definitely the best system to start with, so I already ordered it from amazon together with 2 books, "SUSE Linux Network" and "SuSE Linux Server".

Any of you guys has any other suggestions about good literature that I should read after I finish up these ones?

Filipe Joel de Almeida Network Consultant Filipe.Joel@netcabo.pt

-----Original Message----- From: BandiPat [mailto:penguin0601@earthlink.net] Sent: quinta-feira, 12 de Junho de 2003 16:42 To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: Re: [SLE] Choosing Linux Distro

On Thursday 12 June 2003 09:05, Filipe Joel de Almeida wrote:

...

Hi all,

I've got a company that does Network Administration in several clients, but up until now we've only worked with M$ systems.

I'm starting to use linux (just brought a machine home to install it), and my goal is to try to find out if with Linux we'll be able to replace some of our clients systems.

One of my newbie questions is about what distro should we use. We need something that's not very complicated to start with, but that allows us to implement good server solutions.

Right now I'm trying to choose between Red Hat and Suse. One of my friends (who is a Red Hat fan) told me that he didn't like SUSE because we were a bit dependant on their configuration tools (I think he mentioned YAST).

Can you please tell me if SUSE would be the best distro for me to start with, and why?

Thanks in advance

Filipe Joel de Almeida Network Consultant Filipe.Joel@netcabo.pt

============================ Filipe, If this were a mixed list, I am sure you would get differing opinions for each distro, but it's not, so I am guessing you are leaning toward SuSE as a recommendation. :o)

I would guess that you are searching for valid reasons to present to those in charge to do so though. As many have here I am sure, so have I, given Red Hat a try on some occasion and we stay with SuSE because of that. I like Wayne, find RH to be more cryptic and difficult to install and even use beyond that. I don't think anyone can say it's a bad distro because of that, just more difficult to use in most cases. I live in the Red Hat state here in the USA, so there are many users around my area, I was almost one too when first starting. After reading several reviews on those available though, I chose SuSE. Many of the RH users I have gotten to install SuSE are still with SuSE! Many are new users that have seen both installed and they are still with SuSE, so that indicates much to me. Compare the costs of each Pro package and the contents of each. I think you'll find SuSE to be the best buy there. Consider the support also you will need, in fact sign up on the RH mail list and compare the differences. I haven't, but understand that list to be not as "user friendly" as SuSE's.

Now the pros & cons (in my opinion): SuSE is easier to install and maintain SuSE follows the LSB closer SuSE has YaST2 SuSE & IBM like each other SuSE & Oracle like each other SuSE likes most hardware SuSE can take it's users from small to large, when they are ready SuSE is not Red Hat :o)

Then too, remember, as the old saying goes, you won't get fired for choosing IBM hardware for your shop, so it is for Red Hat too. If you choose RH, you won't get fired as it will work well for you also. RH has proven to be a great Linux server distro and it is used heavily there. I believe their recent attempts at a desktop Linux have not been one of their best moments. They will get there, but if you are looking for both server and desktop, I think SuSE will make your move easier.

Patrick

On 06/13/2003 06:06 AM, Filipe Joel de Almeida wrote:

I plan on starting to use Linux as my desktop system and then starting to use it as a Server to see how can it replace our clients servers. The biggest problem on moving from Windows to Linux is that most clients are small companies with only one server, and almost all of them have some windows apps that need to run on the server, so the server has to be windows :(

Are you sure? We are running a SuSE linux server now for 3 years (started with 6.4) with mostly Windows clients, running several programs through Samba, such as Lotus Smartsuite, Open Office, and a mixed accounting program (Windows clients/Linux server/samba connection [Pervasive DB]). Since I was the one asked to do this, I couldn't use a Microsoft server, both for cost, stability, and security reasons, so we went with Linux. Things are working very well. :-) -- Joe Morris New Tribes Mission Email Address: Joe_Morris@ntm.org Web Address: http://www.mydestiny.net/~joe_morris Registered Linux user 231871 God said, I AM that I AM. I say, by the grace of God, I am what I am.