Suse 9 is a piece of caca.

I've tried it on three machines, all failures. What doesn't work? Where do I begin?

On one machine, the boot loader doesn't work - I have to boot from the installation CD. CD burning doesn't work. Non-Latin fonts don't work. Half the programs I install don't work. 3D video doesn't work. I can't change icons on my KDE bar without being root. Fonts I install don't work properly in most programs.

Second machine: didn't detect ADSL modem. No point in even continuing.

Third machine: one of two CD-ROMs doesn't work. DVD doesn't work. Kaffeine doesn't work. Mplayer installation doesn't work. Most other programs I install - from Suse RPMs - don't work. Can't mount Samba drives. Sound is really crappy. Scroll mouse doesn't work. One installed game locks the system. Evolution sometimes refuses to run for no reason. I can't browse the network shares with the desktop icon.

Tech support sucks. "Oh, we can't help you DESPITE THE FACT THAT YOU PAID FOR SUPPORT unless you buy a more expensive support package...and we can't guarantee we'll help you then either."

I paid money for this?

New Linux users, stay away from Suse.

Sincerely,
Paul

I have 9.0 professional & I'm liking it a little more as I go, the only real problem I have so far is that the words or even the date that are in the menu bar are much smaller than 1/8th of an inch when trying to use icewm so they are very hard to read. I haven't fully tried it out yet though, I have only had it for several days & as this is my first time with SuSe I kinda figured I'd have a little more learning todo. Unforunately I haven't been able to spend as much time on it as I would like either since it's on my testing box, I work all day (10+ hours somedays), & there are 2 other people who always want to use it . This weekend I'll give it a good workout though as on the weekends its all mine

BTW it detected all of my hardware, which is slightly outdated, & my dsl connection was simple to setup. The box is a 400mhz celeron with only 128 mb of ram & with updating to the 2.6 kernel it seems to be running pretty well - again after this weekend though who knows.

EDIT: the menubars in Gnome are just as bad with words & I can't figure out how to change them ...yet
I realize SuSe is geared towards KDE, but this bites if I can't use another window manager without the same problems.

In the interests of balance, I have 9.0 pro running beautifully with no problems at all. Very easy to use (I also put it on an old Athlon machine for my aged - 70s - parents) and maintain.

As they say, your mileage may vary.

I have not yet bought either SuSE or Mandrake, however was now just slightly leaning towards SuSE due to support. I cannot comment for the SuSE offices world-wide, however so far on all pre-sales questions the SuSE team in the U.K. office are very helpful, and by pre-sales it also included tech as I contacted them and listed them every item on my computer and each model number... next day I was contacted with a list of what will and won't work and how to fix the things that won't work.

That's what really got me to like SuSE - as I say I've no idea about the Canada SuSE team, however you really have to remember us people from the U.K. don't put up with anything and are ready to call our solicitor at any moment even if the person on the other end says something I don't like.
Not a fan of Tony Blair, however love the fact he has made it so companies stick to their guns and don't do false advertising and don't claim something which they don't do.

Sent an e-mail to Mandrake, no reply yet - I'd like to support Mandrake however I'm not going to buy a product from a company that doesn't offer support unless I join their "club". Not very pleased with pre-sales from Mandrake, I'm going to wait another 48 hours before I call them... then I won't accept less than a 12 hours response, I'm a reasonable man - I do understand the French have five days lunch and only work two hours out of the week... but you need to draw the line somewhere.


Paul, contact the SuSE Linux team in the U.K. - but remember, treat them like you expect them to treat you, the golden rule when dealing with companies in the U.K., when I contacted them I sent it from my official company address, etc. and did everything how I'd contact a supplier or something to order so many of this or that. Always use correct grammar, etc. and always use perfect spelling - they're adults, they're professionals; they cannot understand when someone talks like anything less since they're only used to dealing with people whom act like professionals. Act nice, never swear, never use caps, always keep calm when contacting them - it may actually do the trick.

Good luck!

hey paul, one question, how long did you spend trying to fix these issues? i have been using suse 9 since it came out and have had no problems at all. i have a duron 1.3, 512 ram, 15gig drive, nvidia quadro card, on board nic and sound, usb mouse and keyboard, cd-rom burner, everyting works fine. i'm not going to assume you did no troubleshooting or even looked here for help, but a lot of what you are complaining about sounds like things that could be fixed. i have not every called or contacted them for support. all the help i have ever needed i have found here.

IMHO SuSE 9 Pro is by far the best comercial distro i have ever used. what other distros have you tried?

Ditto here. (FTP version, not pro.)
Hopefully you ( paul_m_d) will feel better after your rant and learn to work through the difficulties you have encountered. Generally, the things you have mentioned are very fixable.
It is sometimes overwhelming when working with something new.
Good Luck.

eBopBob: There's a huge difference between Suse's sales team and their tech support. Tech support seems to be centralized out of their headquarters in Germany. You have to fill out an online form with your registration number and a description of the problem. 3-5 days later, you get a canned response "we won't help you on this issue, consider another support package blah blah." I think they spent more time telling me they wouldn't help than it would have taken to fix the problem.

By the way, there is no Suse presence at all in Canada, as far as I can tell.

jsmarshall85: I have spent nearly a month trying to fix the issues on machine #1, with no success. Machine #3, about a week now. If it was Windows 98, I'd be up and running smoothly within hours.

2damncommon: I'm sure my problems are fixable! The problem is newbies like me can't figure it out. For my font problem, I even asked on the Suse mailing lists for help. Most of the suggestions were to install fonts I already had installed. I did extensive searches here, on Suse's support database, and elsewhere for all my other problems, and found no solutions.

Anyway, for the lucky few of you that can run Suse smoothly and don't have to deal with tech support, that's terrific. Searches on Google, suseforum.com, and on this website reveal, however, that plenty of other users are having the problems I'm having. I think it would pragmatic and ethical of me to warn new Linux switchers. At least Mandrake lets you download ISOs for free to find out if their software will work. And Mandrake 9.2 on my laptop is my only Linux success story so far.

If I'd wanted to be screwed over by an OS company, I'd have stuck with Windows.

Paul

well i certainly feel for you paul, i know i was frustrated the first time i ever installed any version of linux. there are ways to get suse without paying for it (i mean the ftp install process, not illegally) to try out before you spend any money

sorry you have had a bad experience with suse and hope (and im sure) you wont get turned off to linux by this. it seems that ever since novell announced they were buying suse (and that went final on Jan 13) their support has gone downhill. but we can only hope that gets better. like i said before, the only place i've ever needed to go and have gotten great help is sites like this one as well as others

Putting SuSe 9.0 on my other box now & hope I don't have any other problems - if icewm doesn't work then I give up. So far on my other box I've been happy & am likely to put SuSe on there instead of my outdated redhat.

Installs perfectly fine on a new Dell.

paul_m_d did you check to see if you hardware was compatible before you installed or did you just install without checking?

I really enjoy SuSE 9...it's the easiest time I've ever had with Linux.
I agree about their packages, though....quite a few of them seem like they were poorly compiled and not tested. But downloading and installing the latest source of an application instead usually proves much more successful

Yes, my hardware is compatible.

I'm glad it's working for some of you guys. But I'm 0-for-3, so that should be a big warning to new Linux users who don't want to buy a distro and then have to recompile and reconfigure everything anyway.

Paul

!!! NEWS FLASH !!!
I tried Mandrake Linux "Linux for Windows" 6.5 and it did not support my video card. The screen was 4 times the size it should be and looked like a washed out cartoon.
Except for the few people that it worked well for, I suggest everyone else stop using it.
I tried Red Hat 7.0 well after Suse 6.4 supported my video card and it did not support it by default.
Except for the few people that it worked well for, I suggest everyone else stop using it.
I tried Slackware 7.1 and it could not connect to the internet. Why should a newbie be required to input a modem string anyway!!!
Except for the few people that it worked well for, I suggest everyone else stop using it.
I tried Mandrake 9.0 and it could not access my floppy or CD until a default program was disabled. The update manager would also freeze on occasion.
Except for the few people that it worked for, I suggest everyone else stop using it.
I tried the IPCop firewall version 1.3 and it would fail to install no matter how many times I tried.
Although the advice to install an earlier version worked I suggest that except for the few people it worked for, everyone else stop using it.
I tried the Knoppix "run Linux from CD" and it works on every computer I have tried it on except one. Actually it is a friend trying it and no matter what options I suggest, it always fails.
Except for the few people it worked for, I suggest everyone else stop using it.
Ummmm....
Ad Infinitum.

!!! AND IN OTHER NEWS !!!
If you are trying any Linux distro for the first time it may not be all roses.
Actually, if you are trying any new operating system at all, it may not be all roses.

So beware you upgraders from Windows 98 to Windows XP.
Beware you upgraders from SCO Unix to Linux.
Beware you upgraders from Linux to Solaris.
Beware you upgraders from Theos to Windows.
Beware ye all....


!!! ON A MORE SERIOUS NOTE !!!
I am sorry you have had or continue to have problems with your Linux installations, paul_m_d.
On this bulletin board, where half the members have things running fairly well, and half are struggling with something at any given time, concrete suggestions or information are more useful than just calling stuff cr** and issuing warnings.
The more appropriate venue is to attempt to post more consise information than "it doesn't work".

I wish you luck whether you decide to hang around or not.

I've had good luck with SuSE 9.0 Professional. Overall, hardware detection went very well. The only downsides were that DMA modes were turned off for my CD/RW and DVD-ROM by default, and that it can't find my game port. The first problem was fixed easily enough by changing the settings in KDE Control Center. The second is still not resolved, although I think it is because it can't autoconfig my MPU-401 port... it asks for a number, and I dont know what kind of number to give. If i really cared that much, I'm sure this could be fixed too.

I switch between KDE and Fluxbox, and both work very well... Gnome worked terribly as installed from the SuSE disks. But I'd heard that SuSE's gnome support was not very good anyway. It is definitely a KDE-centric distro, but seems to have good support for lighter window managers, and a poor gnome implementation.

As for RPM installs, I've mostly stopped using YOU, and switched to apt4rpm for most things. I'll check YOU once in a while, but only for things like kernel updates... and eventually it all gets mirrored to the sites in my sources.list anyway. I figure if you want to be bleeding edge, why the hell are you running SuSE anyway...

-Nevereverend Slaine