Hello, I am currently a Fedora Core 1 user. I would, however, like to try out SuSE, as I am doing multimedia work, and here it comes with a lot of useful apps in that area. I'm wondering about SuSE 9.1 Pro: I haven't been able to find it for download, only the box set which costs $90. But can I install it off of SuSE's FTP server? Can I download the 9.1 Pro ISOs anywhere for free (legally)?

Just wondering. I'd go with the personal edition, but I need some of the more advanced tools like Ardour and Jack, and I don't feel like installing all of them if I don't have to.

I believe the answer to that is no.
The FTP install is great with a decent internet connection.

http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/index.html

2damncommon is correct -- it is Suse's official policy NOT to make their installation ISO's* available for download. Any site that claims to offer Suse 9.1 Pro ISO's should be considered as a ripoff artist offering compromised and infected software, just like the guys in New York City who stop you on the sidewalk and offer to sell you a "genuine" Rolex watch for the special price of $10. Yeah, sure, buddy.

Anyway, you definitely can install it via FTP or by downloading the entire installation tree from a mirror and then installing it off the local hard drive (which is what I did). Be warned though, in either case you'll need to download over 3G of data, and even with a fast connection, you might be looking at least 2 or 3 consecutive days of time just dealing with the download. The end result is pretty nice though; I think I'll forever consider Slackware to be the best there is, but I'd say Suse is my definite second favorite.

If you are mainly interested in trying it out, I'd recommend getting the Suse Live-CD, available at any of the Suse mirrors or LinuxISO That will give you a flavor of what Suse is all about. Good luck with it either way. -- J.W.

* Suse does make the Personal ISO available

Thanks, guys. I guess I'll try the FTP install, as I do have a cable modem.

Another thing, though. With SuSE, how is its stability? My machine is a dual AMD MP 2800 box, with 512 MB RAM, and Fedora tends to freeze up once in a while. Anyone know how well SuSE takes to a dual proc box? Would recompiling the kernel on my machine help to make it more stable?

My experience with Suse is that it is very stable. Stability has never been an issue, and the YAST tool makes it easy to keep up with updates (it's basically the exact same thing as up2date in Redhat).

As for dual proc boxes, I can't say because I don't use one, but generally, doing a custom compile is always a good thing since it would be customized specifically for that one machine. You can selectively include or exclude the exact options you want, which is good for both security and performance.

Actually, I'd recommend learning how to do a custom compile, regardless of whether or not you actually decide to use the custom kernel. It's just a good thing to know how to do, and my bet would be that the custom kernel would perform better than the default. What's especially cool about Linux is that you can retain multiple kernels in your boot directory, so even if the recompile fails, you will still have the original working kernel. Maybe I'm a geek but it was really cool to dual boot my custom Slack kernel with the default Slack kernel. Good luck either way -- J.W.

Novell was giving away a variety of SuSe products a while ago. They stopped accepting orders at the moment, but they may continue it in the future (they did it once before already). You could have them contact you when they restart the program.
http://www.novell.com/community/linux/order.php

With a DSL line, download of just about every package I could grab ran overnight. Started at about 8pm, and setup was patiently waiting for me when I awoke at 6am the next morning.

I think I might give the FTP install a try, and then build a custom kernel.

About the FTP install, couldn't I just download all of the files from the FTP server, put them onto a private FTP server on my network, and then install from there? It seems like there would be less of a risk of file corruption that way.

Yes - absolutely. That's what I meant when I said to download the entire installation tree. Sorry I wasn't clearer.

In any event, good luck with it. As I mentioned, I am pretty impressed with Suse 9.1 (not that my opinion really counts all that much) and would encourage anyone interested in trying it out to do so. -- J.W.

Alright, thank you all very much. I'll let you know how this whole thing works out. I plan to install it on a separate, smaller HD, so I don't have to get rid of my Fedora installation if the SuSE installation doesn't work out. But I don't think I'll have a problem. I've used it a bit just today, and it's seems great.

Once again, thanks!

Hi J.W
-- I've posted some comments on SUSE 9.1 Pro --I've got a small office network ( 6 desktops and some dual bootable laptops now running SUSE pro 9.1 (was Windows XP).

We still use a Windows file and print server which will be replaced sooner or later and share the internet via DSL modem and LAN for the desktops and Wireless for the laptops (Linksys WPC54g 54g cards).

My users had no problems using KDE and Open office and none of the client (desk top) boxes have given so much as a squeak of a problem -- unlike BSOD's etc with Windows -- and we've saved a slew of money on licenses.

The Open Office package is near enough WORD and EXCEL to cause no problems with the users and the MS documents can still be read in any case.

Well worth trying if you are looking for a useable PRODUCTIVE distro rather than just fiddling around with it.

I've been playing with different distros for the last month. I think I've found "the one", and it's SuSE 9.1

1kyle -- that's awesome news and you may want to post your comments as a Success Story (a subforum within Linux - General) It sure sounds like a success to me. I am using Suse on a home machine, but my company is gradually moving certain apps to Linux, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Tux will soon be happily sitting on my desktop here at the office too.

darkaudti -- likewise congrats on finding "the one". You definitely made a smart move by trying out several different distros and giving each one an honest evaluation. Too often people will simply post the question "What distro should I use?" and the answer is always the same: it depends on your own needs and preferences, and the only way to find out is to try a variety of them.

In any event, congrats all the way around -- J.W.

Oh, I'm still playing with distros, it's just to the point that I'm going to have to get that second computer to get in some *serius* playtime.

I'm still downloading the SuSE 9.1 pro installation tree... The computer's been on all night. I can't wait to get it all downloaded and installed. Now if only I could convince the tech people at my school to switch to Linux from Windoze, everything'd be cool.