Why is there no forum for SuSE?????

Why is there no forum for SuSE? Isn't it "major"enough? I would have thought that it was bigger (more users) than Mandrake and Debian....

I think it's pretty safe to say that Debian has way more users than SuSE. Debian is known for superior package management, stabillity, being one of the oldest distros still around, and being the largest non-commercial distro. SuSE is best known for the fact that they don't provide free iso downloads of their installation CDs. Now there are lots of nice things about SuSE, but those factors will obviously have an impact on it's popularity.

That's not really the issue though. SuSE will only get it's own forum is there is enough traffic (posts) to justify it. In comparison to RH, MDK, Debian, etc... SuSE doesn't get a lot of chatter here.

That's just my guess.

I am working with SuSE now to try and get a forum here at LQ.

--jeremy

Originally posted by Greyweather I think it's pretty safe to say that Debian has way more users than SuSE. Debian is known for superior package management, stabillity, being one of the oldest distros still around, and being the largest non-commercial distro. SuSE is best known for the fact that they don't provide free iso downloads of their installation CDs. Now there are lots of nice things about SuSE, but those factors will obviously have an impact on it's popularity. That's not really the issue though. SuSE will only get it's own forum is there is enough traffic (posts) to justify it. In comparison to RH, MDK, Debian, etc... SuSE doesn't get a lot of chatter here. That's just my guess.

We try to make our specific distro forums with a representative of the actual distribution here.

If you search the distro forum or Website Questions and Suggestions, there are many threads explaining our process of adding certain specific distro's to the forums here.

And the last time I checked, SuSE is the most common or used distro after Redhat, as its the most popular among Europe users.

While I can't find any claims to contradict SuSE as Europe's most popular Linux distro, I can't find anything to support it either, on SuSE's website, or anywhere else. I've only seen statements that they are the number two (or three, after RH and MDK) commercial distro.

I have yet to see SuSE beat Debian in any kind of poll or other measure used on the net to deturmine Linux distro popularity.

For example at the Linux Counter SuSE ranks #5, after RH, Debian, MDK, and Slackware.

While I can't call these measures proof, it does indicate to me that at the very least, the Debian online community is larger and more active than that of SuSE, if not the the actual user base.

If I'm wrong that's fine, I just can't find anything that indicates that level of popularity for SuSE.

I am looking forward to there being a SuSE forum though, it's probably my favorite rpm based distro.

Originally posted by trickykid We try to make our specific distro forums with a representative of the actual distribution here.

Oh. Well that makes more sense than my guess, and that's very cool too. I didn't realize you guys did that.

Well, you have to consider that Debian is not like any other distro, its not commercialized. So probably counting their total number of userbase or anything isn't going to be as accurate as someone like SuSe as they can go off sales, etc. That's what makes them bigger, they are an actual company with everything else that makes a company. But I'll search around, cause I know I've seen statistics that they are the number one distro in Europe. I even think TurboLinux was the number one in the Asian market.. its getting more rare in regards to hearing anything about them over here really. At one point I thought they were gone, extinct, but they still coming along, just mainly over in Asia.

There are other distros besides Debian that are not commercialized.

And SuSE sales can't account for everything because not everyone who bought it, kept it. And not everyone who uses it bought it (ftp install, etc).

I wouldn't be surprised if indeed SuSE is the biggest distro in Europe, but that is not the only point to be considerd. As companies venture more willingly into the Linux world, they are not necesarilly jumping into the debian-like distributions, for simple (corporate) reasons such as official technical support for example, something that the biggies do offer. The products SuSE, and RedHat must I say, are rolling out have their "regular"users' share but more importantly a healthy growth in the corporate sector. More and more people will also end up using SuSE and RedHat because just like it was in the 80's, that's what they found installed in their desktops at work. More "hard core" distros will always be popular, but not necesarilly with the BIG PIE SLICE of the market.

Let's get that SuSE forum started!


PS: Jerry, why do you need to get in contact with SuSE to get a forum started?

To make it officially recognized and visited by SuSE. If you notice all the threads with announcements of new Distro forums, they include names of people who, from the distro, will be officially representing that distro and stopping in.

For Example, the RedHat announcement:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=86416

The Mandrake announcement:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=84177

As you can see, the distro forums are officially recognized by the distro's themselves. Jeremy works that out behind the scenes to bring it to us officially from the distro's themselves.

Cool

Cool! We'll be eagerly awaiting.... There's really a lot of SuSE specific stuff that gets diluted away in general forums.

i us suse 8.2, it,s one of my favorites. the online update works great along the yast. some corporations are making a move to it, that is what i read somewere.

*EDIT* I satnd corrected the link is not an Official one. some one told me it was. Oops

I wondered the same thing as this is the distro I bought 8.2 pro. I bought it because I read many forum post and reviews that SuSE was a perfect fit for the NEWBIE Linux user.

I used redhat back when they first came out... and what a hell of time it was that is why I gave up. Now I am very impresssed to see that linux works the way it does. Now I dont know if SuSE is good or bad But I can say that I installed it and it works well. One thing I just found out is that you cannnot use WebMin with Apache in SuSE as they modified (SuSEfied it), and webmin wont work with it.

This is one negative I found so far. Now I dont know if others do the same but, I can always uninstall the default Apache and install a download of the webserver... then maybe it will work. I dont know as I did not try it.

Also I cant get my Sandisk Cruser USB drive to work! Where in RH a user just popped it in and it worked.

I tend to beleave the "popular items" online and in forums are the things that are "free," and this is why other items (things that cost money) dont get the attention as much. Just my thought. But to answer your question I dont think we will see one here.cause they setup their own boardhere I found it the other day.

I been using linux for about a week now and glad that this board is here, as well as their board. Since Its the distro Im using.

After going back and forth a bit with SuSE I am sorry to report that they declined to participate at this time due to a lack of resources. If you'd like to see a SuSE forum here please contact SuSE and let them know that you feel it would be time well spent. I do request that if you contact them you be both respectful and polite. Thanks.

http://www.suse.com/us/company/suse/contact/index.html

--jeremy

I'm going to sticky this so that people will be able to see it easier, and be more enticed to contact their distro.

Cool

Sorry to here that. what is it with SuSE? I thought I did my research well... Now I dunno. although it works well, im wondering if I should have picked another Distro to start with. Sucks I just paid for this!