Hi folks. I've been using Mandrake for awhile now, but I would like to change distros because Mandrake 10.1 official is not working out for me.

My question is is installing SuSE easy? Can it automatically detect hardware like my Audigy sound card, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro video card, and my external USB hard drive? How user friendly is it compared to Mandrake, if any of you have tried it? And, is SuSE 9.2 Professional available to the public, or is that only available by purchasing only? How much is it and when is it coming out?

Well I have found Suse much easier and straight forward to set up than Mandrake.

You should have no problems with your soundcard or the external hard drive. I think that you will need to download and install the driver for your video card from the ati website.

Suse 9.2 is officially released from next week. Have a look at your nearest amazon website for the price.

Assuming that you will be installing Suse from the official installation CD's or DVD's, it's no harder or easier than any other distro. Suse does have good hardware detection abilities, and personally, I think it's a great distro. Good luck with it -- J.W.

So it does cost money to download SuSE 9.2 when it comes out? I'm a little confused as how it works. There is a SuSE Professional and a personal edition? What's the difference?

Micro420,

The 9.1 Personal Edition lacked alot of the need functionality found in the 9.2 Pro version. Newbies really had great problems. There will be no 9.2 Personal edition, only the Pro.

I suck at linux, but I just installed suse 9.1 personal and it went uber smoothly. It detected my radeon 9600 all-in-wonder so I don't think I would worry too much about your card.

you don't HAVE to pay for SuSE Professional versions... they just don't offer the ISOs..

"How do I install it?" you ask....

They offer it for install via FTP... you download a small bootable ISO (about 35 MB or so I think) burn that to a disc... then start your installation... you need to specify the IP address of the ftp server you intend to use.. (just pick any mirror, generally the closer in distance the better)

It sound a little difficult but it's really not at all.. If you want to use CDs or DVD to install it than you need to go buy the box.. which is about $90

Not too much when considering everything you get!

And yes SuSE is VERY VERY EASY TO INSTALL!!

And it doesn't even have any of those pesky problems that mandrake does... (i.e. - dependancy hell... )

Looks like you've been to Mandrake and back!
Nothing wrong with Mandrake, as Mandrake 9.1 was perfect for me. Unfortunately, I was stuck at Mandrake 9.1. 10.1 is just a nightmare so I advise people to avoid it.

I think I will give SuSE a try. I wish I had known about it a lot sooner because I already purchased my Mandrake 10.1 for $132 through their club membership.

Ouch.. yes.. I ran Mandrake 10 on my notebook for about... oh.. 6 hours...

The install was nice though.. lol..

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised by SuSE.... Can you sell-off.. or transfer mandrake subscriptions?? perhaps to a friend/relative.. Some way to put it to good use... I have purchased the boxed copy of SuSE 9.0 and 9.1 Pro.. I will probably purchase 9.2 also.. I recommend you do the same.. you get the subscription to the SuSE portal and stuff... but it's not like RH where you you get no updates if you don't pay... lol.. you just get better customer care if you purchase a license... But by all means... use the download version first to make sure you like it.. you could even download the live-Eval disc.. which the 9.1 was very cool in my opinion..