I am currently running SuSE 9.2 on my Toshiba Satellite A70 laptop. It is pretty stable, but I have been thinking it may be time to upgrade. I have been waiting with some anticipation the release of OpenSuSE 10.1. Based on a number of the recent threads in this forum, it appears that 10.1 has some major problems.

To make matters worse, this laptop has ATI graphics (kernel module time) and Atheros wireless (ndiswrapper time according to http://en.opensuse.org/Atheros_ndiswrapper

My question: is it worth the risk?

If you have to ask, in my opinion, it is not worth the risk. Let me add for the record that I see a lot more problems reported here by people using SUSE 10.0 open source versions than with SUSE 10.0 retail (boxed) versions. It could be due to a difference in the relative number of users or the relative stability of the two releases.

SuSE 10.1 is great, except that it's ridiculously unstable. I probably would have stayed with 10.0 if I knew how bad it was.

As far as I know, GTK programs such as Thunderbird and Gaim are liable to crashing at any moment (especially Thunderbird). I have heard similar problems with Firefox and GIMP, but I haven't encountered these yet.

Also, xine seems to crash on spot, whether I'm using amaroK or Kaffeine.

The loss of the seamless wireless networking (atheros) integration was really disappointing. If you like to do multimedia stuff (watch movies, rip and play music etc) and have it nicely configured & working in 10, be prepared to do resolve a host of problems before it will work in 10.1.

I'm sticking with 10, but much as I like Suse I don't like the direction it's going in. So I am looking around for another distro that is more suited to things I want to do on Linux.

Thanks

Maybe you should try 10.0 - it does the wireless stuff nicely. I can't comment on the GFX as I use NVIDIA


regards

The best tool is the one you use. I wouldn't recommend a change unless you need sometime 9.2 doesn't do. For me Linux is as much a learning experience as a tool. My personality thrives on change. I installed 10.1 the day it was released and had some issues which are now for the most part worked out. I do everything with 10.1 that I did with 10.0. The differences in the install and update process are a little disarming. There are definitely changes in this area that I like. Perhaps slower in this area, it also does more but doesn't do a good job of indicating progress is being made. It can seem crashed but it just hasn't gotten to a point where it choses to inform the user of progress. There has been some complaining about a permissions issue during upgrades. I discovered that unlike 10.0, all install repositories are searched for updates. In one example, I installed an RPM from packman. As it turns out, there was a newer version on the distribution media. After completion of the install Zen discovered the "install media update" and signaled an update was available. It then failed to install based on permissions. Remembering YaST runs in root mode, I brought up YaST and searched for the suspect RPM. YaST showed the older packman version as installed and the newer install media version as available. I marked it for update and it was installed. There seems to be some permutations of install actions that should be asking for root password instead of failing. A simple enough change that will be made but not a show stopper since YaST also is available for installs. I also had an issue installing the Nvidia 3D driver but a second attempt was successful. If you're concerned you can dual boot 9.2 and 10.1. That way you are assured something that works and still get the opportunity for, IMHO, impatient whining on the forums.

I have everything working fine in 10.1, I think switching to the "Add On" cd made a ton of changes.. You'll need to add the Add-on CD during install, and be sure it installs Firmware and WIreless networking stuff from add-on then tada.

As for being unstable, IMO your wrong.. although YaST was a step backwards.

NetworkManager and PowerManagement is SO MUCH FREAKING BETTER.

Thanks for all the great advice. A couple more things.

I agree with this philosophy completely. I am definitely from the if it ain't broke, don't fix it school. Having said that, now that there are three releases since mine, I am wondering how much longer YOU sources will continue to receive patches.

Am I likely to get a good feel for 10.1 by trying a live version once that comes out?

Like confused_bof wrote, I am starting to look for another distro. There are so many out there, it is tough to sort them all out. I run slackware on my home desktop computer, so that is a possibility. The initial appeal for SuSE for me was it's reputation for hardware recognition. It was basically install and run. It would take somewhat more effort with slack, but once done it would be stable. One thing I love in SuSE is the profile manager, which is a must for a laptop. I haven't seen anything like this elsewhere.

Why do you use profiles in 10.1?

IMO The networking in 10.1 is OUTFREAKINGSTANDING (sheesh.. I said it above once already).

I do believe there are some patches in need.. not due to security, but functionality.

Well, I use them in 9.2 (which is what I suspect you meant). I use them mostly for different network environments (home [where I need samba], two different offices [where I don't need samba] and disconnected). I do have one profile configured with X at a lower resolution to better accommodate projectors.

I never had any problems until I upgraded to 10.1. In suse 10 all my hardware was recgonized and installed. 10.1 was a pain in the ass to get up and running. I had to edit so many configs to get my pc working again. If anythin go with 10 but stay away from 10.1

I have far from a basic system from both a hardware and software perspective. Without hand editing so much as one configuration file I have it up and running. To load the Nvidia 3D driver I went to the command line and ran "tiny-nvidia-installer." The installer, apparently written by Nvidia and part of the SuSE distribution, selected the correct version of driver for my hardware from Nvidia's site. It compiled and installed the driver even to the extent that it wasn't necessary to run Sax2. Again, no manual editing of configurations files. Even my TV card was recognized and configured with bttv by YaST. I also have a PVR card which requires the ivtv driver that SuSE didn't install for me. 10.0 didn't either. People are free to edit whatever they want and even write C code if they wish. Those actions by definition are user modifications and not subject to SuSE's warrantee or responsibility. I'm not saying this or any other release is perfect and a work around published by the author might even require manual intervention. I am saying, you break it -- you own it.