I used to use SUSE Linux about 8 years ago, and I loved it. But in 8 years I'm sure many things have changed. I am thinking about moving from Ubuntu to OpenSUSE when the new release comes out. The reason that I want to do this is because Ubuntu has basically made it impossible to install software or updates for those of us on a dial-up connection. I can be connected via my USB modem as I am now, but Ubuntu doesn't consider it a network connection and will not let me install software or do updates normally.

My question is: If I connect to the internet via a dial-up connection, will SUSE see this as a network connection or will it tell me that I am offline when I am actually online?

One more question: Is OpenSUSE a resource hog? By this I mean, if I am running KDE does it use more resources (memory, CPU, etc.) than other distributions also running KDE? Apparently, Ubuntu has significantly expanded its hunger for resources in the last couple of releases.

Thanks.

Are you saying that you can be connected and access websites and read your e-mail, but you cannot install SW?

As for your specific question---it's not the distro that hogs resources---it is the choice of programs (eg the choice of window manager or desktop environment) and the amount of "fluff" that is installed /enabled. You can tweak any distro to be more efficient.

ANY Linux system will be frustrating when you have a slow connection.

Good news first: Since the past eight years OpenSuse has just gotten better. The OpenSuse team really works to make everything as close to perfect as possible. IMHO OpenSuse is better than Ubuntu and Fedora put together.
Bad news: Is it a memory hog? Well, I have been working with slackware and so everything seems to be a memory hog to me . But I believe OpenSuse is _a lot_ better than Ubuntu.
BTW if you are using the computer for computer for desktop use I can recommed Vector Linux (small, fast and efecient) if you want to use it for development then use Slackware (the nirvana - install it once and just get everything working).

Note that the next release has been delayed by about a month to September (at the last count, and as far as I remember).

It should always be possible to do this. It might mean that you have to manually force the dial up connection before the software can be manually provoked into grabbing an update, which would be inconvenient. Whatever, the auto-updater applet is might struggle, though.

KDE is a resource hog (KDE 4.x, depending on version, etc, etc), particularly if you don't take steps to minimise its resource usage. Some distros probably have different defaults to others, but if you are prepared to go around turning things off that you don't need or want, there probably isn't much difference.

I am a fan of Suse and Opensuse. The OS seems to support servers well. The Susestudio has saved me on some odd situations since I am behind a firewall.


The ubuntu software deal should not be an issue. It should allow you to use any connection.

Thanks everyone for the replies.


Yes, I'm aware of that. I will limp along with Ubuntu until then.


The problem is that everything goes through the network manager in Ubuntu, and there is no provision for a dial-up connection or modem in the network manager in Ubuntu 12.04. Hence, even though I can connect to the internet with Gnome PPP (and even use Chromium), the system thinks it is not connected. I've posted this on several forums and usually I get the response "I feel sorry for you for having to use dial up" but I get no help. In order to install software from the repository or updates, the system has to know that it is connected which it doesn't because of the stupid network manager.

That's is why it is important for me to know if the network manager in SUSE is so controlling or if there even is a network manager in SUSE. There wasn't when I used it in the past but, as has been pointed out, many things have changed.

I loved OpenSUSE when I used it in the past. The only reason that I stopped using it is because my ISP at the time (when I lived where broadband was available) did not support Linux and I didn't have the time to configure it myself so I just used Windows. However, I had a catastrophic failure of Windows and decided to come back to Linux. I only installed Ubuntu because OpenSUSE did not produce a new version since November 2011.

Ah, ha! I hadn't realised that NM was the issue. By now, NM is the default with openSUSE, but you don't have to use it - I am currently using WiCD instead (which is very similar, but may have some different options), but there is still the option of the traditional ifup/ifdown style. I'd have thought that the ifup/ifdown networking was still available in any distro, but how you configure it to work that way may well be a bit, err, interesting.

I just downloaded both the kde and gnome live cd's from distrowatch today. Both ran well in a vm.

Yep, NM is the problem.

I gather by what you wrote that it isn't such a problem in SUSE and I can simply not use the network manager. That's good to know. I think I will definitely be going back to SUSE when 12.2 comes out.

I'm sorry to see that many of the Linux distributions are trying to be like Windows or Mac and giving up their flexibility. Linux has the command line at its heart, and while GUI is nice, sometimes the old way is the most flexible.

12.2 rc1?