a bit extreme, but correct, until linux works right out of the box, it will never achieve the massive userbase that
micro&oft has.
i understand that most linux users today are geeks, but thats not the case for the majority of computer users, they don't care about anything that doesn't work.
look at your experiences, and remember were you came from......windows i'm sure.

It does work out of the box when you run a clean install. DUAL BOOT was his problem.

dual booting can be a problem alright, but my original post was in refering to linux
distros in general. that is, even with a clean install most newb's find that its not so easy to use linux....

I agree with the above comments but to be fair on the writer of the article installing SuSE by FTP is a real pain. I tried it last year with 9.1, firstly it failed to detect my ethernet card so i was kicked into a curses application to select the right module. Then it took about 40mins to load the initrd (a 50Mb download) at which point I could choose the install settings. All in all it took almost a day to get it installed. The pauses mentioned while installing are probably caused by downloading the packages before installation, in 9.1 it didnt report the download progress when installing by FTP but did report the progress of the actual installation of the packages, it looks like this hasnt been fixed yet.
Currently I'm using 9.2 and I seem to have a knack for finding the exact revision of a piece of hardware which doesnt work properly (my SMC2835W v3 wlan card was misdetected as a prism chipset (v1+2 were prism, but v3 is frisbie)).

That said, the writer seems to be slating SuSE because he actually had to do something and take responsibility rather than letting the computer make decisions on his behalf and then blaming the software when something goes wrong.

One last little point, the writer seems to complain about having to download and install the nvidia driver, but you have to do that on windows too.

This guy is an idiot. I agree, SuSE may not work perfect out of the box, but neither does Windows. Alot of people, like this idiot, complain that Linux in general is hard to install. Yea, it's tough the first time. But if you stop and look back at the first time you installed Windows, is it any tougher?
It took me several attempts and several formats to figure out how to install Windows, many years ago. And it was no suprise to me that when I started working with Linux, that it also took me several attempts to get things working right. Just my 2 cents...

I dunno, may be he never installed a MS-DOS before ... I think that a debian install is the right thing for him )

by the way, I' using both windows & Linux (I'm trying to make my wife quit windows and work on Linux at home ... and me too) and must admit that being a OS terorrist or partisan is no use, must take them as they come and use them as they must.

I never had a MAC, but I'll be glad to try out MAC OS X for few months

All things considered, I'm not surprised that this type of misplaced/airhead propaganda continues to be common. I'm sure that many Linux converts have been following all the incredible nonsense associated with the SCO/IBM lawsuit. It's simply OUTRAGEOUS that MicroCrap continues to use the U.S. legal system as their own personal tool of intimidation and manipulation. SCO had absolutely NO products and NO real customers. Then, right out-of-thin-air, MS gives them a big pile of $$$ for some very vague reason, then MS convinces certain investors to throw SCO a lot more money, a bank in Canada acts as a "blind" overseer for a lot of this stuff, and hardly any of the magazine/media tech or financial writers have a clue as to whatz been going on.

The point is, there are a LOT of magazine and other media hacks who have been *strongly* encouraged to "toe the MicroCrap line". The same thing happens in the financial world as well. There are TONS of media/stockbroker types who are incredibly ignorant, yet they like to portray themselves as knowledgeable "insiders" who know what is best for the rest of us.

Having over 20+ of commercial programming experience, including 9+ with MicroCrap operating systems, I became absolutely fed-up with the ridiculous things that I was forced to do as the result of the extreme and hostile way MS operates its business. I was sick of having to fight the MicroCrap registry each and every day, and having to perform virus checks and disk frags constantly are just a few more examples of the dreary way of life that MS likes to cram down peoples' throats.

As for the article itself, the author certainly did a very poor job of posing as an "objective" observer. SUSE Linux continues to improve, and I have had no problems with installing the two versions I have used. I well remember the day when a buddy of mine first showed me Red Hat Linux that was running on his laptop. I was absolutely stunned; I had been locked into the miserable MicroCrap world for so long, I had no earthly idea that there really was any other alternative. Once I saw that, my brain, for the first time in many years, began to long for complete freedom from the brutally monopolistic ways of MS.

My experience with installing Linux has only gotten easier. I started with Red Hat 7.3, and *did* grind to a halt during installation. After trying un-successfully to get any help from the Red Hat support folks, I just started over and everything went fine. Then, when Red Hat made the really DUMB move to officially ignore the regular workstation/desktop market, I looked around and decided that SUSE was the best choice.

A completely new install of SUSE 9.0 went flawlessly, and I just finished a major upgrade by doing a full, new installation of SUSE 9.3 Professional. It was REALLY straightforward, and the folks at Novell/SUSE have really made it a smooth process. The installation GUI was very nice and easy to understand, and I experienced no "show stoppers" of any kind. My Dell (Pentium III, Coppermine) computer, which originally came with WinDoze 2000 Pro pre-installed, has been having no problems with Linux. And the newest 9.3 from SUSE is the best yet.

So, don't be surprised if we continue to see LOTS of acrid and misleading media articles which give a highly distorted view of any robust version of Linux. The folks at MicroCrap know good and well that any reasonably intelligent human being will opt for a good distro of Linux once they really get a good taste of it. I simply cannot tell you how miserable my life became as I was forced to use the newer versions of MicroCrap's "best" OS for the professional programming world. Nothing but continued headaches and un-solvable problems due to the highly buggy design of their bloatware.

Rock on, Linux Penguins, rock on! The only thing that really does threaten to stop the huge momentum that Linux has is for companies/politicians/lawyers to use the law as a manipulative tool to stop technical innovation and excellence. As we all know, whenever MicroCrap has to compete honestly, without all their behind-the-scene political/payoff tactics, they get their heinies kicked 99% of the time. Thus, it shouldn't be surprising that media propaganda will always be one of their prime methods of spewing thier F.U.D. whenever possible.

SUSE Linux 9.3 is going to be a very successful release. Guess all the magazine hacks will just have to quit and find themselves another job doing something actually useful, for a change. Like going into vinyl repair, for instance. :-))

You guys do realize that the inquirer isn't necessarily the most reliable source for reviews right?

I realize that but it was a good chance for me to call someone an idiot. It's not often I can call someone an idiot...