Very very curious abt Suse 9.3 pro
 

Hi
I'm new to this sea of distros and have been reading a lot abt Suse of late. I have a few simple questions abt Suse 9.3 pro:

1) Is the freely downloadable SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso THE SAME as the 5 CD ISOs?

2) Is the freely downloadable SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso THE SAME as what I'll get when I BUY Suse 9.3 pro?

3) What are the things that I'll MISS if I don't BUY 9.3 pro but use the freely downloadable DVD?

4) Is it that unless I buy it, I won't be able to install new stuff or update my Suse?

5) Suse comes with Java, Flash installed & multimedia codecs installed, right?

6) How good is suse for laptopps?

7) Last but not the least, why do u think Suse 9.3 pro is better than Mandriva?

Thanks a lot.
Plz reply soon:)

Re: Very very curious abt Suse 9.3 pro
 

1) Is the freely downloadable SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso THE SAME as the 5 CD ISOs?

First, don't worry about the word Eval. It is just to emphasize that Novell won't give you any free support with the product. Now, the DVD contains packages for both 64 bit and 32 bit machines. But the 32 bit package is not complete on the DVD, due to lack of space. The 5 CDs are the 32 bit install, and they contain some packages that are not included on the DVD due to lack of space.

2) Is the freely downloadable SUSE-9.3-Eval-DVD.iso THE SAME as what I'll get when I BUY Suse 9.3 pro?

No. The purchaseable DVD is a 9 GB medium which has the full install of both 64 bit and 32 bit.

3) What are the things that I'll MISS if I don't BUY 9.3 pro but use the freely downloadable DVD?

Not much. You either need the 64-bit or the 32-bit. Not both.

4) Is it that unless I buy it, I won't be able to install new stuff or update my Suse?

I'm not sure about this. You can sign up for free at the support forum and ask this question.

5) Suse comes with Java, Flash installed & multimedia codecs installed, right?

Flash yes. Java yes. Multimedia codecs - I'm not sure about MP3, but I know that it doesn't play encrypted DVDs. This is not a problem with SuSE. It's that the formats are proprietary and Novell can't distribute it with SuSE.

6) How good is suse for laptopps?

Donno.

7) Last but not the least, why do u think Suse 9.3 pro is better than Mandriva?

Yeah?

1. The SuSE installer is much better than Mandrake's - I didn't even have the patience to boot Mandrake fully up. When I installed it, it gave me some trouble and I didn't bother to retry. The installer irritated me so much. It wasn't even easy on the eyes. And Mandrake's supposed to be more newbie-friendly than many other distros (which is not totally true).
2. SuSE is the second biggest Linux maker after Red Hat.
3. Personally, I heard Mandrake once went bankrupt. I don't want to use such a company's product.
4. More hardware makers give you SuSE drivers than Mandrake drivers.

I purchased 9.3 and it came with (2) DVDs and (5) CDs. DVD's were more inclusive -- google for details. There is some nonGPL with the purchased and that may be missing in the eval. MP3 support gets loaded as a YOU option. http://cambuca.ldhs.cetuc.puc-rio.br/xine/ will get the codecs and full copies of xine and etc. kmplayer is my favorite front end for video.

#7) KDE 3.4