One formative day in my development as a customer of linux (i.e., newbie) was when I spent $60 for CD's from Novell. There was no fraud in the transaction, but I guess somehow I got the idea that I was paying for SLED when instead I got openSUSE. Or somehow, after downloading openSUSE and playing with it for months, I erroneously thought that I would get something more (ie., the equivalent of SLED) if I were to pay $60 for a set of CD's.

Sometimes in my frustrations with roll-your-own distros (which I include ubuntu in this category) I wonder if my life would have been simpler if I just paid $50-200 for a professional license to one of the big-boys distros (SLED, RHEL) instead of goofing around with Knoppix, ubuntu, openSUSE, or Fedora.

I've done things like "destroy" a distro install AFAICS by means of installing my own video driver. When it happens, I get furious at the roll-your-own nature of the distro (yes, even ones like ubuntu). I'm willing to learn and tinker, but eventually, I have to do work (albeit hobby work) that is not in the field of OS development. Eventually the computer has to be a tool and not an all-consuming hobby.

So when would you advise someone to shell out cash? Are the professional versions completely free of any and all drivers issues?

Novell sells both a boxed version of openSuSE 10.2 & SLED 10 with a subscription. I think you accidently picked the former.

SLED is good if you want direct technical support from Novell, otherwise just download the freely avaliable 10.2

http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/howtobuy.html

However, if you do have issues with drivers, I'm sure there are many people that have asked the same question. Just make sure to include what type of video card you are using and there should be a solution to the problem.

The "professional" versions still have their own issues with drivers just like any other distro. Since you've paid money, you usually get someone to help you with your issue if it's something that can be easily fixed.

I would suggest if you are looking for a workstation or something to do your work on, spend some time getting your OS installed and setup and then don't tinker with it beyond what is needed. Don't update to the bleeding edge versions of software that maybe buggy. If there's not something in the video driver update that you need for work, don't run out and install a new driver just because one was released.

Of course it's fun to tinker, but you might want to consider tinkering on a secondary system and leaving your work system for work until you know how to fix your tinkering if it goes wrong.