I do not mind OS that is bloated, but I do mind OS that failed on me 4 BIG times... When I bought my new (not so new now) laptop first ting I did was install openSUSE (I believe it was 11.3 or .2) It was great... then I wanted to install Windows 7... interestingly I couldn't format my drive (???). I don't know why nor how, but I doubt it had something to do with the hardware, because I've been installing new OS every now and then and have never had issues with the partitioning (and formatting) except that one time with openSUSE. Second time instead of one Win 7 installation GRUB showed 3 of them which was weird. Third time it messed up my MBR due to fail during installation... I can't remember what was the 4th disappointment... I'm sure for some people openSUSE is perfect, but it looks like I'm not one of them (unfortunately, because it seems like the distribution that I'm looking for)

What is the openSUSE release cycle and life time?

Thank you, and best regards!

that is VERY normal for Microsoft
MS dose NOT own the copyright nor patents on the opensource formats so the install dvd dose not even see nor read the NON Microsoft drive format

for that you need to use a FREE GPL tool like Gparted live cd and format the drive to a NOT gpl MS owned NTFS format
this is VERY normal for Microsoft software .One that MS will NEVER even try to fix
this is one of the reasons that MS is refereed to as the "star trek " BORG"

grub can and will add an entry for an existing MS install and set it up for you ( Microsoft will NOT )
also as a precaution grub and linux distros KEEP spare and WORKING back ups of the kernel
Just in case , for emergencies .

the 3 back ups are a standard and is normal .

that is in the wiki and in the opensuse documentation
http://en.opensuse.org/Lifetime

12.1 is current

It sounds to me like your wireless needs a non free driver to work; this would be why Debian enabled that repo. CentOS and Fedora are very strict on non-free software and you'll have to enable the appropriate repos your self, and as for Opensuse, it would be a similar procedure.


I actually tried out Salix for the first time about a fortnight ago. I found i personally prefer Slackware. Your problem is because of the file "/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/disable-composite.conf" which is not in Slackware. You can fix this by becoming root and If you are using intel graphics, you will also want to remove your xorg.conf file.

Opensuse has a reputation for being bloated. It makes no sense from me. The installer is very flexible and you can drastically slim it down if you go into the details at the final install options.

Opensuse is perhaps my favorite distro, and i find your reasoning; not just for Opensuse but most things in this thread unjustified. You don't seem to be attempting to resolve your issues but more so, run into a problem and attempt to solve it by trying a different distro.

Distro reviews are in Distro Reviews

http://www.linuxquestions.org/review...page/15/sort/7

I didn't have any problems deleting Ubuntu, Salix and Slackware partitions using MS tools, just openSUSE... that worried me. Like you suggested I also had to use Gparted to delete openSUSE partitions...
I understand why Linux backs up the kernel and leaves it as a precaution, but none of other Distros showed 3 Windows options at boot. If that was for security reasons, I might try openSUSE again but if I don't like Mepis.

True... I have Broadcom B43 wireless chip (unfortunately).
Kubuntu, Fedora are too buggy... PCLOS doesn't have 64 bit edition. CentOS requires a lot of work (even more than Debian) to make my wireless to work. I just want something that works out of the box (or almost out of the box) like openSUSE, Ubuntu, Mint etc... I gave openSUSE 4 chances (and most likely I will give it 4 more chances if I don't find anything else). Why is that so wrong?

Yeah... Sorry for that! I even searched the google entering your name and "kubuntu review"