I burned the iso onto CD, but it's not bootable. What am I supposed to do next? I was on SuSe's ftp, read the readme, and was hella confused. Said something about downloading also some extra floppys. My configuration is a P4 1.8 system. Am supposed to go a CD-R app such as nero and create a boot iso from some DOS disks or something? I would really like to learn suse as well, since alot of peeople are saying positive things about it. is it true since it's german made, it's like the bmw of linux distrros? Like it was made to have integrity? I know if I got the boot.iso to boot I read I would be entering the ftp address and be downloading from them. My next question is if I download from them during the initial install, will I be able to burn the setup files?

Well, I wouldn't say it's the BMW of Linux distros, but it does have it's own way of doing things (this could be good or bad). Here's a sort of "low down" on the SuSE FTP install:
You download a floppy .img file and make a bootable floppy from it with something like rawrite.exe on RH disc or in Winbloze...
Then you bootup to the install phase, and input the ftp address
It gets the files, installs them as you wish, and then boots your system. You don't "keep" a copy of all the files it uses (sort of like if you download and RPM, install it, then delete the RPM file), but it does install the program etc. If you downloaded an .iso then it probably is either 1) A LiveEval (meaning it runs from the CD and doesn't save your settings and such, just to let you see what you COULD have) or 2) I believe it releases an .iso from versions older than 2 versions before the current release. So 7.1 (if there was one... and a 7.3 was their last, not too sure, just a guess) would be the release that they would have .isos for now.

If i have to do the floppy, whats the use for the boot iso for then? I'm like really enticed to do this SUSE 8, but one thing sucks, I can't save the RPM's? That means I constantly need net access. Thats ok I guess, since I've heard the controversy on this subject matter.

I heard the Net install of SUSE leaves out a few programs, like DVD playin. I can just dl the xine package from the homesite rite? Is there alot of functional software being demoted? I would like to test drive this puppy. If there is demoted software I can always download them from the respectives site?

Is it true that SuSE is a good platform to learn Linux?

I believe that any platform is good to learn the beginnings of linux in, but I don't think SuSE is really good about teaching you the fundemantals of Linux. It sort of hides the system from you, not nearly as bad as Winbloze, but it still does. You can make any distro into whatever type of linux machine you'd like, slaughter it down to a 30mb distro, or go at it with a full force 120GB of info distro. But to just get away from Winbloze and into something that eventually will lead you to a better way of computing, Yes I think SuSE is a good way to go.

Yes, it does leave out a few programs, mostly commercial apps though. Some of the commercial apps (ex. RealPlayer) are available for d/l for you for free anyway, so yes, just like you said, you can go to the respective site and get the file there. I think it does come with Xine however mplayer is better anyway, and that is a different thread/argument altogether.
You don't 'constantly need net access' just during the setup. And after that to get updates and such, but that is usually how it goes with any distro.
Not too sure about the boot iso, it's probably so you can use a CDROM to boot with instead of a floppy, and maybe they put a few more drivers on it since you are using a 650/700mb disc to do the work of a few 1.44mb floppies.

Probably the best premade distro I have used so far to "help me learn linux" is Slackware. It's hard to learn for a newb sometimes, but it teaches you linux like throwing you into a country where you do not natively speak the language, you learn real quick. But to make things easy on yourself, I would suggest picking an easier distro, something RPM based like SuSE Redhat or Mandrake.

MasterC, heheheh. I'm installing it right now, err from yast, it's downloading from an .edu at the moment. Something like 2 hours something dang. Imma let it finish, but I was wondering if I was able to ftp the entire 8.0 directory and burn onto CD would that work the next time I boot? I mean would YAST work or detect the contents of my custom CD of the entire downloaded folder It seems the floppys are good if someone didn't have a cd-rom, but would need mad tcp/ip power, err I mean bw/broadband. Alot of people are saying this distro is nice in a sense it's stable and has some nice graphix to go along. If I'm gonna like it, well then Imma buy it. Oh and I thought mplayer doesn't do DVD's. If it does do I need to be downloading codecs/plugins and stuff? I'll go with slackware once I get the hang of updatin drivers, compiling, command lines and all. I heard with slack it's not all that hard if you know your own hardware. Well I know my hardware since I built da builty. (Owns a Cooler Master 210/Verdant Green Case, Laff). So once I get to the point of being comfortable that I know my sh_t with RH and SuSe, Slack is next on the list.

Cool, that's a really good idea, like stepping stones along the way. Mplayer does do DVD, the thing people seem to "have problems with" about mplayer is that it's command line (there is a gui, but it's alpha type software, but seems to work fine). There isn't much additional codec d/l and stuff, but you can get whatever codec you use most and place it in specific directories that mplayer will check. 2 that come to mind are divx4linux and the w32codecs. No plugins really though, it's an excellent program once you get it running. About YaST using a ROM instead of an FTP server, I don't know how, but I see your point. If you could instead point YaST to /dev/hdc it could find the files faster and go. I am guessing it's worth a try, but to d/l and burn to a CD would be as fast as to d/l during the install. The draw back I guess being if you were planning on reinstalling several times.

Yes, it does seem to be pretty stable, SuSE does seem to put out a solid product. And graphics is their specialty from what I've seem so far. Everything is done through the gui it seems like, that's why I am hesitant to say that it will "teach" someone how linux works. But it's definitely not a bad distro. Heck, I use it

The 16MB boot.iso will create a bootable CD (you have to use Nero or CD creator and create image from .iso) that you use to configure the install be it ftp, nfs or whatever. As far as downloading the SuSE 8.0 directory, it's about 5Gb. I have done it and by netwoking my windows PC I have done the install. It goes much faster than a true network install. I would get errors where the install could not find the files on the ftp site. I kept clicking try again many many times before I finally got all the packages loaded. Once it's loaded it works very well and has lots of goodies.
SuSE of course does not post the full install as .iso files on their website. Actually they do for SPARC processors.

When burning a bootable iso, make sure you've set it to be bootable (in your burning program options).

Ahhh, no wonder, I got the boot part in Nero, but what do I choose a the source of boot? Do I put in a Linux boot disc? or a DOS disk? or does it matter? BTW is there a way to edit the suse boot diskettes menu system? Like for instance first line is to install, I would like to have boot from os instead on the first line. This way when it times out it goes to boot first.

You choose the source in BIOS. You boot your machine, press 'del' during memory count/test. Then there are different BIOSes. In most of them it's in menu with name similar to 'Advanced options'. The option you're searching for is 'Boot Sequence' or something similar. Consult your mobo manual whan in doubt.

No in nero, it asks for a type of boot disk to enable the cd-rom too boot, which do I put in, a dos or linux disk?

I think it does not matter. Boot disk is a boot disk... Or maybe I still don't understand what you mean.