SuSE 9.1 Personal ISO vs. 9.1 Retail vs. FTP Install
 

Whats the difference, is there even one? I ask because im thinking about getting the retail boxed 9.1 personal and im not sure if im just spending $30 on the same 1 cd i download off linuxiso.org w/ a "pretty" box and manual. What of the ftp install is that the pro or what. Im new to SuSE i had used RedHat/Fedora for some time and Slack as well and im just trying to find the best. And one more thing how is it i can get slack to run smooth w/o any problems but i can't even debian install? But any help would be great.

About the SuSe distros issue:
With the Iso you will just get the boot cd to start the ftp installation. The Retail version gives you all the packages on cd, so installation is much faster and checking out software too. If you are new to SuSE, the manual is worth the 30 bucks (at least the german one, but the english version should be +- the same), on the other hand, if you know redhat, slack you can use SuSE without manual for sure.

The Professional Edition is the "full" distro and has everything - including Nvidia drivers and MS fonts. The Personal Edition is less full, but contains some proprietary software as in the Pro edition. The previous refers to the retail box sets (support your distro and Linux by buying distros).

The download is for the Personal Edition, it is likely to not have the proprietary software. This will then probably be downloaded during the YAST update. Ditto for the ftp install.