--->SuSE Linux 7.3 Review<----
 

I heard lots of great things about SuSE 7.3 and unfortunatly they wont let you download the ISO's so i went to best buy and bought the personal edition for $39.99, which is very expensive since it only comes with 3 cd's. Anyways, i brought it home and popped the cd in.

Installation automatically asks you which method you which to install it with, choices are text, graphical 640x480 through 1024x768. I chose 1024x768 and hit enter. The install was VERY easy, and the installation programs guides you through every step. I used Rieser filesystem too, and its working good (i think).

First bootup was great, fast, clean, probably alittle bit faster than Mandrake 8.1. SuSE has tools to automatically install hardware and stuff which i found kinda annoying as i already had gotten used to the console way of editing XFree86 files manually. But then again it was just a few clicks and my X-Server was setup great so i'm not complaining.

Software Packages? well to tell you guys the truth i wasn't impressed as to what they give you, especially since you have to pay for it i would have expected more than what Mandrake 8.1 offers. Well i did Full Install and i still got less software than mandrake 8.1 gave me. It wasn't a big deal to me, i just downloaded the tarballs and installed all the extra software i needed (i.e. Licq client).

Documentation that comes with the package is superb IMO. It comes with two books named Configuration, and Applications and in addition to that a Quick Install Manual. These two books cover just about everything you need to get up and running, and much more.

All in all, i would give this distro a 8.5/10 points becuase of the lack of software and steep price. But then again...you get what you pay for and SuSE Linux is a quality distro which you can tell has alot of work put into it.

the price isn't at all steep, it's inline with all the other boxed versions of linux. they just don't release the ISO's, which is their perogative.

Things like the boot time can be affected by many things, if it were faster, it's probably due to less services being loaded and such. Other than that it's how the kernel is built and things like that, which you'd want to control anyway.

hmm.. sorry but you really have no idea what you're talking about do you?

Yes i do okay. And the services that are starting in SuSE are the same as the ones i started in Mandrake 8.1 so its not that. And the price is STEEP compared to mandrake 8.1 which is $29.99 and has more software bundled with it.

A few more things to say:

My mouse wheel wasn't automatically working when i installed it. A simple change in the XF86Config file fixed that.

Also, the CLi isn't "true" like other distro's. It still runs in a graphical "dingie" so to speak. But none-the-less i installed KDE 2.2.2 in it and i had NO problems so i guess its nice to have.

I plan on buying SuSE when the next version comes out. Do you think it was worth the money?

Depends on how well free distro's are working for you. For me, i am happy with my purchase.

my 2p:
 

If you complain about software not being there, have a look at the professional edition, which comes with seven CD's and about everything I ever wanted to use.. (except for the MPlayer, but there's xmps...)

Also, if you want to get it from the internet, you can make a ftp-install from ftp.suse.com

You'll have to get the install disks first and then get going. no money, just waiting for everything to download.

Have a lot of fun, Steave.

Yes, but i dont know how to do a FTP install!!!

1. go to ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/current/disks/

read the README file located there (it explains what to do with the diskimages)

2. boot from the floppies, choose ftp-install, follow instructions.

I admit it could get complicated if you have to set up a modem or dsl-connection first. But if you just have to enter some kind of standard-gateway, its pretty straightforward.

Oh, i was looking in the wrong place!! thanks steave!

Oh and can i do a upgrade installation or do i have to loose everything?

Assuming you're running a SuSE with yast already installed, you can enter ftp.suse.com/.../ as the installation source. Then you can just use YOU (Yast Online Update) This won't be able to replace your basic system files, though. (like KDE or the aaa_base packages) I myself haven't had a look at the upgrade options when booting from a floppy. Why not risk a look yourself?

Yes, i am going to check it out.

It wont let you enter jusr "ftp.suse.com" it wants a specific IP ADDRESS..what do i do?

nslookup ftp.suse.com gives me
202.58.118.12
as their ip

Yeah, i just went into windows and it gives you the ip if you do a "ping" but thanks!! i'm in the installation right now!

Oh and it was tricky becuase i had to manually type in all my ip addresses and DNS servers. DHCP doesnt work in ftp install.