hi

ive got fc5 running recently.As im a beginner to linux,ive read and pple have recommend me to use suse linux 10.1 instead. Reasons are that it is more user friendly to newbies compared to fc5 in terms of gui as they are more similar to windows(is this true?).

but will still like to ask u pple on ur opinions on which is better for newbies to get started with?
prob some factors to consider:
1)ease of installation (ive not much prob installing dual boot with my winxp and fc5,but wondering if it works nicely for suse 10.1 too?)
2) user interface??
3) or any other factors that u think i should re-consider??

i remember a thread that said suse 10 is more stable/bugfree than 10.1.

As for which distro, i can't imagine they differ that much, you can always install suse too (just need another partition for / and an entry in the bootloader (Grub on fc)) and then you cna play with both until you decide one way or another.

Presumably you have a problem with fedora and feel a different distro will help solve that problem?

To answer your points:
1) Suse is very easy to install and will set up your partitions and boot loader for you
2)You will have much the same choice of Desktop Environment with either distro ie. KDE, Gnome and others such as Fluxbox. It's up to the individual to try them out and find which one he likes.
3)Suse is a very polished commercial distro which does a lot of hand-holding (very newbie friendly) whereas FC5 is a community distro which does seem to give users more issues. It rather depends on how you feel about getting your hands dirty to support a community distro!

BTW, Suse is no more like Windoze than FC5 and I doubt if Novell would enjoy the comparison with the MS product.

Perhaps the recommendations to use SUSE were based on YAST, which is the central (graphical) management system?

This is really useful for desktops, and enables users to carry out a lot of tasks without having to manually configure things, but at the cost that you don't necessarily learn how the underlying technology works. It's very much a SUSE-specific thing.

WRT to polish and interface: SUSE definitely has a polished interface, and recommends KDE, which I do think is superficially more Windows-like (sorry, Mikieboy).

I'd say that Fedora is technically better engineered, though. Fedora issues often arise from the fact that the developers won't ship or support any proprietary software at all, so end-users often have to sort out drivers and plugins for themselves.

Perhaps stick with Fedora if you want to learn the technology, and use SUSE if you want a desktop with less of a learning curve?

i use suse 10.1 and i can coment that YAST is really screwed up in 10.1 and yet woirks well in 10.0 (which is why some people say that 10 is better)

installing suse is easy but time consumiong with 6 CDs (it took me about 5 hours on my slow machine much of which is just waching progress bars and feeding in the CDs)

Suse also dousnet come with any propiartry drivers (though cd 6 has a few optional one slike adobe PDF reader and Flash)
you will need to find and install codecs for mp3s most vidio formats and to be able to write GIF images (it can nativly read them only)

the suse fourium here can help.

hi thanks for the info.

Suse is recommended by frens who felt tat its easier for me to learn and get used.

at the moment as im still trying out fedora,so far no issues with it.just a thought on the 2 distros tat will aid me in my decision.prob will try installing suse also and see wic works for me better.

Neither of the two.
If you have time and inclination to learn go in for either Slackware or Debian. Debian has better package-management system than Slackware (wherein you may have to build apps from source - another learning experience; or depend on Linuxpackages.net). Both are sturdy, stable and fast. Once you successfully install them (which is not a difficult thing if you have some experience with computers) you will start enjoying Linux. You will experience first hand how responsive a computer is. My personal choice is Slackware (hope this doesn't start off a flame war!)
Installation may look intimidating, without flashy graphical installers, but if you are able to overcome the initial hesitation, you are in for an experience of your lifetime (a pleasant one, that is!)

You seem like an intelligent person, this newbie thing is overplayed. Most of the distros are the same under the hood. Just take one or two for a ride.

hi all and thanks for the advice.Will take time to try them out eventually.