For a distro to be taken seriously on the desktop it needs two crucial things. It should be able to eventually, through a few trips to hell and back, be able to read pictures off an exFAT camera card.

Second, It should be able to play MP4 video, as is generated by increasingly popular devices like DJI drones. I know, only a few of them have been sold, but just saying.

I initially really liked openSUSE Tumbleweed. It is polished, and has a clean, friendly look. And I am no stranger to Linux, having been screwing around with Linux this decade fron Ubuntu 8 forward.

opensuse is fricking impossible. After wasting several weeks (off and on) I just gave up. I don't want to rewrite their Operating System for them to watch my drone video, but Mint and Ubuntu and others accomplish this stuff with two minutes of apt-get.

So openSUCKS

Thanks for readfing
Kirby

Is there a point to this rant?? And do you realize you're totally wrong? Because....

• Going to software.opensuse.org and putting "exfat" into the package search pulls up the utilities you need (like exfat-utils), with a ONE CLICK install option. (https://software.opensuse.org/package/exfat-utils)
• Playing MP4 videos is equally trivial. Putting "opensuse mp4 codecs" into Google will give you guides from the openSUSE site, again complete with one-click install options for the whole codec packs. (https://software.opensuse.org/packag...decs-installer)

So if you spent 'weeks' researching these things, it's odd you didn't come across those one-click install options, since they're well covered on the openSUSE site, and many other places online. You could even have typed in "zypper search exfat" or "zypper search codec", and it will pull up package names for you.

Not the distros fault; sorry.

2 members found this post helpful.

Adding to what TB0ne has said, that's true with a lot of distro's - that you yourself have to install whatever codecs you want. It's because of legal reasons that they can't include them by default. (the openSUSE website even tells you that, if you bothered to look hard enough)

And no, I don't use openSUSE any more myself.

Some distros make it easier for themselves to risk being subjected to legal sanction and destruction for violating patent rights. openSUSE is not one of them.

that the catch though isn't it? NO we do not have these programs, codecs, etc. by default install, but we do keep them on hand for you to install yourself.

Trying to remove liability from themselves while still providing the things that make them liable and easily installed by default instead.

i am guessing you did not read the documentation and the wiki

those NON free "restricted" programs are in the packman repo

in the US of A here and the rest of the world " mp4" is a ROYAL mess of copyright and patent encumbering

Orcale PAID the MP licensing group a large bit of cash to include it in Ubuntu

and in Germany where SUSE is -- it is even MESSIER in the legal department to use it

so

basically RTFM !!!

Actually, SUSE is British! It started in Germany, became Usian (first Novell, then Attachmate), and is now owned by Micro Focus International, which also took over HP's software division.

But the crucial thing is the existence of software patents in the USA. Mint switched from putting media codecs in the installer to getting you to install them so that it could be included in cover disks of magazines that were distributed in the USA. Mint and Ubuntu let you opt to download during installation, but distros produced by companies that have assets in the USA play safe and leave the provision of patented software to third party repositories based elsewhere.