SuSE comes with either XFree86 or Xorg installed. The both do the same job and they are both compatible with any X software. If you have Xorg then you don't need XFree86.
Both of these software packages form the base of the X windows system. Window managers and desktop environments run on top of XFree86 or Xorg. If you think in terms of the parts of a house then XFree86 and Xorg form the foundation, walls, and plumbing. The window managers and desktop environments form the appliances and furniture.
Lastly, with SuSE in particular, you are always better off to see if a software package that you want to install is already available on the SuSE installation media. You do this by starting YaST, selecting the option to add and remove software packages, and entering the name of the software that you want to install in the search box. If it is available then you should use the version that somes with SuSE. There are a couple of reasons to choose this method whenever it is available. First, the version that comes with your distribution has been checked by Novell to see if it will work. Second, Novell may have made some modifications to make that software work with SuSE. Third, SuSE keeps track of any patches that are available with the particular version of applications that come with their distribution, but they don't keep track of patches for newer versions of the same software. Therefore, if you install the software package from the SuSE installation disks then when you run YaST Online Update (YOU) then any patches that are available for that version of the software will be applied to your system. If you upgrade a version of the same software by downloading an installation kit from the Internet then SuSE will not keep track of patches for that version. You will have to look for patches to the software yourself and apply the patches yourself.
So, as far as SuSE is concerned, you are much better off installing software from the SuSE installation disks whenever a package that you want to install is available from SuSE. This is also true of many other distributions such as Debian, Gentoo, and Vector Linux.
|