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Old 02-22-2005, 08:06 PM   #1
Anthony1uk
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Difference between Retail and Free SuSe


I am very curious as to what the difference is between the retail and free versions of SuSE professional and personal are. I mean i checked in PC World and the Retail SuSE professional 9.2 was £69.99.

Someone told me that there is no difference between the free and retail you are simply giving the money to support the makers. Is this definitely true. If so £70 just for support is a bit excessive in my opinon.

Thanks
 
Old 02-22-2005, 09:13 PM   #2
tdonoughue
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Two other differences, at least:
1) The CD. Merely a matter of convenience, but you don't have to take the time to d/l an .iso and burn a disk or several.
2) The support. Mind you, this forum is pretty good and folks who like to tinker will do just fine. But if something blows up big time and you need your computer for your business or such, it may be nice to have one number to call for answers. (That having been said, I have only the free version, so I can't speak to the quality, only the philosophy)
 
Old 02-22-2005, 10:55 PM   #3
JSpired
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From my understanding, there is a set amount of proprietary software included with the Pro version, plus of course, you get two manuals as well with the boxed set.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 06:51 AM   #4
Anthony1uk
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Thanks but does anyone know the exact software you get in the retail version over the free.

Someone mentioned you get this Windows software compatability emulator in the retail. Is this true and if so is there anyway i can get it if i got the free as there is some windows software i would need for my linux when i use it.

Such as Nero, DVDShrink, WinDVD, Mcafee Enterprise, Microsoft Word etc.

Thanks
 
Old 02-23-2005, 08:39 AM   #5
BruceCadieux
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The retail DVD has more then 3.3 gigs of packages, the downloaded version has about 800 megs of packages.

So you get about 1/4 of the software in the free version.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 09:32 AM   #6
endzYme
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What about Yast modules, any big diffs in whats included in pro vs free?
 
Old 02-23-2005, 09:53 AM   #7
BruceCadieux
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Yast is the same.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 09:57 AM   #8
abisko00
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Quote:
Originally posted by BruceCadieux
The retail DVD has more then 3.3 gigs of packages, the downloaded version has about 800 megs of packages.

So you get about 1/4 of the software in the free version.
Where did you get these numbers from? AFAIK the FTP version of SuSE (so the free one) has around 4 GB of packages. Even the 9.2 ISO download is about 3.2 GB.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 10:07 AM   #9
endzYme
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Quote:
Originally posted by abisko00
Where did you get these numbers from? AFAIK the FTP version of SuSE (so the free one) has around 4 GB of packages. Even the 9.2 ISO download is about 3.2 GB.
I think the original inquery was regarding the 9.1-personal-iso CD (non network install). But i think you are right that the network install does include about 3-4 GB of packages.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 10:56 AM   #10
statguy
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I installed SuSE 9.2 very recently. My understanding as I read the web site was that the download iso's were a subset of the boxed retail version, however, if you do the install via ftp, that gives you all you get from the boxed version.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 12:33 PM   #11
BruceCadieux
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Quote:
Originally posted by abisko00
Where did you get these numbers from? AFAIK the FTP version of SuSE (so the free one) has around 4 GB of packages. Even the 9.2 ISO download is about 3.2 GB.
Well I get these numbers from my 9.2 Dual Layer DVD which has an i586 directory containing rpm packages in excess of 3.3 gigs, it then has a similar x86_64 rpm directory, with the total size of the DVD being around 8 gigs.

The download DVD in comparison is only 3 gigs in total, with an i586 directory of rpm packages just over 800 megs, and a similar x86_64 rpm directory.

I purchased the Dual Layer DVD and 5 CD's in the retail box with the manual.

When the free DVD.iso was released I downloaded it to see what the difference was.

The difference is very large, the installations are very different and the difference in the number of packages and devel files is huge. Just the i586 directory of rpm files (3253 rpm files) in the retail version is larger the the whole download DVD.

Check the i586 directory on your download DVD where all the files are stored. You'll see the difference.

Last edited by BruceCadieux; 02-23-2005 at 12:35 PM.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 03:04 PM   #12
galliar
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Difference

Anthony,

I downloaded the DVD free version and got about 3.1 gig of space used. The big difference besides support seems to be the amount of apps that are on the CD's, and the simplicity to install.

After doing the install, I am able to point Yast to an FTP server and download just about anything I could imagine!

I guess the big question is: What is it you want to do with Linux? Cad? Play music files? Watch Movies? Business applications? Somebody has probably already thought of it.

I can do anything in Linux now that I can do in Windows. I am an IT consultant on Networking for Windows platform, and write code also. I am thrilled with what I see in Linux and totally amazed at how easy it is to solve problems with it.

If you want to get your feet wet without a whole lot of hassle, buy a boxed version. Then download the free copy after you figure out how to install sources etc.. I believe you will be able to do most anything with the free version.

Regards,

Randy.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 04:41 PM   #13
Xian
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Difference between Retail and Free SuSe

This IMO is the definitive answer, which comes from the blog at Disruptive.org.

Listed below is a link to the package differences between the FTP [free] and retail SuSE DVD's:
Comparison of SUSE 9.2 FTP DVD and boxed DVD versions

And the package differences between the 5CD set and the DVD's:
Comparison of SUSE 9.2 boxed DVD and boxed CD set
 
Old 02-23-2005, 04:53 PM   #14
BruceCadieux
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That is about what I found to be the case.

Being too lazy to count I copied the list and pasted it into Kwrite, then turned on view line numbers. The number of files on the retail DVD set, that are not on the download DVD was exactly 2824 applications/packages. That is a significant difference.
 
Old 02-23-2005, 05:04 PM   #15
Xian
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Quote:
Originally posted by BruceCadieux
That is a significant difference.
Whatever the exact number is, you are very correct.
It is huge and it is significant.
 
  


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