Hey all,
I'm considering trying out Suse for an extended period. My question is which do you suggest I try? I would like for at least 90% of things to work on the desktop without having to adding repositories
Suse 9.3 Pro?
Suse 10.0 OSS RC?

suse pro 9.3 - suse 10 is still in testing

Hi Doublejoon,
Apologies in advance for the long reply.
It all depends on what is most important to you.
What has to be in that 90% that works right away?
E.g. Office suite sort of applications? Your home network? Sound and/or video and/or dvd editing and burning? Email and browsing the internet? Using newsgroups? Making websites?
Configuring an ultra-secure uber-server?
Editing digital images? Downloading photos and videos from cameras? Scanning?


I installed Suse 9.1 for my migration to Linux.
My main reason was that I needed to continue with my 'office' work without interruption -- letters, internet, emails, spreadsheets, pdfs, printing, faxing.
My friends said that kde and gnome would be easy and friendly for a newbie from windows -- and they were right.
The office work all worked fine apart from the faxing.
I solved that problem by buying a cheap used external modem from a second-hand goods shop.
The hard part was learning about the Hylafax fax server.
(- but pay no attention to this, I think I am the last person on Earth who still wants to manage faxes from the computer. Also I have some VERY fussy ideas about how I want my faxing to work.)

My internet connection and local network just worked without me having to learn anything:-- points in heaven for Suse and Samba.
I expected a big learning curve with the network but whatever kind of autodetecting came with Suse worked very well.

Printing worked 'out of the box' with my two different HP printers connected. I made one change (an alternative to the default printer driver) in order to solve a small annoyance with my laserjet. (The alternative driver was already there in my installation. Problem solved in seconds -- although it did take some time to find the answers on a linux-printing-related website.)

I have an accounting application that goes back to the Windows 3.1 era: I dropped it into the fake-windows directory that came with Wine (that came with Suse) and it runs fine except for a minor printing problem.
I have found that old windows software that doesn't rely on numerous registry entries is easy to run in Wine: just drop the windows files into the corresponding wine/fake-windows directories.

(I have a fondness for old softwares -- because they run like a scalded cat on new hardwares.)

Now for the fun things...

I needed to learn some stuff in order to get my sound cards (2 different ones now) and new nvidia card working.
I needed to learn some stuff in order to get quicktime .movs going.
I needed to learn some stuff in order to get my video card to output to the TV.
I needed to learn some stuff to get the Muse sequencer and synths working.
For all these requirements, I found out what I needed on this website.
I still don't have all movie formats playing inside web browsers but I have seen lots of advice about that in these forums. I expect that when I apply some of the advice here I will get that working too.
One big hold-up for me is that I will not get my MS Access databases migrated until I learn something alternative like MySql. (I don't have much optimism about running Access under Wine -- it's difficult enough to get it to run on another windows os.)
My impression about the different Linux distributions is that Suse is not considered the best at the hardware-detecting-and-configuring-drivers game. But I don't have many complaints so far.
Also, by the way, burning music and data CDs worked out of the box.
Uploading a website worked out of the box with the first ftp application I tried.
I think the secret for Windows users trying Linux is KDE. It is available with most Linux distributions.
KDE is a big cpu-hungry and ram-hungry pig -- but for us newbies it means we can change to Linux and learn how to use it while having a friendly and familiar desktop. There are windows and menus that work in a way that microsoft users will be familiar with.

By the way, another virtue of Suse is Yast.
Yast looks after installing and removing software. When I first learnt about Linux I thought I would never be able to install new software because I didn't understand commands like "make" and "configure" (with arcane parameters after them).
I didn't understand what is an "RPM".
However if I downloaded an rpm, Yast would open up and ask "would you like Yast to install the software?".
I say "yes".
And Yast installs the software.

Since then I have installed software the other way -- luckily there is always some some simple instructions like 'type: "make --this --in --this --way"'
The worst thing that is likely to happen is that your software fails to install on your first try.
Anyway, I'm prattling on..., it's late, it's Friday night, I have wine, ...

Suse 9.3. It's rock solid and Suse 10 is still in testing. All you have to do is install, do the online update, select what packages you want installed (definitely the multimedia packages), and you are set. Also, YaST makes adding sources, online updates, and installing rpm's a piece of cake. Has great hardware support and lots of software. Try it...you'll like it!

Thanks everyone for the input. I think I'm gonna play with 10.0 RC1 for now. I will probably install it on my wife's laptop as a dual boot just to see how she likes it. I'm trying to convince her that she doesn't need the Redmond pacifier anymore