Category: Linux
OpenSUSE is due for release anytime now at http://www.opensuse.org so get on over there and install the latest lizard release! For a great interview of one of the openSUSE managers and a review of 13.1, head over to the Linux Action Show at Jupiter Broadcasting. If you've never tried openSUSE before or you're having second thoughts, read on.
A few years back, a grey-haired gentleman from Boston I met at a conference asked me what Linux distribution I was using and I told him I was running openSUSE.
"So you're a SUSE guy," he answered. I was embarrassed and told him I'm just an end-user. He laughed. "That's right. A SUSE guy. I could've said a Novell guy." After that, I made sure to always emphasis the "open" part of "openSUSE" when telling other Linux users my distribution of choice.
Although I've always had several other Linux distributions running on my production machines, an openSUSE install is always set up ready for use for over 5 years now. At the moment, my supplementary work machine, a Toshiba NB520, runs openSUSE 12.2 KDE even though 12.3 was an exceptional release. Why openSUSE? An answer any Linux user can say for any Linux distribution is: "Why not?" But if I was going to rattle on a few reasons for choosing openSUSE, I would probably list the following:
1. KDE - Although the openSUSE team says that they now treat all desktop environments equally, I still find their KDE release to be the most refined. KDE isn't for everyone. Historically, my openSUSE KDE machines are the slowest at boot up no matter how many optimizations I make. KDE's network manager is much better now but I keenly recall having to troubleshoot wireless connections way back in openSUSE 10 and 11. Bluetooth can also be buggy at times without additional packages but has improved greatly recently. The move to KDE 4.x years ago was controversial for veteran users who loved KDE 3.x but I've always felt the spiffy visuals, KDE workspaces, widgets, and effects helped make the desktop more attractive to younger users. Besides, a nice KDE set up and the right tweaks can make any user comfortable. One aspect of KDE I've always taken for granted is the strong applications KDE comes bundled with - I actually uninstall most of them (e.g. KMail, KOrganizer) but I've come to realize that KDE apps like KSnapshot, Okular, Dolphin, KRun and others are pretty good offerings compared to some of the utilities included with Unity and Gnome 3.
The Linux desktop environment is always competitive but despite my affinity for LXDE, I've been gravitating more and more to Openbox and KDE. KDE sees some fundamental changes for 13.1 and future versions of KDE has potential for touch/Android functionality. I have a notion that even with great KDE desktops around, such as Mageia KDE and PCLinuxOS KDE MiniMe, I'm always going to have an openSUSE KDE on my network.
2. YaST - YaST has been criticized as dated, but you can actually say that Mageia/Mandriva/PCLinuxOS Control Center has also seen some neglect over the years. There are similarities to YaST and Control Center. They've both been around for a long, long time and do their job well. I actually find having a central system for administrator tasks comforting, something Fedora and Ubuntu don't necessarily have by default. Whether it's to set up NFS shares for multimedia streaming, creating an impromptu web server, sharing via Samba, installing an IDE, checking hardware information, or redoing the file system of a broken Flash drive, YaST has all the basic tasks laid out for the user and ready to prompt if additional software packages are needed.
YaST gets a much needed redo in openSUSE 13.1 and I'm eager to see how well it does in a production environment.
3. Software.opensuse.org and the openSUSE build service - I'm a huge fan of Archlinux and have great respect for Gentoo, FreeBSD and Slackware users. However, there's something about the openSUSE build service and access to an online software repository that makes searching and setting up applications simple and almost fun. The Debian/Ubuntu ecosystem has a greater library of popular applications but users will always find an alternative for openSUSE either through YaST and software.opensuse.org. On the downside, I've had my fair share of disappointments trying to install software in openSUSE. In previous versions of openSUSE, Dropbox, Keepnote and VLC were troublesome. XML Copy Editor doesn't install at all while there's currently no available package for BitTorrent Sync. Still, openSUSE has 95% of the utilities and packages I need and I'm pretty sure that 5% can easily be addressed in another way.
4. Great documentation - One of the admirable accomplishments of the mainstream Linux distributions (openSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora) is the structured and well-written documentation available for users. Much can be said about the comprehensive and thoroughly detailed approach of the Arch community, but the official documentation openSUSE and Fedora publish online deserves some credit from the Linux community too. It's easy to get lost in complex steps and terminal commands (FreeBSD and the Arch manuals can be tough for the uninitiated), but openSUSE, Fedora and Ubuntu writers of the manuals make sure you learn features step-by-step and don't get lost too much in the jargon. Although most users head off to the community forums and are sometimes greeted with snooty veterans and snobbish penguins, contrary to popular belief there are people who actually go through the official documentation.
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