SUSE Linux 10.1

by Novell

Product Features

• Includes 6 CD-ROMs and one DVD
• 6 CD-ROMs and 1 DVD-ROM

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: 158298302X
• Item model number: 662644467122-BOX
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 10, 2006
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,115 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #50 in Software > Operating Systems > Linux & Unix
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

SUSE Linux Pro 10.1 is more than just an operating system - it's a complete solution for your mission-critical needs. Stop paying for basic office tools -- SUSE Linux includes a complete office suite, a Web browser, instant messaging, collaboration tools, and much more. A new graphical interface and Xgl-powered 3-D desktop effects ease your users into Linux, and actually make it fun to use. It also comes with OpenOffice.org 2.0 comes as a complete office suite with advanced Microsoft-file compatibility, including Pivot Tables import and (for the first time) support for Excel Visual Basic spreadsheet macros. When security, cost and reliability matter, choose SUSE Linux. Supports Novell GroupWise Messenger Music Banshee delivers music management and playback applications Tomboy provides a desktop note-taking application for Linux and UNIX Multimedia support for Adobe, Macromedia and RealNetworks

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

76 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strong Competitor for OS X and Windows, June 21, 2006

By 

thehailo "http://mi80.com/" (US) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SUSE Linux 10.1 (CD-ROM)

While I personally use Gentoo Linux, this has become my distribution of choice to recommend to Windows and Mac converts or new users to Linux in general.

Overall it's an excellent package. The installation is simple and elegant, making everything a breeze, taking between 20-45 minutes depending on your computer. The two most prevalent window managers (user interfaces) KDE and Gnome are both easily selectable.

Suse 10.1 continues its great tradition of excellent hardware support, which is why I looked at it in the first place several years ago. Hardware wise it's also just as easy to install on a Mac as it is a PC. Laptop wise I had no issues. It found all of my hardware including my wireless card just fine, and it was a breeze to locate and connect to networks. Other things like power saving and Suspend also worked effortlessly.

It also comes out of the box with good security in place, although nothing to write home about. This wasn't meant to run a server so it lacks more advanced security technologies such as SELinux, PaX, and GRSecurity, though in all fairness no desktop focused distributions utilize these, they're mainly left to power user distributions like Gentoo and server focused ones like Red Hat. You will have all of the security you're accustomed to from other operating systems such as anti-virus and a firewall, and the fact that you're not running as a super user means unless you really go out of your way malware and security issues in general really won't be a problem. Another major plus here is how updates are handled which I touch upon below.

Beyond that it comes with all the applications users are generally accustomed to such as Flash, Real Player, the ability to play DVDs and common Windows codecs such as WMA/WMV. Windows users will find it relatively easy to run many Windows only applications under WINE and many gamers will enjoy Cedega for its wide game compatibility, although Cedega is $5 a month.

Mac users will be able to enjoy many, though not all, of their favorite applications natively since OS X runs BSD under the hood, which is very similar to Linux. Also while Suse 10.1 by default looks and acts like Windows XP (skinning media players to look like Windows Media Player and so on), it's very easy during the installation to make it mimic OS X if you're more comfortable in that environment.

It also comes very updated, with almost the latest versions of everything including Firefox for browsing and OpenOffice 2. OpenOffice 2 isn't just powerful but is also easy enough to use for anyone accustomed to Microsoft Office, and also features excellent MS Office compatibility. The ability to export documents in PDF format is also somewhere I feel if surpasses MS Office.

Updates system wide won't be a major issue. Where as Windows and Mac users are generally used to going to Site A to download an update for Program A and installing it by hand, Suse has a central package manager that installs, updates, and uninstalls package system wide through an easy-to-use graphical manager. It's very handy in that with one click you can update Suse, OpenOffice, and anything else you've installed on the system. This is certainly one place Linux shines.

Graphically Suse 10.1 excels past Windows and Mac in certain areas. The 3D motions and heavy transparencies rival OS X and what Windows Vista promises. There's also an excellent search feature Mac users will be accustomed to, making it virtually effortless to find files base on their attributes, meta-information (like musician for MP3's), or the information contained within things such as Word documents.

The physical package is solid with good documentation, and as always Novell offers excellent technical support including three months of installation help for new users who have trouble getting started.

I won't be moving off of Gentoo for this, but it's a very worthy distribution I'm more than happy to recommend and support. Also at the cost of a video game these days it's a heck of a deal, less than half of OS X and almost a full sixth of the price that new versions of Windows usually run. I'm not going to declare an all out winner regarding operating systems, but I think Suse 10.1 is a strong competitor for OS X 10.4/Windows XP and even what 10.5 and Windows Vista promise.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A great OS for the server room or for the power user desktop, September 9, 2006

By 

J. Sloan (Torrance, Ca USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SUSE Linux 10.1 (CD-ROM)

A long time unix fan, I found SuSE 10.1 to be a pleasant surprise. While the Novell Enterprise product, based on the SuSE 10.1 code base, is a bit more polished than SuSE 10.1, it's also more specialized, being divided into a desktop and a server edition. For my money, like SuSE 10.1 because it comes equipped with all the tools and features needed to serve either purpose quite nicely.

Linux has long been a power in the server room, with unusual flexibility, long uptimes and good performance, but linux vendors such as Novell are finally beginning to bring the power of the open source community to the desktop, and it shows. The added polish and attention to detail are making it conceivable for non-experts to begin using a linux desktop for their everyday routine.

As has been pointed out, there are some problems with this release - the biggest problem is the update mechanism, which I would describe as broken. Novell is committed to getting it working well, but in the meantime, I find that smart is an excellent replacement for yast. Smart is based on the ideas of the apt package tool, and capably fills the job of installing software packages and keeping the system up to date.

The other problem I see is the consumption of system resources by the beagle search engine. Again, I am sure this will be sorted out over time, but for now, I find that it's better to remove or disable beagle. Doing so completely removes any pauses or freezes on the systems I've tested, and enables a silky smooth game of ut2004 or quake 3 arena over the internet.

One other issue is the app-armor service, which while a good idea, is perhaps a bit restrictive. While it can be adjusted, some may find it easier to simply turn the service off.

With those 3 items addressed, SuSE 10.1 is a very capable, pleasant and snappy OS, and would rate 5 stars. The fact that the couple of issues I mentioned must be dealt to get to that blissful state, are the reason I rate it only 4 stars.

Bottom line: For an experienced linux user, a great OS for desktop and/or server room. For less experienced users, I'd recommend something without the minor nits I mentioned, e.g. Linspire, Xandros, or the Novell SLED 10 product instead.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Suse 10.1 Great distro !, August 23, 2006

By 

J.G. (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SUSE Linux 10.1 (CD-ROM)

I've been using linux now for over a year. After countless installations of other distro's, Suse 10.1 worked the best! I have it installed on a Toshiba laptop and everything worked except for the wireless usb. Ndiswrapper worked well and fixed that problem. Other than that, Novell has made a fine desktop distro which can also be used as a server. Everything is gui based which made it so much easier to administer. The other distro's were good as well but Suse was the only one that had the best install/performance. ***Warning though *** the Yast software installer was very, very, very slow but after doing some research, SMART is what I use now (that's why I gave it 4 stars not 5). You could download/install it and then do all of your installs/updates using it and it's super easy to do. I recommend Suse 10.1 for those that want a distro that works well out of the box and has the support needed to get you out of tight spots!