Customer Reviews

Suse Linux 9.0 Personal Edition

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

The best thing about the new SuSE apart from the cool looks of KDE? It installs a double-boot system (with Windows XP in my case) without any hassles. My broadband connection was automatically recognized, OpenOffice was already installed (which now reads Word and Excel files, plus much more,) and email was easily readable in a near-Outlook interface with Evolution.

Now that SuSE has been acquired by Novell, I can also be sure that it's not going down the Slackware way, or going belly up anytime in the near future.

If you are in the market for Linux, this is as good as it gets!

I believe in Linux. I was ready to switch from XP. I was excited. I found SuSE 9.0 and was ready to go. Their site had a lot of good information and encouragement, including:

"No previous experience is needed to install SUSE LINUX on any common PC - even alongside an existing Windows operating system."

The YaST setup tool was very smooth. I followed SuSE's recommendations, being a complete novice with "no previous experience," and went with the recommended setup options. This included selecting to have the Windows partition resized, not deleted, and have the boot loader give me the option to boot either Linux or Windows OS.

Well, rebooted after installation (by the way, make sure your printer is supported)and didn't receive any option other than Linux. Contacted SuSE's tech support and was told that the free installation support did not cover this topic. I needed to mount the Windows partition. I could pay for that support if I wanted. I went to Linux.com instead and received intelligent *free* support from the forum there.

Had a couple of unsuccessful attempts to mount the Windows partition. Guess what? Discovered that there was no windows partition on my system anymore. ?????????? Contacted SuSE and told them I thought this did qualify as an installation issue.

Here's part of their response:

"During installation you can choose where to install Linux, it's on the installation settings screen. Also, you can choose to shrink an existing partition. Frankly, I'm afraid you've deleted your windows partition. Please _always_ read all instructions careful, all the information during installation are there for a reason. Just clicking 'Next', can cause
changes you didn't want."

Really?!

I did choose where to install Linux. I did choose to shrink the existing partition (their recommendation). I did read the installation instructions (remember - no prior experience necessary).

As their website states, "The following paragraphs show how even newcomers can install SUSE LINUX 9.0 in 9 easy steps." It also states, "Then, YaST2 will automatically check your system and present an installation proposal. If you wish, you can easily install additional applications or change some of the settings. Experienced users have a lot of configuration options. Newcomers can simply click Accept."

Of course, as I was admonished, "just clicking 'next' can cause changes you didn't want."

Oh, and it says, "After you click OK, YaST will prepare the hard disk. Existing Windows partitions will be resized automatically to make room for SUSE LINUX." I guess I should have anticipated that "resized" could mean resized to zero.

Finally, "When the system is powered on, you can choose whether you want to boot Linux or another operating system." They need to add, "unless we deleted your windows partition."

I just don't know what to say at this point. I still believe Linux is a more stable OS than XP. My opinion of SuSE however was "resized" if not completely "deleted."

Their site promises much, including: "SUSE LINUX is easy - probably much easier than you think. However, if you should encounter any difficulty - which is quite unlikely - our support team will be at your command..."

I am new to Linux in general, and thought I'd try another distro (especially since I can by an os for $40 or less with Linux vs. M$ at several hundred a pop). I have installed Red Hat and Mandrake on my DELL 2600 Inspiron laptop prior to trying Suse. As a user who got very use to point and click installs from M$, I have to say that the install is painless and fairly quick (for an os install). After clicking on a few prompts your os is on it's way to installation. I installed Suse on it's own hardrive, I did not try to dual boot it. Although I am a fan of the painless install and setup, I was not crazy about the layout, and themes. I then decided to replace Suse with Red Hat. Overall, Suse is a good os for a Linux newbie to use, the install/setup is not very difficult, but I do suggest to a user to read the manual/documentation before installing (especially if you are trying to dual boot w/ Windoze). The desktop is similar to M$' and a person with good PC skills should be able to get up and running almost immediately. However, I still like Red Hat's (despite it now becoming Fedora) desktop more. My suggestion is to try several Linux distributions, and see what suites your personal taste.

Multi loading OS's on a computer isn't something people do every day. It's not hard but it's easy to mess up if you are NOT paying attention and have little experience with that sort of thing.

If you are installing JUST SuSE on your computer then it works great. Sure I've had computers in which "oddball" hardware doesn't work on it. SuSE on the other hand should be considered bleeding edge on the hardware support side. They are into it all and do a great job.

More bang for the buck with RedHat? What does that mean? I get an extra rpm or two? Listen. Look at what they both provide and make a decision. Anything someone else has you can get for SuSE. I was surprised with YaST. I loaded some stuff that was missing from the distro. It selected a site in Chicago by default. Took only a few moments with my broadband connection (Cable 3 Mb pipe).

Fedora RC2 was crap. Better than RC1 but still crap. Debian and Slackware are pretty good. For a desktop install I would recommend you wait for SuSE 9.1 actually. It comes out this month I understand (I've already downloaded the source rpms. It's HOT)

Don't listen to these "horror stories!" Suse specifically instructs users to back up their computers before installing a new operating system when partitioning different OSs. Yes, 9 is designed to work with newer users, but Linux itself is designed for advanced users. For those of you that don't like Suse, stay away from Linux, cause this is as easy as it gets. If you don't like Microsoft, get a Mac.

After years of desparation with blue screens and mystery freezes I needed to look into Linux again. My first time (SuSE 6.0) was a disaster. Never could get the audio to work. But the lure of turning IE and WMA off was too appealing to ignore. YaST is worth the price of admission alone. THIS is the way to install a Linux system, brainless! I only had to think once, and that was with the modem; had to parse the modem.inf file to find the correct specs. And that was it. Ripping audio, mail, internet, and VCD all setup in one nite! However, DVD support is not included due to legal issues and you will not escape UNIX, so get ready for a lot of questions (tar && bootstraps)?.
It is well worth it to learn an arcane language to regain control of my PC.

Good Linux Distro.
If you are buying because people says Windows is unstable and unsecure, you're doomed. If you've dreamed having Unix machine home, might better to go with Debian, Gentoo, or BSDs. If you like computers, building PCs, and thought "I gotta be little more cool", then this is for you.
Unlike company says, Linux is not replacement for Windows. If something doesn't work under Windows, it's Microsoft's fault! If something broke under Linux, it's your fault. If you are genius, there's a source code so that you can fix it. If you are normal people, there's lots of community in web that some kind genius spend some time with normal people giving out some help. If you are rich, buy yearly support from consultants or company and pay more than for Windows.

Suse was incredibly easy to install, but I'd suggest Red Hat 9.0. Yes Red Hat is no longer supporting it's desktop version (9.0 support ends 4/2004), and yes after I heard this, I wanted to try another distribution, but for easy installation and a number of developer applications (Kdeveloper, QT, Apache Server, etc.), Red Hat could not be beaten. Also because RH is one of the most widely used Linux distros out, you can go to almost any major bookstore and find books for all types of users (newbie to advanced). In fact, I will probably upgrade to the Fedora 1.0/RH 10.0 after I learn more about RH 9.0. In addition, of the three distros I tried to install (RH 9.0, Mandrake 9.1, and Suse 9.0), RH installed the way I wanted to the first time, with minimal configuration. With that said, Suse is a fine product with beautiful screens and cool desktop, but I felt like Red Hat gave me more bang for my buck.

I had no problems with the install; nothing to write about there. No problems at all.
I used to have Red Hat 9 but after learning of RH's intention to drop desktop support. I went looking for a new version of Linux. I am glad I found SuSe 9.0. Why? First comes with Real Player already setup (had to go get and try and configure for RH9), second for a desktop OS SuSE is better in tune with multimedia type apps(Only complaint had to go get full version of xine to play dvds, guess they have copyright issues there). All in all I am still fairly new to Linux itself and after setting up Suse 9.0 I formated the Windows partition and all that is left is Linux.

WHY???

Everything I want to work does!

I have heard so many great things about Suse 8.0 & 9.0 so I dumped my RedHat to give it a try. Suse 9.0 was installed on my standard Dell Workstation and the installation went fairly smooth; however, I was surprised how few options I had during the install. After installation I realized there were problems with my network card, monitor, and keyboard! Keyboard?? I haven't keyboard issues in years. Yes, I was able to fix those problems, but I had to do it manually.
Perhaps my expectations were too high - after hearing there is a finally a great Windows alternative called Suse 9.0 - but after 1 week I missed my RedHat Linux and went back to it.