Customer Reviews

Suse Linux 9.1 Professional Edition

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I basically decided to support Open Source by actually purchasing this product. After I have installed it on my Dell desktop, I feel I have spent my money very well.

I'm not a Linux guru, just a newbie, but I was able to continue all of my home computer routine without any problem. I copied all, yes all, data files from Windows partition and kept working with them in Open Office. I still use Quicken on Windows (this is the only thing I do in Windows now), but as my experience will grow I'm sure I will be able to run Quicken on Linux using Wine project.

Well I must say I do not play games much, so I have no idea of how Linux handles them, and, frankly, I cannot care less.

I feel like I need to address some posters who are "outraged" by the fact that SuSE sells this product. Guys, you should present all sides of the story - nobody forces you to buy it, you can still download all this from the Internet. Go ahead, but you will not get installation support, that some users may need, you will not get a printed version of User's and Administrator's Guides (nice books). And the most important, there are actual people behind this product, who dedicate their time and effor to make it good, so why don't just say 'thanks' to them in the form of purchasing their product?

Another thing to mention is that Linux is not Windows, and it is not going to behave like Windows. Just get over it, learn something new. Yes, you can edit pictures, burn CDs, listen to the music, write, calculate, email, and perform another million things on Linux, you just need to use different commands and tools for all of it.

Since SuSE distribution allows all the above, I rate it 5. It is a good product and it works for me.

I have tried several distrubutions of Linux including Red Hat, Mandrake, Debian, Turbolinux, among others. However, I have to say hands down that Suse is the very best Linux distribution out there in this day and age (July 18, 2004).

The reasons...

1.) One of the easiest to install.
2.) Suse has focused on making the transistion easier with a system they call YAST which serves as an installation and administration tool that drastically simplifies the use of the OS.
3.) First Linux distribution to support 64 bit systems. (pro version)
4.) Clean interface thru and thru.
5.) Comes with thousands of programs that can be used free of charge including anything you might needs such as word processing, email, web browsing, etc...
6.) Suse has major corporate backers such as Novell and IBM. It should be around for a very long time in other words.
7.) Has a user base that is growing fast.

There are many other reasons I could list, but for the sake of space I will just say, buy it and try it.

One last note. Windows users should recognize that if they want to switch over to Linux... they need a transition period to do so. Why? Linux is not Windows. Linux is however an excellent OS. It has many benefits which Windows does not offer. One being its security. It has far fewer security vulnerabilities than Windows does. It has a huge user community that provide free support to one another... there is paid support also if you want that sort of thing. In other words, setup one machine with Suse Linux so you can learn the ins and outs of the OS. Don't expect to use it for your main machine for a couple of months at least. You have probably spent years on Windows and are used to its peculararites. Linux is similar in some ways to Windows and different in some ways. Some features will feel familiar and others will feel new... so set aside some time to learn the differences. The payoff is much less frustration since you are expecting to learn new things and be presented with some challenges. In the end you will end up with a great OS that is in many ways superior to Windows and offers a much less expensive offering of software, support, and security.

I love Suse, I liberally evangelize it, and despite the trivial grouses of some reviewers (namely, Mozilla not being the default the browser or Gnome not being the default desktop, both of which are easily and freely resolved issues) I believe SuSE is the best Linux distro on the market, the benchmark to beat.

But I'd like to point out that the "Personal" edition of the OS does all you probably need it to do. If you have a high-speed connection, the personal version is also absolutely FREE to download.

Take a look at www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/pers/pers_prof.html (or google for "SuSE 9.1 personal professional comparison" in case this site filters the URL in my review) and you'll see why the Professional version is not worth the price of admission. It includes some micro-minor software that is easily skippable. (E.g., do you really need GnuCash and Mr.Project?)

That said, if you're in the market for trying out a Linux, you simply cannot go wrong with SuSE; it is the most easily configurable, the best supported, the best documented, and above all, the most easily usable OS in the Linux world.

This has got to be the best Linux distro ever. For beginners, it is so easy to install and use, while for the intermediate/guru- it allows for tweaking and tuning. This baby comes with so much software, it's simply unbelievable. I love installing from DVD-

The new kernel and KDE 3.2 are welcomed advancements. My SUSE 9.1 machine simply flys! OpenOffice 1.1.1 is great too. It does everything the MS Ofice does- it can even read MS Office files. I don't miss the Windoows world one bit... as a matter of fact, now that I don't have to worry about virus attacks or spyware anymore... I can surf the Internet pretty much carefree. It's a wonderful feeling indeed.

Hey everyone. Been using linux for a while. I can say that this is a very nice distro. But...

To all the Windows users considering the switch, I have some advice. Windows users are provided the comfort of reliable hardware support and everything "just working". This is so because almost all of the hardware vendors are providing full support for it. Many vendors have not jumped on the linux bandwagon and those that are doing so, are being very slow about it (prime example: ATI).

I have experimented with many distros and found SuSE 9.0 Pro to be one of the best ever, IMHO. It was fairly newbie friendly, good hardware detection, a little flexible, and pretty to boot. So I decided to give 9.1 a try...

...Well, I am typing this on my Windows box. I am having a bit of trouble installing 9.1 on my dual opteron box with my highpoint rocketraid 404 controller and 4 x 120GB Western Digital HDs. I have spent the last day and a half trying to get it installed the way I want it, with no success. I have identified what appears to be a bug with the HPT374 chipset as it cannot seem to read the early blocks of the hard drive on the first channel of the rocketraid controller. Consequently, that section of the hard drive cannot be assigned a mount point. I have not figured out exactly how much of the hard drive is unusable in this predicament.

Moments like this are not at all uncommon among the gazillion linux distros out there, including the other "commercial" distros. No matter how "user friendly" a distro may claim to be, you will most certainly have to use a bit of nerd elbow grease to get things going in some fashion or another.

I did install it to one of my hard drives just to lay my eyes on it. And let me say that it is FAST! Sexy looking too. Although, my Sound Blaster Audigy strangely was not configured correctly. I checked ALSA, and it was installed, but still no sound device. Strange. Will investigate more.

And, of course, no 3d acceleration yet, because I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro and many problems have arisen surrounding SuSE 9.1 and ATI's drivers and UT2004 (which is all I care to play). I will have to wait until ATI finally produces some quality drivers (if ever), but I will keep the faith as I will never switch to nvidia. ATI just rules.

For the windows power users (which I still am one of), I have come to find that linux may not be your bag. Hardware IDE RAID is almost nonexistent in the 2.6.x kernel (if not completely unsupported), so software raid is usually your only option, which is completely unacceptable for most windows power users. I enjoyed my two hardware RAID arrays with windows XP, as I had some seriously fast transfer rates and low cpu utilization, I have yet to see performance like that with linux' softare RAID solution.

Also, ATI owners are going to have a tough time with linux, as per my driver comments above, just to get 3d acceleration going and playing your favorite UT or Counterstrike or Splinter Cell. You have to be a friggin' pseudo programmer to get the drivers working... and then you gotta cross your fingers in hopes that your game will even run with the winex or crossover office emulator included in many commercial distros. And like I have experienced, if it does run, spotty performance. I have had to hit the forums countless times to get my card going, and once that does get going, geting my games to run.

Now, most of this is not linux' fault. It is mostly the vendors at which to point the blame. But this does not matter to most of you windows users who are curious about linux and want to try it. Not when you've got several hard drives, a RAID controller to use them with, a $400 video card, a massive third party cooler for that video card to overclock it with, dual processors, and really fast CAS2 RAM. You don't want to hear that. You just want something to just work. You just want to fire up UT2004 knowing that it will run, you just want to render something in Photoshop with all the speed and glory that dual processors and two hardware RAID arrays can provide, and you know what, I don't blame you.

So, windows converts be prepared, as linux is no smooth ride in my book. I am still dedicated to learning more and using it. But I will always have my windows box to do all the gaming and more productive tasks, for now.

I guess the point I am trying to get across to the fellow windows users is: make sure you research SuSE 9.1's and linux's compatibility with your current hardware. This will require reading all the reviews available on it and a serious stretch on the forums pertaining to it. It will probably save you a lot of time and headache, and if bad enough, money.

So, to all those who are considering the switch, please take my words to heart. If you choose to make the move, just know what you are getting into. Good luck.

As a 10 yr LinuX user (Slackware, RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, RHEL, SuSE, etc...) I can definately say the latest version of SuSE roX!!! Don't let any of the negative reviews discourage you. You will get a ton of excellant software that will make you productive right away and not add to the overhead of your computing environment. If you consider the costs of putting together a WindoZe box ($250+ for WindoZe itself, $450+ for Office (to write letters, type email, maybe do a presentation), $80+ for Virus software so you can read your email, $100+ for firewall software to connect to the Internet to get your email)) it adds up to quite a bit, and that is not considering hardware. All of the above software is INCLUDED with SuSE (or any other freely downloadable version of LinuX). And, while true that there is a bit of a learning curve, it is not as difficult as you may think. As each new version of Linux is released it is getting easier to install and use. Why do you think Micro$oft is so scared, they know their time is about up. They are so afraid that they are cutting deals to 3rd world countries to sell their wares for 1/10th what we are still forced to pay. And with each version of WindoZe that comes out, you need to upgrade your hardware just to run it decently. And security is an after thought with them, that is until another worm hits the net and you hear Micro$oft blame everyone except themselves for their sub-standard code. LinuX will also have security issues, but not even to the extent that M$ will lead you to believe. Once a issue is discovered with LinuX, a patch is immediately available. With M$, they will deny issues for monthes before releasing any patch, then blame everyone for not installing that patch when a new vulnerability brings down corporate networks everywhere. So do yourself a favor and give SuSE a try.

I haven't loaded SuSE since version 8, and at that time I thought it to be a decent Linux distro, but it still needed to evolve. With version 9.1, SuSE has certainly evolved to the point where anyone can easily load the OS and be up and running immediately much like with Windows. For me, I was able to install Win03, SuSE 9.1, and Solaris x86(ver 9) on one hda without a problem through using SuSE's fdisk tool. SuSE 9.1 recognized all my hardware on my homemade box, and really is fun to use since there is a boatload of applications to tinker with. For the money you can't beat it. For those who complain that SuSE 9.1 trashed their Windows partition, then they might want to learn a bit about disk geometry and the coexistance of different platform OS's before they blame the problem on the SuSE OS. Finally, I wish SuSE/Novell, RHEL, or any other vendor would step up their marketing to convince IT managers to use these NOS CLIENT/server alternatives so competition can flourish, thus making systems evolve to be more secure and stable. SuSE 9.1 brings the hope of this happening a little closer.

SuSe 9.1 was very impresive, the graphics were amazing! Better then MS Windows or any other Linux Ditrobution. Oh and please don't listen to the (currently)1 negative review, Instead try it out for your self for free! Download the Live cd iso from here- http://www.suse.com/us/private/download/ftp/live_eval_int.html then just reboot your computer into that cd. I mean after I saw the way it looked and how fast it worked even on a live cd, there was no way I was not buying this. As far as MS Office compatiblity I have had no problems, and 99.9999% of users don't. Suse Linux 9.1 Is a great stable O.S. capable of worry free internet access, unbeatable stability, and is the most usable Linux distrobution I have seen. And If your worrid about the common lie that Linux has no apps available for it, don't! Heres a few commercial games that have been made for the Linux Platform, Ut2004/2003, Neverwinter Nights, Return to Castle Wolfinstien, Savage, Tribes2, Civiliztion Call to Power, Descent 3, Heavy Gear II, Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K.2, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Heretic II, Myth II: Soulblighter, Quake III Arena, and ill stop there(even though there are more) There is so much availiable for linux and even more is coming every day.

I have wide experience with various OS platforms, but not a lot with Linux. After installing SUSE 9.1 and watching it automatically find and configure all my hardware, I would expect Microsoft to start having some sleepless nights worrying about home users switching to Linux.

I purchased SUSE Professional 9.1 and, as a test, installed it on a Dell laptop (Inspiron 5000) that already had a copy of Windows 2003 Server installed. I created an extra partition to hold Linux. I booted from the CD and used the Partition manager that came with SUSE to format and rearrainged my partitions on the hard disk.

I then performed a completely hands-off installation, letting the software configure all the hardware. Not a single problem. I then unplugged my PCMCIA network card and plugged in a Linksys wireless. When I rebooted, SUSE automatically found and configured the card.

Then, while the system was running, I plugged in a USB Key Drive (SanDisk). SUSE automatically configured the USB drive without a hitch.

This package ships with five CDs worth of software including Open Office 1.1, dozens of games, a CD and DVD Burner program, as well as all the developer tools you need such as a C++ compiler, Apache, scripting, etc. It uses KDE as a default, which is much like windows (Alt-Tab to switch windows, etc). I could even view and copy files from my Windows 2003 partition from within SUSE.

Overall, I am very impressed with this package and it's ability to automatically configure and install itself. Hardcore Linux folks may not like some aspects of the basic OS or the selection of software packages, but in terms of an everyday user this is worth the money. If you are a beginner that wants to start using Linux or you are a developer that wants a no-stress way to get into Linux applications development, this is your software.

Most of these reviews I see here are very suspicious. Either 5 stars and you love it or 1 star and you hate it worse than the plague. Maybe Amazon can post your IP addresses again, and all will become clear.

I have downloaded the LiveEval disk from SUSE, and have installed 9.1 on no less than 3 completely different systems from the same CD... they are:

My home-built work system -
abit IC7MB, 3.0 Ghz P4 w/ Hyperthreading, Seagate SATA HD, 2 EIDE HD's, CD/DVD reader, CD/DVD Writer, HP scanner, Sony monitor, USB mouse and keyboard, 3COM NIC, ATI Radeon 9800.

My wife's Gateway

My Compaq at work

Each and every install performed flawlessly. I had no problems with any of the included software, and every piece of hardware on all systems was found and configured correctly with the following exceptions:

Sound cards were not always recognized. However, after telling Yast to re-probe the hardware (one time) everything worked correctly. Also, still working on finding video drivers from ATI, however, you can download them free on ATI's web site.

I was very pleased with the installer, KDE interface, the software included, and the overall experience of all of the installs.

some more tips:
1) Like other reviewers here have said over and over again, do your homework BEFORE you try installing this. Make sure your hardware is supported, or if it's not, decide if this is something you would be willing to live with while running Linux.

2) Download and install the Live Eval disk from www.Suse.com - while this will not give you a 100% complete picture of how your system will function, it will give you enough information upon which you can base an informed decision. Remember: the live eval is free (and will not change your hard drive whatsoever). Your time/frustration/windows partitions are not free.

3) If at all possible, DON'T INSTALL LINUX IN THE SAME PARTITION AS WINDOWS!! If you like it enough, go out and buy a cheap 20GB hard drive, or at the very least create an empty FAT32 partiion on your hard drive before you attempt an install Linux.