2 stars (Very disapointed in this one...) - SuSE 9.1 pro was very nice which prompted Me to check out SuSE 9.3 pro.
I was surprised to find out most of the standard features in the command prompt were taken out by Novell.
Pine
Mutt
fd_locate_pkg
apache, now has apache2 which no one uses
nmap
lynx
Some other stuff also, some you can directly find the download and ./configure ; make while others SuSE requires many rpm dependancies which starts to become a bit of a headache.
A few other 'Novell Nightmare' touch ups include ssh which is a bit of a nightmare using their version to tunnel and network with, and their ssl and apache2.conf files
If you are a KDE and/or Gnome user, and like to chat with a friend on msn messenger thru Gaim or Kopete, good luck keeping O.SSL updated. I never had this problem before on Fedora RedHat or Gentoo
Alot of dependant rpm's needed. Being this rpm dependant may as well use fedora Red Hat. At least they have a good rpm manager.
I can understand wanting to simplifing things but they shouldnt have dropped their 'personal edition' as in 9.1 build, and make their 'pro' watered down.
The sad thing is, on Novell's offical site for 9.3 they admit to taking out these tools and programs from the shell or 'personally customising' to give it their own touch, which helped screw up alot.
They did however add alot of unneeded fluff which you dont need with linux unless you just want to chew up cpu's like the pretty menus and such, but if your going with a pro linux build your just in the command prompt most the time anyhow.
I do hope their new 10.x build is better but Im not going to waist My time to check it out. Going back to R.H.
I did give it two stars because if your a home user and nothing more, the 9.3 is great! But if all your going to do is home use and not program or admin, go with something cheaper thats set up more specifically for a home user such as Xandros linux made by Debian which is also a bit cheaper for the new home user to try out too.
2 stars (Promising product marred by poor hardware support) - During installation my mouse was not detected, never had that problem with XP. Detected my modem but did not work, never had that problem with XP. Never detected my scanner, never had that problem with XP. After installation screen went dark, flickered, then locked up, never had that problem with XP. Yes Novell offers lots of support but good luck finding an answer on their "busy" web page. Of course there are plenty of user sites if you want to engage in command line text anarchy. If you like spending your time tweaking an OS so it plays nice this is the OS for you. If you need something that works out of the box stay with XP.
5 stars (XP 2 + SUSE removable hard drive = ideal for learning *NIX) - I say that the end of 2006, start of 2005 was the time to get a pimpin' new PC. I booted SuSE 7.2 on a partition with Windows 2000 many years ago and the result was not funny. If you choose to dual-boot a Windows Linux machine, then get two hard drives for it. Take a hint. XP2 should be on one of the hard drives. Better yet get a docking bay installed on your PC, like a ViPower Super Rack IDE for hard drives so you can pull them out and swap them around. As a Windows user this is how you want to try out Linux on your machine... and you should, but read more to find out why.
Running Windows 95 or Windows 98 means you are in the land of needing a new computer fast, feeling that you might have a box that looks like it is running windows 3.1 and to be honest now is your chance to move to Windows 2000 for a more solid operating system. Even NT users found more stability in Windows 2000, 98 users mostly gamers or downloaders, seeing the blue screen of death often, while Win 2K users doing something a little more software intensive like multimedia, graphics and servers that 98 could not manage. So came the day of the dual-processor, having an NT Dual 500mhz, upgrading to Win2K and you still had a fast machine, 64mb and 128mb games cards never really impressing you that much to get a better machine, a games console maybe cheaper and better, XP a little slow for you and besides, 2K was compatible with nearly everything and you could dual boot linux for fun. The only reason to buy a computer between the release of XP and now was if you did not have one and even then plenty of second hand units going around.
Year: 2005
256mb graphics cards, LCD monitors on the cheap, DVD-R media, Broadband, now is the time to upgrade your machine. AMD have some nice chips but the hyperthreading Intel P4 3.0GHz is a killer chip. 1GB of RAM, no problem. A pimpin' fast graphics card and you have a machine that can play Half-Life 2 on full resolution. The best games of the 21st century were released before Christmas this year, with 2005 bringing lots more to come. Broadband on the increase, DVD-R media and life might get less expensive if you are into computers and certainly a whole pile better.
Why not Linux? Well XP2 has the games and Linux not, so we can stop there. For speed on an OS, well Linux is a much faster, but XP2 is not bad on a system with half the ram of the above and a 1 GHz processor. ****If you are programming or doing fundamental computer work then do check out Linux because it might be what you need and learning Linux is like DOS with a bit of windows with all the free fundamental software you could want****. Why not Apple? Well the same as above, but you have a better selection of stuff and to be honest multimedia applications work well on an apple, and why shouldn't they since Apple is industry standard for that kind of design work, so what does XP2 have to offer?
Obviously stability (not to be confused with security). XP2 is a very stable operating system. It is more stable than Windows 2000. For that reason, I made the upgrade. I have not found XP2 doing much annoying or something that I could not fix with Google. Installing is a big deal because you need Internet for verification; however it is fast on a high end system. There are obvious things you must do after you install it like download Firefox and use it instead of IE and try to use realplayer instead of mediaplayer, use Microsoft's AntiSpyware, don't use the firewall, use zonelarm free instead, spend on a good anti-virus software package, turn off the preview pane in Internet Outlook mail or try to find a free mail browser, make sure you get all the latest windows updates, careful what you put into your machine or extract, careful what mail you open, change passwords every week, and you can achieve a secure on-line machine that can do anything most computers can do right now with a company that has admitted that it has a security problem that will be addressed with future updates, but overall one should be impressed with the OS for stability, not speed or security, but for not crashing, as long as there are no hardware configuration conflicts, that do happen, get someone else to build your machine and blame them when it doesn't come together (and it wont come together because things are now cutting edge so get it done elsewhere; if your task bar hangs this is because of routers or USB hubs that are not compatible). The machine like the above is a 5 star experience but God help those who don't address security issues the moment they go on-line with it which is a bit like just driving your car off a cliff. Expect to loose everything to a virus and have your address details stolen with all your VISA card info.
XP2 PRO is 5 stars if you visit a place on the web called Gibson research incorporated and test the vulnerability of your PC on-line. LINUX and UNIX are there for SECURITY if that is your main concern.
Extra hard drive = no installation hell if it goes wrong, ready for Linux, comes packed with all the documentation you could need, you will be learning KDE (the interface) and LINUX/UNIX SHELL commands. Learn Linux. |
