Download squad has posted a thorough review of OpenSUSE 11.0. Previous versions of the Linux distro were plagued by thorny and confusing installations, but OpenSUSE 11.0 installs much more easily and cleanly. After a few standard configuration screens, the user has several options for admin accounts, disk partitions, dual-boot setups, and more. The installation of the OS files takes about 20 minutes from there, followed by a quick reboot and first boot, making for a highly customizable yet speedy install from start to finish.
The other major problem with previous versions was the inconsistent speed of their package handling system. In 11.0, though, a new command line app called Zypper makes installing updates, patches, and other packages much faster.
The final verdict is that OpenSUSE 11.0 has become a viable alternative to Ubuntu; the overall quality of the open source distro was never in question, but now that speed has gone from being its biggest deficiency to being one of its biggest strengths, we expect to see a lot more chameleons in the wild.
I actually bought SuSE 7.2 and 8.0 Pro back when Futureshop (Canadian Best Buy) used to sell it. I really liked the distro back then, but had such a hard time with RPM hell that I eventually moved to Gentoo and now debian because package management on the two distros are so much cleaner.
I’m definilty going openSuse when i get my new pc. KDE ftw, and no ones does KDE like openSuse.
A) this is not a hack.
B) SUSE has caused woe in the past… it will need to fight hard to win any points with the past frustrated.
Opensuse a viable Ubuntu alternative??? What, no Mepis love out there?
a) Linux is relevant to lots of hackers
b) As nice as Suse etc. may be, they still use RPM, which is inferior to the apt-get system. This *may* have improved in the last years, I haven’t been folowing those developments as I’m happy with deb.
Not a hack! linux is cool, but I will read about it on linux blogs man.
I’ve been using SUSE since the 9.1 version, and I still can’t find a better alternative. {K}ubuntu? nah, it sucks in text-mode. Well, package management (with Yast) used to be slow on SUSE, but the overall style and efficiency of the distro makes it my No.1 Desktop OS; and will upgrade to 11.0 in a couple of days. Keep it up SUSE!