SuSE 9.1

[Xayd]

I just grabbed and installed this to give freevo a try on my TV comp, and I must say, I'm impressed.

I don't think they have this on FTP yet, there was a message in the SuSE primary FTP server that they would have images in there in June, although they're selling the CDs already.

It's on alt.binaries.warez.linux tho (altho it's not warez, since it's free of course unless you wanna pay for the CDs to get support).

Either way...

1) completely graphical install
2) Kernel 2.6.4 by default, also gives you sources by default.
3) detected every piece of hardware in my box (even tho it didn't have the ivtv drivers it ID'd even my capture card properly and suggested where to get em).
4) ALLOWS YOU TO PICK KERNEL MODULES/DRIVERS BEFORE YOU INSTALL (ffs why can't more distros do this, nothing is a bigger pain in the ass than to have to spend an hour watching an install bar scroll by only to spend another hour after scrolling thru kernel options 1 by 1, and another hour recompiling a custom kernel to add stuff that you knew you needed anyways)
5) Has a pretty smart system of suggesting kernel options based on hardware detection (I went to try and add a couple, such as the module for capture card-specific Ir devices that were already flagged by the installer based on detected hardware ).
6) Properly detected model number and freq ranges on my monitor (again, something most distros don't bother to compile data for to include in their installers).
7) For devices they can't include a driver for (for instance nVidia cards), they provide you with a shell script to fetch them from somewhere automatically, so you don't have to dig around various FTPs looking for drivers, also pretty nice.
8) And of course, Yast owns, I've tinkered with damn near every setting that it allows you to tinker with in the past couple hours and haven't found any bugs yet (even when playing with various video modes).

All in all, this distro was about as easy to install as Win2k/XP are, altho I'd never run all the extra fluff that it installs on a server box, my BF server is gonna continue to be Debian, but I must admit it's a pretty damn fine setup for someone who wants a quick and easy linux workstation.

Discuss.

[bailey]

sounds great, but I would be leary about suggesting to anyone to go to that area of the internet as the stuff there is usally loaded with all kinds of virouses

[mikeL]

SuSE is a real nice OS been using it since 8.0 then purchased 9.0 pro, both installed with only one problem, my old turtle beach card, tossed in a SB- Live. It would be nice to see Novell to add some of their networking software in. NDS rules

Although I've installed Slackware recently getting my feet wet with that.

[Xayd]

Why would anyone post a windows virus to a linux newsgroup? They'd have to be retarded.

"usually loaded with viruses"? That's why the hundreds of thousands of people who use usenet every day keep going back, yeah, cause everything on there is a virus...

Novell is doing the right things atm, from what I've seen. The SuSE OS is already very good for new hardware/workstations, and should improve with new features that are ported from Novell code, but on top of that if you look at what Novell is publishing in the last few years, they're aiming to fill voids in the *nix area that others haven't filled that well (such as integrated mail/intranet service/groupware type stuff that Windows servers do well, but *nix servers only have in individual packages that don't play together).

Stuff like that are why Windows servers still exist. Linux/BSD Unix can do alot of things, and do alot of things well, but integrating multiple functions/applications together is often a hassle, if even possible. Maybe Novell will make some headway in that area, they're definitely going to try from looking at what they're up to with SuSE.

[aym]

To make sure that the CD ISOs are actually from Novell, just compare MD5 hashes.

I'm still using SuSE 9, from what I read, I'm looking forward to upgrade to 9.1.

[LocoCoyote]

I just made the jump from 9 to 9.1 not too long ago myself. Aside from the newer KDE 3.2, you get kernel 2.6 as default. It is differnt. I have had some issues, but nothing I would consider earth shaking.