SuSe takes over my Desktop! « Irfan’s Corner on the Web

10Dec/0611

SuSe takes over my Desktop!

Since yesterday I've been evaluating SuSe, and I'm pretty impressed by the distro. It's not the first time I've used SuSe, I used it before Novell acquired it. It was one of the best one at that time, but not ready for the Desktop. After the Novell acquisition I think SuSe has improved greatly! It's an awesome distribution now. However the desktop installation did not go as smoothly as that installation on my laptop. I had to manually configure my soundcard, with alsaconf, that's it.

Now, I don't believe that noobs should use SuSe/Fedora etc. straight when they dive into Linux, yes these distributions make a life a lot simpler with Linux, but I believe that you dont learn much about GNU/Linux, the platform, while you are using these distros. For example, since I have installed SuSe I haven't as of yet needed to compile anything from the sources, and just used YaST. So if some software is not available there some noobs who could think that, that software is just not available on Linux, they will not learn about how to find software from sourceforge and compile it, handle dependencies, or if something is wrong with the graphics settings, how to change to xorg.conf file and make the appropriate changes, or if there some problems with iptables, how to delete/add rules manually. One experience I had with a noob, who was a fedora user, was when he had problems with his networking, and he was testing settings in the GUI tool which ships with Fedora/redhat. I investigated using the ifconfig and route tool, and found out there were problems with the gateway routing rules, within the next few seconds I fixed them. In Slackware there is no GUI tool for networking configurations, and you mostly use either the netconfig script or the ifconfig/route commands to get your network working. Using raw distros like Slackware/Gentoo hence has enormous advantages, and I believe every Linux user should use it atleast once to learn the platform.

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http://csshyamsundar.wordpress.com/ CS Shyam Sundar

OpenSuSE really rocks !!!
http://nayk.wordpress.com/ NAyK

I understand your concern over understanding Linux and thus avoid distributions like Suse and Fedora. As a newbie… I personally enjoyed learning Linux… but as a user who wants to USE a computer, rather than work on it, I have enjoyed the liberation from code that suse et al provide. But I guess I wish I did know Linux more to solve many of the problems which I know have solutions… but then, I wish, I really wish, that it was easier to use Linux so that I wouldn’t have to spend too much time figuring out how to solve the problems. Anyway, just my two bits.
http://linux.wordpress.com/ E@zyVG

I am simply loving it.
http://www.bloog.cl Felipe

Why would a noob want to learn how to solve dependencies and stuff like that?? they just don’t care!
OS are meant to be used and make your life easier, they are not meant to make you work…
http://irfanhabib.wordpress.com/ irfanhab

@Felipe

It’s simple: Making them learn the platform! If they dont know how to deal with dependencies and they run into problems, they wont know how to solve them!
Yes you are right that an OS is supposed to make life easier, but it is also important that you learn about intricacies of your OS so that if you run into problems your not helpless.
Shuaib

I’ve had enough with Gentoo on my Desktop. Even though I love Gentoo, and the way it handles everything, I want my life to get easier now. So, YOU MUST GIVE ME A DVD OF OPEN SUSE TOMORROW IN COLLEGE. :@

Other than that, I would say it depends on the user whether to go for a user friendly distro such as SuSe or for a more learning-enforing distros like Gentoo or Slackware (Gentoo is better at that).
-deadcats

What horrible advice!

It’s akin to someone asking what time it is, only to receive advice that they need to learn how to first build a watch!

Ridiculous!

-dc
http://www.mechtechnologies.com Nasir

Thats great.
http://itechnology.wordpress.com Hameed Khan

Irfan, I agree with you as far as Suse is concerned that it’s most user friendly distribution. But as you said newbies shouldn’t be using Suse/Fedora this isn’t good advice. Not everyone can learn or interested in learning the in depth details of the OS (how all the pieces are fitted together). Their are peoples who just want to get their job done as soon as possible and thats where Suse play its role. But what if someone want to learn all these compiling and depenedency thing then they can get other distributions installed too for practice and learning purposes. I do use SuSe for my every day tasks but this dosen’t mean I have never installed Slackware, Fedora or Gentoo
Kamran

>>What horrible advice!

>>It’s akin to someone asking what time it is, only to receive advice that they need to learn how to first build a watch!

>>Ridiculous!What horrible advice!

>>It’s akin to someone asking what time it is, only to receive advice that they need to learn how to first build a watch!

>>Ridiculous!

That’s not it at all. For the average user who simply wants to use Linux as a substitute for Windows, yes using SUSE right from the start is ok. However, for someone who is looking to do some serious development in Linux, must understand it’s ins and outs. “User-friendly” distributions like SUSE, Fedore do NOT expose you to those internal details that Slackware-like distributions do. For learning purposes, I still think Slackware is the best distro, however, with the experience I’ve already had with Linux, I think it’s safe to move to SUSE for me. So I agree with the author that distros like SUSE should only be used by either advanced users, or simple desktop users.
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hello. it’s a nice day for your ideas and our money
dieter adant

I think he is right. Linux isen’t a operating system for noobs. If we put a linux newbie on a suse distro. He wil compare it to windows and think the programs wil install the same way as they do on windows. So he wil end up on a dead end and wil start using windows again. Linux is a opensource not commercial operating system wish means the developers don’t care if you don’t have the skills to use there work they made it for free as a hobby. The diffrence with suse is you have payed coders but payed coders make a userfriendly program wish makes people think windows = linux. If you want a replacement for your windows linux is not the os you need. A example of a windows replacement is macos it’s comercial. O and before you want to post to say o but suse is commercial wel suse uses the linux kernel wish is not commercial. So the moral if you are looking for a windows replacement there is macos . If computing is your hobby and you spend most of your free time behind a computer there is linux. See it that way.