[KLUG Advocacy] New SuSe User

[Adam Tauno Williams]

Well, I've got SuSe installed on two laptops, so here are my
observations.

1. The network install is totally whacked, thats why I only have it in
two laptops.
2. One one install the install really struggled and kept complaining
that the media did not contains such-n-such package (?!).  Starting over
would result in the install failing because some different package
installed. Wierd.  After hours I got it installed by installing a nearly
bare install.
3. On the other laptop (from the same DVD) the install sailed through
without issue for a GNOME install.
4. Acrobat Reader is included!
5. Playing MP3s in XMMS works, included!
6. LVM works (didn't in Fedora).
7. PCMCIA always works (In Fedora it was a reboot, reboot, reboot,....
until it suddenly "took").
8. Mounting removable media happens automatically under /media, very
nice.  This includes USB mass storage devices; and LVM works there too.
9. GNOME install is pretty good, but has a few holes.  For instance OO
seems totally unintegrated and isn't even in the GNOME "Office" menu. 
This is bad enough to seem a bit of a deliberate slight.  And since when
is Open Office Calc "kcalc"?
10. CUPS works,  all my printers were automatically detected.
11. Eclipse is included.
12. Java apps, even 'real' ones like dbVisualizer, "just run".
13. Red Carpet works, but Open Carpet services don't recognize SuSe 9.1
yet.
14. Mono packages from Red Carpet install painlessly.
15. This feels noticably more responsive GUI-wise than under Fedora.
16. Your stuck with Rieserfs (Ick!).  Installing onto other filesystems
didn't seem to work and blew up catastrophically (I tried XFS & JFS).
17. Battery applett does not work, so there is ONE thing that worked
under Fedora that doesn't under SuSe.