“A few weeks ago, I got my hands on the latest release from SuSE. After using it steadily since then, I can say that I’m pleased with 8.1, though it could use some refinements. Read on to find out what’s in store for you with SuSE 8.1 Professional.” Read the review at UnixReview. Update: “SuSE goes for the desktop” at Geek.com.
Review: SuSE Linux 8.1 Professional
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
“I need to be able to pick up, go to the library or another person’s office or a friend’s house, fire up his or her Linux distro, and get a consistent look and feel–and functionality–before Linux on the desktop will really work.”
Well that is not the direction. Each distribution is distinguishing itself by being different, but yet usable. And it is very easy for every user to further work on the desktop to personalize it to fit his or her needs exactly. This is the power of Linux. Requests for uniformity and loss of personal favors just doesn’t make sense. The guy could just as well have written: “I need to be able to take another person’s clothes and wear them, and still feel like they were my own.”
And more:
“Provided it works well, CrossOver Office is a big step in that direction, maximizing on putting the Redmond Giant’s assets to work for Linux.”
No no. Microsoft Office doesn’t make sense on Linux. It doesn’t make sense on Mac OS X either, like low sales figures have shown. Microsft Office makes sense on Microsoft Windows.
No no. Microsoft Office doesn’t make sense on Linux. It doesn’t make sense on Mac OS X either, like low sales figures have shown. Microsft Office makes sense on Microsoft Windows.
I just installed Office XP, and I’m not so sure it makes much sense on Windows anymore either.
I must say that this is great review. I’ve been using 8.1 ever since I was able download it via ftp.
In the review you say that mozilla crashes often, I have not experienced these problems, but I am aware of some plugins that are able to crash mozilla at “precise” times. Also this can be done by installing the java-plugin, since java is not compiled with gcc-3.1 as mozilla is!!! This can cause mozilla to crash. There is a warning in SuSE about this.
The next thing is evolution………I also have no problems with setting up multiple pop, as a matter of fact I have three pop accounts with evolution.
The next point is your favorite game Pysol, you claim that it’s not included in SuSE 8.1, but it is….it’s in Amusements->Games…….
The last thing is Gnumeric………..I think it should not be installed by default, since I think OpenOffice is installed by default……..no use in having two spreadsheets.
That’s it
cya
I’ll definetely try it after I see some good reviews.
SuSE needs to put a LOT of work to really make their distro acessible toa nybone.
MAybe most importantly is great networking like in Xandros. A faster and easier to USE YAST is also essential. INtegration in the Kcontrolcenter also needs to be fixed, when I finish something all I see is gray after it’s aplied from kcontrolcenter, and I need to put a password for each module. I also hope they willg rately work on integrationa dn look and feel. I wisht ehy would have the pacakge selector like in Redhat which only shows good programs.
I bought SuSE Personal 8.1 about 4 weeks ago.
Mozilla being the first issue doesn’t crash that much, its like crashed twice in the space of a minute because i did an update from the SuSE server, to fix it strangely, all i did was change skin and now it works.
KDE crashes more often, but ever since getting KDE 3.0.4 and then the 3.0.5 update it has been smooth running.
I’ve seen it a few times now where people report the sluggishness of the OS, i run it on an AMD 1600 and leave it running all day and it runs fine, with 256 DDR memory. Another plus point is that SuSE did detect all my hardware even my 3 year old modem from creative, which was nice. The monitor needs sorting though, it is 4 years old so i will go easy on that, its a Daewoo 17″, unbranded though, but it finds it.
One thing i find weird is when installed on my laptop, it’ll report 2 DVD drives, it’ll create another icon after the first reboot after an installation without fail. My on desktop i have a CD RW and it doesn’t do this. USB seems a bit iffy, i have a memory pen drive and sometimes its best to plug it in during startup for it to work, other days it’ll work normally. I suppose it decides when it wants to work!
This is my second time with SuSE and this is the longest i have had it on my system and kept it on. I only use my desktop pc for music listening and surfing so i don’t expect much. Maybe enjoy the odd game in SuSE as well. Trouble is the Nvidia drivers that you download from SuSE don’t seem to allow me to enable 3d so there goes me playing the famous tux racer still!
Other than that, i am happy for what i paid for, which was only £30 at the time. Its taken a few installations to solve the package dependicies that i had trouble with but its all sorted now.
On the laptop, SuSE is even better, it found my video card which is a SiS card. Everything works on it, my printer will work with it as well, its a HP Deskjet 845c. The only problem i have is installing new programs but i suppose that something i gotta learn, but in the manual it doesn’t have this. Would of been nice, i had to get an admin at college to install the Java SDK for me. On the laptop i duel boot with WinME. Performance wise i have only noticed NetBeans (IDE) works faster on the windows platform than on linux. There seems to be some kind of stall.
Anyway, i like it, keeping it and after teaching myself more about it, will be waiting for the newest version when it comes and maybe i will get pro this time, saving me the time to install programs i could of got if i had bought pro and not personal!.
I bought suse 8.1 professional.. Its ‘ok’. Its too suse-ized, but aside from that it runs great. Anyone who says a newbie cant install it, prolly cant install windows either. This is a pop-in-the-cd-and-install distribution. Everything runs great for me. Overall i think its better than redhat 8.0. My complaints do lie in the ‘suse-ization’ of it. For instance.. 60 processes when I run in window maker? I only have 21 in windowmaker in freebsd 4.7 . Errors with gtk on some source installations. If you want ease and flexibility try suse. If you want standard form unix/linux go with bsd or solaris. Oh and about office xp? Why pay for it when you can do eveyrthing with a linux based office suite for free.
“further work on the desktop to personalize it to fit his or her needs exactly. This is the power of Linux. Requests for uniformity and loss of personal favors just doesn’t make sense.”
Well, it doesn’t make sense, unless you want it on the desktop – you just can’t have one distro with a desktop that looks like Windows and another distro that looks like something else. This may work fine for geeks and power users, but would royally suck for everybody else. “Hey, how come my Linux doesn’t look like your Linux?”
I’m not saying that a uniform look is a good thing and I perfectly understand all the reasons why it’s bad for many people. But, if you want to attract the masses, you have to make sacrifices, and one of those sacrifices is to complete ‘ruin’ Linux and dumb it down to the point where even an ape could use it. That means that all the power and customization you currently enjoy would have to be completely down away with, or else cover it up with 2 tons of bloat so that grandpa Joe could find his way around.
Users are inherently lazy and they’re not going to change, no matter how hard you wish it to be so.
CrackedButter,
Check your video card settings for your 3D enabling. OpenGL doesn’t allow 3D to be enabled with more than 16-bit color, so if it’s set at 24-bit or 32-bit, OpenGL won’t let you use 3D. The NVIDIA drivers are fine with 3D.
If you’re already at 16-bit or lower, I’ve nary a clue.
Check your video card settings for your 3D enabling. OpenGL doesn’t allow 3D to be enabled with more than 16-bit color, so if it’s set at 24-bit or 32-bit, OpenGL won’t let you use 3D. The NVIDIA drivers are fine with 3D.
If you’re already at 16-bit or lower, I’ve nary a clue.
I did actually do this and the bugger still doesn’t work, annoying really, i really do ant to play tux racer!
I might go to NVidias website and signup in their forum to get some advice on it.