“Over the last ten years, SuSE’s distribution has matured into a polished product for the professional user. It is the fine detail which sets this distribution apart from the rest — the little touches that make the system easier, and more enjoyable to use. 10 years ago, few dreamt that SuSE, and Linux, would be where they are today — so, with that in mind, SuSE can look forward to the next ten years with a solid product base on which to build.” Read the review at LinuxFormat.co.uk.
Suse Linux 8.1 Professional Review
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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…what’s the point of using it? SuSE 8.1 makes Red Hat 5.0 look like a superstar in terms of install and compatibility. Not sure what install test cases they use, but I’ve got a plain 845 chipset system…XP obviously installed with ease as did Red Hat 8.0. On the other hand, SuSE still pukes constantly and I’m about to fdisk it off my system.
While I’m not an expert, I’ve managed to install several hundred Linux distros over time and this is the worst SuSE I’ve ever seen for install. Hell, I couldn’t even use YAST without mods to the load line?!
I don’t normally reply to trolls like this, but on this case I have to as its the only comment, and I don’t want other people to read your comment presume SuSE 8.1 as bad as you say it is.
…what’s the point of using it? SuSE 8.1 makes Red Hat 5.0 look like a superstar in terms of install and compatibility.
This is just a plain stupid comment. OK, it may not support >B>your hardware, but it supports almost everybody else’s.
SuSE’s YaST2 installer is without a doubt one of the easier install tools, this isn’t just my point of view, its almost eveybody else’s too – do a simple search for SuSE 8.0 reviews on Google and you will see that your view is actually quite a rare one, and most reviews and comments are positive.
I tried 8.1 and it installs, but just barely, on my hardware. It doesn’t see my video card correctly (identifies it as something else than what it really is) nor my modem, nor my sound card all the time (sometimes I get sound, other times none), nor my PCMCIA NE2000 NIC.
And heaven help you if you use a resolution less than 1024×768 (I use 800×600 because it’s a hardware limitation of the video card on the laptop) and the YAST and KDE stumble all over themselves with scroll bars everywhere because it was written (my guess) for big screens with huge resolutions.
Overall I’m underwhelmed by this distro
it crashed my machine too.. i havent done any research though, I did reinstall my mandrake because it is real stable.
But anyways , if it works for you its sure a sweet distro.
The only thing is that gnome installed but didnt appear at the login manager. 😕
Anyways,
Keep on with the good vibes !
Quite often, somebody says “that distro is bad. Proof: it doesn’t install on my specific machine.”
While I agree that’s a definitive show stopper for someone, I think the experience from one machine to another vary too much to be able to conclude anything. One should do some statistical analysis and then could draw some conclusion.
Unfortunately, none of the Linux distribution has the resource to test all the possible hardware configuration or to have the OEMs be sure they comply with their distribution.
I’ve been using SuSE 8.1 for about 1 week now. I switched everything over from Mandrake 9.0 after a couple of hours of use. SuSE does not have all the bells and whistles (themes/skins) for programs loaded by default, but it has a lot going for it that Mandrake and RedHat (definitely!!) lack. The YaST tools are excellent! Very few programs crash in SuSE vs Mandrake (FreeCraft especially). SuSE does some very smart things that Mandrake doesn’t for gamers. The install of the “dummy” nVidia drivers was/is brilliant! After you install the commercial (real) nVidia drivers in SuSE you don’t have to touch your configuration files. SuSE actually comes with a graphical joystick configuration tool that works well. I have been begging for this from mandrake since 7.0. SuSE’s default KDE is the best I have ever seen. Mandrake doesn’t put any effort into making KDE or GNOME (or Windowmaker, enlightement, etc..) look good by default. The guys at RedHat should be shot over that mess they call “BlueCurve”. I don’t care what the hype is over it, it sucks, plain and simple.
All my hardware (except my modem that I don’t use) was recognized and configured near flawlessly (still had to set the scroll on my mouse). My printer (Lexmark Z35 with/Lexmark Proprietary Linux drivers and utilites) worked after only 30 mins of switching from the default CUPS (which doesn’t support my printer on any distro) to LPRng. Configuring my printer under Mandrake is usually an all day affair in which I spend most of it cursing and screaming (Mandrake is CUPS specific). One caveat for SuSE: when I made the switch from CUPS to LPRng, it uninstalled any cups related software that was not need. Mandrake would not do this automatically on the fly. If you don’t want to use CUPS in Mandrake you better not let it install CUPS during the intial installation/upgrade or you are hosed.
The only problem with SuSE versus Mandrake (RedHat has too many negatives to list) is that SuSE packages (not in thier repository) are harder to find. This is kinda a double edged sword because SuSE has a lot more usefull games and packages (configured correctly by default, not experimental (Cooker anyone?)) than Mandrake seems to have (SuSE’s 3d games library is outstanding!). I have bad mouth SuSE in the past for not including a .iso file for easy installation, but I have discovered after using SuSE that YaST’s network link to SuSE’s repositories (ftp) is something that Mandrake needs to emulate. SuSE’s menu driven installation of repository software is 100 times better than rpmdrake (or drakeupdate). I could go on and on about how good SuSE is. My system is now SuSE 8.1 (default), Mandrake 9.0, and Windows ME. RedHat 8.0 has been deleted from my system (glad to see it go) after a few months of use (ugh!). Mandrake has been replaced as primary distro after the longest run any Linux distro has had on my system (I have used it as default since 7.0 first came out). My hat is off to SuSE. If they could get the community that Mandrake has and leave that UniteLinux thing alone, they will go far.
I have a laptop that it just refuses to install on, Gateway Solo 3350 so you know. I contacted suse and they gave me bootlaoder option they had available and it wont get past “an error occurred during the installation”. It would load yast and just give me a 139 error on console 4. Their support sucks, They were absolutely useless,First i call and they say they cant help me on the phone, Then i email them and they take 2 weeks to reply and havent gotten me any closer to installing 8.1. I’m now out 80 bucks because it wont install on the machien i want it on. I was setting it up as a demo for my Work. I used to love SUSE and recommended it to all i know. Now its Mandrake. SAVE YORU SELF THE MONEY and the AGGREVATION GO WITH MANDRAKE.
Did you guys try the fail-safe installer option?
I’ve been running SuSE 8.1 for some time now and it has been running great. It is the only distro that is able to detect all of my hardware. Most others aren’t able to set up my Hauppauge correctly.
But when it was release, if you check out SuSE related forums (like http://www.suse.org.uk/forum/default.asp – notice they are using ASP? :-), you would always find people with problems from bugs. Why? There is just NO beta release. Sure updates later on come fixing up bugs, but I really think they should fix them before the release.
Besides, as for SuSE vs. Red Hat, I would say Red Hat. In the future. 8.0 was really rough, and if I was to pick between the two, I would pick SuSE. But it seems this is RH first serious try to this market, and they did pretty well. I’m sure later releases would be much better. But why I would really bet my money on RH is because of business decissions. RH 8.0 is an example of a product made in response to market demand. SuSE 8.1 is a example of a product that is cool. See the difference? I hope you do.
I posted the wrong link up there. I lost the original URL, and search google, and this came up. It doesn’t seem anything related to SuSE. Hmmm…
Suse 8.1 is indeed buggy. There are plenty of “updates” to this distro already. I found it to be more stable after the updates. I have a Suse 7.3 that works outstandingly. By the way, ever try to add an rpm to Suse 8.1 like Opera and see what happens? No kpackage! Also the fonts are better on 7.3 than 8.0 or 8.1. When Yast works it is the best along with the Mandrake 9.0 control center. Certainly one can manually install an rpm….but to limit you to that doesn’t make sense. I downloaded Opera 6.11 and clicked on the downloaded file and Yast asked me to insert Disc 1 and it proceeded to load Opera 6.03 from the disk instead of what I downloaded.
When suse “support” sent me the install instructions for throwing options to the bootloader.. It does the same thing as the failsafe.. disable apm, apic, dma,, disabled all that fun stuff. still no go.. If anyone has any idea of what to do to make it work feel free to email me: ickusslime$$@$$comcas$t.n$et.. just remove the dollar signs. I would really liek to use them again. Suse 7.3 was the best thing they produced in my opinion. I wish that quality followed them to this version (8.1).
If you click on the rpm-file in let’s say ….konqueror..you can easily install it…just try it. Kpackage you will find in 8.1.
After using both of them (RedHat 8.0 for a week, SuSE 8.1 for a week) my money goes to SuSE 8.1. Greg, click on the new opera rpm file in konqueror and install it that way. SuSE 8.1 has ran solid for me the whole time I have used it. I installed it via ftp from Georgia Tech’s FTP site.
Guys, if 8.1 does not work for you, stick with 7.3
I have been using 7.0, ten 7.3 then 8.0 and then 8.1
I am going back to 8.0 cause there is some performance issues with 8.1
Overall SUSE rules…
If it does not work on MY machine, I will conculde that it is irrevalent
I deploy SuSE exclusively in the field as a consultant. The ease of administration (YOU is 10,000 times better than up2date) being the main reason (my clients have to administrate their own platforms when I leave).
However, 8.1 does indeed seem to have some performance problems and just flat doesn’t like certain raid controllers (though there may be workarounds… I wasn’t able to test all of the combinations…. NOTHING from SuSE though).
SuSE appears to be going through some pretty dramatic growing pains right now. They want to be an Enterprise Level company, but they don’t offer realistic Enterprise
support. For example, let’s say you want to evaluate the OpenExchange product… YOU CAN’T. You have to shell out the big bucks just to see if it will honestly work for you. Well… does it work?? Can’t say… didn’t want to pay for a product just to find out. SuSE admits btw that the ad about being an Exchange Killer went too far.
The administration tools in SuSE 8.1 are MUCH better interface-wise than they were in 8.0…. I would love to have the stability of 8.0 with the new interface tools. Oh well. Check out alt.os.suse if you want to see how many people are having problems with 8.1. If you are a home user, chances are that you will not find many of the problems I’ve seen with 8.1 (your expectations are quite a bit lower as well… nothing wrong with that).
Hoping for a GREAT 8.2 release… and I REALLY, REALLY wish that SuSE allowed people to test their products. They don’t even allow it after the product releases… which is dumb. You pretty much HAVE to have a $$$$ support contract in order for SuSE to listen to your problems. IMHO, reporting problems should NOT cost $$$$ (fixing them is another story of course).
Somewhere… somehow, SuSE forgot about their customer….
The only thing worse I’ve found than SuSE 8.1 is RH 8.0 btw.
RH 8.0 tries to configure 3d for i810 chipsets :-)…
so if you get kernel panics with RH 8.0, yank the glx and dri out of the XF86Config.
I am a Linux & SuSE users since version 4.2 (also have installed Redhat 5.x & 6.x). Finally I decided to build my dream Linux Desktop Development machine. Was the install without problems? Yes. If you use your brain, all will go well. I even downloaded the entire 8.1 distr onto a local Linux 7.3 network server, to make access simplier. When all was said and done, the install has been great. As of this writing, I have not taken the PC down for 19 days & 17 hrs – Windoze, try that! In closing to all those without a brain: Stick with your beloved & often re-booted Windoze.
Until Suse release their CD’s on .iso free for the public, I don’t see them becoming any more popular. Why are RedHat and Mandrake so popular? Not because they have a better product but because you can test their products without touching your back pocket.
The thing that has always impressed me about Suse has been the incredible amount of packages. If you want a range this good (or even better) without Suse’s selfish distribution practices, (my advice), get debian. If 8,000+ packages won’t satisfy your hunger then I don’t know what will. Oh, and you’ll never have to worry about dependencies either as apt-get takes care of all that for you