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Anyone running Open Suse as their Primary OS


mhbell

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Is anyone in the Forum Running open SuSe as their Primary OS or Distro? I ran the commercial versions of Suse from 4.2 until 10.0 around 2006 when I switched to Ubuntu until Ubuntu went to Unity. At that time I went to Mint and been with mint ever since. I am seriously thinking of going back to Suse or maybe Fedora. Give me your input pro and con.

Thanks

Mel

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V.T. Eric Layton

Memory isn't what it used to be...

 

I believe either ebrke (Elizabeth) or zlim (Liz) uses OpenSuSE as a primary OS.

 

Send 'em both a quick PM and ask. :)

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openSUSE has never been my "primary" -- that would be Debian Stable -- but I've had the 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, and 13.2 releases installed here, and I have 42.1 installed now. I go with KDE, and I usually add Fluxbox.

 

In the past I downloaded the KDE spin, but this time around (Leap 42.1) there's no KDE spin (and no live .iso!). Once you get the .iso downloaded, it's easy enough to choose which DE you want to install. I went with the Network install this time around because I didn't want to bother with the 4.7 GB "DVD" download. Worked out fine.

 

KDE Plasma 5 took some getting used to but I'm good with it now.

 

Not sure that I can help you out much as I log into openSUSE only once a week or so. Of course it's as beautiful as always. Sometimes I might have trouble finding certain apps in the repos, especially when a release is still new, but it seems that the apps I want eventually become available (might have to add a repo, though). The releases seem to age well -- feels like they get better over time, after I've had them installed for awhile.

 

No major issues to speak of. 42.1 seemed sorta buggy at first but it runs fine now.

 

openSUSE's online One Click Install has worked out nicely for me; sometimes I'll just do a web search for something like opensuse fluxbox and find the link to a page like this, for example: http://software.open...package/fluxbox

 

Then go from there, if things look okay.

 

Sorry I can't be of more help -- I don't do a lot with openSUSE, just some kinda basic things. I started running it basically just to get a feel for it. I do think it's good enough to use as a "primary OS," but perhaps somebody else might disagree. I'll say this, if a distro gives me too many problems, I'm not gonna keep going back to it, but I haven't dropped openSUSE yet. When I found that 42.1 had no live .iso and no KDE spin, I was hesitant to continue on with openSUSE, but in the end I decided that it was worth it.

 

13.2's EOL is still a ways off for those who don't want to try Leap 42.1 yet.

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I've been using openSuSE exclusively for over 10 years ago now--never had any problems. My needs are very simple now, so I can't vouch for various esoteric hardware/software combinations or problems, but I've found it's happy with old Dell hardware (don't know about newer) and newer Lenovo products. I use a light-weight de (xfce) but always have the gnome libs loaded for some software I can't do without. I'm currently on 13.1, which is still getting updates/security fixes although I suspect not for very much longer. I've used the online network install mostly in the last few years and find that it usually goes quite quickly and I only have to burn one disc to get started.

 

I don't know if Liz still has an openSuSe install or not.

Edited by ebrke
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Thanks Eric, Saturnian, and Ebrke. I installed Open Suse 42.1 leap The other day using ext4 fs and everything went fine. I multi boot several Distro's. Today I installed it and it choose BTRfs so I let it use BTRfs, Big mistake on a multi boot machine. I installed Grub2 to the root partition because I like my present customized boot loader. When I tried to update grub it could not find the root partition for Suse. Come to find out Grub nor Gparted recognize the BTRfs. So I will reinstall using ext4 instead of BTRFS. I used The commercial Versions of Suse Which I bought, for many many years and even took care of a couple of BBS's and some web sites Using only Suse. Suse has really changed over the years. Guess I will have to learn all over again if I am to use it. one of the reasons I am looking for a new main Distro, is Security. I could probably adapt to Debian, But it is a pain to use and get everything that I want without jumping through hoops. I will take another look at Ubuntu and Fedora, and maybe even Slack.

Mel

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I don't know if Liz still has an openSuSe install or not.
No, I never installed open SuSE. The only distro I installed was PCLinuxOS.

 

ooops from reading Eric's comments below mine, I do remember installing Vector Linux on a computer I donated.

 

All my others are run live from a USB stick.

Edited by zlim
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V.T. Eric Layton

Mel, what distros are you most comfortable with? Debian based (apt-get package manager w/ .deb)? Fedora or SuSE (RPM based packages)? Something other than those? If you're familiar w/ RPM based distros like Fedora, SuSE, PCLinuxOS, or Red Hat, you should try CentOS. It's the open version of Red Hat. It's very simple to install and is rock solid stable.

 

https://www.centos.org/

 

If you'd like to try a Slackware-based distro without participating in the self-flagellation and masochism of actually learning Slackware, then you might like Vector Linux or Zenwalk or, a favorite of mine, Salix.

 

http://www.vectorlinux.com/

 

http://manual.zenwalk.org/

 

http://www.salixos.org/

 

Have fun! :)

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Mel, what distros are you most comfortable with? Debian based (apt-get package manager w/ .deb)? Fedora or SuSE (RPM based packages)? Something other than those? If you're familiar w/ RPM based distros like Fedora, SuSE, PCLinuxOS, or Red Hat, you should try CentOS. It's the open version of Red Hat. It's very simple to install and is rock solid stable.

 

https://www.centos.org/

 

If you'd like to try a Slackware-based distro without participating in the self-flagellation and masochism of actually learning Slackware, then you might like Vector Linux or Zenwalk or, a favorite of mine, Salix.

 

http://www.vectorlinux.com/

 

http://manual.zenwalk.org/

 

http://www.salixos.org/

 

Have fun! :)

Hello Eric

I can be comfortable with just about any distro's I used the commercial versions of suse for many years starting with version 4.1 around 1996 and used Mandrake before that. I even tried minix back around 91. Since about 2006 I have used (apt-get) type distro's for my primary OS Ubuntu, Mint, and Debian. I even used Sidux for awhile. I have tried Slack, Zenwalk, Victor, and Fedora. One of the problems I run into is my hardware (10 year old Radeon) graphics card. out of all of the Distro's I have tried and used. Linux Mint Cinnamon has been the best and the most trouble free and stable. Rock solid on my 10 year old machine. It works right out of the box for me and I know it inside and out, But in light of what has happened with Mint being hacked and the lack of good security, I am worried about security. I guess I could Use BSD, but that would be a pain too. The thing that bugs me is distros that don't recognize my old radeon card right out of the box. You have to jump through hoops to get (Linux-Firmware-Nonfree) because it is not in the Distro when you install (Debian, Victor, and several others). The newer versions Just don't support the old hardware out of the box, even though they say for old hardware. I find most debian derivatives to be very stable and up to date, but not Debian which is living in the past.. Any way I have rambled on long enough with my Rant. Guess I am getting cranky in my old age.

Mel

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Personal experiance here. Never had any trouble with Slackware . The oldest box has a Radeon 3600 .?HP pavillion. Then a DEll optiplex. Then another Dell stripped down to the metal chassis . Not certain what genus. But only has a 1.8 cpu .

All worked with the install straight off the install disc .

 

Go Slack

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V.T. Eric Layton

I'm running Slackware in Dell laptops that are pretty darned old. My only issues with them are usually that carpy wifi card they have in them. I have to do a little dance and shake some rattles while chanting arcane curses to get wireless to work. ;)

 

I don't believe I've ever had any machine with Radeon graphics, so can't say how well Slackware (or its derivatives) would play with that.

 

It only costs time and inconveniences a few electrons to give it a try. :)

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I'm running Slackware in Dell laptops that are pretty darned old. My only issues with them are usually that carpy wifi card they have in them. I have to do a little dance and shake some rattles while chanting arcane curses to get wireless to work. ;)

 

I don't believe I've ever had any machine with Radeon graphics, so can't say how well Slackware (or its derivatives) would play with that.

 

It only costs time and inconveniences a few electrons to give it a try. :)

Hello Eric

I installed Slack 14.1 tonight and it did recognize my radeon card. at boot up I had to startx as root to get into it. I have created a user and will have to see about a graphic login. I made the mistake of using KDE as my primary. I should have used Gnome or xfce. I have never liked KDE, but I guess I will get use to it if I keep slack. I did not have any problems with the install and used CFdisk to do my partitions. I use to use that in the old days. I don't like Lilo and prefer grub2. I installed lilo to the root so I am still using grub2. I am multi booting 5 Distro's. anyway will keep you posted.

Mel

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