What Version of Suse?

Hi I am new to Linux (I have been using Ubuntu for 14 days only) and
very new to Suse, my brother recommended I try out Suse as he felt it
was a better distribution than ubuntu.

I tried out the Gnome i386 Live CD download last night, and apart from
the fact it did not seems to be able to get my sound card working
(Ubuntu did first time) it looked good.

But when I spoke to my brother he said he needed 10 CD's to download
Suse! but I can only find a single 4.2Gb DVD Iso called "Open Suse".
What is the difference? and what is the best supported version of Suse?
Is it different to the commercial strength Suse? If so where do I
download commercial strength Suse from?

If I install the 4.2Gb ISO and find out later that there IS a
commercial strength version d Suse can I install it over the top of
Open Suse?

I ave also partitioned my drive as per the requirements of Ubuntu eg 1
500Mg Swap File and 1 main partition. Will Suse reformat my drive for
me when it installs so allowing me to partition the drive in a manner
that Suse prefers?

Sorry for so many questions


-- 
nitrofan
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* nitrofan wrote, On 03/12/2008 11:56 AM:
> Hi I am new to Linux (I have been using Ubuntu for 14 days only) and
> very new to Suse, my brother recommended I try out Suse as he felt it
> was a better distribution than ubuntu.

I like that :-)

> I tried out the Gnome i386 Live CD download last night, and apart from
> the fact it did not seems to be able to get my sound card working
> (Ubuntu did first time) it looked good.
> 
> But when I spoke to my brother he said he needed 10 CD's to download
> Suse! but I can only find a single 4.2Gb DVD Iso called "Open
Suse".
> What is the difference? 

There are install CDs, one for Gnome, one for KDE. You can install from that and
get the rest online through the software administration tool in Yast, Opensuse's
administration software.

If you choose the DVD, you don't need to download that much other stuff during
installation or post-installation.

> and what is the best supported version of Suse?
> Is it different to the commercial strength Suse? If so where do I
> download commercial strength Suse from?

The commercial version is the Novell Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop, targeting
the corporate user. You pay an annual fee to get maintenance and support.
If you are a home user, Opensuse 10.3 is the right choice. Support is community
based (like here :-) and you'll receive updates for two years.
http://en.opensuse.org/SUSE_Linux_Lifetime

> If I install the 4.2Gb ISO and find out later that there IS a
> commercial strength version d Suse can I install it over the top of
> Open Suse?

It is a format and reinstall approach, there's no upgrade path. 

> I ave also partitioned my drive as per the requirements of Ubuntu eg 1
> 500Mg Swap File and 1 main partition. Will Suse reformat my drive for
> me when it installs so allowing me to partition the drive in a manner
> that Suse prefers?

Yes. IMHO the entire partition debates are overrated when it comes to
workstations. You need one for swap, one for / and one for /home. The latter
comes in handy when you want to upgrade: You just reformat everything except
/home and start from scratch, keeping your existing data.

> Sorry for so many questions

No problem, that's what we are here for.

Uwe

-- 
Novell Support Connection Volunteer SysOp

Hi Uwe,
Thank you very much for your help, my brother used to work with a guy
his name escapes me at present who actualy wrote some of the core
device drivers for SUSE and so got a good grounding in SUSE. He was
pleased to hear I wanted to find out more about Linux but was horrified
when I told him I had installed Ubuntu! 

I am familiar with partitions and formatting in Windows (I am am what I
would call an advanced Windows user) but in Linux I really am a lost
sheep so to say!

Will SUSE offer me farmat and partition options and recomendations at
install? or is it up to me to make such decisions and choices?

Is there any real difference between the Open SUSE & SLED products in
terms of function, availability of additional software & drivers, and
overall system efficiency?

Thanks again


-- 
nitrofan
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* nitrofan wrote, On 03/12/2008 01:16 PM:
> 
> I am familiar with partitions and formatting in Windows (I am am what I
> would call an advanced Windows user) but in Linux I really am a lost
> sheep so to say!

Shouldn't be a problem, just try it.

> Will SUSE offer me farmat and partition options and recomendations at
> install? or is it up to me to make such decisions and choices?

Yep, it will set quite reasonable defaults. Basically you can just press Enter
during installation and will get a working system.

> Is there any real difference between the Open SUSE & SLED products in
> terms of function, availability of additional software & drivers, and
> overall system efficiency?

SLED is based on an older version of Opensuse and has less support from the
community when it comes to packaged software. That's why you probably want
Opensuse. Hardware support is also better due to the more recent kernel in
Opensuse.

Uwe

-- 
Novell Support Connection Volunteer SysOp

On Wed, 2008-03-12 at 10:56 +0000, nitrofan wrote:
> Hi I am new to Linux (I have been using Ubuntu for 14 days only) and
> very new to Suse, my brother recommended I try out Suse as he felt it
> was a better distribution than ubuntu.

Each have their pros/cons.  Ubuntu would not be the #1 Linux
distro for 2 years running if it were not "better" in some ways.
With that said, I run SUSE and openSUSE pretty much exclusively.
I like the way the SUSE guys think and sometimes the Ubuntu
folks don't think ... sad but true (sometimes Novell/SUSE stumbles
too.. nobody's perfect, but I still think they are closer
to thinking "correctly").

> 
> I tried out the Gnome i386 Live CD download last night, and apart from
> the fact it did not seems to be able to get my sound card working
> (Ubuntu did first time) it looked good.
> 
> But when I spoke to my brother he said he needed 10 CD's to download
> Suse! but I can only find a single 4.2Gb DVD Iso called "Open
Suse".
> What is the difference? and what is the best supported version of Suse?
> Is it different to the commercial strength Suse? If so where do I
> download commercial strength Suse from?

openSUSE is probably what you want.  There is a  Novell commercial
product, but it won't compete well with an Ubuntu (Ubuntu is a
community distro... so is openSUSE).

I recommend going with openSUSE 10.3 for now.

I like the DVD just because there's not swapping of disks during
install.  Alternatively, you could also do a network install.
The small single CD downloads (KDE or Gnome, your choice)
ride the network a lot for installing packages.

I'm guessing that you are downloading from here:
http://software.opensuse.org/

IMHO, that's probably the best place to start.  Downloading the
DVD avoids having to get packages from the Internet (unless
you want to add optional community repositories).

> 
> If I install the 4.2Gb ISO and find out later that there IS a
> commercial strength version d Suse can I install it over the top of
> Open Suse?

Nope.  The Novell SUSE Enterprise Linux product is based off a
much older code base... it's not an upgrade.  However, to its
credit, it is a distribution with a very long support path, and
since there are major companies using it, the fixes come faster
and more often on the Enterprise side... but that costs money.

> 
> I ave also partitioned my drive as per the requirements of Ubuntu eg 1
> 500Mg Swap File and 1 main partition. Will Suse reformat my drive for
> me when it installs so allowing me to partition the drive in a manner
> that Suse prefers?

openSUSE will allow you to install into one "fat" root partition. 
But
be default, it like a /, swap and a separate /home.  But it allows
you do use whatever you have or want.


> 
> Sorry for so many questions
> 
>