[Lancaster] Re: openSUSE DVDs for Linux User Groups

[David Smith]

Ken,

Yeh, I know what you mean and the truth now is that there are a lot of 
options for new converts.

Certainly, everything I've heard so far has done a lot to sing the 
praises of both Mandriva and SuSE in terms of support - my biggest 
problem in the past has been that I haven't given them enough time as I 
was always trying to run them dual-boot - now that I can finally run 
things easier and speedily in a VM I'll have to give them another try.

To Mandriva's credit, one thing I have been really impressed with has 
been the 4Gb Flash stick. It worked pretty solidly on the few bits of 
hardware I tried it in which, remembering back to the good old days of 
Mandrake 9.2 was pleasant to see!

I do know what you mean about sudo and it's implementation - it 
basically makes the computer as secure as the user is stupid out of the 
box. And I agree, the workaround isn't pretty and doesn't help new users 
at all.

Gnome vs KDE... well, I'll leave that one alone largely... :-) I'm very 
much on the fence with it in as much as KDE was the first one I really 
liked and used it for years but, equally, I feel pretty comfortable with 
  Gnome these days as well from a 'clean-cut' perspective! Agreed that 
KDE probably smacks MS-converts as being the easiest to get to grips 
with but I don't believe Gnome is too alien anymore either!

Agreed though, the brown does get a bit depressing after a while!

Are you able to get down to the pub meet that's coming up? If so I'm 
sure we can discuss this at length and compare desktops! ;-)

Dave

Ken Hough wrote:
> 
> apt isn't the only way to go!
> 
> I use Ubuntu as well as my prefered distro -- SUSE.
> 
> Nowadays, Yast is pretty darned good. Debian and Ubuntu users who are
> not familiar with YAST or only know Yast of several versions back might
> be pleasantly surprised.
> 
> Ubuntu is indeed (Windows) user friendly, but SUSE, Fedora and Mandriva
> are also not too scary.   :-)
> 
> Having all installation and configuration stuff managed under Yast makes
> SUSE pretty easy to manage. If Ubuntu is offered, then do make sure that
> it's v8.04. The previous version (7.04) was not too good at recognising
> some of the hardware on my laptop, whereas SUSE had no problem.
> 
> I don't like the way that Ubuntu allows system management via an
> ordinary user password. I know this can be stopped by removing 'sudo',
> but the result is messy. I much prefer the clear separation of root and
> user operations.
> 
> If you are looking for a distro that will be the easiest for MS Windows
> users to get to grips with, then I suggest providing a distro which
> offers KDE by default or at least as an obvious option. eg Kubuntu or SUSE.
> 
> I know, this will get you Gnome frieks going, but ask yourselves which
> is least likely to frighten newcomers?
> 
> Personally, I've never got to like Gnome, especially that 'Orrible
> depressing brown theme used in Ubuntu.
> 
> Ken Hough
>