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| openSUSE 10.2 (Linux) | 
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| From: SuSE
Category: Software
List Price: £42.74 (EUR62.63)
Buy New: £2.95 (EUR4.32)
You Save: £39.79 (EUR0.58) (93%)
New (2) from £2.95 (EUR4.32)
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 1753
Platform: Linux
Media: CD-ROM
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.7 x 8.1 x 1.9
MPN: 662644470917
UPC: 662644470917
EAN: 0662644470917
ASIN: B000MFR2LS
Release Date: January 24, 2006
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Getting better all the time -- but NOT for beginners June 17, 2007
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
SUSE Linux is a a mixed bag. On one hand, it's really professionally put together. If you know what you're doing, you can run it straight out of the box and get a working Linux system in about half an hour. But there's the rub: you need to know what you're doing. Those SUSE people (now owned by Novell) are so nervous about infringing patents that they like to disable the faintly controversial packages and features. As a result, if you install 10.2, you will get: a) really bad looking fonts (because the proper font anti-aliasing/hinting feature has been disabled); b) no DVD playing out of the box (because the DVD codecs are not supplied)... and so on. All this would be OK, but SUSE comes in a glossy box implying that the product is simple and suitable for Linux beginners. It plainly isn't. To get the fonts and DVD working takes a bit of technical skill or some help from a knowledgeable friend. You're rapidly plunged into the deep end of installing missing libraries, replacement RPMs, etc etc. It's not something your granny could do! Once all the problems are fixed, you're granny will be fine with it, however.
Like previous SUSE releases, 10.2 comes with a printed manual. I found this completely useless. It's too technical for beginners and too simple for experts. A total waste of time, in my view. If you run into difficulties during installation, the book won't really help you. However, if you pay for your SUSE product, you do get free installation support. I took advantage of this and I can confirm that the SUSE Novell guys are extremely professional and helpful (though they didn't actually fix my problem -- they won't help you if you have trouble making Linux coexist with Windows on a dual-booting system).
On the plus side, Linux gets better all the time. I just upgraded from SUSE 9.0 to SUSE 10.2. Once I'd sorted out the gripes mentioned above, I noticed just how much better the kernel is now and how much improved a lot of the packages are. For example, USB flash cards now work properly, my digital camera plugs in and works straight away, the GIMP is loads better, OpenOffice 2.0 is improved and much more reliable.
There are also some fabulous new packages included. One of the best new arrivals is Amarok, a wonderful iTunes-like music player. Again, with a bit of tinkering, it will play MP3s, M4As (the standard iTunes format), WMAs (Windows standard format), and all the rest. But, in SUSE 10.2, it's another thing that doesn't work 100% out of the box.
There are still some issues with modems and wireless networking cards. The built-in modem and wireless card on my Toshiba laptop needed a certain amount of hacking and tinkering to get working.... but they work fine now too.
In summary: no gripes with Linux, which gets better all the time, but a bit of a gripe with SUSE. Either you're selling a product that's suitable for beginners (in which case, you should enable all the features you've disabled so it runs straight out of the box), or you're selling a product that needs some technical expertise to get it working. It's not fair to confuse the two and pretend this is a product for total beginners. If you have some experience with Linux (you know how to track down and install missing libraries and add RPMs), you'll find this a big improvement on earlier SUSE distributions and incredible value for money. Highly recommended, but beginners buy with a little caution.
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Update:
The 10.2 documentation says "Main memory: at least 256MB; 512MB recommended". You probably wonder what this means, in practice?
Since I wrote this, I've installed SUSE 10.2 on a second laptop -- a four-year-old Toshiba with only 256 MB of memory. The installation was very, very slow at times. YAST (the SUSE installation and system admin program) works very slowly with only 256MB. But once you've installed, most things work just fine. OpenOffice is occasionally a bit slow, but programs like The GIMP work fine. So if you have only 256MB, you can still run this program. And if it runs like a dog during installation, stick with it -- it'll probably be OK once the installation is complete. I also noticed that the fonts issue was barely noticeable on an older machine with a smaller screen and lowe resolution.
 okay... June 14, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
To set the scene, I'm not an expert in operating systems etc, but I do work in IT and would say I'm computer literate. I do like Microsoft products, but had a spare PC (2 GHz Pentium, 256Mb Ram) at home and wanted to give the whole LINUX thing a go.
The initial setup was incredibly easy. The GUI is very much like a regular windows setup, and the whole thing is nice to look at. In particular the way photos are presented seemed to be loads clearer than windows thumbnails, and there are loads of really cool features for flasher computers than mine (3d boxes with windows on them) and some nice neat ones for most others (e.g. the slideshow desktop is quite cool).
The gripes:
Took me ages to work out how to map a network drive. The command itself is well easy, but took me ages to work out what it was. I imagine working out how to map a networked printer would probably take a long time too.
Seemingly not as stable as windows. Could be something wrong with the PC, but it did the Linux equivalent of the blue screen of death several times whilst trying to play mp3s from a network drive. Never had this problem with my Windows laptop.
So in summary, it's good for the money, and you get the decent openoffice suite with it, but then you can get that free from the internet anyway.
I probably will use this product more, but I'm not really recommending it as the best thing going.
An excellent tool. March 15, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
The latest Suse is a true alternative to Vista. However, it is not a Jack of all trades. It will not play DVDs out-of-the-box, and it is not the ideal operating system for games.
However, if you want to use the Internet and use a complete office suite of software on a computer that is more than a year old, then Suse might be for you,especially if you are worried about security while using the Internet.
For many people installing Vista means buying more memory or a new graphics card. The only problem that I had was with a USB wireless adapter. I had to buy a new card in order to get an Internet connection. The total cost was still less than Vista alone.
The most important thing to remember about this product is that you are paying for installation support. Installation support does not mean help using the operating system. It might make more sense to buy a book with a DVD of Suse,and then get the help of an experience Linux user to set up your computer.
 The best SuSE release since 9.1 February 15, 2007
40 out of 40 found this review helpful
This release of openSUSE is much improved over the previous 10.1 release, which initially exhibited minor problems with the installer and the online update programme. These were quickly fixed and they don't exist in 10.2.
Installation is very flexible. It can be kept simple by accepting the defaults or it can be highly customized allowing specific partitioning schemes and file system types. It's recommended to be connected to the Internet during the installation process, as the installer will configure the wired network cards, update repositories and then download any updates. Installation takes about an hour.
One of the best features of openSUSE is the YaST set up tool. Virtually everything that needs configuring can be configured using a GUI. It's not necessary to manually edit configuration files, but you can if you want to. Here, openSUSE has the advantage over Fedora, which is mainly biased towards server installations. openSUSE is good as a desktop or a server.
Another area that has greatly improved, at least with openSUSE, is the installation of proprietary hardware drivers. Nvidia, ATI and `madwifi' (for Netgear or Atheros-based wireless network cards) have all implemented repositories that can be configured into the software updater. Now the software can be downloaded and installed with a few mouse clicks - there's no need to manually re-compile the kernel any more.
Once the wireless network card drivers are installed the network card itself is configured using a GUI, including full WPA-PSK encryption using a passphrase or HEX.
The 3D desktop works very well with Nvidia graphic cards - 3D capability is enabled automatically when the Nvidia driver is installed. The 3D desktop effects are also easy to enable or disable - once again without editing configuration files.
For legal reasons DVD playback doesn't work out of the box but there's a repository that can be configured into the updater which will download and install all of the necessary software packages. Search for `hacking opensuse' for instructions on how to enable DVD playback. It's strange to watch a DVD play wrapped around the edge of a 3D desktop. This may be a bit of a gimmick but it shows the true power of the X.org graphic system.
openSUSE also works very well with memory sticks, digital cameras and Bluetooth devices.
Overall this is the best release of SuSE for a long time. It doesn't make great demands on hardware and performs faultlessly. It doesn't require vast amounts of memory either - after the initial boot it uses about 250 MB in graphical mode. Compare that with Vista, which uses 800 MB just `ticking over', although I suspect a lot of that goes into ensuring that Vista controls you, not you controlling it.
I can recommend openSUSE for both beginners and experts - it's flexible enough for both - and you remain in control.
PS: This review was written using Open Office writer on openSUSE 10.2.
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