Rating: 
Summary: Awesome
Review: I just finished installing Suse Linux 9.0 Pro and I have to tell you it's great. In the 45 or so minutes I have been using it I can see the great potential of this operating system. I didn't have to install any drivers after my installation. Finished installing and everything was ready to work. I just wish my Windows 2000 Pro OS was capable of doing half of what this baby is capable of doing. This is the first time ever I have used a Linux operation system. A 10 year old can install this operation system, it is that easy. Yes it will take some time to get used to it but after you do you will NEVER go back to windows.
Rating: 
Summary: SUSE is doing customers a HUGE dis-service IMNHO !!!
Review: Our experience with SuSE 8.1 Office Desktop mirrors many other folks in that Acronis DOES NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY in resizing hard drives, and yes it WILL completely delete your Windoze partition if you are not EXTREMELY careful of accepting the "default" choices, which SuSE is EMPHATIC you should accept. In addition SuSE would not propely install our modem nor our network for cable modem access, the ONLY two items we actually needed and desired of Linux...When we contacted SuSE Tech Support (sic) they insisted we HAD to register our product online and that was the ONLY means of obtaining Tech Support (sic). So we went to a Windoze based PC and registered then called SuSE Tech again, and again, and again, and after an hour we got a CSR. We informed him of the INSTALLATION PROBLEMS with not being able to properly config. the dial-up mail and cable modems. He advised us THAT THERE WAS NO TECH SUPPORT FOR INSTALLATION OF THESE ITEMS, despite the fact we purchased the $100 full retail package !!! He advised that there was solution info. online in the Knowledgebase of the Support Portal. HOW he expected us to access this info. WITHOUT INTERNET SERVICE was unknown!!! As it turns out the Knowledgebase is an insult to anyone with a clue and was TOTALLY USELESS. SuSE ain't doing itself or Linux or the Open Source community ANY favors by dumping half-baked products into the marketplace. This smacks of Microsucks business model???? I expect SuSE has some serious lawsuits going as the above problems have been documented by numerous software review sites. FWIW, we sent two e-mails to SuSE Tech Support, (sic) requesting assistance and they did NOT respond. We noted that they had 800+ Tech Support requests in a (3) hour time frame so one can safely conclude a huge amount of Tech Support is required from SuSE, but NOT AVAILABLE from SuSE. They should be ASHAMED of the way they defraud consumers ! I'll betcha they can't pull this crap in Germany !
Rating: 
Summary: Nice OS, but Windows XP is better.
Review: How is this version? It's good. It found all of my hardware, including my printer and modem. I am not using a Win Modem. Is it better then Windows XP? No it's not. Having read some of the reviews, I see that quite a few of the reviewers have never worked with Windows XP. I have run Windows XP at work and help take care of over 80 computers. Moving from Windows 98 to Windows XP dropped our help call rate 80% - 90%. Windows XP has only crashed 5 times on any of our computers in the last year and a half. Applications crash, but don't take the OS down with them. This linux version will only let me run my screen resolution at 1024 x 768. It took a while to get to one that didn't make my screen look funny. Linux has difficulty running 2 or more applications at one time. It is slow, both loading applications and running them. I have had to reload the OS 3 times in the last 2 weeks. I tried to download the latest Python Version and although I followed the directions somehow it didn't "bring in" everything and many of the applications in SUSE failed. Then I tried downloading some of the larger updates on a T1 line and installed them, using RPM. It again killed part of the OS, so I reloaded. It was quite frustrating. Also you have to hunt for information on how each of the applications work, the setup, etc. This means that you spend a lot of time hunting for information on the application, you are interested in. Having said this, I think this is the best that Linux has to offer. RedHat was nice, but has left the personal Linux market. I have a 26.6k bytes line, and don't have unlimited access to the T1 for the amount of time needed to get the full Linux Installation downloaded. Doing an update, using the automatic updater, works great and you don't have to reboot. Bottom line. If you are new to computers or don't like tinkering with software, buy Windows XP. It is extremely stable and the updates won't crash your computer. The software, in general, is very good. If you like to play with unknown applications, optimize your OS, and/or understand computers/software give SUSE 9 a try. If you are an IT Professional, get this to learn about Linux.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Product, Terrible Support
Review: This is a nice distro, with several aspects of polish. However, as other reviewers have noted, if you need support resolving any installation issues, you'd better be a Linux guru or at least know one. I agree with others; SuSe tech support puts out more effort trying to find ways of NOT providing you support than helping you to solve any problems you encounter. Let's face it, Micro$oft's dominance of the market means few hardware vendors even bother to attempt Linux support. The Open Source community does an excellent overcoming this hurdle, but often installation has its hiccups. That's where a distro's tech support becomes vital; to guide you through the catacombs of Linux to find the appropriate config file to tweak. In my experience with SuSe, they refuse to support my modem; a basic ISA modem which SuSe did not recognize. I wiped SuSe off my disk, installed Red Hat and had zero problems. I've seen many comments on the Web suggesting that SuSe is no longer the customer-oriented company they once were since they have been acquired by Novell. My suggestion to you is carefully review their hardware compatibility database before you consider this distro and hope that nothing goes wrong during hardware detection.
Rating: 
Summary: Best Pre-Packaged Distro
Review: As a complete newcomer to the Linux world, this distribution of Linux was great, but I was always having problems with dependencies. But this was good in every other way. Great installer and configuration. Yet, if you want a great distro of Linux, and you are fairly comfortable with Linux try Gentoo.
Rating:
Summary: Don't use it if you don't know how Linux work
Review: Not very friendly for beginner user, so if you decide to install linux, learn more about Linux.
The most advantage of Linux is the price, but if price is not a problem, I suggest Windows XP, more user friendly and more stable than previous windows version.
Rating:
Summary: What a piece of junk that Windows is!
Review: The other day I had to move a hard drive from one PC to another. This hard drive contained MS-DOS/Windows 98 SE, and I was moving it to a very similar PC (same motherboard). The PC started booting, and almost immediately a message was displayed on the screen (as expected): "New hardware found." This message, and the subsequent ones directed me to get a CD with the graphic adapter drivers, a disk with the ethernet card driver, a disk with the sound drivers, and a number of times it asked for the original disk containing Windows 98 SE, not to mention that I had to reboot the PC several times. What a pain in the neck just to move this disk, I said to myself. I'm not installing it on a rare PC: all components are very standard. And Windows didn't even recognize the printer! Then, I remembered that in that same machine I had temporarily installed another hard drive with SuSE Linux 8.2, and I didn't have all of this trouble with it. Most of the drivers were already in the hard drive, so I only had to choose a couple of items from pre-defined lists. Even the printer, an Alps MD-1000, was in the list of drivers. I never had to reboot the machine--everything was done "on the fly." I love not having to reboot a Linux loaded computer, I really do. What a piece of junk this Windows is, I concluded.
Rating: 
Summary: not for professionals...
Review: The first impression is really good. But if you go into detail you won't be satisfacted. I think SuSE puts every software they find on the DVD/CD's and that's all. No quality review. For example there is no plugin for burning mp3 cd's with k3b. They just didn't compile it. And the services... The whole box is a big mess. The configuration (edit some configs,...) via shell is terrible because some settings will be ignored so you are forced to use yast. No. That's no Distribution for me. I will use Red Hat again...
Rating:
Summary: No problem with installation, also for the mainstream user!
Review: Wow people what did go this installation smooth! For me it is the first time that I install Linux, but no problem what so ever! Just as good, or as bad.., as MS Windows 98/2000 and XP! A recommendation for people that want keep on using the SW which they used to use under Windows. Suse has a 1 CD package called SUSE LINUX Wine Rack, it makes that possible. Don't know why it isn't available at Amazon. At Suse it is:
suse.de/de/private/products/suse_linux/winerack/
Rating:
Summary: Linux: A real operating system after crappy years of Windows
Review: Before the IBM PC (late 70's) there were multi-user operating systems (e.g. MP/M & MP/M-II) running on 16-bit processors. The first OS for the PC (PC DOS, created by Microsoft) was a dirty copy of a downgraded CP/M (a single-user OS). To this day, and well after so many years, and many versions of MS DOS (including the "pseudo-windows" versions of MS DOS, called by them "Windows 95" and "Windows 98"), Microsoft still doesn't have a true multi-user operating system. Linux (and Unix) OS's are taking computing to the next level since the days of Digital Research (CP/M & MP/M). IBM, and Microsoft (an application software company, not an OS development company at the time) started, in my opinion, the greatest disservice of all times to computer consumers, when they launched the IBM PC in 1981: a behind-the-times computer running a crappy Microsoft OS on an 8-bit microprocessor (8088). And this is not because of the computer, but because of the outdated operating system that Microsoft created. Windows is a widely used OS; that doesn't mean it's better. Linux is by far a superior operating system: a true multi-user, multi-program OS, more powerful than any Windows version will ever be (there are many Linux servers out in the real world competing head to head with Microsoft, and guess what? Linux is winning!). SuSE has done a fine job putting Linux SuSE 9.0 together, a very good package, bundled with tools, utilities, several world-class applications, and highly automated installation services (easy too!) I made a full blown installation onto an old 4GB hard drive, and it took less than 2GB, including most of the applications that came in the package. The only problem I found was with a Brother MFC-6800 printer (designed to work with Windows), but I easily found a Linux driver in a dedicated website. All those who don't have a clue what a good operating system is because the only thing they know is Windows, should stay with Windows (and pay more, of course). If you don't understand Linux, you won't be able to see the differences, and worse, the incredible advantages of Linux. "Working with MS Windows is like crawling... working with Linux is like flying!"
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