Although this latest version of SuSE Linux only warrants a point upgrade, there’s actually more going on under the surface than the numbers would have you believe. Both user interface and underlying services have received upgrades in version 9.1, which also includes more bundled software.
There are two client versions of SuSE Linux available, Personal and Professional. The former, which costs 29.95 euros (~£20), is aimed at simple desktop productivity and includes OpenOffice.org plus various Internet tools. The 89.95-euro (~£61) Professional version has all these elements plus server components such as Samba, Apache, DHCP and DNS servers. It also has some high-end content creation tools. If you want a server-oriented distribution of Linux, SuSE provides two: Standard and Enterprise Server. We’ll cover these at a later date. This review concentrates on the Professional version, since it includes everything that’s in the Personal version, barring an installation guide. If you’re only interested in providing a desktop for non-technical users, then SuSE Linux 9.1 Personal will probably deliver most of what you need.Installation & setup
SuSE Linux 9.1 Professional is supplied with an increasingly rare sight these days -- bulky printed manuals in the shape of an Administrator Guide and a User Guide. There’s a little overlap between the two documents, with YaST is covered in both: however, the Administrator Guide deals with installation and configuration, while the User Guide concentrates on the various bundled applications and shows you how to configure networking and various desktop options. It’s a shame that this book, which is only supplied with the Professional version, doesn’t cover the applications that are exclusive to the Professional version, such as Kdevelop (the IDE), and MrProject (project management). The software is supplied as five CD-ROMs and two DVD-ROMs. The CDs contain the standard, 32-bit x86 distribution of SuSE Linux 9.1, while the double-sided DVD-ROMs contain both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system -- one for binaries, the other for source code. The 64-bit version supports AMD64 architecture processors, and the forthcoming Intel 64-bit extensions architecture (not the IA-64 architecture of the Itanium family). If you have an Athlon 64 processor, you can still produce 32-bit code by including a switch when you compile the code, and of course this code will run on AMD64 machines. The major architectural change with SuSE Linux 9.1 is the kernel update to version 2.6. The precise version installed on our test machine was 2.6.4; there have been some problems reported with USB peripherals and this kernel version, which are fixed in 2.6.5, but you’ll have to judge whether the update is necessary according to your own circumstances. Other updated system components include KDE 3.2, GNOME 2.4 and Samba 3.0 (the latter component isn’t included in the Personal version). SuSE Linux 9.1 has its own configuration tool, YaST2 (Yet another Setup Tool), which can work either as a text-mode application or under X-Windows as a GUI tool. This is used to install SuSE Linux, as well as perform many configuration tasks after installation. One addition to YaST2 with this release is an ACPI-compliant power management module. This means you can configure power saving options on PCs from the GUI, rather than having to edit text files or use a separate configuration utility -- the experience will be closer to what Windows users are used to with a single control panel. We did find that both the Control Centre and YaST under X-Windows needed a reasonable amount of screen space available to be usable -- you can’t run at lower resolutions and use these tools very well. Although this probably won’t be an issue for most desktop PCs, it could become a problem on notebooks -- particularly older ones with smaller screens -- or where the PC is driving a TV. The default filesystem for SuSE Linux 9.1 is ReiserFS, a journalled filesystem that's reportedly faster than the previous Ext3 filesystem used for most Linux distributions. If you already have existing Windows partitions on your hard disk, you can resize these to make space for your Linux installation -- YaST will offer to do this for you automatically if you choose a Windows partition as your installation target. It’ll also offer to delete it for you, so be careful about your choices if you want to keep any existing data.
Features
The OpenOffice.org 1.1 suite is included and installed by default. We reviewed this office productivity suite last October and found it to be just as good as Microsoft Office. Read that review to find out more. There’s more productivity software included. The Mozilla browser suite is installed by default, but you can choose Konqueror or Galeon as alternatives. Kontact is billed as a groupware client, but in fact pulls together several existing tools into a single interface. KDE’s Mail, organiser, address book, notes and news applications all plug into the Kontact framework, giving the effect of a single integrated client. Kopete is a multi-network instant messaging client that connects to most existing IM systems. As far as content creation software is concerned, you get the new GIMP 2.0 for image processing, Kooka for scanning, and Scribus 1.1.6 for desktop publishing. Video editing is covered by MainActor (although it's currently supplied as a beta version), while qaRecord and the new Sweep handle sound editing. Elsewhere in the extensive software bundle there's SuSE Firewall for security, GNUcash for online banking and a good range of games.
Conclusion
SuSE has produced a Linux distribution that performs well as a desktop operating system under the default installation. The documentation won't help a complete newcomer get to grips with Linux on its own, but you don’t need to read it to get a working system up and running. If you’re planning on doing a large deployment of desktop Linux, this is a good candidate. However, you may choose to download the distribution for a network installation if you won’t need the installation support that comes with a paid-for package.
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Member reviews
- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Fine if you want to do an "out of the box" install where you choose one of the designated sets. If you want to do a custom install forget it. The last decent SuSE release in this respect was 7.3. As for low spec machines, don't even think about it. I tried releases 7.3 up on a ThinkPad and it "barfed" each time. It's a pity as YAST is a great tool which works from the command line. Great if you want to use SuSE on a server (who needs a GUI gobbling up processor power on what is in most cases a headless box).
- 7.00 out of 10
7.00 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Suse 7.3 was comperable to winXP on balance slightly better performance, each distro has taken it to new levels -- 9.1 rocks. I can't see how commercial OSs will ever catch up at the speed open source software is being developed.
- 9.50 out of 10
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10.00 out of 10- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10SuSE offers a very simple, easy-to-use installer, and makes installation a breeze. Once installed, YaST can be used to accomplish most administrative tasks. KDE 3.2.1 is much faster than previous versions, and coupled with kernel 2.6 shows dramatic speed improvements. There are applications galore, and YaST is always there to add any extras you may need. Integration of the whole system is excellent. I can browse my Windows network, and copy files across WITHOUT having to mount anything. I can extract .tar.gz files just by right-clicking and choosing Actions->Extract Here. It's just as easy as Windows. Using SuSE Linux is a breeze.
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10As a hard core MS user I hate to admit it, but this distro rocks. It's very MS-like in usabilty and so far no gotchas as far as configuration or stability are concerned. I was impressed -- Linux has come a long way. If they advertised and maybe had more software available from major software makers, Microsoft would be shaking in their boots.
Don't get me wrong, OpenOffice works as advertised but corporate users are trained on MS office. Look at all the WordPerfect users who refuse to switch. I tried several distros before this, but this one honestly made me pick up a Linux book because I finally am hooked on Linux. Please get some decent (workable) DVD software for the distro. Licence issue or not...just charge £20 more.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10While I'm impressed with all of the features and software bundled with the professional distribution, I wish they would release fewer versions their OS (hold off a bit longer until substantial changes are made). No sooner did I purchase version 9.0 than 9.1 was released. Keeping up with SuSE's releases can cost more than keeping up with M$'s latest versions.
With that said, it's an excellent distribution.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10This thing rocks! I've used RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, Libranet, & Xandros and they don't come close. Yeah, Xandros is easy but not as stable and fast as SuSE 9.1, besides SuSE can work as both a desktop and a server. Save yourself the worries and use SuSE.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10It's better than Windows; a very good product --excellent value, support and quality.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10- 8.00 out of 10
8.00 out of 10Having worked with several versions of Red Hat, Debian and Fedora, I find SuSE to be one of the easiest to install, with everything working as it should when the install process is complete. The only problem I had was getting my Palm to sync up with the system and that is a problem I have had with every distribution that I have ever installed. The professional version also now includes a database engine and a GUI interface similar to Access, which is what pushed me over the edge in selecting the product.
If you don’t need the database program you could consider either SuSE personal edition or Mandrake 10.0 for your desktop. I am recommending SuSE to my friends who want a computer to do standard 'office'-type work, browse the Web and get email. This is not a great game machine and has a few minor flaws in the multimedia area, but I can live with that in return for a stable, reasonably priced operating system that I can connect to the Internet and still sleep at night.
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10I've used Linux for years now. I constantly try and test various distros for our business. However, I've personally been using SuSE exclusively for quite a while. I only planned to use it until something better came along. The problem is, nothing better has come along. Other Linux distros are either corporate muck or hacker toys. XP is a bloated, resource-eating, virus and trojan magnet. And even though I have a Mac with OS-X (10.3.x) I don't find it in any way easier to use.
I just wish more users were open minded enough to really try SuSE for a few months.
As for the DVD issue. You can't blame SuSE/Novell. Blame the ridiculous US legal system. Spend the $20 you'd pay for DVD and send it to the EFF to fight crap like the DMCA, RIAA, MPAA, etc.
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10... including Mandrake 10 and Red Hat 9
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10KDE is now one of the slickest GUIs around and the package list is impressive.
- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10This is a great distro, I have tried about 6 so far and this one is the best....can't wait for 9.2 with added support for wireless!
- 9.50 out of 10
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9.50 out of 10Linux for people who don't like computers.
- 8.50 out of 10
8.50 out of 10Open-source is awesome!
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10I have been using Linux for years now, and tried several distros. SuSE is a really great OS.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10Suse Linux has become a great distro for beginning Linux users. I've tried to make sense of a few other Linux distros and this one seems to be the most intuitive step away from Windows. It's truly a gateway into open source development waiting to explode into a Linux revolution.
- 9.00 out of 10
9.00 out of 10Linux os 9.1 professional is the greatest operating system I've ever tried and its even better since I can boot from the cd rom since I have no floppy drive.
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10- 9.50 out of 10
9.50 out of 10How do i explain it's THE BEST!!!
- 10.00 out of 10
10.00 out of 10SuSE version for AMD 64 pc don't work. The system will alert you that your about to install a 32-bit version on a 64-bit version. But still you have a 64-bit version on the the install CD. This was sadly confirmed when I tried to install JVM-64-bit system...
- 3.00 out of 10
3.00 out of 10