OpenSUSE Professional Edge...

[Gunmetal_Ghoul]

I keep on hearing about OpenSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop as being very professional and marketed as capable for business. To me it seems rather relative, because I'm not familiar with using Linux for really critical productivity, just as an ordinary desktop user. I like what I've been hearing and I'm seriously contemplating using OpenSUSE 11.4 as the open-source version of SLED for our school's computer lab (http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=58&t=73945), and I'm hoping as our school principal evaluates it he would be convinced that it would serve as a cost-effective solution. What, objectively, would make OpenSUSE a better choice over our own beloved Mint or any other distro?

[lmintnewb]

Nothing would give it an edge. Keep hearing the same and believe it btw. Don't doubt opensuse is good. Though haven't used it myself. Doubting it's necessarily so much better than many other great linux distro's floating around. They are legion, seems you can't take two steps in any direction on the internet w/o tripping over a linux distro.

Many of them are fantastic ... out of the stuff I've actually used. Bottomline amazing what opensource developers can do and are generous enough to share. Just an opinion and an ignorant one. Since I've really only tried a dozen or so distro's to date. Opensuse probably could fit the bill for your application. Though probably an army of others around that could too.

A lot would depend on what exactly someone is trying to do and what they are trying to do it with. ie: The avg system specs for the hardware involved. etc. Those details can shift ( imo ) what would be the right tool/linux distro for the job.

Read your other post. Might consider test driving opensuse and a bunch of others yourself. Not like dual/tri/guad etc booting is all that tough. I've got 3 distro's and XP on this box running perfectly fine. Actually get some hands on time with them yourself. When you narrow it down ... Bring it in and show the boss. Or if he has a box and is inclined, install the final candidates on his box and let him mess around with them for awhile. The whole seeing is believing thing.

Paying M$ for over priced junkware when there's better stuff freely available ... errrr. Not someone I'd want educating da youth so much.

[ThistleWeb]

Having tried OpenSUSE 11.04 and been very impressed, I'm not exactly sure where the extra "professional" value comes from. While it was under Novells wing, it benefited from the Microsoft / Novell deal in terms of being protected from the vultures inside Microsoft's extortion racket department. That in itself wouldn't be an issue for me, but I'm guessing that's not the only edge they have. Through that deal they'll have extra knowledge and access to Microsoft's Sharepoint, Exchange etc to make them more compatible.

The problem is that Microsoft have done to Novell what they've done to others, and are in the process of doing to Nokia, they've cored them out from the inside and left them a husk with pariah status, and their only options left are to sell off the assets. OpenSUSE is an excellent distro, the SLED part has been split off, or is in the process of being split off to stand alone, I have no idea if that's acceptable to the OpenSUSE people, or whether they want to split off and go their own way. In either case, how does that apply to any special functionality SUSE got from the Microsoft deal? Will they have to revert back to the same as other distros to stay legal? Does it only cover SLED now, not OpenSUSE? I have no idea.

RedHat work on the idea that they can convert a CentOS install over to paid support RHEL at any time with a simple change of repos. I'm guessing Novell had a similar thing with OpenSUSE to SLED, meaning you can install OpenSUSE to see if it's what you need and try to support it yourself, but have the backup option of calling in Novell / RedHat to provide professional support should the sysadmin leave, or you just want an extra level of safety cover. Other distros are going to be harder to match that, with the possible exception of Ubuntu.

My suggestion is that if you want the safety blanket of being able to switch to paid support, then either CentOS (even that seems to be dying now), Scientific Linux (the RHEL clone most of the CentOS people have all fled to). For me the current state of flux around Microsoft / AttachMATE / Novell / SUSE would hold me back until the dust settles and we see what the outcome actually is. If you're comfy with supporting it yourself, then perhaps Debian Stable, or an Ubuntu / Mint LTS would be a better bet. There's every chance that supporting it would be pretty straightforward, but time is money in a professional environment, when it goes down, it needs to be back up ASAP, those are the times when you really appreciate the paid support safety net.

[ausmuso]

OpenSUSE a professional edge? Don't think so, at least not any longer.

I used to be a regular SuSE user from vs. 7.x onwards. I found their distros rocksolid and reliable.

Then followed SuSE's takeover by Novell, soon followed by SuSE's disastrous release No. 10.0. Never seen a distro with so many bugs and broken packages. SuSE / OpenSuSE recovered later but I never thought Novell was doing SuSE much good. The OpenSuSE community tried to do the best job it could, especially with their OpenSuSE Build Service. What's going to happen in the long run following Novell's sellout to Attachmate is anybody's guess.

What made me change, first to Ubuntu and more recently to Mint LMDE?

Novell's very restrictive End User Licence Agreement, which OpenSUSE users are deemed to have agreed to merely by installing the distro. It imposes a slew of U.S. security laws which Novell attempts to enforce extraterritorially. I feel much more comfortable with our standard Linux GNU General Public Licence.

Novell/ OpenSuSE's restrictive multimedia codec policies which cripple OpenSuSE's multimedia apps as they appear on their distros. The Packman repositories thankfully provide much relief.

Debian (Ubuntu/Mint)'s Package Management System, which beats OpenSuSE's (Red Hat)'s RPM system hands down. Actually there used to be an independently developed "APT for SuSE" system at one stage but this doesn't appear to be maintained anymore.

But look, Linux is Linux and it's great. It has also largely cornered the server market. Which distro you prefer is largely a matter of personal taste. Pick the one you're comfortable with and never forget, there is a whole Linux community out here ready to help you!