'Sneak Preview' of SUSE 9.1 190
Roblimo writes "SUSE 9.1 won't be out until May, but Joe Barr got access to a 'secret' beta download and tried it out. He liked some of what he saw, and found things he didn't like, too, but is willing to overlook some of the negatives because, he points out, 'This is a beta. Bugs are expected. Work will be done before it goes gold.' The review's at Linux.com." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.
Can we have some too? (Score:2, Insightful)
I prefer GNOME, so I guess we'll have to wait until the release. I'll share the ISOs too, I'll just strap on my backpack [slashdot.org] and share the wealth!
"Dumbing" Down? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think a new user of a linux system would mind having some simple defaults to choose for. Since SUSE is aiming to please more than just hard core linux enthusiasts, I think that having a single choice is important.
How Fair... (Score:0, Insightful)
Re:SuSE? (Score:2, Insightful)
I run it without flaws. And I must say the most impressive distro ever. At least from Gnome user view point.
I can hardly wait FC2. SELinux, Gnome2.6, Kernel2.6....
Even beta2 runs almost perfectly without SELinux, with SELinux there are unfinished policy settings and unwanted restrictions which might cause some problems, so it's not yet for production
Yeah... (Score:5, Insightful)
I read a review once where Eugenia complained about the spacing between menus. Yes, believe it or not, those are things that graphics designers would care about because it has to do with subtle factors in user interaction.
But, go ahead and stick to the reviews that are techie-only if you wanna.
Re:Can we have some too? (Score:4, Insightful)
Im currently running SUSE 9.0 with the suse 2.6.4 kernel, and Ximian Desktop Unstable (Gnome 2.6
Here's looking forward to 9.1
Re:The Problem With Linux (Score:1, Insightful)
This review.. (Score:3, Insightful)
He never says.
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:5, Insightful)
Considering that this edition is aimed at least partially at first-time users... how do you expect them to know?
Computer: "Do you want to use Firefox or Galeon?"
User: WTF? This is weird... I just want to get the internet...
After all, its not as if they can't add other software in the future. Its like the classic Microsoft Help question, "This is the first time you've used help. What sort of database do you want me to build?" Meaningless and intrusive. You only get one chance to make a first impression, and giving unnecessary choices to the user is not the impression you want to make.
Remember, most people don't want to "use the computer." They just want to "get the TV listings," or "write a letter." Huge mindset difference.
Re:Interesting screenshot (Score:3, Insightful)
SuSE is commerical - and that's good. (Score:4, Insightful)
SHARE is mostly a mainframe conference but since z/OS (and s/390) now supports omvs (Unix System Services) it makes sense to start pushing more Linux.
I can recommend SuSE to some of my less technical friends and they will see that it's easy, and has good commerical support.
Re (Score:1, Insightful)
What a Rant (Score:5, Insightful)
One way to get around the small font in the install he complained about was to change the resolution. Before you hit enter at the install bootloader, hit F3 (i think) and it will give you a list of resolutions to use. The menu is located at the bottom of the bootloader. He also complained that it didnt come with the stuff he wanted. Well cry me a river because you are a little more advanced than their target audience and are too lazy to install and configure the apps to your liking.
Also, in YAST there is an autocheck dependencies which should automatically resolve all dependencies when installing things, so he shouldn't have had to figure out what was not making his GNOME install. Maybe it is disabled for some reason in the beta, or maybe he didn't see the checkbox down there?
Maybe he should complain less and use the system more.
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:5, Insightful)
Computer: "Do you want to use Firefox or Galeon?"
User: WTF? This is weird... I just want to get the internet...
Computer: "Would you like to choose a different program to browse the web with, or will the default be ok?"
except more of a single question that when you answered yes would take you to something to chose. If you said no, it'd just go away and that'd be that. Given that type of choice, most newbies would just accept the defaults, but power users could go in and tinker to their heart's content.
Re:SuSE? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:This review.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Yeah... (Score:2, Insightful)
poor anti-aliasing and improper spacing are valid complaints. ripping a distro because their default is gnome or kde is pointless.
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:3, Insightful)
...
Furthermore, SuSE/Novell are shooting for a corporate market and corporate markets do not want choice, they want a standard. Most sysadmins will further reduce the available choices even more.
It's this type of attitude that hinders Linux adoption by the general public. You seem to forget that the vast majority of computer users are doing good to find the power switch some days. We can't assume we know which programs are good for them either, because if they feel like the only program they can use to browse the web is Konqueror and they absolutely hate it, then they're probably going to hate Linux and go back to Windows. That'd be a shame because they might find Mozilla/Firefox to be perfect for them if only they knew there were choices and could figure out how to change them.
Having something offer to allow you to change the defaults not only allows power users to change the defaults, it alerts the user that there ARE alternatives if they don't like the default. Then they'll know to look for a way to change it, and not only may end up loving linux for it, but will learn more about linux as they look for and find how to change their defaults.
As far as complaining, I certainly wasn't. You sound like you're complaining because someone dared say SuSE wasn't perfect though, so calm down. SuSE's doing great, we're just commenting on things that could make it even better. Everything can be improved, so don't even try saying SuSE's perfect as is.
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I've said it before ... (Score:3, Insightful)
Since I bought the last three SuSE Professional, it's fairly clear that I think it's a good distribution. The written documentation that is part of the package is very useful, and the Pro version contains two books (User Guide and Administration Guide) of about 1000 pages in total.
YAST is very nice, and one useful aspect is that it has a curses based counterpart for administration thorough SSH. However, I think that SuSE Pro is better as a desktop than server. You see, the configuration tools does not always work (say, Apache2 configuration is broken in SuSE 9.0). That would be OK, if not the entire configuration system with scripts and all is so opaque and hard to grok.
So, eventually I quite simply migrated over to OpenBSD. Much easier to administrate and understand what is actually going on.
SuSE Pro : desktop very good. As as server : not quite up to it, unless you want to run Java (SuSE is now a Source Partner with Sun)
Re:likes? (Score:2, Insightful)
FYI, SuSE [suse.com] produces Knoppix [knopper.net]-like bootable CD [google.com] called "SUSE LINUX for i386 Live-Eval" [suse.com]. I revieved a copy via a magazine [linuxformat.co.uk]. It is kinda slow and not the best for using from the CD-ROM, but it provides a good intro and demo of SuSE Linux without having to install it to your hard drive.
Notes: I recommend that you try it if you have enough memory - 256MB isn't enough,but 512MB or 768MB should work well (since it has to be loaded into RAM with no HDD install). I perfer Fedora [fedora.us] Core 1 [redhat.com], but my advice should give you an easy way to try SuSE.
Re:"Dumbing" Down? (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple is just as bad with "Safari", although in most other areas they're better with "Mail", "iTunes", "iChat" etc.
Microsoft on the other hand has "Internet Explorer" which kind of makes sense for a web browser, but "Outlook Express" doesn't make much sense to me as an email program.
There's plenty of examples of applications with duff names that don't really match what they do which all serves to make computers seem strange and complicated to the uninitiated. Whilst we may all know they're not really that complicated they look complicated which puts people off.
Default choices are most definitely a good thing. Providing users with a limited set of options presented in a plain and clear manner is also a good thing, but defaults are generally better.
Advanced options are fine, but for about 95% of users they're useless, and the remaining 5% will only want to use them rarely. Why expose the 95% to needless complexity when it will only alienate them?
It's similar to the old RISC vs CISC debate - in a CISC instruction set about 5% of the instructions were used 95% of the time. The RISC people saw this as a big opportunity and concentrated on doing that 5% really well, and sure enough their initial chips were much faster than their CISC equivalents.
menu options (Score:2, Insightful)
I also think that every app should have an easy to read listing of WHERE all the files relating to the app are stored, so that if the user is confronted with having to go tweak into unknown land, they can at least find the file to tweak easily. That's the intermediate level that causes so much grief I think,(does for me anyway) going from pure point and click noob to intuitive command line.
Lame Lame Lame (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a really really lame review. The whole thing can be summed up in about three lines:
"I installed SuSE Linux. The install went great, but I don't like KDE and none of my Gnome apps were installed off the bat, and I couldn't install them properly because I don't know how to work YaST, so it sucks. Hopefully this will be corrected when it goes gold".
Basically, he installs it, and is upset to find out that all the default apps are KDE apps. Well hello, SuSE has *always* been a KDE distro. And guess what, that is the exact same way *I* feel eevry time I am forced to install RedHat, and I have to use all Gnome apps.
If you want a Gnome-centric distro, why are you using SuSE at all?Another waste of everyone's time by Mr. Barr.
Good choices (Score:2, Insightful)
Ya know, much as I'm a big gnomefanboy and all, I think this is a good choice. My girlfriend (big guineapig on all ease-of-use issues) gets freaked out when she sees two different [x] available.
Re:Just say no to OSNews (Score:3, Insightful)