4 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
 What Microsoft charges $$$$ for, yours for $$$, 2003-07-25
If you have ever been frustrated by the Wall of Windows that Microsoft has erected to keep most users from actually making their computer work, SuSE is for you. The once immensely irritating installation process has been streamlined into painlessness, and SuSE has supplied a friendly means access to most of the configuration files with which you're likely to come in contact. It is stuffed with useful programs that do everything that MS Office, PhotoShop, Windows Media Player, etc., all do, but without the cost and much of the annoyance.( A special favorite is the Kmail program which addresses and fixes all the security problems with Outlook Express.) You can even save documents, say, in MS Word format, which Windows users can then open and use without knowing that it was not created in Word. Setting up of peripherals is smooth and painless. DSL and modem software all integrated, all ready to get hooked up to your phone or broadband modem. So, frankly, once you have this, the world is your oyster, as long as you don't mind having to dive for pearls occasionally. You can (and probably will have to) do a lot of tinkering, which can lead to much mystification. There are a lot of web sites (including SuSE's occasionally adequate support database) to help you, as well as the ever-grumpy cast of characters on the suse-e listserv mailing list, who, as a friend of mine observed, seem always to have "woken up on the wrong side of Starbucks this morning." And there are books, like all the stuff from O'Reilly (who seem to make money by printing and selling man pages) and the delightful "Underground Guide to Unix" by John Montgomery, which is what Dummies books would be like if they were useful. But the fact is that you CAN fix whatever it is, eventually. And you can find tons of useful programs on the web in case you feel you're missing something. (There are a few minor immovable annoyances: Linux has a thing about recording only to SCSI CD-R/W drives, or things that the computer thinks are SCSI, so welcome to the exciting and annoying world of SCSI emulation. I and my garden-variety CD drives have found ways to work with that, and so can you.) But it is as nothing compared to the immovable annoyances of life with Windows. Now all my Windows box is to me is a glorified GameBoy. Hooray! Buy this for the value. Buy this for the great feeling of satisfaction that comes with getting the problem solved, and keeping it solved. Buy this so you can be a truly independent computer user. Buy this because SuSE JUST DOES NOT CRASH. It's great that way.
5 of 5 customers found the following review helpful:
Instalation a breeze on a notebook! There IS life after MS!, 2003-07-22
I used the DVD instalation on my laptop and I can't begin to describe how easy it was to install. And stable too might I add! All the necessary drivers were ALL installed as required without askig you tons of geek-tech questions. Network, Internet, E-Mail, Lan, whatever the case, it all worked with minimal configuration! The online update utility worked like a magical charm and in a matter of minutes, the entire OS was updated! I have had other version of SuSE and yest it is my personal Linux distro choice. 2 thumbs up for the underdogs? Perhaps. Tons of off beat programs included; some good, some weird, some useless... Two manuals included, user guide and administrator guide. Haven't realy touched the user guide as it's mainly for using the various included software titels. The Admin guide is a little vague at times and I found myself going to the book store for more info. There is life outside of Windows!
5 of 6 customers found the following review helpful:
 This is the best Linux yet!, 2003-07-03
As long as I've owned my computer I've been using Windows. Recently I was told Linux could allow my computer to run as a server so I thought I'd try out. I'm pretty open minded (obviously I'm not an apple advocate) developer so I like to try new things with computers and sames make mistakes on purpose of something of learning the best ways and worst ways to get something good going. Of course I'm still learning about Linux, but I have tried numerous distributions of Linux and my conclusion is that SUSE Linux is the best one I've used!
I am so used to using Windows, so the new file structure was hard for me to get used to, but the more I use it the more I see how great SUSE. The installation of SUSE is a tad more complicated than other versions of Linux. Luckily there is a default system that is determined at run time. This usually works best for everyone, but be very careful to have some idea what do before installing and of course back it up. In my case I am running SUSE Linux 8.2 Professional on an x86 machine. In contradiction to the comments about a FAT32 drive I am running a dual boot. Windows XP formatted as NTFS (NT file system) and and the other partition is formatted as the native Linux format. A third partition was created automatically according to a slice made during installation that was used for swap space. It took up just a tad more space than XP (hard to believe), but it comes with every program you can think of (maybe too many). Both SUSE and Windows XP work great together even with the NT format. Its much easier to use if you use Windows to partition the hard drive by installing Windows first and then leaving a leftover for linux. What I liked most I guess about SUSE was the ability to update online without having to do it manually, YAST (the control panel), and the ability to run as a server. I did have a few problems with automatic update checker, but there was usually more one way to do something which was good enough for me. I was also discouraged that unlike windows where press ctrl+alt+delete when some program doesn't shut down properly there is no way to stop a program without logging out and then logging back in or restarting. Lucky it didn't happen very often. I guess the thing I hated most was that sometimes when trying to install the graphical appearance of the installation (that's all I can call it) without break down making it impossible to finish installation. So there were times w hen to shut the computer off during the middle of installation, restart the computer, and start a new Linux installation. Usually this happened because I left the installation screen sitting too long. I have tested PHATLinux, Red Hat, and Mandrake. I liked SUSE the best.
2 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
Suse Linux 8.2 great of online work, 2003-06-30
Best part of Linux is that it's such a small percentage of all operating systems, nobody messes with writing much in the way of viruses, spywear, or other such junk for it. Same with the built-in browser. So it's safer online. But it does come with a firewall. I got online fast with both my laptop and desktop hooked up via a router. Printers were recognized and worked fine too. Have had some problems with the burner and DVD player that I haven't solved yet. Best part of all is that if you run a dual Windows-Linux OS, Suse Linux will let you drop and drag files from Windows into Linux.
3 of 3 customers found the following review helpful:
SUSE is for me, 2003-06-28
I am again pleased with SUSE with the newest release of their brand of Linux. A soundly quality product with many bonuses. The installation is easier than ever (installation with SUSE was always among the best). It works great with my wireless network, unlike many other distros which I have tried. Setting up SUSE Professional as a network server is relatively easy, using it for a desktop OS is even easier. I highly recommend it. Out of 8 distros I have tried over the past 3 years, SUSE provides a much better product than the others.SUSE 8.2 works great on my Compaq Presario 12XL410 Laptop too (which is also set up with a wireless NIC). This came as somewhat of a surprise as I have been having a multitude of problems getting Linux on this laptop for over 2 years. SUSE 8.1 and 8.2 both work on this laptop just fine with no problems installing or operation. SUSE has included a firewall program called Firewall2 that is nothing less than superb. It is incredibly secure setting it up during install right out of the box. With a bit of additional tweaking you'll have an exceptionally secure network connection to the internet. Downloading patches or security updates is an integrated function of SUSE Professional 8.2 and works quite well. Also, updating the the distro (such as going from Samba 2.2.7 to 2.2.8a) is just as easy as any Microsoft product.
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Amazon Sales Rank:#8645