Hi all.... I've used SuSE for over five years, mostly in servers, and have been experimenting with getting a workable desktop adjunct or replacement for Windows. Each successive SuSE distribution had come closer for my needs with the exception of SuSE 9.0. which had major problems (e.g. taking over 9 minutes to boot).
I had lots of great help from the SuSE users on the mailing list but no help from SuSE. In the end it was an apparently buggy USB/hotplug boot processes with no alternative except SuSE 9.1 - and it was having problems too. My motherboard has 4 USB 1.1 ports and 2 USB 2.0 ports - probably the hardware stimulus for the boot problems). So I downloaded Slackware, Debian and Mandrake - and Mandrake 10.0 was a breath of fresh air. Here are the high points… - Boot time: >9 minutes *to* <90 seconds. - Scanner: doesn't work except as superuser *to* works fine with normal user after installation with no additional configuration. - DualHead display: Requires trial and error with YAST *to* works after installation with no additional configuration. - Installation options: None available (to avoid problematic boot processes) *to* available (e.g. disable hotplug). - Vendor support: Promised, needed and non-existent *to* not needed. - USB: problematic *to* no problems. - KDE: Works OK *to* improved screen presentation e.g. more suitable configuration from install. - Speed: Slower than Win2K *to* Faster than Win2K and much faster than SuSE 9.0 - Kernel: 2.4… optimized for AMD *to* 2.6… not optimized. - Ease of installation: Very long with moderate difficulty *to* fast and easy. - Graphic installation: Pretty but sometimes confusing *to* simple and straightforward. - Printer: Worked after additional configuration *to* worked after installation with no additional configuration. - GRUB: Restore MBR fails *to* Restore MBR works. - VGA boot screen: flips back and forth from graphic to text, text hard to read *to* easy to read (except it goes so fast) text mode. - User group support: Great *to* too soon to tell but looks good. I don't want to start a big X vs. Y thread here, I'm sure there are many features of SuSE that are better than Mandrake, but here I'm focusing on the problems I had with SuSE that basically made it unusable for me as a desktop. Look forward to working with the Mandrake community… Larry Johnson, KeepItSimpleEngineering,Inc.
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