[NCLUG] choosing a distrib

[Lynn Danielson]

David Braley wrote:
> 
> My best luck has been with Suse. I have used it since 6.0. (it is up to 7 now)

I've been using SuSE since 5.1.  After trying to do a presentation with 
a fresh install of Red Hat 5.0 and finding lots of things were broken, 
including the packages I was trying to demo, and it pissed me off.  It 
also taught me not to trust a new distribution to work out of the box, 
especially a Red Hat X.0 distribution.  If I were to try a "Red Hat"
distribution again, it would be KRUD.  SuSE isn't perfect, but for the 
most part it's packages work well when they're released.  Which for as 
much software as they distribute has impressed me.

Some people have claimed that SuSE should not be recommended to newbies. 
I disagree.  My experience with Linux at that time was pretty limited and
I found that YAST, SuSE's admin tool, made using Linux a lot easier for me.

The heart of the YAST system administration tool is an /etc/rc.config file 
and the SuSEconfig script.  The rc.config file was an idea borrowed from 
Digital Unix (at least Digital uses a similar file).  It contains a large 
set of environment variables which are used to configure network parameters 
and to control which daemons and rc scripts are started.  After modifying 
values in rc.config, running the SuSEconfig script will update all other 
files necessary for the changes to take effect.  You can use YAST, a 
fairly nice (albeit ugly) menu based front end or you can modify the 
rc.config file manually and run the SuSEconfig script if necessary.  

I've seen some people denigrate SuSE and point to all of these environment
variables as the chief reason they didn't like it.  By default, SuSE rc 
scripts will check the rc.config file.  If, for example, the START_HTTPD 
variable is set to "no", then the rc script for Apache will bail without 
starting Apache.  If you're experienced with other systems and not aware
that SuSE is designed this way, I can understand how you might find this
annoying.  The use of SuSEconfig and be turn off in rc.config with the
ENABLE_SUSECONFIG=no option.  As a newbie I liked this feature of SuSE 
and I still do.  SuSEconfig does a lot of stuff and can take a minute or 
two to run even for the most insignificant change, but I have had no 
inclination to turn it off.  

One thing I don't like about SuSE is it's strange run level assignments.
Run level 1 is not single user mode.  It's multi-user mode without 
networking.  Only run level "S" is single user mode.  Run level 2 is 
full multi-user mode with networking and run level 3 starts a graphical 
display manager.  Run levels 4 and 5 are unused.  Of the run level 
configurations I have seen in various Linux distributions, I like Debians
the best.  But as a newbie I could have cared less.

Another thing to warn newbies about is that they can't expect to download
any old RPM package and expect it to work with SuSE.  They must use SuSE 
RPMs or rebuild from source.  The nice thing about SuSE is that almost 
anything that I'm interested in is in the CD set.  The version might be
stale, but I can expect it to work without fuss.

> Suse also ships with great manuals! A definite plus for first-timers.

I'll second that.  The misspellings and German translation problems have
mostly been eliminated and the content has always been solid.  I used 
to find reading a SuSE manual rather humorous because of their use of 
the English language wasn't always successful and their syntax frequently
seemed backwards.

> I can see the benefits of dumbing-down the install to the point that 
> anyone could do it, but that takes some of the fun out of it.

The SuSE install is not as straight forward as some of the other
distributions and it requires more space.  At your last installfest
I helped someone install it on approx 700 MB of disk space.  This
taught me that I would recommend at least 1 GB for a minimal SuSE
install.  With most new machines this isn't an issue.

I have not yet tried SuSE 7.0.  I have to say that I don't like their new
sales model.  They now want $70 for what used to be commonly available for
$30.  My boss recently purchased the "Pro" version and was dissatisfied.
It didn't configure XFree86 4.0 by default.  When he ran sax2, SuSE's 
XFree86 4.0 configuration tool, he was disappointed with either the 
performance of that configuration.  He also complained that kppp no longer
worked.  

My experience with SuSE 6.4 has been excellent.  CompUSA used to carry it
for about $30 bucks.  I suspect that with the release of 7.0, the price 
has dropped even further.  If it's still available, it's a bargain.

Lynn Danielson