OpenSuse 11.2 - First Contact

Hi again,

I downloaded Opensuse 11.2 yesterday, and was eager to check it out.

Using the LiveCD, you can either install directly or run the LiveCD "demo". I wanted to install, so I chose installation. I was very pleased with what I saw. I can say that the installation wizard that comes with Opensuse is by far the best I have seen in Linux. Very good looks, easy to understand, and conveying a very professional feel all over the place.

Not being an Opensuse fan myself, I was surprised. I entered all the necessary parameters and left the installation running. Unfortunately, all the hype was gone very soon, as the installation hung. I was very disappointed with this strange error, specially because the machine I was installing in had been running many different Linux distros in the past.

I then tried booting to LiveCD, hoping that I could install from the desktop shortcut available. Oddly enough, it worked that way.

My concern is that such errors are very critical, because a non-experienced user would have probably given up after the first try thinking that Linux is crap, a waste of time, and all the usual ranting. I hope my error was a one off, but I can't really tell, as I have not tried again. If it is an actual bug, people are going to get mad about it.

In any case, I have to say I am not feeling like I will be an Opensuse fan anytime soon. I don't particularly like the way it works, don't like Yast much, and many applications were outdated (come on, OpenOffice 3.0 and Amarok 2.1?).

Anyways, mostly subjective stuff, except for the outdated apps and the installation error, but I think I will stick to Ubuntu and Fedora.