Comments on: openSUSE Strategy Meeting – wrap up

By: Nicholas Buckner

Nicholas Buckner — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 09:11:21 +0000

opensuse is pretty awesome but the one thing i don’t like is that the repositories are quite limited. I have to use the suse website inorder to find packages or use zypper which any mainstream user would not be able to do. And second of all almost no one actually cares about open source. i like linux because its FREE and i save £70 not because its open source and friendly and all the other crap. i choose linux because its faster and easier to install apps then windows, NOT because it is open source. I don’t care if i use propriety software, AS LONG AS IT WORKS THE BEST then i will use it, IF ITS OPEN SOURCE OR NOT.

By: Ruud

Ruud — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 20:44:58 +0000

Ubuntu is much easier then Opensuse. It works out of the box and uses deb packages, imo the most common used and best package management. I Tried Opensuse a few times, but the simplicity Ubuntu offers is just not there. It’s one of the worst distro’s around.

By: David

David — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:04:15 +0000

AlbertoP. Sorry but you are not right. Ubuntu is released under GPL license, and this kind of license enforces the release of the modifyed code to the public if your developement is based in GPL software.
I recommend the reading of the in order to understand the rights and obligations of GPL software.
If Ubuntu is not releasing modified drivers based in GPL license, perhaps they are not being honest with open source spirit.

By: Pascual

Pascual — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 23:09:06 +0000

openSUSE LTS ??

Nop. 18 months is not enough for the real world.

A SLES clone like Centos??

Nop. openSUSE is not the choice for serious developers.

Quality??

Yes, but others are very close (or yet better)

By: Anixx

Anixx — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:17:33 +0000

> Kind of a waste of resources installing a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit screamer just to get Skype to work …

I have OpenSUSE 11.2 64-bit and Skype works perfectly.

By: jjc

jjc — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 16:08:45 +0000

I think we need to be careful about remaining the same closed shop and only allowing developers to develop what they want. It should be about what users want. We tried the other way for much too long and suddenly it seems like linux is Ubuntu.You need to ask why?

Sure Education needs to be there and not just cos someone else builds it after release of the base but because opensuse thinks it is important and part of the strategy. If my kids use Ubuntu education then I guess my efforts will move to learning Ubuntu and I will drop opensuse. You may say “Ok we won’t miss you”, but soon you may find it not worth your while developing cos there’ll be no users. More importantly guess which distribution my kids will be used to using? Lets embrace the new whilst preserving the good of the old. The comments made by StevenK also make very good sense.

At the weekend My friend from India was very impressed with my linux installation on my (opensuse 11.2 + Compiz) laptop which is running Sun Virtual box with windows xp as a guest. He asked me to give him a copy of the distro and after thinking ABOUT IT FOR A DAY I gave him the latest Ubuntu 10.04 dvd which came with my linuxformat subscription.

I could see how much of my time I would have to devote to helping him (not helping is a good way to make sure they never look at linux again but the time devoted to this must be realistic) so Ubuntu would be easier.

By the way another gripe is why I have to install win xp because software like SAPGUI Java for linux will not allow you to right-click to create objects but the windows client will. Does this indicate that novell themselves do not use SAP or that they do not use linux? Can we please have some pressure put on some of these organizations to look after the linux user. SAP likes to trumpet it’s opensource/linux credentials yet gives the linux user a crippled interface to the SAP system.

By: roeland

roeland — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:23:16 +0000

there are a few reasons people choose a particular set…

1) availability of codecs et al
2) people seem to think that MS is evil
3) yast

The first is of course no problem. It takes a minute to have the stuff work on multimedia. However, it seems hard and difficult for some people
(and it’s understandeable that Novell doesn’t want to take the risk)

The second is something that is a gut feeling and not based on normal reasoning. What’s wrong with being able to use heterogenous stuff?

The third: people still think they only can use oS, SLED or SLES with the use of YaST.

By: Ankur Sinha

Ankur Sinha — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:45:46 +0000

hey, That's not true. Please have a look at https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash#64-bit_alpha . I'm on a 64 bit and haven't had any issues with flash. And yes, Fedora is *completely* open source. :) regards,

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 14:02:19 +0000

I think you need to look and analyze the competition and see where their strengths are and how openSuse compares to those strengths. Also, if usage numbers matter then discern what matters to users (Ubuntu=ease of use, Fedora=bleeding edge) and what doesn’t, at least to large number of users (OBS, lxde, xfce). And finally there’s the dislike factor – why do some users disdain, avoid and trash it (simply put – Mono and Microsoft).

And as to derivatives – these appear to be repackaging, not enhancing – not like what Ubuntu begets.

By: Janis K.

Janis K. — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 12:45:24 +0000

Read the wrap up and SWOT, about time for a little soulsearching because opensuse is starting to slip.

I used to buy every SuSE release starting with 5.8 until it went opnsuse and a couple then too. I used to install it for other people who wanted an alternative to Windows but lately I find that I was getting tired of apologizing for things that simply did not “work out of the box”, you know, java in Konqueror, videos, Skype in 64 bit and so on. Kind of a waste of resources installing a 32 bit OS on a 64 bit screamer just to get Skype to work …

I’m still using opensuse but but for other people I now install LinuxMint, KDE version as the implementation is pretty good, less headaches and everything works out of the box …

I would like to see an end to this endless rush to get new versions out and simply fix everything in the present version, incremental upgrades might be the answer, but only when everything works …