[wplug] Now testing SuSE 8.2 Professional

R.E.Coutch vze57qmg at verizon.net
Tue May 13 22:31:30 EDT 2003


YeeHaa,

I finally picked a copy (2 DVD's and 5 CD-ROM's) of SuSE 8.2.

I installed on my "test" partition and dual boot with SuSE 7.3.
I won't wipe out the old version until I'm sure the new one is to my 
satisfaction.

Here some initial results  (BTW - I have RH 9 and have been testing it 
also).

The essentials:

Kernel 2.4.20
KDE 3.1
Gnome 2.2
Mozilla 1.2.1
OpenOffice.Org1.0.2
Gimp 1.2.3
Xfree86 4.3.0

My "must haves" list was filled with the inclusion of:

Alsa 0.9.0 sound system - the only free sound system that works with my 
Yamaha sound card.
Two-fish disk encryption.

On installation, SuSE offers ext2, ext3, reiser, jfs and xfs file 
systems in the setup tool.
You also have the option of encrypting a partition using two fish 
encryption - I haven't seen this offered on any other version of Linux 
except SuSE.


I won't bore you with a complete list of software but there are some 
good ones in there including:

JRE 1.4.1
Acrobat 5.0
A handful of OpenGL 3D games including Racer.


Yast2 is more like RedHat Network Update Tool  as it now has an icon in 
the KDE tray (and Gnome) to indicate when updates are available.
Unlike Red Hat, you don't have to register and you don't get turned off 
during "busy" times.


Some cool features include:

I put SuSE 8.2 on my laptop, plugged in a wireless network card and 
YaST2 popped up to guide me through the setup.
Kind of reminds me of that OS that starts with a "W".

My Sharp Zaurus was auto configured as a modem but the correct modules 
were automagically loaded into the kernel.

The included software is astounding and for the $80, is much more that 
you can get on Windows for $1000.


Some other nice features are:

XMMS has mp3 drivers included as well as a couple of skins.
Mplayer and xine are there too.
No searching the internet for mp3 and DVD drivers !!!!

The mozilla browser had plug-ins for Flash player, Real player and java 
1.4.1 ALREADY installed (thank you SuSE).

The new KDE and Gnome look really COOL but I'll be setting up my 
favorite desktop - WINDOWMAKER - before long.
Another nice SuSE feature is the inclusion of a SuSE menu in WindowMaker 
with all the essentials on it (Office, games, etc).

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly ?

I use Nvidia for my graphics card and of course the "stock" Xfree86 
driver barely supports the card and with no 3D acceleration.

I ran the online update (YOU - Yast2 Online Update) tool and  "ta-da", 
it offers to download the latest drivers for me.
It downloaded them but did not install them. I had to run the X setup 
tool (SAX2) to tell the system to use the new drivers.

I could see where this could get a little confusing for a new SuSE user.

So far it's running great. I have a bit more testing to do but Return to 
Wolenstein multi-player is running great.
I have to see if I can FINALLY print to my wife's Win98 computer like I 
can with Red Hat 8 and 9 but not with SuSE 7.3


I'll let you know my final impression after  testing is complete.


Thanks,

Bob




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