SuSE Linux 9.1 Review (Page 1 of 5 )
Tired of Windows? If you are, you've probably considered jumping over to the Linux camp to check out what all the buzz is about. But, which Linux distribution is the best? That question is best answered by another: what are you looking to do? Today, we take a look at one of the more dominant distributions, Novell's SuSE Linux 9.1. Highs: Lots of software included, and very quick. Lows: A couple of show stopper bugs and inability to read some DVDs. Overall: Looking for a good business distro? This might be the one. Home users might want to look elsewhere, however.
SuSE, a German company that makes one of the most successful Linux distributions in Europe, released SuSE 9.1, its most recent version of Linux for enterprise and personal use. Novell recently purchased SuSE, and is integrating it into its portfolio of products, which include the Ximian products, and are looking into integrating Linux with their NetWare products. SuSE made headlines when the City of Munich turned down Microsoft and chose its product for internal users.
Several weeks ago, SuSE quietly released an offer for a free 3 DVD set that includes SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 8 and related technologies on one disc, SuSE Linux Professional 8.2 and Ximian Desktop 2 on another, and SuSE Linux Professional 9.1 on the third. Today at DevHardware, we will be taking a look at SuSE Linux Professional 9.1.
SuSE Linux is aimed mostly at corporate users, but home users will find some things to be very useful. If you have been following the lawsuit between SCO and IBM regarding the intellectual property issues in the Linux kernel, Novell does have an indemnification program that can be used if needed. Some commentators believe that the lawsuit is a complete waste, and if you are a regular reader of Slashdot or Groklaw, then you are likely to not worry about it. This distribution, however, is not devoid of IP issues, as we will see later on, and they may prove to be a bit more than a nuisance for the home user.
SuSE does come in a few flavours geared towards different processors. These are compiled to make the most of your processor. There are the traditional i386 along with Athlon XP, IA64, and x86_64, as well as PowerPC and SPARC in 32- and 64-bit variations and a version for the IBM S390 processor. I believe Gentoo is the only Linux distribution with this many processor architectures supported.
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