questions about distributions

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

I don't know why you are saying that. SuSE 6.3 contains the 6.2.13 kernel. 
With 6.3 there is a new graphical installer, YaST2. I have not used it 
since I did an upgrade. I have found that SuSE is relatively easy to 
install and configure. For their list price of $49.95 ($34.95 at cheap 
bytes and a few other places), it is a bargain when compared to Red Hat. 
Both Red Hat and SuSE support their distributions by phone support, web 
support and email support.. While I have never had a major problem with 
SuSE, I have had a few minor ones. The first was a dhclient problem (SuSE 
6.1). They fixed their scripts in 6.2 (but they had bugs) in the dhclient 
startup script which was easy to fix, and the scripts were correct in 6.3. 
I like YaST, but I would prefer a system administration tool similar to Red 
Hat's.  The other 2 problems I had earlier had fixes on the SuSE support 
web site. BTW: YaST allows you to do RPM updates via ftp. You select the 
site and directory, it tells you what packages are in that directory, and 
of those, which are already installed. Normally, I use the rpm command 
directly: rpm -U ftp://ftp.suse.com/......rpm, but when I want to update 
several packages at once, YaST is a time saver. But, there are several good 
graphical rpm tools also. SuSE also supports other platforms like Compaq's 
Alpha. They are well funded, but less well known than Red Hat..

If I were chosing Linux for corporate internal use, I would probably chose 
Corel for first time users who self install, and either Red Hat or SuSE 
based on what kind of relationship I could establish with the company. SuSE 
probably has the advantage for engineering or multi-national companies, Red 
Hat's advantage is that they are well known.

"Scott Stirling" wrote:

> SuSE - lags behihd other distros in keeping up with the latest and greatest,
> YAST sucks, never got much further than installing and saying "that's nice"
> with this one.
-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org


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