Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
- Mahatma Gandhi

Friday, April 24, 2009

openSuse 11.1 vs Ubuntu 9.04

Recently, there were a couple of new Linux distribution releases that have been causing quite a bit of buzz around my workplace. Many of us have become fans of Ubuntu, but have used Suse for quite a while, so we like to stay informed of where each of the distributions is currently at. I installed Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop, and had the opportunity to install openSuse 11.1 on an identical laptop for a co-worker. This gives me a moment to briefly compare a few of the things I found in the very short time that I had with the Suse box.
The first thing that I didn't like with Suse is that the wireless card, which in this case was a broadcom card, didn't auto-install. I had to search the internet, and finally found some pages that referred to running the following scripts:
/usr/sbin/install_bcm43xx_firmware
/etc/init.d/network restart
After these scripts, the wireless worked as expected. I found it kind of sad that I needed to connect to the internet and do some searching when the scripts were already with the installation. I wish it would detect that I had that type of card, and offer to run them for me. I liked Ubuntu much better, as it seemed to handle this in a fashion that would be easier for a new user to get running.

Also, openSuse seemed to be trying too hard in the looks department. It had a lot of transparency and floating menus. Kind of weird. Just didn't have a really appealing look to me.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

No offense man, but this wasn't what I expected. This isn't a comparasion. You just listed some troubles you ran into in openSUSE and that's it. Next time please try to list what are the pros of cons of each OS.

Unknown said...

You cant flog Suse for the looks, that's just opinion. The menu system now that's what could be floged to an inch of its life. I was a Suse aficionado for years (though went from windows and back again for 4 years) now I have left Vista for U-9.04. I chose Ubuntu for no other reason than that it works the way I am used to Gnome working. I could re do Suse's menu, but U just works the way I like. Its shallow I know bat that's the way humans are.

Unknown said...

I actually am running SUSE 11.1 on one machine and Unbuntu 9.10 another identical machine. I am a MS Windows user and am learning Linux. I have found the Ubuntu easier to use as a new user. It runs faster. It actually has a better setup for the video card and monitor. They wireless NIC was already installed on the Unbuntu, but still am having troubles with SUSE. Had no problems with the Hardwire NICs nor sound cards.