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Suse Linux 9.0 Professional Edition

Suse Linux 9.0 Professional Edition

List Price: $79.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: the best Linux ever
Review: SuSE 9.0 is now a mature product and any Windows user that sees it must agree. Easy installation, configuration and many many apps shipped with the product. For many desktop users that want a Internet connection, Office applications and some games this OS has it all, and much less than Micro$oft Windows.
Even for a more advanced user this is a nice server, you can remove the X if you don't need it...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Worthy competitor to Win XP
Review: I bought Suse 9.0 Pro from Amazon ... and ... I am extremely happy with it. I have Dell Inspiron 8200 and I dual booted Suse with Win Xp. Suse automatically partitioned flawlessly my C drive to install Linux alogside XP. It recognised most of my hardware(I was scared about graphics card ----- I have Geforce 2 Go but it worked fine). Had to manually set the resoulution to 1400 * 1050(as mine is SXGA+) thru Sax2. Also I enabled 3D after installing the drivers from Nvidia site ----- you have to disable 3D without the proper drivers.

My modem although recognised by Suse did not work(it was Actiontec V.92 modem ---- with Conexant chip) ----- so I had to download the drivers from www.linuxant.com and now it works fine. Only problem is the free version of the driver is only 14.4 kbps.

Other than these issues, it was painless. In fact I found the Gui to be better than windows. Plus the Suse Pro version has alomost any software that you can think of.

ADDED on 2/25/2004

I find one problem --- the KDE clock runs consistently slow. It loses about 10 mins every week. The win XP clock is fine.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: one step closer to user friendly
Review: This is my 2nd attempt at installing a linux installation previously I tried SUSE 8.2 Pro and well it drove me nuts I just couldnt get it integrated into a windows network everything i wanted to do was incredibly difficult.

I would rank my abilty slightly higher than the average windows user. Most windows problems i can solve but I am very inexperienced with linux.

For my installation I chose to do so via ftp download. I downloaded the bootcd.iso from suse. This is not an easy way to install suse. I had to use an 8.2 disk to format my hard drive.
Suse could make life a lot easier by including more on the boot cd image (about 20 meg).
I had to find a compatible network card driver (google) once that was done i had to setup a server to download from having your own lan makes life so much easier as you can have a 2nd machine resolving issues. ping is handy to find the x.x.x.x address of an ftp server with broadband its just a question of waiting for the download.
I setup with a graphical desktop but without office.
Most people will want to integrate suse into a windows network and this is where a major improvement has taken place on the desktop is local network its just like network nieghborhood in windows.
The Samba client will find your windows workgroup effortlessly To make suse visable to windows machines you need samba server select it through yast and it will download and install add your network name and its visable to your windows machines.

Realvnc is a free client and server which you can install on almost any operating system with the server running on your windows or mac ect pc. The server exports your desktop to any client machine and gives full remote access.

support for this is built into suse9.0 you can connect with system/remoteaccess/desktopsharing put the ip address of your windows machine and give it the password and there is your windows desktop sat in a window on your linux box with everything on it ready to run :)

you can also configure do the reverse and put the suse desktop on your windows machine.

suse9.0 also has online update which you can use to update the packages on your system and install more packages when needed practically pain free.

If you have a broadband connection then living with suse9.0 is not the nightmare it used to be compared with 8.2.
This pc dual boots suse9.0 and windows Me but it is likely to run suse more than windows. I wouldnt recommend doing the install by ftp download though it is a lot easier and quicker with a cd installation set.

If you are a reasonably experienced computer user then this distribution will allow you to gently ease yourself into the linux community. Rename konquerer internet explorer and i think
even a novice could start using suse9.0 with little additional help. with its install on demand features everything is there when you need it.

It still has the problem that too much gets installed by default
I would prefer a system stripped down to what i use.

all in all a very good effort this is a linux i can use.

I do network support for an internet cafe and I would be tempted to run it on some of the pc's there however I need to have the connectivity with the many messenger clients out there I also find users uncomfortable with staroffice and gimp mostly due to the "unusual" file dialogues if these issues can be addressed then I could use suse within the cafe.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A software user
Review: IMHO, this is a very good Linux distribution among those I have ever used.

The system I used to install SuSE Linux 9 Pro is a two-year old IBM ThinkPad T23 (P-III 1.0 GHz, HD 30 GB, Mem 512 MB, MS Windows 2000 Pro preinstalled ...). I have to admit that I did not succeed in the first attempt, either the mouse (ext. USB MS Intelli/Optical Wheel mouse) or the keyboard did not work correctly. In my second attempt, everything went smoothly, and I could work under both SuSE Linux and Win2000 with the GRUB boot manager. All within an hour in the configuration and installation processes. I did not read the manuals at all, the GUI installation interface is very intuitive. Good work by SuSE!!!

In the past I have used, from the first day installing Linux on an Intel x486 box, Slackware Linux, Caldera OpenLinux (now SCO!?), TurboLinux, RedHat Linux (6.x - 9), Mandrake Linux, and SuSE Linux. Caldera's OpenLinux 2.4 (eDesktop) was once my favarite. RedHat is OK, but it abandoned further release after RedHat Linux 9; you have to find "Fedora" for help.
Currently and in the near future, I will rely on SuSE and Slackware for Open Source Linux applications development and Desktop/Laptop uses. If you like more user-friendly installation, configuration and future support , choose SuSE; for a clean and fast Linux, choose Slackware (now in v9.1).
Enjoy!!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Clearing Up Some Complaints
Review: This is directed to the people who gave this product one star. Many people said that it ruined their computer. Either you didn't do something right or you didn't check to see if you could run SuSe on your computer. Others have said that it has a dated user interface and you can't burn MP3's. Who cares! Is that really the point of buying this operating system? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the point was to have the open source code. If thats not what you're after stay with Windows. I'll admit how much easier Windows is than SuSe, but if you are using SuSe for the reason its out there, whats the problem?

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Many, Many Basic Problems
Review: I purchased SuSE Linux 9.0 Professional and installed it on my
Dell Inspiron 7500 (Pentium III based) laptop. I ran into many,
many problems. Some of them were:

1) I use an optical 2 button 1 wheel Microsoft Intellimouse
via a USB adapter to PS/2 connection. The mouse would
intermittently work. Everytime I move the pointer away
from the lower right portion of the screen, the pointer
would snap back. I tried various mouse drivers, but the
mouse would only work when I used it strictly as a USB
mouse, but don't want to be forced to use up my only USB
port.

The mouse has no problems in Windows or Redhat.

2) Upon installation the auto detected video board seemed to
only allow for 800x600 PX resolution.

Yast seemed to not allow me to successfully select any
other resolution. The alternate control panel (I think
it was called SA) allowed me to set it to 1280x1024 PX.

Why is Yast so dysfunctional in this aspect? I never
had this problem with Windows or Redhat.

3) The install did not detect the presence of my IOmega USB
Zip250 drive. Both Windows and Redhat (Redhat 7.1 even)
was able to.

4) The install did not detect my HP Scanner (can't remember
the model), but it's only 2 years old. It is connected
to my PC via a parallel port and cable.

The scanner works perfectly in Windows.

5) Also, KWord seemed to crash every other minute. It's
only a word processor!

I couldn't imagine trying to run anything even more
taxing on the machine if a mere word processor seems
to fail.

At present I am extremely UNHAPPY with SuSE Linux 9.0 and will
probably return it and try Redhat 9.0. My Redhat 7.1 ran better
than SuSE 9.0. Redhat is still nowhere near as easy to use or
is as functional as MS Windows, but it seems to work infinitely
better than SuSE.

I was trying to escape from Microsoft and go completely
to Linux, but Windows seems to run circles around every version
of Linux I have tried, and in almost every way. At least Redhat
marginally worked. SuSE was a dog!

Linux seems to be like public television while Windows is like
cable or Satellite TV. No comparison. I guess you get what
you pay for.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Ruined my computer
Review: I had to borrow a friends laptop to have access to the internet, because of this product. Beware of five star reviews of this buggy mess, the chicanery behind these positive reviews is not real. After having lost my hard-drive now, I am at a loss. All my pictures, personal information on taxes is all gone. Now I am stuck with a frozen screen, with my Windows wiped out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A good start for me
Review: I was reading all the reviews and read Mark Hagelin 1 star review. I noticed that he seems to be one of the few reviewers that has had Linux experience previously. I guess he shows the many camps in Linux, something I have learnt about Linux after installing Suse 9.0. They ( Linux people ) don't just dislike Microsoft, but also passionately dislike other flavor of Linux or applicatons they don't personally like or use.
Here it goes. I installed Suse 9.0 on an old PII, 300 mhz, 192MB machine. Install went without a hitch. CD Rom was not set up to boot, so I had to make booting floppies to get started. No problem, the user manual explained it all quite well.
It recognized all my hardware with the exception of my old HP deskjet 520, which I installed manually very easily. I thought I would have problems with my NIC card and router that I use with my cable modem, but I was back on the Internet in no time. I like the KDE desktop, even though I feel it needs more refining. As of yet I have not try or seen te GNOME desktop. Why do Linux makes you mount and unmount disk media? Linux meeds to become more user friendly. For a new user like me, not a techie in any OS, the friendlier the environment the more I use it. Suse 9.0 I think, is coming close to make me feel that I can work here as well as I can work in Windows ( This is my first ever run with Linux).
The manuals are good but i would like to see a few more references relating to installing and uninstalling programs, and more comprehensive handheld for new Linux users like me that are not interested in looking under the hood of the OS. Many programs I have installed in Suse 9.0 I can't find anywhere, but I am still looking.
For anyone that is looking for an alternative to crashes, viruses, patches ( what do people with dial-up do? Spend all the time on the internet downloading Windows patches?), etc. Suse 9.0 is a good way to learn and use Linux and decide if it is for them. It does not require you to know anything about the OS to be running in no time.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: The worst version yet
Review: I have used SuSe Linux going back to 5.3 and out of all the versions, this was the worst. It couldn't detect my modem which had been out on the market for at least a year and attempts to manually configure it failed. The boot loader failed to boot Windows XP properly and I was lucky that Windows was on a 2nd drive and I could change the bios to boot it instead.

The modem was specially purchased at the time SuSe 9.0 Professional was purchased and WAS NOT a Winmodem.

It seems like SuSe which normally offers a good variety of Linux programs has severely scaled down the packages available.

I paid full price of $79.99 which perhaps would have been worth it, had internet connections been made.

Tech support is slow, taking about one week before responding. When they did repsond, it seemed like they looked more for a reason not to help then to help. They interpreted the installation support different then it was advertized, which includes being able to dual boot Windows and to make internet connections.

Out of frustration, I removed SuSe 9.0 and re-installed Red Hat 9.0 which gave me dual boot Linux/Windows XP and connecting to the internet.

It is a shame because SuSe used to be one of my favorite versions of Linux. Given the problems, slow tech response time and unwillingness to help with simple issues [dual boot and internet connection] I would not buy SuSe again. SuSe Linux 8.2 Professional suffers from the same problems as with SuSe 9.0 Professional and the fact that I had spent around $140 for both versions within the past 2 months didn't seem to turn any heads.

This definate lack of concern, and the diminished volume of packages/programs is cause for me to seek an alternative version of Linux.

My recommendation:

Don't buy unless:
1)you are desperate and don't need tech support or
2)you don't need/want internet connecion.

Mark Hagelin

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Very good operating system
Review: Well, Suse 9.0 is a really good operating system.
However, it is not a major improvement over Suse 8.x, and this is the reason why I give it only 4 stars.

I would like to warn all people who are thinking of instlling Suse 9.0 -- this system will not support exotic harware!!! I happen to buy hardware that is rather popular and therefore have 0 hardware related problems. Further, if you are typical Windows user, then you should also be aware that no Windows application will run under Suse. Remember, that Linux is not Windows -- these two are different operating systems and therefore you cannot compare them.

See my review of Suse 8.2 Pro for more info.


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