[x__dark]

Someone recently told me that it would be a complete waste of my time to download SuSE 9.2 unless I bought the professional version. I was wondering if any one else could back this up and if you think I should just go with Mandrake instead?

[sdousley]

SuSE have not released a 9.2 Personal edition. If you can find a download of SuSE 9.2, it is the professional version.

[Dapper Dan]

I used Mandrake 8.2 through 9.1 and have fairly extensively tested 10 and 10.1. I've also used SuSE 9.1 Professional. In my humble opinion SuSE simply beats the pants off of Mandrake in every way I can think of as a choice for a first distro.

[hdcleaver]

Ive been using Suse 9.2 for a few weeks now (my first distro). Ive also tried Fedora Core 3 but it didnt have the same feel as suse. It is a very tidy distro with a lot of very nice features so i would recommend it for your first try

[adrenaline]

If you are choosing between Mandrake and SuSE I would go SuSE but I agree and don't waste your time with personal unless all you are going to do is email and surf. If you are going to learn linux get Pro for sure.
That being said I like PCLinuxOS V-8 better than either. It is Mandrake based but doesn't have near the problems of Mandrake. Oh Ya and it is a live CD so you don't have to install it. You can test it in your cd rom and install it later if you like it.
A little history. I loaded Fedora Core 3 in my laptop and the wireless didn't work. I put the PCLinux in the cd booted up and if found my wireless and I was on the net with an os that wasn't even on the hard drive.
I was impressed. Check it out.
http://www.pclinuxonline.com/pclos/index.html

Good luck on your decision and let us know if you have any questions
Mike

[Dapper Dan]

Originally Posted by adrenaline

That being said I like PCLinuxOS V-8 better than either.

I agree that PCLinuxOS is a really nice distro. I was very impressed with it as well. It's more than worthy of a hard drive install if everything works out. I also like the fact that even though it is Mandrake based, it uses apt-get RPM for package management.

[persisto]

I am new to Linux, but have tried both, here is my experience:
(Sorry to use this forum as a BLOG, I will not make it a habit)

I started of with Mandrake 10, but had ISO CD problems, did not like the club idea much, and thought that the German way of doing things would be more straigtforward then the French. (I changed my mind later)

I liked Suse 9.0, because of
-the internet install, an Iso Image of 350Mb and the rest from the net, I find this really neat and feel all soft should be installed like this.
- I have not seen any hardware (except DSL modem, see below) on my PC's it did not detect including my Canon camera.
I found the much acclaimed YAst confusing. I could not figure out the interaction between the DHCP server and the firewalls (there are 2 different ones) I had YAst/DHCP/Newbie problems.

I live in France, and use a Sagem USB modem, the drivers for this are "special" although many people try to make the thing "acceptable" I got it to work with SUse but it would not start up on boot, which is what I need. (prob confirmed by a driver config message)
I have been running IPCOP with my funny modem without problems for a year and still miss some aspects of it (web interface, stats)

I passed briefly by ClarkConnect, which has exactly the functionality I was looking for, plus a nice Web interface. but I could not make it work as a gateway (V3.0 just new) and got 0 replies on their forum (well 1, abt double posting )

I remade ISO copies of mandrake 10.0, and once I figured out that the CDROM drive of the old Compaq P350 box would not read CD's of more than 650mB (SuSe and W2k OK) got it installed:
What I found:
Mandrake 10 seems considerably faster than SuSE 9.0 both with KDE. (not an issue on anything >1Ghz but appriciable on a P350)
Mandrake Control Center is more straightforward than Yast to my way of thnking; I find things where I expect to find them.
It did not find the sound card (a weird motherboard thing) and does not offer solutions
It does not detect my camera (not really an issue)
It supports my modem and boots with it.
Adding software seems more complicated. (I am trying to install Hylafax, need Sendmail and got stuck in dependencies; lib** things)
Mandrake seems to have a more reasonable (smaller) selection of installed soft for a newbie.
Having 3 install CD's while there are 4 is annoying. (I do not like memberships or paying for try-out things.)
The help seems more to the point.
It is blue (easier on the eyes than SuSE's green)
Biggest advantage it does what I want it to do.

I suspect that SuSE is the better product for any-one with some Linux experience but I am more comfortable with Mandrake for the moment.

[persisto]

I am new to Linux, but have tried both, here is my experience:
(Sorry to use this forum as a BLOG, I will not make it a habit)

I started of with Mandrake 10, but had ISO CD problems, did not like the club idea much, and thought that the German way of doing things would be more straigtforward then the French. (I changed my mind later)

I liked Suse 9.0, because of
-the internet install, an Iso Image of 350Mb and the rest from the net, I find this really neat and feel all soft should be installed like this.
- I have not seen any hardware (except DSL modem, see below) on my PC's it did not detect including my Canon camera.
I found the much acclaimed YAst confusing. I could not figure out the interaction between the DHCP server and the firewalls (there are 2 different ones) I had YAst/DHCP/Newbie problems.

I live in France, and use a Sagem USB modem, the drivers for this are "special" although many people try to make the thing "acceptable" I got it to work with SUse but it would not start up on boot, which is what I need. (prob confirmed by a driver config message)
I have been running IPCOP with my funny modem without problems for a year and still miss some aspects of it (web interface, stats)

I passed briefly by ClarkConnect, which has exactly the functionality I was looking for, plus a nice Web interface. but I could not make it work as a gateway (V3.0 just new) and got 0 replies on their forum (well 1, abt double posting )

I remade ISO copies of mandrake 10.0, and once I figured out that the CDROM drive of the old Compaq P350 box would not read CD's of more than 650mB (SuSe and W2k OK) got it installed:
What I found:
Mandrake 10 seems considerably faster than SuSE 9.0 both with KDE. (not an issue on anything >1Ghz but appriciable on a P350)
Mandrake Control Center is more straightforward than Yast to my way of thnking; I find things where I expect to find them.
It did not find the sound card (a weird motherboard thing) and does not offer solutions
It does not detect my camera (not really an issue)
It supports my modem and boots with it.
Adding software seems more complicated. (I am trying to install Hylafax, need Sendmail and got stuck in dependencies; lib** things)
Mandrake seems to have a more reasonable (smaller) selection of installed soft for a newbie.
Having 3 install CD's while there are 4 is annoying. (I do not like memberships or paying for try-out things.)
The help seems more to the point.
It is blue (easier on the eyes than SuSE's green)
Biggest advantage it does what I want it to do.

I suspect that SuSE is the better product for any-one with some Linux experience but I am more comfortable with Mandrake for the moment.