OpenSuse 10.1

I recently downloaded Suse 10.1 for a spin on my laptop. I was impressed by this distro. Installation was a snap. I was able to install some programs off the extra disk using Yast. This distro is quite stable. It is a bit slow on older hardware. The machine I installed it on is a Sony Vaio I bought some six years ago. The processor is a 650 mhz so it wasn't that surprising that Suse wasn't zippy. The GUI works Just fine and I was able to autoboot a CD which I am not able to do without some configuring in Slackware. Using GRUB is always a bit different to me because I am more familiar with lilo. It does give a prettier interface than what lilo can give you. I would recommend Suse 10.1 to any who wish to try Linux out for the first time. Though I think you would be better to try it on a desktop so that you don't have any issues with hardware incompatibility. Installing on a laptop is daunting for a first time user. Out of the box there are somethings missing but with a little help and some work on your part you can have those things worked out in no time. For starters MPlayer would have to be installed to get video playback to work. It does come with some default players but on web pages those players might not work to play streaming video. Mp3 support would be offered under LAME. On the extras Disk there is java, Flash player 7 and a couple of other useful programs you need to install.


next for me to try is SimplyMepis 6...