Fedora desktop vs OpenSuse desktop

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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For years now I have been spoilt with Ubuntu as my desktop. They knew how to make the best desktop. However, with this 12.10 release I am having a terrible experience. My PC just randomly freezes. A lot. It doesnt matter whether I use Unity desktop or Gnome 3 desktop. For some reason it seems pretty stable on Kubuntu.

My hardware is pretty standard. Low end Nvidia (its a work PC), Gigabyte Mobo etc... but still I get these annoying freezes. Time for me to try another Linux desktop OS.

I think for now I am going to be leaving the Debian derivative range and try something new. Specifically I want to run Gnome3. I found as a desktop gui, it has amazing flow and I absolutely love it. So whatever OS I move to now must work very well with Gnome3.

Since I am stepping outside my desktop comfort experience I am not interested in any of the following:

- Debian Desktop
- Ubuntu
- Mint

So I am basically looking at Fedora or OpenSuse.

Which one do you think is the better desktop?

Im used to using Fedora a lot on my servers, but I might like the Windows compatibility OpenSuse brings? What are your thoughts.
 
Sorry- haven't tried the others, so cant comment on that, but I had a problem with 10.04 I think it was. Had to downgrade until the next version came out. Has it been giving problems from the start, because it may also be an app mixing things up a bit?
 
Hi

On the question of which distribution has the better desktop, that may be subjective, so you might want to try them both out before committing to one.

Both Fedora Desktop and OpenSUSE have LiveCDs. Alternatively you could or sample them by way of VirtualBox.

I take it that you have established that this is definitely a software issue?
 
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I would recommend Fedora mainly because it is easier to find support for it online. OpenSuse does however have excellent documentation but not as much community feedback as Fedora imo.
 
Fedora solely because I'm a long term user :)

I only moved to gnome3 for daily use with Fedora 17 and find it rock solid using nVidia & Intel graphics, problems have been reported with ATI cards though.

Edit: I've several favourite windows programs (can't live without aucalc) running under wine without hassles.
 
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So I went with Fedora, simply cause most of my production servers are Fedora. Using it totally reminds me of working on my servers as I have already had to drop to command line.

My opinion so far. The installer is a little messy compared to Ubuntu. I had to drop to command line to install Chrome...for some reason the 980mb dvd install disc did not come with either wget or lsb :wtf:. With Ubuntu it was a one click install issue.

Its a bit rough as a desktop, but right now I just want something that can run terminal and chrome without crashing.

So far no crashes, will keep you updated.
 
Yeah, Fedora is very anal about non-GPL software on their Live / Install media.

Code: 
[mick@mick1 ~]$ sudo yum install fedorautils

... makes life a lot easier (including installing chrome).

Edit: please ignore above command - see post 15
 
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I would say Arch Linux, but that is because I'm very biased. Failing that Mint.

Between Fedora and OpenSuse... I have not used either in years, but like was mentioned Fedora should have a larger userbase. That being said I enjoyed OpenSuse from way back.

Download them all and test them all, that is part of the fun of Linux!
:D
 
Fedora is just pushing me farther and farther away with all the stuff that is breaking in each release, my next upgrade will be to opensuse, hopefully it will be better.
 
MyWorld said:
I would say Arch Linux, but that is because I'm very biased. Failing that Mint.

Between Fedora and OpenSuse... I have not used either in years, but like was mentioned Fedora should have a larger userbase. That being said I enjoyed OpenSuse from way back.

Download them all and test them all, that is part of the fun of Linux!
:D
Click to expand...

I have a full time job so Archlinux and Gentoo are not options for me. I need to spend more time working than compiling.
 
ghoti said:
I have a full time job so Archlinux and Gentoo are not options for me. I need to spend more time working than compiling.
Click to expand...

That is why I left Gentoo, Arch is the "friendlier" alternative. It only takes a bit of time to do the initial setup, but not nearly as long as Gentoo, and then you are set. Arch does not compile, unless it is an AUR package.

The reason I just cannot get used to the other distros is that they are so dated compared to Arch, Linux Mint for example, I love it for it's simplicity and ease of use, but all the software is so dated.

Anyway, that is why I say download everything and test it out. I started on Mandrake for 2 years, then Suse for a month or so and after that Gentoo for 7 years. Productivity comes at a premium, so I switched to Arch and I'm very happy so far (+/- 4 years), not nearly as many issues as Gentoo.
My Desktop -> Arch Linux
Netbook -> Cinnearch
Wife -> Linux Mint
Children PC -> Linux Mint
Children Laptop -> Bodi Linux
 
MyWorld said:
That is why I left Gentoo, Arch is the "friendlier" alternative. It only takes a bit of time to do the initial setup, but not nearly as long as Gentoo, and then you are set. Arch does not compile, unless it is an AUR package.

The reason I just cannot get used to the other distros is that they are so dated compared to Arch, Linux Mint for example, I love it for it's simplicity and ease of use, but all the software is so dated.

Anyway, that is why I say download everything and test it out. I started on Mandrake for 2 years, then Suse for a month or so and after that Gentoo for 7 years. Productivity comes at a premium, so I switched to Arch and I'm very happy so far (+/- 4 years), not nearly as many issues as Gentoo.
My Desktop -> Arch Linux
Netbook -> Cinnearch
Wife -> Linux Mint
Children PC -> Linux Mint
Children Laptop -> Bodi Linux
Click to expand...

I dont need the latest. I just need stable, quick and pretty. Ill look at Arch one day but not right now. Ended up formatting and going back to ubuntu. The fedora version is pretty ugly and I have got to used to one click installs on Ubuntu. System froze even in Fedora, so I guess Andaeriel was onto something there (must be hardware).


Got memtest running tonight, if it picks up nothing then Ill swop out my PSU tomorrow.
 
MickZA said:
Yeah, Fedora is very anal about non-GPL software on their Live / Install media.

Code: 
[mick@mick1 ~]$ sudo yum install fedorautils

... makes life a lot easier (including installing chrome).
Click to expand...

When I had it installed, that command didnt work.
 
ghoti said:
When I had it installed, that command didnt work.
Click to expand...

:o sorry, forgot you need to set up the repo first (I've got scripts to automate the scut work) - no excuse.

Anyway for others who are following this thread:

Code: 
su -c "curl http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/satya164:/fedorautils/Fedora_18/home:satya164:fedorautils.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/fedorautils.repo && yum install fedorautils"

http://satya164.github.com/fedorautils/
 
MickZA said:
:o sorry, forgot you need to set up the repo first (I've got scripts to automate the scut work) - no excuse.

Anyway for others who are following this thread:

Code: 
su -c "curl http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/satya164:/fedorautils/Fedora_18/home:satya164:fedorautils.repo -o /etc/yum.repos.d/fedorautils.repo && yum install fedorautils"

http://satya164.github.com/fedorautils/
Click to expand...

Figured it was something like that :D
 
I like gnome3 so much... I was willing to try almost anything to get gnome running smoothly.

I think I went through like 4 distro`s on my PC until I gave up. It kept freezing. So I bought a laptop for gnome3. Problem was its an entry level Toshiba with only 2gb of ram. Gnome + Ubuntu never gave me freezes but it did become super slow.

I also messed around with some other desktops on my laptop. Including XFCE and such (but didnt like the experience). When I installed Xubuntu-desktop onto my laptop it gave me two extra sessions to choose from when I login. XFCE and Xubuntu. I assumed they were the same thing and there was a bug in the menu. I tried XFCE and it was okay, but too meh for me. I went back to my slow as anything Gnome3 desktop and tried to solider through it for another day. Eventually I couldnt handle it any more and I downloaded the Arch Linux iso. However, before installing Arch I tried the other session option (Xubuntu) in my login menu.

It logged me into Gnome 3.... and its super fast. I have no clue what just happened but I am just happy I can use Gnome quickly. I am hoping it stays this way, but I guess time will tell. If not, I still have that Arch cd lying in wait.
 
Glad you got there finally.

I've still got a couple of gnome 2 systems (Fedora 14) and find myself looking for the hot corner when I use them :D
 
Gnome Shell kills Unity in regards to speed. I moved my work machine over to Ubuntu from Fedora and I'm starting to regret it. I really miss the speed of Gnome Shell.
 
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