OpenSUSE

w1z4rd

w1z4rd

Karmic Sangoma
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Not to sure if anyone here can help me. Basically after a couple of successful roll outs of Ubuntu desktops for corporate networks I have a bigger challenge.

I have being asked to install OpenSUSE on a couple of hundred laptops for a customer. The customer wants OpenSUSE as they already have Novell servers.

For those of you with experience with OpenSUSE... do you know if I am going to have problems with these laptops?

HP Intel Celeron 540 (1.86-GHz, 533-MHz FSB, 1-MB L2 cache) 1024MB 1 DIMM 80GB 5400rpm Lightscribe DVD +/-RW DL SuperMulti - Fixed Bluetooth module Broadcom 802.11 a/b/g 15.4 WXGA


Management Notebook

HP 6710b Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 2048MB DDRII 667MHz 1 DIMM 160 GB 5400rpm LightScribe DVD+/-RW DL - Fixed Intel 802.11 a/b/g mini-pci card, Bluetooth Module 15.4 WXGA Intel Media Graphics Accelerator X3100 UMA 384MB Windows Vista Business 32 + Office 2007 Ready 1~1~0


While I see these notebooks are supported in Ubuntu.. recon OpenSUSE has everything (drivers) that will be required to get these machines running well?

Thanks folks.
 
Last edited:
Howdy,

If your customer already have Novell servers and they want to run Suse on their laptops, I would suggest that they run Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and not OpenSuse. OpenSuse is not for the enterprise!

If they insist on OpenSuse, look at OpenSuse 11. It was released about two weeks ago..

Regards
 
gg za said:
Howdy,

If your customer already have Novell servers and they want to run Suse on their laptops, I would suggest that they run Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) and not OpenSuse. OpenSuse is not for the enterprise!

If they insist on OpenSuse, look at OpenSuse 11. It was released about two weeks ago..

Regards
Click to expand...

Thanks... I will let them know, but Im not sure theyre wanting to pay for the enterprise edition.
 
One more thing, if they are not running Linux on any Desktops at the moment, make sure that they know the consequences of switching desktops/laptops to Linux.

Things they need to consider:
  1. Mail Client - Are they running GroupWise of Exchange, or simple IMAP/POP3?
  2. How are they going to access the Novell File servers File system? Do they have Home Directories and do they need E-Directory authentication
  3. Are they running ZenWorks - Does the laptops need to be managed?

Regarding your question with the drivers for the laptops, OpenSuse 11 is very new, and as such should have drivers for most of the current Laptops.

Regards
 
Would SLED be a pay option? Wouldn't it be available for download but you will have to pay if you want support from SuSE?
 
Is it possible to do a trial run with one laptop and OpenSuSE 11?

Most of the drivers should be included.

You'll also have to consider KDE3 vs KDE4.
 
SLED is a pay for product. Anyone can download it from Novell's Website and install it. However, no product updates are allowed until it is registered.

SLED is suppose to compete with Enterprise Desktop OS's like Vista. OpenSuse is considered "beta". Please note the use of "" around beta..
 
As a matter of interest, is that the same approach Red Hat takes in terms of the pay option? I know that Fedora is its "beta" OS.
 
I cant really comment on Red Hat, since I am only familiar with the Novell side of things. However, by your description, it sounds very similar.
 
Which makes good business sense to send a lot of new stuff and technologies out there so ppl will test it for free - and which you can later include in your stable, pay-for services and packages.

OpenSuSE 11 is stable enough for myself to use on a daily basis.
 
U are right, I used to run OpenSuse 10.3 on my Laptop. It worked perfectly fine. I now dual boot with Ubuntu, and no problem so far, except for the stupid sudo command for everything..
 
gg za said:
U are right, I used to run OpenSuse 10.3 on my Laptop. It worked perfectly fine. I now dual boot with Ubuntu, and no problem so far, except for the stupid sudo command for everything..
Click to expand...

There's a reason for that - but it still is irritating to sudo when you want to add/remove software or do things which require administrative privileges.
 
I know there is a reason for the sudo, however I am looking after 320 Suse servers all day, I only run as root, since everything I do on the servers I need admin rights. (SLES 9 servers with OES on top). As such when I am on the Ubuntu laptop I switch to SU the moment I need to start installing and fiddling.
 
# sudo -i

That will essentially leave that console in su mode
 
Thanks for the tip, I found another way of doing a su - Works for me...
sudo -i should be quicker since there is no need to setup the su - command

Regards
 
it's starnge that i haven't used ubuntu or any variant in over a year yet i still remember that. i guess it's probably bcoz before i knew that i suffered much grief.
 
i think its best to stick to either 10.3 or 11 idf you gonna be installing on all these laptops as i recently discovered they have stopped support for suse 10 also alot of the packages are pretty dated for example firefox is still 1.5 facebook lovers will hate you :)
http://en.opensuse.org/SUSE_Linux_Lifetime
 
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