[luau] RedHat vs. SUSE

[Hawaii Linux Institute]

The following is a comment about RedHat vs. SuSE.  It contains some very 
valid points.  However, for me (and probably for a good portion of the 
population on our islands), RH9 was the only distro is fully 
unicode-compatible (UTF-8), and this pretty much settles the preference 
issue.  (I don't know whether SuSE 9 is unicode compatible, but I would 
assume it will take at least one iteration to make things right--Red Hat 
started the unicode migration in version 8.  wayne)

"I switched from RH 9.0 to SuSE 9.0 Pro because of a few 
concerns/frustrations with Redhat. (1) Difficulty with configuring 
access to the Windows network at my workplace, (2) RH's failure to 
recognize my new box's graphics card (Radeon 9200), (3) Redhat's shift 
in emphasis/philosophy away from developing and supporting directly 
Linux for the "average user".

"So far SuSE 9.0 is doing well on the above concerns plus many others. 
YaST is overall an excellent way to control bootloader configuration, 
important for someone like me who messes with several OSes. (RH does not 
make it so easy.) Or network access/configuration. And many other 
issues. I am browing our Windows network with no problems. And SuSE 9.0 
has supposedly added excellent support for accessing numerous dialup 
ISP's - a feature I admit I have not had cause to try yet. (Our family 
uses Netzero, which normally one cannot access under Linux.)

"Installation was not as easy/smooth as Redhat. Choosing software 
packages is a bit clumsy the way YaST is set up - I had to search for 
Evolution, Mozilla, GAIM and then "check" them for installation. I 
prefer Redhat's partitioning - although I admit SuSE does give more 
control. (Primary or extended? Ah!) My new Athlon box had trouble 
reading the software packages on the DVD - had to use the regular CD's, 
which defeats the whole point. And I am still having trouble getting it 
to work on my DELL Inspiron 8200 laptop, my main machine - so far SuSE 
boots to a blank screen. That's not very helpful and pretty much hoses 
the reason I bought it.

"That having been said, SuSE is still excellent. It seems much faster 
than pokey RH 9.0, much much better selection of software packages 
(Pingus!!! OpenOffice.org 1.1! KDE 3.1! and so on!), hardware 
detection/compatibility is stronger (whither Fedora?!?). Redhat (now 
Fedora) can learn some lessons - but frankly the reverse is also true. 
At least I didn't get a blank screen when using RH 9.0 on my laptop."