FC3 (kernel 2.6.10) vs Suse 9.2 (kernel 2.6.10) sharing my experience.
AnonymousFC3
I have recently updated my other Linux partition to Suse 9.2 with the
latest kernel (2.6.10) on my dual boot system.
The install of SUSE 9.2 (S9P2)just overwrote my grub.conf file, without
making a backup, so save this file if you have a multi boot system!
This is better that an old version of Suse (years ago) formatting my SCSI
hard disk without asking... but still Suse should be more friendly at
"cohabiting" with other distros, and at least save existing boot
configuration files. (Mandrake is quite good in this area).
For both FC3 and SUSE support for the XFS system is now good.
The only limitation (so far) being that resizing an XFS partition (using
qtparted for example) is not supported.
But for the short term, Suse 9.2 seems to have a few pluses:
1) Encrypted partitions are properly supported. (Do not seem to work on
FC3).
2) KDE login time is at least twice faster: quite slow on FC3 (why: almost
same level of KDE).
Shutdown is much faster on S9P2 also!
3) By default IPV6 is disabled on S9P2 which may be a good idea.
I modified my FC3 to do the same, and some latencies disappeared (I
understand this may be an ISP support issue).
Both distros are very stable, and quite fast (compared to older versions).
For the install (of packages) I wish I could have the advantages of Yast
(suse) and Synaptic (FC3) combined on either distro: both have advantages.
4) For OpenOffice: installing another language support (dictionnary) was
easy on SUSE... did not get anywhere with FC3 (and FC2 before!).
Hopefully FC4 will adress this. (May just require the proper package?).
5) Suse is supposed to have better support for 801.11G wireless cards but so
far I still use plain old ethernet.... on my wireless gateway. (Linksys).
6) "Kpackage" seems to have faded away, this was good though.
CONCLUSION: Both distro are excellent in stability and usability.
SuSE is easier for a non technical savy user: Yast is a quite good
installer/configuration toll, possibly the best.
Yast is now open source (like RPM), so with some luck some Yast port to
Fedora can be expected.
----
I just wanted to share my observations with you, and hope that FC4 (due
pretty soon) will have better KDE support and hopefully wireless support.
Encryption would be nice too: it may just be a proper setup issue?
Also KDE4 (due mid 2005) is even faster to initialize, and this is good
news.
----
AFC3
Bernhard Schauer
(up2date/yum); it's very easy to create an own repository.
--
E-Mail: bernhardDOTschauerATgmailDOTcom
XanaNews 1.17.1.2
Jochen Michel
Bernhard Schauer schrieb:
> The only thing I miss are online-updates. I personally prefer FC3
> (up2date/yum); it's very easy to create an own repository.
SuSE has always had online updates. You can use YaST or have updates
automatically installed. These updates are usually security updates or
corrected SuSE components (scripts, wlan modules, etc.).
I really recommend using apt4rpm. I've been using this tool since SuSE
9.0 and it works great. You can use the famous "apt-get" or if you'd
like to the graphical frontend "synaptic". If you add the "right"
repositories to your sources.lst you will not only receive security
updates but also user contributed (unofficial) updates to nearly every
package.
Just have a look at:
http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/
But beware, if you're not careful enough and install some bleeding edge
packages it is likely to mess up your system.
A question to "AnonymousFC3":
How did you install SuSE 9.2? As far as I remember the 2.6.10 kernel is
not the stock kernel. The SuSE DVD installed a 2.6.8 kernel. As far as I
know you can get a 2.6.10 kernel by using an inofficial
"kernel-of-the-day" or compile your own.
BTW, has anyone got some experiences with SuSE "kernel-of-the-day"?
Bye, Jochen.