I'm Using (SuSE) Linux! It Works!

[tsipple]

Just checking in to say that I'm now using Linux for day-to-day stuff, something I've never done before. It's a bit of an adjustment, and it still has some fit-and-finish issues (such as the mind boggling variety of places you can find system settings and configurations), but it is quite workable. (I also use eComStation and OS/2 Warp.)

One thing I haven't quite figured out is how to get MPlayer (a multimedia player for Quicktime and Windows Media formats) plugged into Mozilla (the web browser). I get a "loading" message when I try to play such stuff, but that's it.

RealPlayer is working OK, though. So are the Acrobat, Flash, and Java plug-ins. Got power management working on my notebook (after shutting off ACPI with a kernel setting :-)). Also have wireless networking functioning, so I can roam about and stay connected. (That was a bit of a struggle, since I had to actually compile the Cisco driver from source code. No kernel recompile needed, though, as it turns out. Haven't been able to figure out how to get WEP enabled, unfortunately, and I had to backlevel the wireless adapter's firmware. Major geek project there.)

Still haven't figured out how to get the bloody mouse pointer to a larger size in KDE. (Anyone know?) Who set that default anyhow? It's tiny!

Fonts are a bit ugly but better than past distributions, so there's progress.

Oh, I performed the installation over the network, from a diskette boot. It would be a little tricky for a novice, but there should be more distributions capable of doing that. It's pretty neat. Would be nice if there was a web site that would prompt for basic hardware information (in plain English) and then build a custom boot diskette for you, to do the network install. For example, I would have liked to perform the installation over my wireless connection, but the boot diskettes just support the wired stuff. Also, the default installation image was a bit overly large. (Someone really likes games. There are about 20 of them installed by default. One will suffice in an initial installation, thank you.)

Another Linux shortcoming is that, despite recent progress, there's no cohesive "Add/Remove Programs" like every version of Windows since Windows 95. That's a nice feature, to be able to add and subtract programs and (mostly) have the Start menu updated. Very often in Linux you install something (with RPM, for example) and then you're left puzzling over where it went and how to add it to your KDE menus. That's assuming there's an RPM (or .DEB) binary package available. Would be nice if there were a source code equivalent which does the whole thing (compile, install, prerequisite checks, add to desktop menus, command line alias) in one shot.

Free is good, though, and perhaps I can help contribute in these areas.

[GAspnes]

1. using SuSE too

I've been using it as my primary platform for 4 months now, and as a secondary platform for a year. I've only been working with the out-of-the-box distribution, in order to advise clients on its utility as a workstation OS.

I have unpleasant memories of getting Slackware 1.0 up and running in the early '90s. One CD, set all the hardware options in configuration files (guessing all the way), and compiling a kernel which might, or might not, boot. SuSE and YAST are much improved from the naive user standpoint.

[Sialia]

2. Packages

I use Red Hat (nothing against SUSe, just have used RH for years so I stick with what I know) and Gnome, so can't really answer most of the questions. But RH has an "add/remove programs" which is a GUI for RPM. Since SUSe is also RPM-based, I presume it would also work for that distro and the source ought to be available. It's in a package "redhat-config-packages" in RH 9 so should be available at rpmfind.net. It may not deal with the menu issues too well, however, though I think at the present time KDE does better at that than Gnome.

If you're just wondering where something went and can deal with a command line, rpm -ql <package name> will give you all the details ;=) -- so much so that one usually has to pipe that into "less" to see everything.

To get MPlayer to work in Mozilla you may have to use Plugger. Haven't tried that myself.

[thermodynamic]

3. Be sure to activate SuSE Firewall2!!!!

Congrats on the purchase! For the price, it's the best distro out there. It's popular in Europe and there's no reason why it won't become more popular in America, even though Red Hat will try to 'pull a Microsoft' eventually in order to maintain it's perverse dominance.

Linux deals with applications differently. Although a centralized menu system like "add/remove programs" would be nice, it's not really needed. Each app is fully separate from the OS; and as such there's no registry that gets bloated, fragments, and bogged down. It technically is a shortcoming in terms of installing apps where there is no completely unified standard (apart from RPM packages), but it won't be too long uuntil that feature is thought of and implemented.

Definitely use Mozilla over Konquerer. I've had some trouble with a couple of websites with Konquerer. Only a couple and Knoquerer will improve in time...

For the mouse, click on the leftmost icon in the KDE tray and select Control Center. Then click Peripherals. Then click Mouse. Toward the bottom has an option "large cursor". That's the best I can do, though at 1600x1200 resolution I wish the mouse was even a little larger...

The included fonts are okay - but at least the GUI now anti-aliases fonts so they don't look jagged. And you can install all your truetype fonts as well (I haven't done it yet though).

I haven't done a network install yet, but someday... It's cool you got it to work!

[tsipple]

4. Larger Mouse Cursor No Workie

Well, I tried using that KDE setting to increase the size of the mouse cursor. Tried it under root logon, too. Didn't have any effect, unfortunately. Ideas welcome.