Timothy
Parker Consulting Incorporated
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SuSE 7.1: Bigger and better What has got seven CD-ROMs, one DVD, and
three thick Linux books? What’s
got a whack of commercial and shareware software for Linux? What’s got choices of the latest kernels and X setups?
What just may be the most complete Linux release available today?
The answer to all these questions is SuSE Linux 7.1 Before we dive into SuSE 7.1, I should
in the interests of fair reviewing disclose a bias. For the last two years, my favorite Linux distributions for
workstation and single-CPU servers has been either SuSE or Mandrake.
I’ve tested every Linux distribution on the market, configured hundreds
of machines, taught hundreds of people about Linux, and sold complete systems.
In almost every case, either SuSE or Mandrake has been on the systems destined
for end users. The reasons have
been simple: I never had anyone complain about the SuSE or Mandrake packages,
they are easy to install and configure, and they both offer a ton of software
installed for you. So, it was with
considerable expectation that I opened SuSE 7.1 Professional, waiting to see
what had been packed into this latest release. As you can tell from the opening
paragraph, I wasn’t disappointed. I won’t bother with a background of
SuSE, since most people know about it. They’ve been offering excellent packaged versions of Linux
for a while now and have an excellent reputation.
The SuSE 7.1 package is about as complete as any Linux package I’ve
encountered. As mentioned, the
software is contained on seven CD-ROMs or one DVD, all enclosed in a convenient
cardboard folder with a FAQ printed on the inner leaves. Before you get worried,
you don’t need to load all seven CD-ROMs. Most users will find a complete setup for a workstation (and
many servers) is loaded off the first CD-ROM.
The other disks are full of support material, shareware packages, and
many commercial packages (more on this later).
The alternative of a DVD full of this material is a welcome one, even
though many people have still not moved to a DVD drive.
Two diskettes are included too, for older systems that cannot boot off a
CD or DVD drive. Installation is simple: insert the first
CD-ROM (or the boot floppy and CD) and start the system. The Yast2 (yet another
setup tool) installer is fully graphical and requires not configuration for the
vast majority of systems. For those
few systems with trouble under Yast2, there’s the older character-based Yast
available, too. Follow the prompts,
choose the software or default packages, and let the system load Linux for you.
If you are working from a DVD, the process is the same but you are never
asked to swap CDs! For users who are newcomers to Linux or those who must read
the manual before getting started, SuSE has bundled an excellent Quick Install
booklet with the package. It offers
a step-by-step guide to installing and configuring, using copious screen shots
and notes. Newcomers to Linux
couldn’t find a better primer for the installation routine. SuSE is to be
commended for this guide! Part of the basic software load is to
select either predetermined packages for installation, or custom choose some
packages yourself. You have a whack
of commercial software (many packages requiring activation keys prior to use)
that can be loaded from the install menus. The only real gripe about this
routine is the lack of clear explanations of what each package does.
Still, experience Linux users will recognize the names of many of the
packages. A few installation niceties: a graphical
interface to the partitioning tool and automatic repartitioning for users who
don’t want manual control; automatic detection of existing SuSE versions and
easy upgrade to 7.1; choices of kernels (2.2.18 or the new 2.4); KDE and GNOME
(including KDE2); and simplified LILO setup.
SuSE 7.1 can now exceed the 1024 cylinder limit for boot partitions,
which helps when setting up a dual-boot system. Large File Support and support
for the ReiserFS filesystem are included and welcome. (ReiserFS is a journaling
filesystem that allows for rollback to a previous state in case of problems:
there’s a performance hit for this feature, but it’s small.) We installed SuSE 7.1 on four different
systems with a wide range of hardware, and on each system the installation
routine went silkily smooth and caused nary a hiccup. The changes to Yast2 are
excellent, and make any user’s experience with SuSE 7.1 excellent right from
the start. A typical workstation configuration tops out at about 400MB of disk
space (including KDE) while full server setups with some optional software
exceeds a couple of gigabytes! The Yast2 autodetect utility did a great job of
finding video and network cards, as well as soundcards and one video card.
One older machine with an esoteric video card did cause the detection
routine a minor problem, but we chose a generic SVGA installation and it
proceeded without problem. A few cards in some machines were not detected, primarily
because they were either older multiport ISA cards or very recent video
processing cards (Matrox DigiSuite DTV, to be specific, which has no Linux
driver to date). We didn’t have
to resort to the Yast character-based system for any of the installations we
performed but we did have to manually install one Ethernet card’s drivers, and
one soundcard. There is a list of devices on the SuSE web site that shows what
can be detected by the installation routine, but most users are not going to
look prior to starting. The documentation that accompanies the
software is just as good as the installation routine. The thickest manual is the Handbook, which includes
installation and networking information, as well as lots of configuration and
basic setup details. The
Configuration manual is, as the name suggests, intended to help you set up all
aspects of the included software, including multimedia and gaming equipment. It’s one of the best configuration guides I’ve seen.
Finally, the thinner Applications manual is a guide to many of the simple
applications included, showing step-by-step how to use KDE and applications
under it, such as media players. While
experienced users will probably not touch the documentation most of the time,
newcomers will find it welcome. We wanted to see how a newcomer to Linux
would react to the SuSE 7.1 package, so we gave a coworker who had Windows only
experience the entire package, and asked her to install and configure Linux.
Although overwhelmed at first by the mass of documentation and software,
an hour later she had a dual-boot SuSE system running, a smile on her face, and
was reading through the GIMP documentation!
Favorite parts were the Quick Install Guide and the Yast2 interface.
Least liked parts? No games
to play while the system loaded (she’d seen our Mandrake setup, which gives
you PacMan or other games to play while the software loads).
If that’s the worst that could be said by a total newcomer, we think
SuSE 7.1 is a hit! SuSE 7.1 is available in two versions,
the Professional release we tested, and Personal edition. The personal edition has only three CD-ROMs and no DVD, but
costs only $29.95. The Professional
edition costs $69.95 and adds some extras to the Personal edition.
What does your extra $40 buy you? Mostly
server configuration software. The
Personal edition is more targeted at workstations, and lacks some of the server
components. The Professional
edition can be configured as server
or workstation, and includes support for LDAP Server as well. There’s more,
but it will likely appeal to programmers and heavy system users, such as
built-in support for Cups and clustering in the Professional edition. There are
many fewer development tools in the Personal edition, too, and no KDevelop
package at all (although this is available free from the Web).
The Professional edition also includes IP Video telephony software. From
our point of view, the price difference between the two editions is small, and
the extra software packages the $40 buys you are worth the investment.
The documentation is the same for both editions. We won’t bother going through a long
list of the included packages, as they are fairly standard and the list can be
obtained from the SuSE web site. One
of the choices you have during the installation is between the standard 2.2.18
kernel or the newly released 2.4 kernel. The
2.4 kernel is positioned as an enterprise kernel and includes multiprocessor
support. There is also support for up to 64GB RAM (although we haven’t
encountered a machine with that much yet!) and the 64-bit filesystem. The 2.4
kernel also adds better support for USB peripherals and better plug-and-play ISA
and CPI support. The other kernel,
2.2.18, is better known and has been stable for a while, for those who do not
want to risk problems with the new kernel release. The 2.2.18 update to the 2.2 kernel includes improved USB
support and integrated support for the Pentium 4’s enhanced instructions.
Which kernel should you choose? If
you are setting up a workstation with a single CPU, it won’t matter.
If you are configuring a server, the 2.4 release is better. Everything sounds rosy so far.
But like most things in life, too much of a good thing can be a problem.
Many users new to Linux will have decisions to make about which software
to install. Do they want StarOffice
or WordPerfect for Linux? Which
backup software package? Multimedia
tools like Gnapster and a ton of others quickly end up with many gigabytes of
disk space used up. There’s just
too much for many users to absorb, and hard disks are sure to swell because of
the surfeit. Whether most of these
programs are ever used (or even found on the filesystem) is questionable. There are over 700 applications on the disks (over 100 just
for multimedia)! But, we suppose,
better to have too much than too little. The last edition of SuSE Linux (7.0) got
blasted in some reviews for a lack of live updating (using the Web to download
and install software updates). SuSE
corrected this lack with 7.1, even though the fuss over the missing update
feature was blown out of proportion. Still,
the live update works well and quickly. Do you get the impression we’re
stretching a little to find things to complain about?
We are. There’s a whole
lot to like, and very little to dislike about SuSE 7.1. The Personal edition of SuSE 7.1 comes with 60 days free
technical support, while the Professional edition comes with 90 days.
We made several calls to the technical support center, some with basic
questions (partitioning, LILO, adding items to KMenu, and so on) and some far
more complicated (adding NFS support for a shared Jaz drive, incorporating LDAP
into a server setup, and others). In
all cases, the technical support line was answered reasonably quickly and the
person answering either found answers quickly, or got back to us within an hour.
Impressive support, and it is far better than most vendors offer. I
started this review mentioning SuSE was one of my favorite distros.
SuSE 7.1 has just become my single favorite.
You won’t regret this purchase. SuSE 7.1 Summary: The best Linux distro on the market, with a heck of an installer and impressive bundle. Nothing to complain about. Excellent buy! |
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