Photo credit to openbytes.wordpress.com
openSuse has been one of the major players in consumer Linux for a long time. With the acquisition of a new laptop, I figured I would give the laptop a fresh OS and give openSuse 12.3 a run around the block.
The installation was easy, the user does not have to do a lot of inputting, which is a nice change from a lot of the previous OS installations I have done. It was straight forward, intuitive, and made it easy enough for just about anyone to install. There was a Windows 8 installation on my computer when I received it, openSuse automatically partitioned Windows and Linux which is great for those planning to run a dual boot. It use to be easy to screw a dual boot up at installation, but it’s good that they have straightened that out now.
Once the installation is over and you boot into the operating system, the first impression is really good. It looks nice right from the loading screen, the layout is great when the desktop loads up and it is easy to use right off the bat. I am running on a Core 2 Duo system with 3GB of ram. This is a bit of an old platform, but not so old that it wouldn’t be equivalent to what a lot of people are using. I was pleasantly surprised to find out how snappy and fast the system was.
The initial boot up and look around is where I found my first of 2 complaints about the system. Some of the other Linux systems I have run in the last couple years seemed to have been great at installing all of the necessary drivers. My wireless drivers however did not install. I had to find the right drivers ( easy enough admittedly) on the DVD repository and reboot to get it too work. I would have thought these types of drivers would be included now. Everyone uses wireless now and there is not excuse for the installation not to include the right wireless drivers right off the bat.
My only other complaint is that I don’t find the software installation program to be great. Even Xubuntu included an intuitive software installation package, with common developer programs like Netbeans. openSuse did not do this, which is dissapointing.
That’s about where my complaints end. It was easy enough to fix the wireless problems, and the software installation package is definitely useable. With openSuse 13 launching in about a month, these might be issues that very well get fixed, fingers crossed.
I give the operating system 5 crushed beer cans out of 6. It is generally a great operating system that runs really well even on an older system.
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