OpenSuse 10.2
 

The latest Suse Linux release is out, I've been running it for a couple of weeks and it is a good one. People have for some time been suggesting that Suse has been catching up to M$ in terms of user friendliness, and with this release, IMHO they are there.

If you are thinking of having a crack at something different from XP, its worth a go.

http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSUSE_News/10.2-Release
http://www.softwareinreview.com/cms/content/view/60

I like 10.2 a lot.

I'd thoroughly recommend SimplyMEPIS as well.
A LiveCD runs in RAM so you can see it working first, then let it do the install. Detects virtually all hardware straight from the box, and of course, it's all free. XP really is history. :ok:

I've been a SuSE fan for a long time and I've now got the 10.2 DVD on order.

Thanks for the link to the Jem Mazan article - I'd seen it, but others may not have, and it's VERY useful.

SimplyMEPIS is an excellent distro - maybe because Warren is a "benevolent dictator" and a serious perfectionist, MEPIS has a consistency that a lot of other distros don't. I think their support and the help available on the Mepis forums is second to none.

And of the big distros (I'm a fan of Puppy and DSL in the mini-distros), Kubuntu really deserves a special mention - http://www.kubuntu.org/ - Ubuntu just gets better and better, but for those of us who don't like the Gnome desktop (and I'm one) Kubuntu is the answer.

[In case you're wondering, Windows is the question....]

:ok:

I like the KDE desktop, and use it with Suse, Debian, Fedora and Kubuntu. They've all come on in leaps and bounds lately, but don't quite do the job that I keep for Windows. Playing Midi files, MP3, and DVDs is still a bit of a pain with most of them, and none of them will drive my colour printer properly. That's Mr Canon's fault for not writing a Linux driver (the Windows driver is almost 60MB!)

I don't think I'll be buying XP's replacement from MS, though. It'll be one of those Linuxes (Linuces? Linuxa?).

The Perfect Setup - OpenSuSE 10.2
 

There is a detailed description about how to set up an OpenSuSE 10.2 based server at http://www.howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_opensuse_10.2

And some useful discussion of the article on OSNews at http://www.osnews.com/comment.php?news_id=16747