Suse's success as the main competitor to Red Hat has been predominantly in Europe until now. The penetration of this German company (now owned by Novell) into the market is expected to grow further. Suse has aimed its Linux distribution more generally, and as such, it's certainly big. Similar to Mandrake Linux, there is some emphasis on making the desktop aspect of Linux more user friendly, but it also has good server capabilities.
The installation begins with a splash screen with Suse's new rebranded look. The set-up program is part of Yast, which is also used to configure the system after installation. The first option allows you to repair, update or boot a current system in addition to a new install. Next, Yast takes a unique approach in collecting together appropriate settings and presenting them to you in a list, for you to make alterations. Although a little unusual, it works, and most of the suggestions are suitable. The hard disk set-up is effective, and allows you to resize partitions, including Windows Fat and NTFS.
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After installing the packages, the system then reboots. The network card, printer and sound card were correctly identified on our test PC, but there were problems with the graphics installation - Suse does not supply Nvidia drivers, but offers the option to download these later. The monitor was not detected. We found the graphics set-up confusing and quite unreliable; it was better to accept the low-quality defaults and change them later. The final stage of the install process allows an automatic update to patch the system. This worked without issue, and we were impressed having an up-to-date system before finishing the installation.
On first login, you're presented with a colourful KDE desktop, only let down by some poorly rendered fonts. Fortunately, it's easy to change these with KDE's control centre. Suse has also developed its own desktop theme, using a blue colour scheme, together with KDE?s latest icon set. The menu is laid out in a new style with minimal entries, most of which are named to describe the program, instead of using the program's name itself.
System configuration is performed using the centralised system Yast, last seen during the installation. Yast is designed intuitively with an attractive set of icons. Tasks such as configuring the network, printers and software packages are made easy, and the interface is clean and slick. If you did not choose to update the system on install, that can be performed here as Yast has many useful touches.
Suse Linux comes with most of the applications you'd need, including Open Office 1.1.0. Kmail provides the email, but oddly, the Mozilla web browser isn't installed by default. A video player is installed, but won't play mpeg4 (like DivX) files as standard. Most other files, including audio, are supported without a problem, and KDE's Konqueror file browser was fast and a pleasure to use. The typical web plug-ins for Java, Flash and Real Player are also configured and ready.
Suse, like Mandrake, is a large distribution with thousands of programs available. Adding new software is relatively easy with Yast, although we encountered a few errors. Disappointingly, some software isn't added to the menu properly, giving the impression of an unfinished product. For example, Mozilla only gets an entry as an email program and lacks an icon.
With lots of server software supplied, together with Yast?s ease of configuration, Suse is also ideal off the desktop. You can set up remote administration both graphically and through the shell with ease. There are programs to watch for updates and hardware changes, helping to make administration less difficult.
Suse Linux 9 is not available to download, and can be purchased as a boxed set in Personal and Pro editions. The Personal version lacks a few applications, the development utilities and some servers. It comes on three CDs and has 60 days of installation support. The Professional version comes with a DVD and five CDs, as well as two manuals and 90 days of support.
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