markw10@hotmail.com wrote:
> I am planning on getting started with Linux soon. What peaked my
> interest is I just went on a 3 week vacation to Germany and was shocked
> how much I saw of Linux there. Two people I met only use Linux and
> another used Windows XP but only the Firefox browser. As well, at book
> stores I was shocked by how many magazines were related to Linux,
> mostly SUSE linux, and you didn't even see Mac magazines. When I
> talked to people in Germany though it seemed SUSE was by far the
> distribution of choice.

SUSE is the big thing in Germany as its developers are German or at least
development is centered in Germany. It is a nationalism thing. Assuming your
German is good enough you still need access to comp.os.linux.setup.de and other
..de groups to get help. And getting help was my decider on which distribution.

> Now that I'm back in the US I decided to check into it. I have both
> Windows and Mac desktops/laptops. I plan to put it on potentially all
> of the computers I have. At first it is more to try out Linux and see
> what it's all about but I have a feeling I may switch the Windows
> machines completely to Linux. I'm a complete newbie to Linux though
> and am not sure which distribution to go with. I'm undecided between
> SUSE and Ubunku. It just seemed everything was SUSE in Germany but now
> that I'm researching I'm reading all over about Ubunku. I know Ubunku
> is free and SUSE isn't so is that part of the reason? I don't mind
> paying the $60 or so and want to go with the best version.

The 'best' is an avoided topic in linux. Distributions are developed with
different objectives. I have no idea what SUSE or ubantu try for.

However when I jumped to linux I choose the most popular distribution on the
grounds that would have the most people willing to help me get started. For that
reason alone I picked Redhat back at 5.1 or some such. I got all the help I
needed and have no regrets. I think it is still the most common distro in the US
and it is free. You can't beat that combination.

These days Redhat with the Fedora Core distribution has solved the updating
problem with yum. They have a string of servers which contain updated
distributions and running a single command updates everything new without having
to get involved in the process. That is a very good thing which you cannot fully
appreciate without trying to update packages without it.

I have not heard anything of any other distribution that has gotten my interest
to look into it further. To get my interest they would have to talk about a
lower OS overhead or faster execution or something. All they seem to do is
promote their modest differences.

> As well, what about the desktop. I have heard there are many but Gnome
> and KDE are the main ones.

Depends on look and feel to you. Try them both. I prefer KDE from way back when
and have no complaints. I have not had a gnome application that did not work in
KDE. I may be missing decorations but not functionality. I came from Win98 and
did try gnome and it behaved in ways I am certain were perfect but not to my
liking. I switched to KDE and did not turn back.

> most of all, I have powerful computers so
> I'm not worried about needing something that has a lot of power. most
> of all, I want something that is similar to OS X (or Windows XP). What
> is important is something that is stable and easy to use since I use OS
> X more than Windows XP. Thanks for help with these questions.

So try both gnome and KDE and see what you like. I get the impression gnome is
"out of the box" more like a Mac but I haven't used an Apple machine since the
LISA.

> Also, I have read that Ubuntu is a Debian Linux. What exactly does
> that mean? Is SUSE Debian also and is Debian something I want?

I have never read anything about Debian that has gotten my interest. It just
seems to be different not inherently better or worse.

--
If we were fighting WWII VE day would have been in July 2006.
-- The Iron Webmaster, 3702
nizkor http://www.giwersworld.org/nizkook/nizkook.phtml
Old Testament http://www.giwersworld.org/bible/ot.phtml a6

On Mon, 16 Oct 2006 06:22:53 +0000, Matt Giwer wrote:

> SUSE is the big thing in Germany as its developers are German or at
> least development is centered in Germany. It is a nationalism thing.
> Assuming your German is good enough you still need access to
> comp.os.linux.setup.de and other .de groups to get help. And getting
> help was my decider on which distribution.

SUSE has been owned by Novell, a U.S. corporation, since Jan. 2004. It's
development has been taken over by openSUSE.org. The default language of
SUSE is U.S. English. The best usenet support is on alt.os.linux.suse
which is an English speaking group. All the openSUSE mailing lists
communicate in English. The various forums communicate in English.

http://www.suseforums.net/
http://opensuse.us/

For more information, try;

http://en.opensuse.org/Welcome_to_openSUSE.org

If one uses the enterprise versions of SUSE with paid support, it comes
direct from Novell.

Even before SUSE was purchased by Novell, the official web site, and the
support database, were available in either German, or English.

Speaking German is certainly not necessary for getting help for SUSE. It
never has been, in the eight years I've been using it.

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."

On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 19:27:02 -0700, markw10 wrote:

> I am planning on getting started with Linux soon.



Multi-posting the same message all over usenet is considered very bad
form. This is the third group I've found this same post in. If you must
seek answers in more than one group, cross post, with a follow up to one
group. At least then the servers only have to store the message once, and
any answers will all be in the same place, so everyone can see what else
has been written.

I left a response to this in alt.comp.os.linux. Others have responded in
comp.os.linux.misc. Where else are we to find this same message?

--
imotgm
"Lost? Lost? I've never been lost... Been a tad confused for a
month or two, but never lost."