[plug] SuSE Linux

[Bernd Felsche]

Some people expressed an interest in SuSE Linux at the PLUG workshop
last night when I briefly showed it working on my "portable". I
apologise for having misled them about the price of the distro.

It's a bit lower than I said. :-)

Both everythinglinux.com.au and lsl.com.au are taking (pre-)orders
for the 8.2 "Professional upgrade"; for less than $120. The German
version is escaping... erm being released next week at a RRP of a
shade under 50 Euro (including their GST); about AUD$90; for
essentially the same package.  Looks like they've checked the
airmail postage rates to establish Australian prices. :-(
Knowing the European prices should nevertheless give you some
leverage when beating down the list price.

SuSE provide 3 types of "consumer Linux" packages:
	Personal - the common stuff most people are expected to want.
	Professional - everything SuSE has time to integrate.
	Professional upgrade - Professional; sans one manual.

i.e. if you've got Linux savvy, the "upgrade" package is definitely
the way to go; saves about $50; a lot of pizza, no matter where you
live.

Heck... I know it sounds like an advert!

OK, OK... If 8.1 (and 8.0) are anything to go by; their online
update "wizard" sucks dirty swamp water through a crinkled straw.
It's painfully slow. (There's a free, faster alternative "fou4s"
that I've been using for months now, at 4 different sites.)

And YaST is very memory-hungry. Many tasks cannot be done with less
than 128MB of RAM, plus 512MB of swap.

Happy now?

-- 
/"\ Bernd Felsche - Innovative Reckoning, Perth, Western Australia
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