[plug] SuSE

[Stuart Midgley]

I tend to disagree with the comment "It's all Linux".  Yes, they all  
use the same kernel but that's about it.  They diverge widely.  SuSE  
is about as close to Gentoo as it is to IRIX.

We use SuSE on our 160cpu SGI Altix 3700Bx2 and I've administered it  
on the 1680 cpu system in Canberra.  It is (now) the only linux SGI  
support on the Altix systems.  Over all it is VERY good, I recommend  
it to anyone.

SuSE tends to have a very aggressive kernel maintenance system.  They  
have modules in their kernel that no other linux has (Lustre, Job,  
cpusets) and tend to work very closely with vendors (eg. SGI).  It is  
an excellent linux with good hardware support.  Some of the kernel  
tuning they have done is also very good and can give much higher IO  
throughput than most other distros.

On the down side is YAST... complete piece of crap.  I end up having  
to write all my own init script that do what I want.  SuSE have gone  
over board with their configuration stuff.

Well, hang on, let me clarrify that.  If you are happy staying  
entirely within yast, you are fine, it appears to work very well.  If  
you change anything outside of yast, then you can't ever run yast  
again...

Stu.


--
Dr Stuart Midgley
Industry Uptake Program Leader
iVEC, 'The hub of advanced computing in Western Australia'
26 Dick Perry Avenue, Technology Park
Kensington WA 6151
Australia

Phone: +61 8 6436 8545
Fax: +61 8 6436 8555
Email: industry at ivec.org
WWW:  http://www.ivec.org