Bit of a lazy question in a way. More probably for Volker than anyone else... I am leaving a box for a friend who is moving here from overseas (more on some of the harware we are not taking later...). My first instinct was to leave him an MDK install, as I know how to use/configure it. I am getting a bit pissed off at MDK though and wanted to give Suse a try, especially as MDK are financially crap and Suse has just moved up with the big boys (and girls of course). He is about as computer-savvy as a watermelon. I tried to have a voice chat with MSN a few months back and we couldn't get it to work.
"I don't know why it won't work".
"Well it looks as if it's the microphone, have you got it plugged in properly?"
"Microphone? I just talked at the computer last time and you could hear me".
He is actually quite bright but has no interest whatsoever in computers. As I am giving him a computer, however, there is no way I'm going to give him Winsucks (it wouldn't be legal anyway). If he doesn't like it he can whistle. So I have a couple of questions:
(Could google really for this one)
Does Suse have an equivalent of urpmi (is it Yast?)? Is it easy to set up the mirrors (for me)? What about a PLF-equivalent for the LAMEs and DeCSSes? Do these need to be installed from source? And is there an equivalent of the Mandrake control centre (again, Yast?)?
The next one is more of an opinion one.
Is Suse in the same league as MDK for ease of use? And the big one - is it more reliable out of the box? He will most likely just be doing the odd update world, but as I am likely to keep expounding the virtues of open source he may want to have a BIT of a tinker.
And finally, and probably most importantly, given you guys know my approximate ability (just moving into yellow-belt two stripes newbie), how likely is it that I will be able to set him up a useful and fairly stable box in a couple of days, given I have never even seen a Suse box running? He will only be wanting to do office/multimedia stuff but I will have to install lame cos I'm sure he'll want to place his very large collection of CDs onto the box (I will try for OGG but softly, softly...). He certainly won't need any servers or anything (other than the ones for his own desktop) - strictly a desktop box.
So what do ya'll think? Should I give Suse a crack? If it does fit the bill then does anyone have a copy of the latest? And can I get a copy (for the usual fee)? If not then does anyone have a copy of MDK 9.2.1 - I have only 9.2, need to do a fresh install and have dialup - not a good situation to be in!
Thanks heaps Anton
ps. time is reasonably "of the essence" as we are leaving in a week and a half!
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... paranoia, n.:
A healthy understanding of the way the universe works.
