I've been running SuSE 7.3 for 4 years now. I've, not once, had to contact SuSE for support on their operating system. There's so much support and documentation in other places (web, usenet, irc) I haven't bothered with support from SuSE. SuSE does tend to drop support on their operating system. The only REAL benefit I've missed out on, is SuSE's sophisticated automated patch update process. I simply patch software when i need to. If there's patches required on the OS, it's either directed at the kernel, or the software running on the OS.
I've been dramatically impressed with the SuSE operating system. I might suggest that you purchase a license for Norton Ghost. I use it for my test machine so I can easily 'rebuild' the box after I've finished testing. if you're not familiar with linux support on IRC, I'd be glad to fill you in. It's a very valuable and free resource. Regards, Tim Rainier Graham Nicholls <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 03/31/2004 09:55 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] cc: Subject: Re: [squid-users] My Squid Hardware -- Any Tips/Advice Before It's Commissioned On Wednesday 31 March 2004 15:08, Peter Albrecht wrote: > Hi Mark, > > On Wednesday 31 March 2004 15:05, Mark Tinka wrote: > > o SuSE Linux 8.2 Professional > > o Kernel 2.4.20 > > ... > > > generally, are there any tips anyone can advise > > regarding the best i can get out of my > > hardware/software configuration..?.. it's been a while > > since i've built an enterprise squid box, and i want > > to do it right the first time... pretty much excited > > and looking forward to it.. > > SUSE 8.2 is definitely _not_ the OS of choice for running a server in a > corporate environment. OTOH, it is stable & if you don't want support from SuSE, its fine. > If you need any support for this machine, you should > run SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 8 (which is based on SUSE LINUX 8.1). Only > for this OS SUSE LINUX will provide any support and maintenance for more > than about two years (which is the normal lifetime for the SUSE LINUX 8.x, > 9.x). SLES 8 is supported for at least five years from General Availability > of the product (which means support and maintenance will be available until > 2007). I have to say this looks like a blatant commercial for the more expensive SLES, where the cheaper product (I'd use 9.0) is fine. I have corporate servers running every release of SuSE Linux from 7.0 onwards - and have used 5.3 (IIRC) for the same. Graham > Regards, > > Peter -- Rock Computer Consultancy Unix, Linux, C, TCP/IP, Python, Perl, etc. www.rockcons.co.uk The answer is always "Yes".