Newbie query: Ubuntu vs openSUSE

[Jamie Paul Griffin]

On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 02:47:39AM -0500, Ric Moore wrote:
> On 12/23/2011 02:04 AM, Rameshwar Kr. Sharma wrote:
> >On Fri, Dec 23, 2011 at 11:37 AM, doug<dmcgarrett at optonline.net>  wrote:
> >
> >>Why not get a live CD for each of the systems, and run them.
> >>You may find that one system is much more to your liking
> >>than the other.  However, be aware that there are a number
> >>of desktop environments available.  There might be more
> >>for OpenSuse, I just don't know. There are some for
> >>variations on Ubuntu, such a Xubuntu, Kubuntu, and even
> >>Mint, which is a descendent, but not under Ubuntu control.
> >
> >Well, it is to request to please point to point differentiate between
> >the two distros, if you can, just a request. Thanks.
> 
> Heh, that's kinda like discussing religion and politics. It's
> usually avoided. OpenSuse is rpm package based, and Ubuntu is deb
> package based. Both offer pretty much the same software.
> 
> Doug gave you great advice. If you're not handy with cd burning or
> have limited bandwidth, go to some place like on-disk.com and pay
> about $5 US for each distro's live CD and try them out to see what
> YOU like. For old and crusty machines Lubuntu is a good choice. I
> use Xubuntu as I like the XFCE desktop. Or maybe you'll like Unity
> with the standard Ubuntu install. It's hard for someone else to tell
> you what you'll like or why you should install which version of
> which distribution. But, by golly, you do have choices! Enjoy! Ric

Having tried OpenSuse I can say that Ubuntu is certainly the better choice, in my opinion. The package manager is superior and overall finish and quality is better. I remember I came across an article comparing the two where the author described YAST as "a pig" which made me laugh; and i'm afraid that based on my experiences at that time, I have to agree.

Ubuntu have designed their system with new Linux users in mind. You will have a really good system to learn on.

One thing you must consider when it comes to choosing a desktop environment is the hardware on which you will use Linux, especially the graphics hardware. The reason is that if you are using older hardware you might find that newer versions of KDE4 and Unity, for example, will be terribly slow and it could ruin your new experience. Please bare that in mind. XFCE4 has been designed to overcome some of those problems and so is more lightweight in terms of memory, etc. 

Don't forget that many distributions provide the option to have discs sent to you by post. Some you may need to make a small donation, others will be free. You can then use the liveCD option or you could think about running them in a virtual environment, like Virtual Box or VMWare.

    jamie.