I don’t have any color by default on fedora…

“The initial GNOME config of openSUSE is too Windows-like (-1)

* If I wanted my Linux desktop to look like Windows, I’d use KDE (or even run Windows)”

KDE looks like Windows ???? openSUSE’s GNOME looks like Windows ? Have you ever try Windows ? Only the task bar is a little similar too Windows’s task bar… You shouldn’t stop testing the distro/environment after clicking on the menu…

I’m using fedora 7/8 and I really enjoy using it but I’ve got stupid bugs, I had to work on it (wireless on fedora 8 doesn’t worked, mixed between english and french folder, irqbalance which doesn’t start…). Anyway, if I use fedora, it’s not just for the candy (and I think if openSUSE users use their distro, it’s the same), it is because of fedora policy with packages, because of the french communauty and because of good quality of the bugzilla (and also because, for my computer, it almost works well).

I really dont think openSUSE deserves that bad first impression. You should give it a second chance:)

(I apologize for comparing with F8, but I haven’t tried any other distro on my laptop)

-sway

Windows Vista’s approach of having only one horizontal bottom task bar, and a vertical sidebar for extra gadgets, make more sense for current widescreens. Apple’s approach of replacing the top menu bar with application’s menu bar also makes more sense, than Fedora’s default behavior. In that respect I think that OpenSUSE’s default GNOME configuration is more logical, than Fedora’s.

- takes about 15mins on my machine, the default is to include software from the online repositories which might be slow if you have a slow internet connection. Simply uncheck the appropriate tickbox during installation if you don’t want this. It does help less experienced people have a more complete experience out of the box.

- Doesn’t use yast text user interface unless the graphical one fails for some reason, and it should fall back to vesa. You could try telling it to use a lower resolution at the boot prompt instead. I havn’t seen this fail myself, file a bug report with your graphics/monitor configuration and logs and maybe it can be fixed.

- Installer will overwrite your grub with its own grub, but it should configure sections for all your other OSes, if it did not in your case please file a bug report.

- One click install is more clicks in gnome using firefox, it’s is a bit fewer in konqueror. Also some of the GNOME codec ymps cause conflicts, e.g. gstreamer, which will require resolving manually.
Best case 4 clicks. “one click” is somewhat misleading but the name stuck. Truely one click would provide no means for user to check it wasn’t going to complete break his system.

- GNOME windows like appearance is a matter of preference, over 70% of openSUSE users and most contributors use KDE anyhow.

- bluez-gnome – there are lots of GNOME bugs, number of users testing GNOME is relatively few compared to kde.

- Bash prompt is ugly? In what way?

- Root user prompt is shown in bright red? and doesn’t show the username unlike as a normal user how could it be clearer that you’re root?

- Some proprietary codecs are installed by default if you include non-oss repository during installation (default), mp3 is for instance. If there’s no mp3 support you’ll be guided through installing it if you’re using amarok. This is something that can be improved though. If you manage to find the FAQ page you can use a one click install. The KDE one works fine, although the GNOME one has a gstreamer conflict.

- Gstreamer problem has been reported, the KDE one using libxine works fine.

- What about the codec tool fails? works for me from amarok.

- zypper does inform you of the dependencies needed to install. “The following packages will be installed …” “The following packages will be removed ” etc.

In summary most of the problems you encountered were down to useing the less used GNOME version. Some are bugs which can be fixed if you report them.

That’s why there’s YaST -> Community Repositories.

Instead of taking all those steps to do it, the whole process is initiated via 1 click. After that it’s a simple wizard that you can just press next (if you don’t select advanced), enter your root pass (which is obviously required), and you’re there.

> Asks too many questions about details that could easily be simpler

It’s a wizard. Wizards give you options, but if you don’t want them you can very easily just keep clicking “Next”.

“Too windows-like” criticisms seem like such a cop-out. Honestly. The changes in the interface were done by open and public usability studies which you can check for yourself on the website. The new menu and other changes have been proven to work much better with users of various skills and backgrounds.

> This one is a personal preference, but its hard to tell when I am the root user and when I am not.

The whole prompt goes red when you are root; what are you talking about?

> Proprietary codecs were not easy to find, nor install (0)

Really? MP3 comes out of the box on the DVD, or with Banshee/Amarok a dialog pops up to ask you if you want to install MP3 support. No so bad, is it? Anyway, almost any reasonable search term on Google would find you the right codecs link.

> zypper does not inform you of the dependencies needed to install even though it reports how much it will download

Of course it does. Do you have an example?