9 replies to this topic

[wvcaudill2]

Hey everyone, I was hoping you guys could help me out with a few things.

Background: I've been an Ubuntu user for a while now, and for some reason, I just haven't warmed up to Unity. I've also used LinuxMint intermittently.

So, I've decided to try something different. Here are the two options I'm considering:

openSUSE (KDE)
LinuxMint (Cinnamon)

Now, I have never used KDE before, but after fiddling around with it for a couple of days, I think I can get used to it.

Here are my main concerns though:

1. Which is more widely supported KDE or Gnome? openSUSE or Mint?
2. Of the two distros, which is more stable?
3. Can Gnome applications be used safely within KDE and vice versa? For example, I am running KDE but would like to use Nautilus as the default file manager
4. I am very familiar with the Ubuntu terminal. How much different are operations within the openSUSE terminal?
5. How limited is the software selection of openSUSE compared to Mint/Ubuntu?

Please just give me your honest opinions without any distro bashing!

Thanks!

[Haggis]

openSUSe is a widely supported Distro aswell but not as much as Mint/Ubuntu etc

to answer your questions

1. Mint, more people use it thus its more widely supported of the two, but there is still a great wealth of knowledge on openSuse too
2. I have only used mint on and off and it seemed stable and also opensuse is very stable aswell
3. You can use them in both but you would need the files installed for both, KDE uses Dolphin as a file manager, i quite liked that so give it a try
4. What sort of commands do you mean, i think Mint uses apt-get Suse uses YAST and Zypper this only makes a small difference in the sense that to install chrome on openSuse you would do

sudo zypper in google-chrome

and in Mint

sudo apt-get install google-chrome

5. Any software you get for Mint/Ubuntu is usually available in openSuse too, i have not come across anything that was not, even if there is not a Opensuse package for it you could build it

i hope that helps

[wvcaudill2]

Thank you for your reply. I have decided to stick with openSUSE for now, but I seem to be running into a problem.

When I download an .rpm to install, I continually get this type of error:

Failed to install
The query is not valid
Could not resolve <file path>

Do you know why I would be getting this?

[Growled]

I use to use Opensuse and I've always found it more difficult to use than Debian based distros. Opensuse does have a stellar KDE experience, though. I just prefer Gnome, so I would pick Cinnamon over KDE. However, I use a browser for 85% or more of my computing these days, so as long as I can install Chrome I am good regardless of the distro.

[wvcaudill2]

Yes, I am starting to realize how much more difficult openSUSE/KDE is to use. I've had no major problems yet, just lots of little issues that I've never experienced under Ubuntu/Gnome. I am hoping that after spending much initial time tweaking/fixing everything to my liking that I will encounter no more problems in the future.

However, I THINK I am going to stick with openSUSE. I do like KDE, especially the control it gives me. However, I feel like it isn't always as polished as Gnome in some respects.

I am still unsold on the advantages of an rpm-based distro over .deb-based, but perhaps this is personal preference.

[medhunter]

If it is KDE, you can use Mint KDE, or Kubuntu

[wvcaudill2]

medhunter, on 01 January 2013 - 00:29, said:

If it is KDE, you can use Mint KDE, or Kubuntu

This is true, however I have been told by numerous sources that openSUSE offers the best KDE experience.

[Max Norris]

wvcaudill2, on 02 January 2013 - 01:01, said:

This is true, however I have been told by numerous sources that openSUSE offers the best KDE experience.

Personal opinion of course, but for when the KDE mood hits me, I also felt the OpenSUSE version to be a fair bit above Kubuntu's, it just felt a lot more polished and refined.. just "more complete". (Although I dislike YaST with a passion.) Used to find Kubuntu's stability a bit lacking as well, various things would crash quite frequently, but the last release I tried seems to have corrected a lot of that. That and the former KDEMod from Arch, that was quite good too, although I've yet to try their new release of Chakra, its on the to-do for one of these days.

[wvcaudill2]

Yes, I am also finding that I dislike YaST. I am also a little confused by the customization and themes. It seems as if the login theme chooser does not work at all, and one therefore must edit the sysconfig file.

Same deal with the splash-screens, some of which I can change, and others I cant seem to figure out.

[rcosby]

I never cared much for YAST either. I wouldn't hold that much stock in statements like "Suse has the best KDE experience". These things
are very personal and often change over time. Suse does have a fine KDE desktop but I really prefer the new Mint KDE or Kubuntu. You should download
some live images and give a couple of them a try. They won't be a smooth booting off a disk or usb drive but you will be able to
compare them.