Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> Tried OpenSUSE. (My dad is still using it, in fact.) I quite like YaST 
> (especially the way you can run it without needing X).

  If one would have to choose one reason why to recommend OpenSUSE over
any other distro, that one reason would very definitely be YaST. It's the
one single application which more or less defines OpenSUSE as a linux distro
and separates it from other distros.

  I have to admit I have no experience on how system configuration and
software management is handles in other distros, but I don't remember ever
reading about tools similar to YaST in other distros. Usually all I have
read are about command-line tools like apt-get and rpm.

  I in no way fear the command-line (and in fact use it quite a lot, eg.
for software development), but there are some things which just are handier
to do with a GUI, when that GUI app has been properly designed. Yast would
be such an app.

  Not only can you configure almost any system setting (including things
like the apache server, firewall settings and almost anything you can
think of), but IMO the software/package manager in YaST has no equal.

  AFAIK you can do the same things with apt-get or rpm as you can do
with YaST's package manager, but it just is so much easier when you can
browse search results in a graphical user interface, select what you want
to install, uninstall or update by clicking on checkboxes, read package
descriptions while browsing, etc. etc.

  Of course not everything is perfect (for example the System Backup app
in YaST is quite ascetic, lacks basic features and is a real pain to use
eg. if you want to restore one single file or a few files), but for the
most part it's one of the best OS apps ever.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message