I'm contemplating a Linux switch. Don't get me wrong, Ubuntu is great, but I've heard much better things about OpenSuSe. The current version of OpenSuSe is 10.3, but 11.0 is set to be released very soon (see bottom-left of the page).

Why would I leave Ubuntu?

Simply do to the fact that I'm finding a lot of bugs. For most of what I do, it's wonderful, but for some others, it just doesn't work. For example, I have a Lightscribe DVD burner, and there is Linux software available for this burner, however, every time I want to use it, I have to reinstall said software. Another example is the the updates. I will run the same updates 3 days in a row before they finally stop prompting to update. That's just too Windows for me (once installed the same updates 10 times on my laptop before I finally just reinstalled the entire operating system).

What do I like about OpenSuSe?

So far, all I know, for sure, about OpenSuSe 11.0 is that it's still in it's Release Candidate phase. However, ZDNet gave it wonderful reviews. One article had a sub-headline of, "...what Ubuntu hopes to be when it grows up." Ubuntu is wonderful, if OpenSuSe is that much better, then I definitely want to give it a try. From what I've read (I'll include the link to the article if I can find it), nearly every application I would ever need is installed during the initial installation. With Ubuntu, the programs are readily available, but require lots of time to download before using. OpenSuSe also looks really really pretty. Lame excuse to switch Operating Systems, but thousands switched from WinXP to Vista because Vista looked prettier. I'm just hoping that my switch doesn't come with the same headaches.

All in all, I think this will give me a more mature OS with more features. Although, I might end up eating crow on this as well. Think I'll make a ghost image of my Ubuntu install before I go installing another OS... always gotta have a crutch to fall back on.

OpenSuSe website
Ubuntu website

ZDNet Articles
Fedora 9 ships, openSuse 11 due June 19 Posted by Paula Rooney.
OpenSUSE 11.0 RC1 Photo Gallery of several OpenSuSe screen shots.