OpenSUSE 10.2 is the newer version of the Linux distribution by Novell. I had tried 10.1 at first, because that is all I had on a DVD, but this laptop (the system I installed it on) didn’t appear to like it. It ran very slow. According to others’ experiences, it was an issue with 10.1, not my laptop.

When I tried installing 10.2, I noticed a big difference in the speed of things loading on the screen compared to 10.1. I unfortunately had to go through a very long Internet install, because the DVD drive wasn’t recognized by openSUSE I guess. I’d say about 2+ hours.

Everything seemed to work right after openSUSE was installed, except for the wireless card, which I guess is normal. Following some guides on the Internet, nothing seemed to get it working, although openSUSE did recognize it on its own. It turns out that I needed to use the drivers that came with the card, rather than downloading them and then change one module setting in the hardware settings to display “ndiswrapper”.

Anyway, overall, I’m impressed with 10.2. I didn’t really like previous versions, which caused me to use Fedora Core, but I need something that works right out of the box instead of having to play around with everything. Okay, so I had to play with the wireless card, but that’s only because I didn’t think about putting in the disc that came with it and no one on any forum said to!

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