Mine begun with the trusty old #Debian - I remember Sarge being a big deal - I've ordered a copy on multiple CDs.
Then I've got a job, found myself confronted with #SUSE and #YAST... didn't know what to do with all that automated user-friendlyness, my boss insisted. I knew how you juggle conf files, but this strange yast thing? The same boss got me a Celeron box as a 1-man- helpdesk workstation. He also decided to run dissimilar HDDs on a HW-RAID controller.
Yast, is what made SUSE unique. A control panel that could virtually manage everything.
I often am quoted as saying, one day I started taking Linux seriously and asked, how this all worked... It was Yast. I wouldn't even be a Linux user if no one had developed, Yast. I would not have gone diving into the terminal, looking over configuration files, and exploring libraries, if there had been no, Yast.
I'd be a grumpy Windows user, wondering why my only other choice had been, Apple
The average Windows and Apple user has no interest in learning the terminal. That is because they have no incentive to do so. They come from a world where everything is point and click easy, without much effort or fuss. You could be a speed typist and advanced Linux user, and still not keep up the ease and speed of a mouse.
Do not even bother arguing the advantage of privacy. Google is the #1 search engine and so is Google Chrome. People know it is evil and still use it.
Linux is successful server. There's no question about that. The world runs on Linux.
But for it to be a successful desktop, adopted by the masses, you are going to need more than app and game support. You need that ease of use.
YAST and other such graphical user interfaces (GUI) control panels are how you entice people to use and eventually learn Linux. They should be embraced and welcomed.
They are why, today, I can build Linux from scratch and help debug the kernel
I'm the guy who made "Firefox Automatic Install of Linux" just to save time from having to install Firefox manually.
I would prefer verbal over point and click, and would prefer point and click over typing in a terminal window.
My vision of the future is asking a computer to do something with my voice and it does it. Try to imagine the computer on the Enterprise (from Star Trek).
If AI ever gets smart enough that I can add it to my desktop, I will be one of the first.
I grew up typing in terminals and dos prompts. I grew up trying to remember individual command sequences and inputting execution variables.
One of the reasons I like SUSE Linux was they were putting a stop to that early on. YAST meant that while I could still use the terminal, I did not have to, which was great, because I didn't want to.
If SUSE abandons YAST, they will be no different from any other Linux distribution. I may as well switch everything to Debian, which is free.
@vwbusguy I tend to try to keep everything I have, unified.
If I can run it as a server, I may as well use that for a workstation, and if a workstation, then a desktop too. More and more I am using Debain, Ubuntu, and even Arch.
SUSE's advantage was that although it lacked software and 3rd party development, it had a powerful GUI and phenomenal hardware support.
If I lose the advantage that kept me using it for business workstation and desktop, it loses.
@vwbusguy SUSE is an enterprise corporation with the backing and funding for them to randomly say they're going to spend 10 million to fork Red Hat. I'm pretty sure they could support YAST too if they fell up to it. 🙄
I have used manjaro in the past and for the reasons outlined in all the previous remarks and which I could not recover and fix 3x. I switched to openSUSE and didn't look back. I wondered why I didn't use openSUSE much sooner. it's solid, it's fast, it's reliable, it uses #btrfs filesystem, and has rollback feature as my insurance.
I didn't get that with manjaro. everytime I did update with manjaro after the 1st screwup, and reimaged the second time, I was nervous like walking on egg shells. as a user, I shouldn't have to feel that way. I gave manjaro 3 chances, after the 3rd screw up. I had enough. Manjaro was too complicated for me to troubleshoot, I'm just a novice user. So I went for a robust distro that was simple to use. I switched to openSUSE #Tumbleweed rolling release.
When using openSUSE, I don't feel that way. i feel super relaxed about the routine #openSUSE updates. after 4 yrs running openSUSE Tumbleweed, not 1 single incident issue. that's what I call reliable and stressful #Linux distro. For me its simple because it has #yast, the command and control #GUI#management console. I don't need to know #CLI to admin my OS. I have yast. easy peasy.
Booted the ISO of #GeckoLinux to see if it would run on my MacBook Air. I was considering clicking the install button when I decided to have a look at the YaST package manager…
Oh, my.
The banner on yast.openSUSE.org proudly proclaims, “Linux's predominant tool since 1996.”
Apparently they’ve decided to stick with the 1996 interface.
You do you, #YaST. I’m rebooting and returning to the warm embrace of #Pamac.