I'm not yet a Linux fan, so I thought I would download a distro and hopefully convert some of my code over to another platform. I've started downloading SuSE Professional 9.3 (I dont want to get into a distro war, but SuSE seems like a good bet for me as a total Linux newbie. If I'm totally wrong please correct me), which is a 5 disk iso download. I have just been browsing the net reading some reviews of SuSE when I noticed that I was downloading SuSE 9.3 'Evaluation' Version! 5 disk evaluation version? I thought all Linux distros were free for a start (except Red Hat I hear) so why an evaluation version? What am I going to get after I spend a week downloading the disks? Is the distro going to keep pestering me (Which I don't want) Is it going to expire after a week until I purchase something (Again I don't want to do that) Does anyone know what exactly I am downloading? Thanks in advance Daisy

I don't know if it will keep pestering you.

Not all Linuxes have to be free, though many good ones are. The only reason anyone really would pay (other than to support the cause) is tech support...You can't call anyone up when using Slackware (for example) and expect nice tech support. Also, SuSe pro may include some applications that the free version does not (Yast may not be included).

Quote: Original post by tHiSiSbOb
Not all Linuxes have to be free, though many good ones are. The only reason anyone really would pay (other than to support the cause) is tech support...

Another reason someone might pay is for out of the box support for non-free things like mp3 playback. My understanding is that the free distros can't ship with apps that can play mp3 files because you have to pay a licensing fee to Thomson (the owner of the mp3 patent).

I've been trialling SuSE as my second OS for a while on my home machine (can't remember exactly which version). It won't pester you with register messages; I think the main difference is the lack of support if you haven't paid. It does come with MP3 playback (but it does not come with any commerical DVD support). Unfortunately I don't have an internet or network connection presently for that computer so it's a real pain to update.

But it's certainly worth trialling it. Out of the few distros I've tried, SuSE is one of the easier Linux versions to install and play around with, and is probably my present favourite.