SUSE 11.1 Prompts Move From Windows

[#1]

Whilst sorting out a slow shutdown problem on my Vista PC, I experimented with XP, Windows RC7 and SUSE 11.1 as multi-boot options on the same PC.  SUSE 11.1 was a revelation to me; no more searching for drivers - everything worked straight away on my HP DC7800, and the performance seems better than  that I get on Windows 7, Vista or XP.
For day-to-day applications,  I've switched to Open Office,  and Thunderbird for email instead of the usual MS Office, and found them fine (and free!) too. I've been bowled over by the wealth of free Linux software, and the quality of it. Having tried Windows RC7, and finding it resource-greedy, and not to my taste, I've taken the decision to try to move to Linux and break with the costly Windows spiral.
For the one or two Windows items I can't yet find Linux alternatives for, I tried using Wine - which was OK'ish - but then tried an NT installation within a Sun VirtualBox running on SUSE, and that proved ideal.
At the moment I've still got Vista available via dual-boot, but I'm finding I rarely go back to it - except for Flight Simulator, and even that seems to run better on XP....maybe I'll just keep an XP boot option just for that.
SUSE 11.1 is well-worth a try-out.

[#2]

Another convert! Welcome to linux. What applications are you still looking for? There are rough equivalents out there for most common Windows applications.

[#3]

good for you!  do join the opensuse forum as they will be able to help if you get stuck with any problems.

[#4]

Hi Denzil & Artificer,
The 2 apps I'm using via an NT virtual machine - Routerstats Lite (which works via Wine, but after some time the window semi-minimises and becomes unusuable), and VBS so I can run a couple of scripts I wrote to analyse my router's bit loading data.
I'll take a look at the OpenSUSE forum today - thanks for the tip-off.
Jack

[#5]

Hmm, beyond my knowledge, I'm afraid. A lot of routers use embedded Linux, so there may be native Linux applications out there that can monitor them.

[#6]

If it can do SNMP, cacti is pretty good.

[#7]

Ah, with a bit of perseverance I've now got the RouterStats and my bit-loading analysis both running OK under SUSE. I've found how to correct the routerstats semi-minimising (move it to another workspace), and I've used a spreadsheet to do what I previously used VBS to do with the bitloading data. I've also found that the DMT tool (for router monitor/control) works well via Wine, providing that the Wine session is started by root (DMT uses restricted functions to operate).

So now no need at all for Windows

[#8]

Is this the DMT that lets you fix your noise margin?
I've got a slow Windows laptop and DMT is all I use it for! 

[#9]

Re DMT: Yes. thats the one. I installed Wine via YAST, then downloaded and unzipped DMT v8 into /home/tools, then whilst logged in as ordinary user, from a terminal window, SU'd to root, then    wine /home/tools/dmt.exe  -  works AOK.
Tho I don't use DMT to alter the SNRM of my DG834G v4 (I use the DGTeam firmware instead), I do use it to get detailed stats/bitloading info, and its proved fine.
RouterStats-Lite using a similar approach (don't need the SU bit tho) is also OK.

[#10]

Quote from: jack21

Re DMT: Yes. thats the one. I installed Wine via YAST, then downloaded and unzipped DMT v8 into /home/tools, then whilst logged in as ordinary user, from a terminal window, SU'd to root, then    wine /home/tools/dmt.exe   -  works AOK.

Thanks, however I tried the equivalent in Ubuntu - but DMT crashes with windows type errors.
I wonder if it doesn't like my 32/64 bit OS?

[#11]

Could well be something incompatible in the Ubuntu-Wine-DMT stakes - it all works AOK on SUSE 11.1 32-bit  (DMTv8 at least). Maybe worth making sure your Wine is up-to-date.
Mind you,  if you wanted to, you could use  Sun Virtual Box (its a brilliant Virtual Machine provider),  and just have a virtual Windows host to provide the DMT.....thats what I did until I used the Wine method.
In the last couple of days, I've also worked out how to compile and run  Visual Basic code on SUSE (by using Mono-Basic) and have converted my couple of  bitloading analysis programs to work on SUSE (and learned a bit more during the process).....so its even better than before.
I'm not missing Windows a bit !!