Hi there! GeckoLinux creator here. Thanks a lot for the fair and well-informed review! I absolutely agree with your theory that openSUSE has a fiercely loyal fan base, but they've really gained/earned a bad reputation for being arcane and stubbornly refusing to work with multimedia formats. It's not even a matter of just installing the required proprietary codecs, because openSUSE goes a step beyond that by neutering some of their packages that are built so as to not interface with proprietary media formats. That's one of the papercuts that GeckoLinux remedies. I would say that GeckoLinux is perfectly suitable for new Linux users, as I've switched plenty of friends myself to it and it serves them well. However, I'd say that its primary focus is for users who know and appreciate the many virtues of the openSUSE base, but aren't willing to detail with the papercuts. The LightDM locale switcher problem in en_US is a known issue, it's a combination of LightDM weirdness together with a Calamares limitation that it doesn't know how to deal with openSUSE's unique locale system. For some reason, you have to change your language/locale in the LightDM chooser, log in (still with the wrong locale), then logout and login again (or reboot) and then it will pick up the locale you chose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry about that, it's definitely the biggest Achilles heel of GeckoLinux and I can't seem to find a way to fix it. At least it's easy to work around. I'd actually recommend the other system-config-printer GUI instead of YaST, that's why it's pre-installed. ;-) With that being said, did you try the "Detect more" button in YaST Printer? That's all it took to find my network printer: i.imgur.com/4InAPZ3.png Thanks again! Cheers.
You’re very welcome, always good to see a user friendly distro that has a lot of polish. I guessed the locale issue was a bug of some sort and I should have used the standard system config printer utility, but hey it’s all about learning. I really can’t say I’m a fan of user though
"openSUSE goes a step beyond that by neutering some of their packages that are built so as to not interface with proprietary media formats" Could you explain that a little bit more? Are those packages being replaced by the packman repo?
@@operius2385 That's correct, Packman takes the same packages with the same names, but recompiles them to allow them to access the proprietary codecs. What happens with openSUSE is that new users often add Packman and then they install something like VLC with the vlc-codecs package, but they don't notice from which repo it gets installed, and they end up installing the openSUSE version of vlc-codecs and they still can't play proprietary formats. GeckoLinux avoids this confusion by putting Packman at a higher priority so that if a package with the same name is available in both Packman and openSUSE repos it will always pull it from Packman.
I've always liked openSUSE (stable, polished, ..), and wanted an ISO & desktop Gecko had a spin for but required me to add post-install with openSUSE so I installed Gecko. I was most pleased with the result, it felt and acted just as if I'd installed openSUSE but I got there faster. I was very happy with the result.
Nice review. I've used regular Opensuse (TW) for nearly 2 years and the codec issue would be a big deal for newcomers. Good that Gecko fix this. Regular Opensuse recently introduced a welcome screen which contains various useful links. It would be good if they added a link to the community 'one click' coded install script.
"It would be good if they added a link to the community 'one click' coded install script." Hi there! GeckoLinux creator here. In my opinion those "one-click" scripts should be avoided at all costs. First of all, they take more like 7 clicks... and they indiscriminately re-add repositories that you already have installed, leading to clutter. And they present confusing screens about switching packages version to different repositories. Yes, they do work for experienced openSUSE fans, but they're totally confounding for even experienced Linux users that are new to openSUSE. That's why GeckoLinux installs software by default from Packman when it's available, thus avoiding confusion and "one-click" scripts.
@@s.b.2088 Yes indeed, good points. In fact I'd say that regular Opensuse is not for Linux beginners on many levels - Gecko definitely the better choice there.
Cheers mate. My very brief experience with Gecko was installing off what was then a months old KDE iso from their site. Installed just fine but didn't start up after a full update. I should probably have spent more time debugging but I really needed a functional system fast so it was back to Debian for me. Excited to hear about your WM adventures. At the moment I'm running i3-gaps on Arch and can't think of a reason to switch to anything else. Stable as hell, really simple config with almost everything in one file, comes with a great bar that can be extended with i3blocks, I can't imagine why I'd move to anything other than maybe Sway when Wayland is more mature. Then again that's basically i3.
It looks interest for sure, it would not pull me away from my current install, but it doesn’t look bad. Thanks again OTB for another quality look at a distro that a lot RUclips entertainers would probably not even give it a thought.
Great review and nice that you gave GeckoLinux some needed attention! I was trying to say Mate' and the dog kept yelling Cinnamon, go figure! I guess my Cinnamon issue has rubbed off... Lol I hope you weather thing get better soon. Here in Indiana it has been in the 90F and 80% and above humidity for over 2 months. Normal for Indiana but we do have AC and I stay inside because of my COPD 90% of the time. Last week I mowed my grass in the dark, yes I have lights on my mower... Lol Stay safe and Well OTB! Thanks for the video too! LLAP
I used openSUSE for a short time and found I didn't much care for it. I think I discovered that vim was not installed by default and I had to fetch it from the repo, which bothered me a little, since vim is just my goto editor. openSUSE does not like swapfiles created with fallocate, I had to use dd, which did not bother me too much as I am fairly comfortable with dd. I can't quite put my finger on what didn't sit right with me, but I went back to Manjaro Architect and the i3wm I had been using previously. Right now, my main machine is back on the One True Distro (Slackware-current ;-) ) running dwm as my window manager. I've spent the past year or so trying different distros and find that Slackware and tiling window managers is where I am most at home. It's probably where I'll stay for the forseeable future.
Is 'new linux user distro' really the right term? As another OTB who is time-poor, I really appreciate distros that make the effort to round out the rough edges of base distributions. If I can't get things 'just so' in the time it takes to drink then I'm less inclined to try it. I was happy to faff about with Slack on 8 x 3.5" disks back in the day, these days I have other things to do with my time. Coincidentally, my second distro was SUSE (after a box edition Mandrake debut circa late 90s). Thanks OTB for bringing some of the 'alternative' distros into the picture. They are fun and interesting, and I really appreciate the efforts of those making these variants more accessible for all users, not just new linux users.
Cheers Steve, you're probably right that new linux user distro isn't the right term. There have been many occasions when I've just needed something to be up and running quickly
Why does adding the Packman repo and installing some codecs have to be a big issue? I mean, the whole thing takes about 5 minutes if the user is familiar enough with Linux.
I don't get it either, more so when some of the same people don't mind having dozens of ppa's plus right now you don't need to add packman for codecs ffmpeg from the official distro does the job
I can confirm what OTB says about the weather of the last 1.5 week. I had similar (possibly even worse) weather in a neighboring country. It was horrible. We don't have AC here, the combination of the heat, high humidity and high night temperatures gets under your skin. It is difficult to sleep and you get tired from it. Hang on OBT, a few more days and most of the heat should have left your house.
@OldTechBloke, have you ever thought about making audio-books? :) Speaking of OpenSuse. It was really my first linux distro that I have used the other days. LiveCD with beta of KDE 3.00. It was great to start but the progress was made. Basically: OpenSuse -> Mandrake -> Slackware -> Ubuntu -> now Arch and Gentoo 50/50. Of course I have been testing Debian etc however I cannot stay Debian. And yes, I have 2 modes - either distro that is supposed to be working out-of-the-box thus no additional manual work. Or I build. And I build from scratch (of course once set, works). I'm prefering for years building. So additionally it really feds me up when distros that are supposed to work out-of-the-box, doesn't work.. Anyway, have a great day!
Congrats OTB on your upcoming 10k subs...my condolences on your choice to review this distro. I still have high confidence in your expertise so i'm gonna chalk it up to the medication you're taking for your illness.
You were using a network printer and yast could not find your printer. It might be you are using a virtual machine. So you are using another network and not in the same range as your printer. I think if you are reviewing a distro the best way is to use real hardware. But most of the linux channels use virtual machine and I do understand it is cheaper than real hardware. Great video as always and thanks.
Hi there. No I had bridged networking set so it was on the same network. There really are no advantages to reviewing a distro on real hardware compared to a vim. Plus the vms get deleted straight after the review so there’s little point doing a hardware install unless I wanted to keep it. It’s also trickier recording the process
You pronounce Mate as you should. It's about tea, not your blokes. ;) OpenSUSE is a pain to configure if you want to use it as a all around home desktop. Lacking codecs, choosing right repo. It's not supported by some 3rd parties very well. I gave it few chances and I look at it like at ordinary workstation and nothing more. Leap + Xfce looks great. It works great. Question is: If you do a work, like coding software for Linux, would you use OpenSUSE when majority of home Penguin distros are Debian based? Debian, MX, Mint, Ubuntu, Zorin, Pop!, Elementary...
OpenSuse isn't as complex as SlackWare even though it has the DNA from slakware I think the configurator has it's syntax issues past that it is bullet proof. Once you get the syntax it doesn't matter if you are cli, or graphical.
The Next iso will add the daily git build from kde/plasma, actually is a krypton on stable base and not on tumbleweed. Already made you change Idea about rpm based distros, next step is to make you to switch to plasma :D The pacman repo is useful, but not always updated , so you'll gonna have to switch vendor very often , in argon or krypton, but those are bleeding edge... PS: About the viewers that you got on various reviews, deb and arch based distros are hundreds... so no wonder there.
And I think Spanish speaking people would pronounce it Mate, but English speaking people would pronounce it Mate. Good onya mate! cheers from Australia :-)
@@aliencreation8744 AMD has a similar thing. All AMD processors have an internal custom ARM core for bootstrapping, memory config, security stuff and such, much like Intel's ME. Both are black boxes, with little public documentation.
Hi there! GeckoLinux creator here. Thanks a lot for the fair and well-informed review!
I absolutely agree with your theory that openSUSE has a fiercely loyal fan base, but they've really gained/earned a bad reputation for being arcane and stubbornly refusing to work with multimedia formats. It's not even a matter of just installing the required proprietary codecs, because openSUSE goes a step beyond that by neutering some of their packages that are built so as to not interface with proprietary media formats. That's one of the papercuts that GeckoLinux remedies. I would say that GeckoLinux is perfectly suitable for new Linux users, as I've switched plenty of friends myself to it and it serves them well. However, I'd say that its primary focus is for users who know and appreciate the many virtues of the openSUSE base, but aren't willing to detail with the papercuts.
The LightDM locale switcher problem in en_US is a known issue, it's a combination of LightDM weirdness together with a Calamares limitation that it doesn't know how to deal with openSUSE's unique locale system. For some reason, you have to change your language/locale in the LightDM chooser, log in (still with the wrong locale), then logout and login again (or reboot) and then it will pick up the locale you chose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Sorry about that, it's definitely the biggest Achilles heel of GeckoLinux and I can't seem to find a way to fix it. At least it's easy to work around.
I'd actually recommend the other system-config-printer GUI instead of YaST, that's why it's pre-installed. ;-) With that being said, did you try the "Detect more" button in YaST Printer? That's all it took to find my network printer: i.imgur.com/4InAPZ3.png
Thanks again! Cheers.
You’re very welcome, always good to see a user friendly distro that has a lot of polish. I guessed the locale issue was a bug of some sort and I should have used the standard system config printer utility, but hey it’s all about learning. I really can’t say I’m a fan of user though
"openSUSE goes a step beyond that by neutering some of their packages that are built so as to not interface with proprietary media formats" Could you explain that a little bit more? Are those packages being replaced by the packman repo?
@@operius2385 That's correct, Packman takes the same packages with the same names, but recompiles them to allow them to access the proprietary codecs. What happens with openSUSE is that new users often add Packman and then they install something like VLC with the vlc-codecs package, but they don't notice from which repo it gets installed, and they end up installing the openSUSE version of vlc-codecs and they still can't play proprietary formats. GeckoLinux avoids this confusion by putting Packman at a higher priority so that if a package with the same name is available in both Packman and openSUSE repos it will always pull it from Packman.
@@s.b.2088 I see, thank you. I allways make sure I switch all packages to the packman repo.
Still a godsend sir,Im running two geckos now,absolutely brilliant.
When most tubers are all about arch this, manjaro that, ubuntu bad all the while catering to "new users"
Is no surprise the gecko goes unnoticed.
You have a point
This video makes me want to watch that OpenSuse video now - even as a regular Fedora user. Thanks for spotlighting this more user-friendly option OTB
My pleasure!
I've always liked openSUSE (stable, polished, ..), and wanted an ISO & desktop Gecko had a spin for but required me to add post-install with openSUSE so I installed Gecko. I was most pleased with the result, it felt and acted just as if I'd installed openSUSE but I got there faster. I was very happy with the result.
Nice review. I've used regular Opensuse (TW) for nearly 2 years and the codec issue would be a big deal for newcomers. Good that Gecko fix this.
Regular Opensuse recently introduced a welcome screen which contains various useful links. It would be good if they added a link to the community 'one click' coded install script.
"It would be good if they added a link to the community 'one click' coded install script." Hi there! GeckoLinux creator here. In my opinion those "one-click" scripts should be avoided at all costs. First of all, they take more like 7 clicks... and they indiscriminately re-add repositories that you already have installed, leading to clutter. And they present confusing screens about switching packages version to different repositories. Yes, they do work for experienced openSUSE fans, but they're totally confounding for even experienced Linux users that are new to openSUSE. That's why GeckoLinux installs software by default from Packman when it's available, thus avoiding confusion and "one-click" scripts.
@@s.b.2088 Yes indeed, good points. In fact I'd say that regular Opensuse is not for Linux beginners on many levels - Gecko definitely the better choice there.
Thanks for the info!
I have found Gecko to be a venerable distro. It's quite stable and Suse support seems applicable.
Well done review!
Thanks for pointing this one out! I'm now downloading GeckoLinux for a test spin. And you've got yourself a new subscriber :-)
Thanks for the sub!
Cheers mate.
My very brief experience with Gecko was installing off what was then a months old KDE iso from their site. Installed just fine but didn't start up after a full update. I should probably have spent more time debugging but I really needed a functional system fast so it was back to Debian for me.
Excited to hear about your WM adventures. At the moment I'm running i3-gaps on Arch and can't think of a reason to switch to anything else. Stable as hell, really simple config with almost everything in one file, comes with a great bar that can be extended with i3blocks, I can't imagine why I'd move to anything other than maybe Sway when Wayland is more mature. Then again that's basically i3.
Ah well, once you start with TWMs the journey just keeps on going 😁
My daily driver for a bit now. Anything based on Suse is awesome.
I'm not a gamer I'm afraid so I'm not qualified to comment
It looks interest for sure, it would not pull me away from my current install, but it doesn’t look bad. Thanks again OTB for another quality look at a distro that a lot RUclips entertainers would probably not even give it a thought.
Very welcome. As you know, I tend to pick some stuff that interests me and try and ignore whether I think it will be a popular video
Great review and nice that you gave GeckoLinux some needed attention!
I was trying to say Mate' and the dog kept yelling Cinnamon, go figure! I guess my Cinnamon issue has rubbed off... Lol
I hope you weather thing get better soon. Here in Indiana it has been in the 90F and 80% and above humidity for over 2 months. Normal for Indiana but we do have AC and I stay inside because of my COPD 90% of the time. Last week I mowed my grass in the dark, yes I have lights on my mower... Lol
Stay safe and Well OTB!
Thanks for the video too!
LLAP
Cheers Bruce, that weather would kill me all the time but as you say you have ac. Love the thought of mowing the grass in teh dark though
Steve, thanks for another great video. On one of my older desktop machines, I'm running Linux mint 20 with cinammon, mate, XFCE and lxde. Love it!!😀
Good stuff!
I used openSUSE for a short time and found I didn't much care for it. I think I discovered that vim was not installed by default and I had to fetch it from the repo, which bothered me a little, since vim is just my goto editor. openSUSE does not like swapfiles created with fallocate, I had to use dd, which did not bother me too much as I am fairly comfortable with dd. I can't quite put my finger on what didn't sit right with me, but I went back to Manjaro Architect and the i3wm I had been using previously. Right now, my main machine is back on the One True Distro (Slackware-current ;-) ) running dwm as my window manager. I've spent the past year or so trying different distros and find that Slackware and tiling window managers is where I am most at home. It's probably where I'll stay for the forseeable future.
How did you get such low RAM usage ?! On my laptop, on a USB stick, if I open Gecko MATE it's at around 800 mbs
Just opened htop and that’s what it showed
Is 'new linux user distro' really the right term? As another OTB who is time-poor, I really appreciate distros that make the effort to round out the rough edges of base distributions. If I can't get things 'just so' in the time it takes to drink then I'm less inclined to try it. I was happy to faff about with Slack on 8 x 3.5" disks back in the day, these days I have other things to do with my time. Coincidentally, my second distro was SUSE (after a box edition Mandrake debut circa late 90s). Thanks OTB for bringing some of the 'alternative' distros into the picture. They are fun and interesting, and I really appreciate the efforts of those making these variants more accessible for all users, not just new linux users.
Cheers Steve, you're probably right that new linux user distro isn't the right term. There have been many occasions when I've just needed something to be up and running quickly
Why does adding the Packman repo and installing some codecs have to be a big issue? I mean, the whole thing takes about 5 minutes if the user is familiar enough with Linux.
I don't get it either, more so when some of the same people don't mind having dozens of ppa's
plus right now you don't need to add packman for codecs ffmpeg from the official distro does the job
"if the user is familiar enough" is why
Will try again. It wouldnt install!?
I can confirm what OTB says about the weather of the last 1.5 week. I had similar (possibly even worse) weather in a neighboring country. It was horrible. We don't have AC here, the combination of the heat, high humidity and high night temperatures gets under your skin. It is difficult to sleep and you get tired from it. Hang on OBT, a few more days and most of the heat should have left your house.
Here’s hoping Peter 🤞
@@OldTechBloke You and me, buddy. :)
Is there a difference when you install from or through a VM?
@OldTechBloke, have you ever thought about making audio-books? :) Speaking of OpenSuse. It was really my first linux distro that I have used the other days. LiveCD with beta of KDE 3.00. It was great to start but the progress was made. Basically: OpenSuse -> Mandrake -> Slackware -> Ubuntu -> now Arch and Gentoo 50/50. Of course I have been testing Debian etc however I cannot stay Debian. And yes, I have 2 modes - either distro that is supposed to be working out-of-the-box thus no additional manual work. Or I build. And I build from scratch (of course once set, works). I'm prefering for years building. So additionally it really feds me up when distros that are supposed to work out-of-the-box, doesn't work.. Anyway, have a great day!
Cheers Petr, Can't say I've thought of audio books. You think it's worth looking at?
@@OldTechBloke I'd definitelly say so :) Your voice is imho a gold for that kind of area. Well, you you know - who am I? :)
For the past few weeks im not using a Rpm based distro, but a ubuntu version called POP OS works fine for my work flow.
Well done grandfather!
Congrats OTB on your upcoming 10k subs...my condolences on your choice to review this distro. I still have high confidence in your expertise so i'm gonna chalk it up to the medication you're taking for your illness.
You got less views on your other vid my brother cause it's open suse.
I know mate
Where in lancs are you?
Ribble Valley, just South of Clitheroe
OldTechBloke mate, I’m Leyland. Nice to know there is a Linux stronghold here. Thanks for what you do
You were using a network printer and yast could not find your printer.
It might be you are using a virtual machine. So you are using another network and not in the same range as your printer.
I think if you are reviewing a distro the best way is to use real hardware. But most of the linux channels use virtual machine and I do understand it is cheaper than real hardware.
Great video as always and thanks.
Hi there. No I had bridged networking set so it was on the same network. There really are no advantages to reviewing a distro on real hardware compared to a vim. Plus the vms get deleted straight after the review so there’s little point doing a hardware install unless I wanted to keep it. It’s also trickier recording the process
You pronounce Mate as you should. It's about tea, not your blokes. ;)
OpenSUSE is a pain to configure if you want to use it as a all around home desktop. Lacking codecs, choosing right repo. It's not supported by some 3rd parties very well. I gave it few chances and I look at it like at ordinary workstation and nothing more. Leap + Xfce looks great. It works great.
Question is: If you do a work, like coding software for Linux, would you use OpenSUSE when majority of home Penguin distros are Debian based? Debian, MX, Mint, Ubuntu, Zorin, Pop!, Elementary...
And they say old people don't know anything about technology
How about a review of leeenux cannot download without buying
If it costs to download a distro I’ve never heard of there’s next to no chance I’ll review it. I don’t agree with that model
OpenSuse isn't as complex as SlackWare even though it has the DNA from slakware I think the configurator has it's syntax issues past that it is bullet proof. Once you get the syntax it doesn't matter if you are cli, or graphical.
The Next iso will add the daily git build from kde/plasma, actually is a krypton on stable base and not on tumbleweed.
Already made you change Idea about rpm based distros, next step is to make you to switch to plasma :D
The pacman repo is useful, but not always updated , so you'll gonna have to switch vendor very often , in argon or krypton, but those are bleeding edge...
PS:
About the viewers that you got on various reviews, deb and arch based distros are hundreds... so no wonder there.
I think a switch to plasma may be a step too far for me :-)
@@OldTechBloke exactly , precise, my answer back in the days when a friend gave me the Mandrake7 CD's ;-) actally was a CD and 2 floppy...
I remember installing OpenSUSE many many years ago and did Not enjoy the experience. This however looks way easier
ubuntu mate had so many bugs
Why do all Linux reviewers like dark themes?
Come out of the darkness and into the light.
Eye strain.
You are unwise to choose the light. Do not fear the dark side Sujith
Personal preference :-)
MATE Is pronounced Mate, it's a Spanish word so you're pronouncing it the proper way
And I think Spanish speaking people would pronounce it Mate, but English speaking people would pronounce it Mate. Good onya mate! cheers from Australia :-)
@@steveschwartz2571 Yeah, both are great names btw
@Richard Addison I'm not telling him how to pronounce it :'s
The only problem I have with that is that if a Spanish speaker said Henome instead of GNOME it would be equally weird xD
Always liked Suse Linux. Still not using it though because of Yast. It is the overkill of control panels imho.
What you normally would do in a terminal, you can do graphically. What's not to like?
stop using intel man
Stop using AMD man!
:/
Doesn’t have the spyware at the hardware level like Intel
Seriously the i10 is completely compromised
@@aliencreation8744 lol but have fun.
@@aliencreation8744 AMD has a similar thing. All AMD processors have an internal custom ARM core for bootstrapping, memory config, security stuff and such, much like Intel's ME. Both are black boxes, with little public documentation.