It's All Pure Preference
The Linux world is interesting, really.
To begin with, there is this article. It can, by no means, be called a comprehensive review of OpenSUSE 11. Ones notices the somewhat unusual choice to review GNOME only (on a rather thin excuse), whereas KDE is normally the preferred desktop. This makes it a niche review, if anything. Quite a few will agree that one of the biggest attractions of SUSE 11 is the new KDE 4, with Oxygen and Plasma...
The article also makes a major issue of a 'to-be-fixed' bug in Zypper. Non very journalistic, is it?
But what interests me most is the stream of comments, which seems to be taking the tone of a verbal war. People are defending their favourite distros, without a second thought. Cannot everybody realize that a choice of distributions may be a personal preference? A necessity, in some cases? Maybe a technical requirement? Or maybe even just a philosophical siding? What need is there to jump up and defend tooth-and-nail?
I'm just a student in university, studying Electronics Engineering. I have tried every single one of the "Major Distributions" listed on DistroWatch.com, and then some. For me, SUSE 10.x has worked best. I never found YaST buggy. Zypper has worked perfectly soundly for me. I have never had trouble with my ATI (X1600 Mobility Radeon) drivers, and enabling CompizFusion has been a simple matter of following the SUSE Wiki entries. My hardware is perfectly supported on SUSE, right down to the last gadget (WiFi, Bluetooth and Bluetooth mouse, Network Cards, Card Readers) etc. That makes me a fan of SUSE over Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Mandriva, Slackware etc. I also do not care for any deal Novell may or may not have with Microsoft as long as I get my Linux cooked well-done.
Also note, however, the number of times the keywords 'me', 'I' and 'my' have appeared in the last paragraph. Surely one can cherish the Linux world for providing such choice? Discussing bugs, errors, and improvable areas is good: indeed what makes the world go round. But that is no reason to start bashing each other - "this is better" or "that".
Call me a pessimist if you will, but some psychologists have it that people are much better off when a choice (even as crappy as Windows) is forced onto them. Let's hope the Linux world proves them wrong.