From my point of view, OpenSuSE is actually the best Linux distro on the market.
And you actually don't need to be very smart to realize that... all you need to do is a few searches and you'll reach the same conclusion. (I must recommend you to read, at least, this article!)
We have to be real and face that EVERYONE (ok... not everyone... but almost everyone...) uses MS Windows and it is from MS windows that Linux has to get users.
To do that there has to be shown to users they can trust Linux, that they are secure and that they won't loose any data or make changes to their computer they can't reverse.
So what to do?
Well, from my point of view, users are fascinated by the "Free factor" and by the "Virus-free factor" - openSuSE have them both, however when they first see it, it has also to look simple and easy to use and that means that the basics need to be there. So, my most important suggestion (and the only one i really feel is missing to get over the "Can my Grandma us it?" basics) is:
An easy way to remove applications!!!
This is being discussed in the OpenSuse Forums
What is a Operating System good for if you can't install the programs you need???
OpenSuSE already brings a big part of software, but how to install the one you want that didn't came whit the OS (3rd party software)?
We have the 1-Click Install amazing feature (that solves this!)... but no easy way to UNINSTALL applications... You see... the problem is that instead of something like this
We get this:
So, what will a user do if he can (easily) install but don't know how to remove an application?? - He will probably quit! Why? - To uninstall an application we are presented with a list that may include Libraries and things like that... regular user is easily spooked... and, hell, this scares even me... and let's see the truth... for someone that comes from MS this is a very big mess!!!
So how to make it easy for newbies and yet not removing the "experts/or capacity of choose" view???
Well, since this is just a question of grouping "things" in order to obtain a better organization, i came up with a few ideas of how to do this...
I was thinking about giving YaST an extra view (that i also think it would be easy to implement)... in this case somekind of a Tree View where user would have software grouped by applications (only installed software would be visible)... taking openoffice as an example everything related to it would be included inside openoffice's tree
This way you could select "openOffice" and it would automatically remove everything that was installed/related whit OpenOffice or you could just select Draw to be removed or even just one specific file/component/package of Draw...
This would enable newbies to easily remove software and yet allowing experts to do everything they're used to... (Yast, at the moment, it's not very friendly!!!).
You may also notice that I've added an "Autoremove Repos" option on the bottom that, if checked when user is removing an entire application, would remove the related repos that were installed with the software (after it checks if the repos set to be removed are not used by any other application!)...
How this would look like:
An second idea is largely based on the functional way of the KDE4 menu:
1 - You go to the 'Filter' and select '3rd Party Software'
2 - From there you select 'Games'
3 - Then "Strategy"
4 - All the strategy games are presented...
5 - If you select "FreeCiv" (in the last Frame) all the related "FreeCiv" files/packages are presented on the right pane
you can uncheck "FreeCiv" in the left pane and all the files from the right pane will be removed... or you can be more specific and remove only one file / package / lib / anything from the right pane
In this idea the "Autoremove Repos" is not present (since Duncan said it would clutters the interface more) but it could be set somewhere else... The important would be that the function to be present!!!
How this would look like:
Another possibility (not as good as the ones above!) would be something like the CNR plugin. It allows you to Install, Uninstall, Update and Upgrade your software without knowing anything about dependencies, repos, libraries and things like that... You want to uninstall - just click "Uninstall" and it's done. Pretty much like windows. But the problem is that CNR is not available for OpenSuSE yet. (unlike Ubuntu,Linux Mint, Freespire and Linspire)
I've heard that Justin was thinking about creating something to reverse the 1-click install changes (something like CNR for opensuse)... however I have no confirmation from Justin about this... It would be very nice if he wouldn't take too much time (something like have this ready for the 11.1 or even early...) - So i would say: Go Justin, Go! :)
There is an VERY URGENT NEED TO CREATE SUCH SOFTWARE/FEATURE! Something that is able to Install / Uninstall / Update / Upgrade software from one single place as easily as possible, in a way that even a kid can do (if he knows the root password...).
This is being discussed in the OpenSuse Forums
Vote for the "1-click Uninstall" Enhancement here!
Other ideas (not so important) that would be cool
1: Create an Live CD that is capable to running within the windows environment or, at least, when we place the cd it creates an pop-up option to restart computer booting from cd (using Opensuse).This way users can put it on their drive and see it safely, because the biggest part of computer users don't even know how to set their computer to boot from cd - it's a fact!
2: Ability to Install/REMOVE OpenSuSE from the windows Desktop without loosing any data.
This will give users enough sense of security to try to install OpenSuSE, knowing that if for any reason they don't want it anymore they can revert the process. Ubuntu already has this, it's called WUBI (Instlux - which does almost the same for opensuse - does not support Uninstall). And here goes 1 point to Ubuntu.
3: Natively support for NTFS in the OpenSuse Live CD. Why? - It could be used to recover files from broken windows systems... this would not only be useful but would be a nice opportunity to introduce opensuse to the users (which, at that time, would be seen as a savior)
4: Finally, another thing that captures the attention of everyone when i speak about it is the possibility of install Linux on a Pen Drive in a way that will work and run FROM ANY COMPUTER. That's really amaizing... But there is no easy way to do this on opensuse (another point to many other Distros including, once again, Ubuntu)
(see Portable Suse and the Tutorial to lear how to do this)
The last thing that remain from 4: is to create an easy and graphical way to install OpenSuSE on a PenDrive from OpenSuse or from Windows desktop (without having to install opensuse on the user computer)(Note: It still isn't possible to install it from windows... but this is not an important feature!)
My Conclusion:
I may be wrong... but if the above steps were done,
OpenSuSE would definitely be used A LOT MORE!
