Is openSuse a good choice?

[arlab]

I'm needing Linux x86 to use a simple, academic, program. I'll probably also use it for learning a bit of the Unix shell's functions. But still, nothing special.
I was thinking of using some sort of virtualization, to have Linux running on top of Windows Vista.

Can anyone recommend me a good software for this (I'm using Vista x64)? Also, I was thinking of installing openSuse. Is it a good choice? Is it easy to find the appropriate drivers (I'd like to be able to use my 1920x1200 resolution)?
One last thing, usually, in Vista, my RAM usage is around 3.2 GB. Will I have sufficient RAM to use (and change) both Operating System fast?

Thanks.

By the way, I'm using the Thinkpad in my signature.

[Marin85]

From my limited experience with Linux, I can say that OpenSuse is very nice distro. In fact I like it more than Ubuntu (and all its forms). For virtualization I use VMware, but unfortunately it´s not free. From what I have seen it´s the most advanced VM software out there (and that explains why it´s not free). Why not consider running Winodows on top of OpenSuse? You can get some pretty small XP, which wouldn´t occupy much of space on your hard (unlike Vista), perfect for VM...

I´m not sure what you mean by "using and changing both OS fast". I assume you are referring to the VM. In that case, you shouldn´t have any concerns about Vista RAM usage as it´s very dynamic/flexible and it would free up memory as soon as you need it for something else like the virtual machine. Besides, Linux doesn´t really require that much of RAM (well, that depends on what you are going to to under Linux...). With OpenSuse I think you would be good to go with 750 MB generously assigned to the VM.

If you have any other questions feel free to ask

Marin

EDIT: Reading your post it seems to me you don´t consider dual-boot, right?

[Superego]

I would recommend VirtualBox for virtualization, especially since it's free. It's got a lot of nice features like USB, CD/DVD write support, 3d acceleration and it's lightweight and fast. As far as your RAM is concerned you should be all right. You can do a few things in VirtualBox to help this: You can set a size for the virtual disk (it takes longer to create but the VM will run faster) rather than using a dynamic virtual disk; you can also specify how much of your memory you want to allocate to the VM.

openSuSE is a good distro, especially for new users. One problem is that it's a big distro (extra hard disk space and extra running processes), which may be a problem in a VM. You might want to look at a smaller distro...something like Puppy or Dam Small Linux. One other distro I would suggest is Arch Linux. It's not exactly a beginner's distro, but that doesn't mean it's hard; It just takes some time and commitment to get comfortable with Arch. You would end up with a lightweight system that performs exactly the way you want it. If you want to learn more about Linux then Arch will definitely allow you to do that.

[tylerwylie]

OpenSUSE is like Guinness. Always a good choice.

After you get familiar with the tools provided with the distribution, it becomes a very powerful tool.

I still prefer Fedora to everything else, but if Fedora were not available, OpenSUSE would be on my laptop.

[Harryc]

You are going to have problems with the 4965agn wifi adapter no matter which distro you choose. If it's a Linux VM, then I 'think' networking relies on the Windows drivers/stack, so it may not be an issue.