Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Desktop

SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED)

Connect a USB stick and copy files and then unmount

YES - no problems here.

YES - unlike some previous SUSE versions I did not have any problems this time. Have had some issues unmounting without being root before.

Browse a site using Macromedia Flash (only provided in 32-bit)

MAYBE - you have to click on the link that searches for the plug-in, download it and install it manually. Now, on a 64-bit system you can't install the 32-bit flash player. Saw some posts that you could replace Firefox with the 32-bit version and use the 32-bit plugin. I didn't try that.

YES - the Flash player plug-in is pre-installed by default. This was also true for the 64-bit system. Not sure how they accomplished this since I have not been able to locate a 64-bit flash plugin. But it works.

Connect and play mp3's from my iPod

OK - Rhythmbox refused to play any mp3 files. Installed all gstereamer-plugins that I could find but still got an error message that the MIME type of the file could not be identified. Also there is a confusing array of software involved -- Music Player, Rhythmbox, gstreamer, serpentine and Sound Juicer.

After experiencing the ease of use of Banshee on the SLED system I installed it on the Ubuntu system as well and did manage to get it to work. Now, of course, I can also play the mp3 files with Music Player - go figure.

Have to mention that the Ubuntu desktop icon actually looks like an iPod while the SLED icon looks like a generic mp3 player. I like the iPod icon better.

YES - easy. Banshee detected the mp3 files automatically and played them

Also, I can play the Apple non-DRM AAC music files in SLED, but couldn't figure out how to add that to Ubuntu. I believe its part of a "non-free" Helix package that is included with SLED. Not a big deal, I can live with using mp3 files. I would actually prefer to use ogg, but that is not directly supported by iTunes or by the iPod itself.

Hook up a digital camera and import photos

OK - works with JPG but not CRW files. Camera detected and able to import picture but the gThumb application that pops up to do the import is not able to handle Canon's RAW format it seems. You can install F-Spot to get the same functionality as SLED though.

YES - works with both JPG and CRW files. The F-Spot application that automatically pops up looks fairly nice too - similar to iPhoto.

Connect to my HP Deskjet 6840 and print a picture

YES - selected Network Printer - HP JetDirect and provided the IP address - test page and photos printed without trouble

YES - same experience as for Ubuntu.

Install the latest Java 6 Beta 2 release

YES - download the non-RPM binary install and copy the directory to /usr/java. Add paths to .bashrc and it works fine.

YES - download the corresponding RPM, install it and add the paths to the bash profile.

Install Oracle 10g XE (only provided in 32-bit)

MAYBE - on a 32-bit system it's a very easy install - followed the directions from Oracle OTN.

On a 64-bit system I was not able to install the software since it is only provided in a 32-bit version. The dpkg utility refused to install saying that the package architecture (i386) didn't match the system (amd64) . Added the -force-architecture option and got the software installed. The database configuration step doesn't create the database though. This is most likely due to the fact that I couldn't find a 32-bit libaio package to install using Synaptic. Did not try to work around this any further since it was getting late. It should be possible though - see Valery's Mlog for more details.

YES - the rpm installer complained about libaio not being installed. Once that was taken care of the install went smoothly. (Note: on a 64-bit system make sure to install libaio-32bit since libaio by itself will satisfy the rpm check but it won't work with the Oracle 32-bit executables)