My Daily Dose of Life

I finally found a home in Linux under SUSE (although I'm using Ubuntu now because my 8 year old nephew is using my SUSE box). I just can't help but be amazed by the ease of use and the availability of packages in SUSE. From Music editing, synthesizing music, drum beats, DVD burning, up to CAD drawings, SUSE has it... sometimes I would just think.. is there anything that SUSE can't do? But somehow, those powerful packages need to be added from external repositories (community based), and since I've been installing SUSE for friends and some customers, I have to blog the list of repositories for my easy access. Listed below are additional repositories with great software packages.

Packman

Packman (http://packman.links2linux.org) offers various additional packages for SUSE Linux. Please use a mirror (ftp://packman.links2linux.de/pub/packman/MIRRORS) if possible:

protocol    - HTTP
server name - packman.iu-bremen.de
Directories - suse/10.0
             suse/10.1

Guru

Guru's RPM site (http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/) contains packages optimized for i686

protocol    - HTTP
           - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/8.2
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.0
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.1
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.2
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/9.3
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.0
           - pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.1

Guru-x86_64

drcux rebuild for Guru and other... (http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-drcux) contains Guru's packages optimized for x86_64

protocol    - HTTP
           - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - pub/linux/misc/suser-drcux/100

Schiele

More packages for various SUSE releases by Robert Schiele can be found here (http://pi3.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/~schiele/suse/). Some of them are new packages, some of them are just updated packages from the original SUSE ones, and some just fix bugs when SUSE does not provide these bug fixes.

protocol    - HTTP
server name - pi3.informatik.uni-mannheim.de
Directories - ~schiele/suse/9.0
           - ~schiele/suse/9.1
           - ~schiele/suse/9.2
           - ~schiele/suse/9.3
           - ~schiele/suse/10.0
           - ~schiele/suse/10.1

Scorot

Scorot (http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/) is another repository with many packages.

protocol    - HTTP
       - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/suse90
       - pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/suse91
       - pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/suse92
       - pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/suse93
       - pub/linux/misc/suser-scorot/suse100

Wesnoth

Current builds of Battle for Wesnoth (http://www.wesnoth.org) packaged by Holger Hetterich are available for download at this place (http://gumbeargang.de/rpm/wesnoth/).

protocol    - HTTP
server name - gumbeargang.de
Directories - rpm/wesnoth/9.2
       - rpm/wesnoth/9.3
       - rpm/wesnoth/10.0

Fernández

Víctor Fernández's SUSE repository (http://www.polinux.upv.es/~vfernandez/suse/) contains different packages, mainly (but not only) related to KDE.

protocol    - HTTP
server name - www.polinux.upv.es
Directories - ~vfernandez/suse/9.1
       - ~vfernandez/suse/9.2
       - ~vfernandez/suse/9.3
       - ~vfernandez/suse/10.0

SUPER

The SUSE Performance Enhanced repository (ftp://opensuse.linux.co.nz/pub/SUPER/10.0/) by the openSUSE SUPER and Agirardet (http://opensuse.linux.co.nz/apt/suser-agirardet/10.0/) project with SUPER packages and the CK kernel.

protocol    - HTTP
server name - opensuse.linux.co.nz
Directories - apt/suser-agirardet/10.0

usr local bin

The usr-local-bin project (http://usr-local-bin.org/rpms) created by James Ogley (http://jamesthevicar.com) contains mainly GNOME packages, but also other packages, and has been in existence since SUSE 7.3. Packages for SUSE versions before 10.1 are available from the Web site. Some packages now available optimized for either i686 or i586.

protocol    - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - pub/linux/usr-local-bin/10.0
           - pub/linux/usr-local-bin/10.1

suser-oc2pus

ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/linux/misc/suser-oc2pus/ Various Packages since Suse 8.2. Not yet available via YaST, but on the move.

protocol    - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - linux/misc/suser-oc2pus/10.0/
             linux/misc/suser-oc2pus/10.1/

GnuCash

GnuCash on SUSE (i686 only) (ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/linux/misc/suser-crauch/10.0) Additional dependencies for GnuCash are found in suser-oc2pus.

protocol    - FTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - linux/misc/suser-crauch/10.0/

suser-liviudm

Various packages by Liviu Damian (ftp://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-liviudm/)

protocol    - FTP
       - HTTP
server name - ftp.gwdg.de
Directories - pub/linux/misc/suser-liviudm/10.0

Packman for PPC

Packman for PPC (ftp://spike.fa.gau.hu/pub/pmppc/) contains part of the Packman (http://packman.links2linux.de/) packages recompiled for PPC on a Pegasos (http://www.pegasosppc.com/products.php) machine.

protocol    - FTP
server name - spike.fa.gau.hu
Directories - pub/pmppc/

Yes.. that's right, as from my experience, I can say that PLDT DSL is the worst Internet Service Provider in the Philippines. The PLDT company may be big and has a wide consumer base, but the service really sucks! They only have good promotions and marketing strategy which lures the consumers to their death trap, but once you are already a subscriber, expect the worst.

All the company considers is to gain more profit by adding more subscribers, eventhough their facilities could no longer handle the traffic, they keep on publishing advertisements, and promotions to even get more subscribers. Why do I say this? Because at peak hours of 1 PM to 5 PM you will get disconnected most of the time.. page load time outs are also frequent.. and this could mean dissaster if you have an internet cafe business, a bad input for customers.. to the point that you may lose your customer to other cafes subscribing to BayanTel, SkyDSL, or Globe Broaband.. Another thing, I subscribed for 768kbps speed, but I only get 300 to 400kbps speed! And when you ask their customer service, they would blame your network, your line, or whatever but they won't blame their service.. I'm sure that my lines have no problem.. why? Because when I use their account (used by service men to test lines), I get a whooping 2MBps! so it means that my line has no problem, it's their datanet that handles the accounts that has the problem! And being a Network Administrator, I know how to troubleshoot my lines and I know how to trace the problems.. now, to be specific, the problem lies in PLDT's new IP block 58.xxx.xxx.xxx, same thing with their DNS server with IP number 58.xxx.xxx.xxx.., but the 203.xxx.xxx.xxx IP block and DNS server works just fine.. Speaking of Customer Service/Support, try calling 173-275, prepare yourself to dial as many times as possible, it would take at least 30 minutes before someone answers.. they will just acknowledge your report, then you have to wait at the average of 5 days before they could resolve the problem, and they won't even give you a refund! Now, If you have an internet cafe business, this could mean thousands of loses!

Downtimes are acceptable if they are not frequent, but if you get an everyday downtimes for 3 to 4 hours as what most subscribers experience in PLDT, then you better think of looking for another ISP.. as of now, I'm thinking of looking for another ISP, I could not take it anymore.. same thing with some of most of my friends, they will just finish the tie-up period, then they will look for another ISP..

As a matter of fact, there are so many disgruntled subscribers that the PLDT's official forum always gets vandalized by hackers.. go visit their forum to see how many angry customers there is.. http://www.pldt.com.ph/forum/forum.asp