This is a horrible review!

OpenSuse and Fedora both difficult to install for the casual user? Huh? I guess the casual user has never installed Windows from a CD then...

There are 2 schools of thought when it comes to Linux installation? Really??? Well, there are LiveCD's that just install the LiveCD contents on the hard drive, and those come in 3 varieties: installer based, no user participation installs, and cheat code installs. Then there are installer based installs like OpenSuse & Mandriva PowerPack that simply install from the CD, but are not LiveCDs. Then there are minimal install CD's like Debian and PCLinuxOS MiniMe that require you to buildup your installation from a minimal setup, Debian being very minimal and CLI, where PCLinuxOS MiniMe is a minimal KDE desktop (and still a LiveCD as well). Next, there are source installation schemes like Gentoo and LFS, which can sometimes have a very primitive installer option. Then there are net-install CDs, like the Debian option, which also requires you to buildup your install. And, finally, there are hybrids of these. Just two schools of thought? Where have you been?

Just like most software installations in Windows, installer based installs of Linux can pretty much be done by continually clicking on the "Next" button, watching to make sure you setup your timezone correctly and minor stuff like that, which can also be done later. It can't possibly get any simpler than that, without making compromises in user configurability.

Red Hat does NOT base Fedora on OpenSuse. Fedora is based on Red Hat's own technology, code, and FOSS. Fedora is essentially an experimental training ground for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which uses much more hardened code. Red Hat Linux is older than Suse, which was based on Slackware and incorporated Red Hat's RPM packaging system.

Where did you get this crap? What Linux experience do you have? It must be very minimal...

The debate on Novell's actions with Microsoft have long been over. Yes, it left a bad taste in the mouths of many a Linux user. However, what does that have to do with a review of their product? What does that have to do with how well the distro works? Judgments of Novell's business practices have nothing to do with any of this, and besides, no matter what distro you use, you're probably using one of Novell's many innovations (Mono, XGL [Compiz]) or software that they participate heavily in the development of (kernel, KDE, Gnome...).

Novell is a first order distro developer. What that means is they develop their distro entirely from scratch, without relying on a "mother" distro. Ubuntu, Mepis, Knoppix and others rely on the work of Debian. Other distros also rely on the work of another distro, such as PCLinuxOS, who uses Mandriva to base off of. It's distros like OpenSuse, Red Hat/Fedora, Debian, and Mandriva that the entire world of Linux rely on for development. Novell is a significant contributor to the Open Source Linux community, and a valuable asset.