having to install video drivers (fglrx) and wireless drivers (madwifi) because they are not included by default is not a problem for me at all. neither should it be for most other (not totally n00b) users. yeah suse is not perfect out the box compared to say oh...PCLOS or hell even Sabayon which includes everything and the kitchen sink, but it it still better off than quite a few other distros out of the box (Vector, Zenwalk, Fedora). I think the appeal comes from the familiar name. Also, once the person installs it, despite some of the things not working (hell..how many things actually WORK on a clean windows install. wireless? no, video? no, correct resolution? no, any apps installed? no), the distro itself (artwork and such) is well polished, clean and professional. Also there is Yast which like it or not does take the need out of having to manually configure text files to get stuff tweaked. People like the "click click done" as opposed to entering the scary world of console.

I still think the biggest reason Suse is so popular is that it has a 'commercial' version aimed at enterprise. Thus a lot of IT types end up using it and getting comfortable with it at work. Those are the types most likely to both fiddle with it at home, and also most likely to be asked for input from a newb who wants to check out this linux thing. Doesn't have to be the best if it makes it enough hard drives for other reasons, and is good enough to garner a recommendation.

i got tired of having the antivirus, antispyware and other kinds of bullshit slowing down my computer with xp, so i changed to suse about 6 months ago - never been so happy with my computer since then.

a few optimizations for speed in suse 10.3:

1 - remove beagle, it eats up system resources like mad. if you need other search program try searchmonkey (you can only install it after adding packman repository - step 4)

2 - you can also remove apparmor. go to package manager and deselect it. if it gives you any warning, select "ignore forever" or something like that

3 - you can use the package manager in console mode by opening a terminal and typing - sudo /sbin/yast2 sw_single - much faster in my experience, good compromise between graphical and command line

4 - if you don't like compiling from source and want lots of software available, you can add more package repositories to the package manager, take a look here.
http://en.opensuse.org/Package_Repositories
http://en.opensuse.org/Add_Package_Repositories_to_YaST
http://en.opensuse.org/YaST_package_repository
it is a good idea to add at least the OSS, NON-OSS and packman repositories. for the first 2 disable automatic refresh (see the 2nd link above).

other optimizations and tweaking:
http://www.softwareinreview.com/linu...suse_10.3.html

also if you really want your system optimized for speed, forget gnome and install xfce - bear in mind you will spend a few hours to get it working right. i can provide more details for this if you are interested.