Updated: 11 April, 2013

by FreeFind

Here are some of the ways of acquiring openSUSE.

You can download openSUSE free of charge. You have the choice between downloading a full DVD ISO image file and burn it to a DVD or you can get the Live DVD/USB image.
http://software.opensuse.org/

The full DVD provides the most smooth and complete experience, because it includes all the software needed for the base install including localization for many languages.

The benefits of the Live DVD/USB is that it's a smaller download, you can try it live (i.e. running only from DVD/USB stick and RAM) on your hardware before installing anything and you can even use it to create a Live USB stick (See next chapter). The Live DVD/USB image doesn't include all base install packages and localization, thus these packages need to be installed later, which will happen automatically on the first run of YaST Software Management.

There are many webshops that offer to sell unofficial media (DVD, USB-stick) with openSUSE very cheap. This is of course absolutely legal, as we're dealing with free software.

This saves you the trouble of downloading and burning the media yourself, and the subsequent risk of errors. See for example:
Linuxpusher.com
OSDisc.com
Ixsoft.de
Linuxiso.co.uk

There are companies selling openSUSE in a (German language) box with support, and additional goodies included, see:
http://en.opensuse.org/Buy_openSUSE


You can find the source code for all the free packages in openSUSE here, in the form of source RPM files:
http://download.opensuse.org/pub/opensuse/source/distribution/12.3/repo/oss/suse/src/