Book excerpt: Readers of all levels stand to benefit from this book's coverage of SUSE's ability to play MP3s and DVDs, burn CDs, perform office tasks and data backups, and offer a secure operating system environment. Whether it is a reader evaluating SUSE for deployment in a corporate environment, or a student interested in foregoing expensive licensing arrangements, this book serves as an invaluable guide to the Linux platform. Having solidified its position as Europe's most popular variant SUSE Linux continues to grow in popularity within the U.S. market. SUSE is an increasingly viable alternative to the Windows platform on both the desktop and server level.