Settling into OpenSUSE. There was some weird shit where I had to delete eth0 and then rename one of the other (actually existing) network devices to eth0, but once I had that figured out things started going much better. Have I mentioned how much I love the package management on this thing? While technically most major distros now SHOULD be capable of one-click installs, it just doesn't seem to have caught on with them the way it has with OpenSUSE for some reason.
Package support in fact generally appears to be better than last time, and it was pretty good last time. It's not what you'll get with the Debians or Fedora but it's the next best thing, and what it lacks in breadth it makes up for in ease of installation. It's also way more friendly at dealing with conflicts than any apt-based system I've ever used; if one comes up it doesn't just drop you back to the command line with a vague error, it tells you specifically which versions of which packages from which repos are causing the conflict, and then presents you with options -- keep the old one and cancel, install the new one and go with that repo for that package from here on in, or ignore it and go on through with the possible breakage. It's not perfect -- it tends to list the same options multiple times -- but it gives you everything you need to make an informed decision without having to fuck around with manpages or try to find a solution online.
13.1 was just released last week so there's no nVidia binary package yet. I think I can probably wait instead of fucking around with shell scripts; I've got plenty else to do.
But all 3 OS's are now up and running and connected to the Internet, so I think I can classify the new computer as Finished at this point. Still plenty to do, slowly getting everything just the way I want it like the ass-groove on my couch, and of course now I have to set the Mac Pro up the way I want it, as a studio/backup server. Lots to do, but getting there.