A friend has a drawerful of demo CDs and such.
I found some SUSE CDs:
What's the difference between the two?
...and is Enterprise Server 9 the same as the SuSE Pro version?
Should I use one of these CDs to install linux or should I download the new DVD.iso?
That is up to you. It is not really fair to compare products. Both have pros and cons, depending on the situation.
It would be unfair to one of the vendors to arbitrarily select one over the other, based on the lack of information in your post.
Have a review of Novell Linux Desktop 9" from the swedish computer magazine "Datormagazin (2005-2)" here. I translate what might give you an idea.
"The three CD:s Novell Linux Desktop 9 is distributed on represents three of the five CD:s SuSE Linux 9.2 comes with. This means many of the extra packages that SuSE Linux ships doesn't come with Novell Linux Desktop 9. This is not bad as you don't need the irrelevant packages that gives network servers and others like the web server Apache and the script language PHP as a company user."
The comparison seems to be that Novell Desktop 9 gives you Windows XP Pro and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 gives you Windows 2003 in some server version.
SuSE Enterprise is very certainly more than just SuSE Pro.
Thanks decent...
Your winXP to SuSE Desktop comparision was just the ticket!
Thanks 
lung,
If you plan using Linux as platform for running commertial server s/w solutions (e.g. oracle, BEA weblogic, SAP ) in production environment, then you need Enterprise edition (either Red Hat or SuSE) as most of commertial verdors certify their solutions only for enterprise editions.
Running unsupported platform in production would be big mistake.
We run Slackware in production and it works great for over 10 years.
I would run any commercial software on Slackware. The kernal is the same, the utilities are mostly the same. A distribution is simply a 'way to organize' and 'market'.
I trust Slackware as much or more than other Linux distribution. It has been around longer than other others and is very reliable. I have used Slackware since 1993, 12 years, in production environments.
However, many say that Slackware is not for 'newbies'.... I don't know because I had many years of UNIX (mostly HP-UX and SunOS) experience before I started with Slackware in 1993 
I think you will be happy with any distribution!!
Neo,
True, but problem may arise when you need support from Oracle, BEA or any other S/W and support guy asks about your platform.
Dear phantom,
True. But, I find that knowledgable support people understand that the kernel is the same.
With regard to problems, "what problems" laughing out loud, linux and their applications work like clockwork. Only "rookies" have problems and their problems are generally related to not understanding the environment (permission problems, libs, environmental variables, etc.).
In my opinion, it is better to have a solid OS than one that is simply "supported" when you "call in". So, as you can see, there are alternative perspectives and requirements, based on the user. Not all people run "big commercial linux" in the production environment.
So I disagree with your statement that not running "RedHat or SuSE" in production is "a big mistake". Your statement creates the wrong impression and makes a blanket opinion, which is too strong and misleading.
Not to belabor this point, but here is a link to a great 1U Sun Fire V60x dual Xeon server:
Note that in the description, quoted below, Sun specifies all "standard linux distributions" ...
PS: I am considering upgrading this site to a Sun Fire V60x, if I can snag one on the net at a bargain 