I've installed Oracle 8i on SuSE 7.1 on two occasions, and, apart from the Java locale issues (Oracle's JRE doesn't like the locale variables set in the environment), it went smoothly. Much more smoothly than my recent install of 8.1.7 on HP-UX, which took me three tries before I managed to set the kernel parameter maxdsize, that Oracle conveniently mentions only on Metalink (a service requiring a support contract). At least SuSE put the Java locale details in the Oracle section of their website.
As another plug for SuSE, they also include a logical volume manager, VERY nice for systems that expect to need more storage over time. Their website also has a pretty good section on various issues related to Oracle on SuSE Linux.
