A look at openSUSE 11.0 [LWN.net]

By Rebecca Sobol
July 2, 2008

openSUSE 11.0 was released about two weeks ago, to generally good reviews. TuxMachines ran some lighthearted tests last fall and again recently, comparing the latest Mandriva release with the latest openSUSE release. This time around openSUSE edged out Mandriva in a near tie. Other good reviews can be found on LinuxPlanet, DownloadSquad and many other places around the web.

There are plenty of options for getting a hold of this release. You can buy a boxed set, an option that has all but disappeared from the Linux distribution scene. The box comes with complete end-user documentation, installable media for 32 Bit and 64 Bit systems, plus 90 days of end-user installation support.

Most people will probably download the release in one form or another. Chose from the 32-bit, 64-bit or PowerPC platforms. Get a DVD, a Live CD or use a network install. The live CD comes in a GNOME or a KDE version. There's plenty of documentation online to go along with that; release notes, the openSUSE 11.0 startup document and the step-by-step installation guide.

The KDE live CD only contains KDE 4. If you would prefer KDE 3.5, it is available on the DVD or the network install. Benjamin Weber has a blog post on the inclusion of KDE4. "There should be a KDE3.5 installable livecd. This was not produced as there were insufficient resources to produce and test three installable livecds. Someone can always step up and help produce one."

Xfce 4.4 is also available for those who want something lighter than either GNOME or KDE. Other applications available in this release include Firefox 3.0, OpenOffice.org 2.4, Banshee 1.0 and Wine 1.0. KIWI LTSP is the LTSP5 implementation on openSUSE. The previous openSUSE release added Giver, an easy GTK+ file-sharing tool. This release includes Kepas, a KDE application for file-sharing.

Underneath all that you'll find Linux 2.6.25.4, AppArmor 2.3, Xen 3.2.1 RC1, Alsa 1.0.16, glibc 2.8 branch, binutils 2.18.50 SVN, cmake 2.6, gcc 4.3 branch, gdb 6.8, Perl 5.10, ConsoleKit 0.2.10, CUPS 1.3.7, D-Bus 1.2.1, NetworkManager 0.7 SVN, PackageKit 0.2.1, PolicyKit 0.7, PulseAudio 0.9.10, Samba 3.2pre2 and X.org 7.3. These and other highlights are listed here.

Those familiar to openSUSE will notice that the installer and the package management have been overhauled for this release. Also NetworkManager has been improved and should autodetect an EVDO card without any major problems.

Of course it's impossible to squash all bugs, but the Most Annoying Bugs 11.0 list is quite short and most have workarounds.

All in all, this looks like a great release for openSUSE.

(Log in to post comments)

A look at openSUSE 11.0

Posted Jul 3, 2008 22:15 UTC (Thu) by einstein (subscriber, #2052) [Link]

I have mixed feelings about suse. I've been running suse since back in the days when "suse
linux professional" was a very tight, high quality distro. While the quality nowadays is not
really bad, it does seem that Novell concentrates more on the quality of SLE, while relegating
opensuse to more of a testbed role, and I see more bugs than I used to.

As for 11.0, it does have some nice features - 2.6.25 kernel, updated software management
stack, better hardware support all around, etc. 

If you're looking for a kde 3.5 platform, suse 11.0 is nice. It also seems to be pretty solid
in the server room. But kde4 isn't quite ready yet, and gnome on suse 11.0 was not stable.

Bottom line: If you want a good kde 3.5 experience, suse 11.0 is a good bet. But if you're a
gnome user, I'd recommend ubuntu 8.04.

A look at openSUSE 11.0

Posted Jul 15, 2008 7:22 UTC (Tue) by massimiliano (subscriber, #3048) [Link]

Oddly enough, I use Gnome on OpenSuse 11, and had no instabilities...

A look at openSUSE 11.0

Posted Jul 10, 2008 14:51 UTC (Thu) by forthy (guest, #1525) [Link]

What I find most annoying is the login theme. This is a greenish background with a black KDE4-style wide bar in the middle, but the center is brighter and the four corners fade into a bit darker green. I've a high quality PVA display, and with this login theme, it looks like an awfully cheap TN laptop display. Fortunately there are other themes available, but this design is ultra-nerdy (like big glasses ;-).

A look at openSUSE 11.0

Posted Jul 6, 2008 15:01 UTC (Sun) by thoeme (subscriber, #2871) [Link]

I am writing this on a newly installed openSuSE 11, using KDE 4.0.4.

It is true that KDE 4 leaves somewhat mixed feelings about its
configuration, which also stem from my feeling of not doing it the right
way (who says it has to follow the rules of KDE 3.5 ?)

Some things are plainly wrong (online software update stopping even when
the list of packages to update has not yet worked off, asking the user if
more software should be installed; kdesu ignoring the check mark on
"remember password")

Some things are weird (not being able to put a program icon on the desktop
to run an independently installed FireFox; a "right-click-thing" in KDE
3.5; choosing "Enforce DPI" to "96dpi" in the "Font Selection" changed all
fonts from sans serif to courier).

Stuff I am not really used to anymore, since back in the old KDE 2.x
days... 

But I am sticking with KDE4: If nobody is using it, it won't improve. 

But aside some other personal dislikes like coloring and themes, it is a
pretty slick distribution. I must be also one of these last people which
still buy boxes, and I don't regret it.

regs,
thoeme

You CAN get a non-liveCD installer, if you want one,

Posted Jul 9, 2008 20:59 UTC (Wed) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]

the wiki layout notwithstanding.

[ looks at http://software.opensuse.org/ ]

Oh.  I see they've redesigned the incredibly obtuse 10.3 download page that made it almost
impossible to locate the install only disk images.

<litella>
Nevermind.
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