openSUSE 10.2 Alpha3 Release

I'm glad to announce the third alpha release of our 10.2 product.
It's the first time that we're call our distribution "openSUSE"
instead of "SUSE Linux".  The codename of openSUSE 10.2 is "Basilisk
Lizard".  With the rename of the distribution, we renamed also the
name in bugzilla.novell.com so that you have to report bugs against
"openSUSE 10.2".

Compared with Alpha2, we've made a number of significant changes:

* We switched to kernel 2.6.18rc4 - and neither all kernel module
  packages (kmp) nor the Xen packages have been adopted for the new
  kernel.

* openSUSE 10.2 contains KDE 3.5.4

* We started the switch to GNOME 2.16 Beta and have now the base
  packages in, more to come later for Alpha4.

* The new branding "openSUSE" is shown in the first places but there's
  still some existing SUSE Linux 10.1 branding.

* X11 R7.1 with different pathes (no more /usr/X11R6 for the xorg
  packages): Users with a working X11 configuration will not see many
  real changes.  First, the pathes have changed, so most applications
  that lived in /usr/X11R6/bin now exist in /usr/bin.  So, hard coded
  paths need to be changed.  The X11 Release 7 is fully
  modularized. This is reflected in our packaging as it enables us to
  provide updates for individual components like drivers and libraries
  once they become available independently of the release cycle of the
  X Window System.

  As with every major update, a lot of bugs have been fixed in all
  areas.

  The changed pathes broke building of packages, so developers might
  need to change their software.
  
* cups 1.2.2: This is a major update (from version 1.1.x), the
  highlights are IPv6 support, network printer discovery (CUPS can now
  find printers on the LAN using SNMP) and LDAP support.  A cool
  feature are unique job ids: CUPS maintains a new job-uuid attribute
  which provides a unique identifier that can be used to track a job
  on your network or anywhere in the world

* Updated development tools like gettext 0.15 and autoconf 2.60.

* We now have a gcc package and a gcc41 package in such a way that in
  the future a gcc42 package might be available as well, giving you
  the chance to use different gcc versions at the same time.

* Using patterns instead of selections in the package manager (think
  of patterns as package groups with some semantics).  We have
  currently only a basic set of patterns and will enhance them.

All these changes needed changes by other packages, so a lot of other
packages have been fixed to build again (and updated), and some still
need updating.

Alphas of openSUSE are rather untested and more for the experimental
folks.  I do not suggest to use it in production.  But I do consider
especially Alpha3 an important milestone for development and testing.

The list of known bugs is available as usual at:
http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs:Most_Annoying_Bugs#openSUSE_1...

The current ones are:
* YaST does not allow X11 configuration since it asks for
  non-existant xorg-x11-server-glx Bug #198250. Note: I could run X11
  nevertheless and logged into both KDE and GNOME.
* zen-updater always shows patterns to update Bug #198379
* f-spot does not work Bug #198377
* gnome-wm does not handle X11R7 Bug #198380
* Firefox does not start Bug #197928
* Registration fails with an internal server error Bug #198381
* applications using python-gtk are broken, e.g. smart-gui Bug #198391
* kde su does not accept correct password Bug #198408
* Most kernel module packages are not build against the new 2.6.18rc4
  kernel. If you need them, I advise to wait for their update. The Xen
  packages are not adjusted either.


Andreas

P.S. Here're the URLs for our download redirector which brings you to
one of our mirrors.

Download URLs for the torrents of the DELTA-ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

Download URLs for the torrents of the ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

Download URLs for the Add-On Media torrent:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

Download URLs for the full Delta ISOs:
x86 architecture (Intel 32-bit) architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

For x86-64 (AMD64 / EM64T) 64-bit architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

For PowerPC architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

Download URLs for the full ISOs:
x86 architecture (Intel 32-bit) architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

For x86-64 (AMD64 / EM64T) 64-bit architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

For PowerPC architecture:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...

Download URLs for the Add-On Media ISOs:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/openSUSE-10.2-A...


-- 
 Andreas Jaeger, aj@suse.de, http://www.suse.de/~aj/
  SUSE Linux Products GmbH, Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany
   GPG fingerprint = 93A3 365E CE47 B889 DF7F  FED1 389A 563C C272 A126