openSUSE 10.3 Public Release

Shizawana writes "The latest version of openSUSE was released this week. The site has a sneak peak of all the new features and additions, including highly anticipated changes to the YaST package management. The official announcement of the release offers a few highlights as well: 'The openSUSE team is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 10.3. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, the openSUSE project provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE. openSUSE is released regularly, is stable, secure, contains the latest free and open source software, and comes with several new technologies. openSUSE 10.3 will be supported with security and other serious updates for a period of 2 years. This version contains new beautiful green artwork, KDE 3.5.7 and parts of KDE 4, SUSE-polished GNOME 2.20, a GTK version of YaST, a new 1-click-install technology, MP3 support out-of-the-box, new and redesigned YaST modules, compiz and compiz fusion advances, virtualisation improvements, OpenOffice.org 2.3, Xfce 4.4.1, and much more! Read on for details of what is new and available in openSUSE 10.3, and for all the necessary download links.'"

have they fixed bugs?

[sentientbrendan]

I remember trying out suse 10.1, and a fresh install was full of bugs. Various suse utilities seemed to break immediately after running update.

Have they made much progress towards more stable releases (marketing blurb aside)? Is it worth checking out?

ok

[User 956]

Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, the openSUSE project provides free, easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE.

That's an interesting statement. Is there a distribution that aims to hinder the use of Linux everywhere?

Sneak peak?

[rrohbeck]

Is that a peak that sneaks up on you? Like a volcano or something?

Re:have they fixed bugs?

[Grishnakh]

But Miguel works for Novell, since Novell bought his company Ximian, so they can't just leave his crap out of SuSE.

This is one of the reasons why I now use Ubuntu (kubuntu actually), even though I had used SuSE since 6.3. 10.1 was the last version of SuSE I used, and after the zmd debacle and the stupid agreement with Microsoft, I decided to move to greener pastures.

Ubuntu is much nicer; the company really does believe in open-source, they don't believe in signing deals with Microsoft, they don't include Mono crap by default, and apt-get and the universe repositories are far better than rpm and slow, slow, YaST.

Personally, I no longer care if SUSE has cleaned up its act. Too little, too late. Ubuntu is leading the way now.

Re:Great!

[sumdumass]

I think you hit on something here. The idea of bloatware is something you are stuck with. If the ability to remove or replace the boat was available instead of being forced onto the user, it would be enhancements instead.

Or at least that is the way I see it. If product X (whatever that may be) offers options and feature A, B, and C, as long as they let me disable them and not load it when I don' need or want them they are specifically options. But if they force me to load and use them when I don't want to need to, then it is bloat. "Bloat" seems to revolve around your needs and wants and ability to not use things in the program or operating system.

Re:have they fixed bugs?

[trolltalk.com]

> "But Miguel works for Novell, since Novell bought his company Ximian, so they can't just leave his crap out of SuSE."

Looks like they're actually doing just that as far as the package management system is concerned, and about time.Don't be surprised if openSUSE 11 doesn't have any mono in it by default.

IF Ubuntu was readily available as a horking large DVD with the ability to select all the dev packages, etc., I'd consider it. As it is, I like the ability to slap a DVD in my box, select 7 gigs of software, and come back an hour later to a fairly complete development environment.

... we all have different needs, and different distros fill those niches.

I wasn't happy about the Microsoft agreement either (it was predictable that Microsoft would try to spin it as something it wasn't), and Mono is a real tar baby (in both senses of the term), but I balance that with the work Novell has done with linux, and the heavy lifting they're doing against SCO et al., and I'm sticking with them. They deserve a bit more patience from the community than they've been getting, all things considered.

Re:Im sticking with Fedora

[hollywoodb]

I'm running Fedora 7 now, and it is really nice. I think Fedora 8 (due in little over a month) will be a nice forward step since it includes things like "Codec Buddy" and the RPMFusion repository (a collaborative effort by formerly separate repositories) should be entering full swing. Fedora is a fast-moving distro though. Fedora 7 is finally settling down (fewer updates) and it has been out for quite a while.

Also, if you're considering running more OSes virtualized and are thinking of considering Xen, CentOS might be worth looking into. For VMWare it doesn't really matter if you run a Debian or RedHat/Fedora system, but CentOS's Xen integration is pretty solid.

I tried OpenSUSE 10.1 and there were a *lot* of things that rubbed me the wrong way. From what I've read 10.3 has addressed basically all of my concerns and I'm downloading the installation DVD now. Their Gnome setup looks nice in screenshots, will have to see how it handles in practice. I doubt it'll pull me away from my beloved Fedora & RHEL, but I feel compelled to give it an honest test.

Re:Finally I can be worry free. . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Stop spreading FUD. What software packages within openSUSE contain patented code by Microsoft that other distributions do not contain?