OpenSUSE 11.0 Released

Nate D writes "It's here: a new major release of Novell's community-supported distro is now available, and can be downloaded from the mirrors. Linux Format has a hands-on look at the new installer, SLAB menu and Compiz Fusion, and weighs up whether the distro can fight competition from Ubuntu and Fedora. Is this the start of a new era for SUSE?"

Torrent link

[Anonymous Coward]

Folks, please download it via BitTorrent:
http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.0/iso/torrent/openSUSE-11.0-DVD-i386.torrent [opensuse.org]

I think most of the downloads are being done selfishly via HTTP or FTP, as I've been in the swarm for almost 1h and the speeds are quite low, there are only 60 peers.

screen shots

[linuxbeta]

http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opensource/linux/screenshots/index.php?linux_distribution_sm=openSUSE%2011.0 [thecodingstudio.com]

Re:Probably not

[catscan2000]

SuSE does offer YaST, which is a very easy-to-use system configuration tool. I need to learn more about Ubuntu, but as far as I know, YaST integrates system configuration bits in a more coherent and consistent manner than other distributions do. YaST was open-sourced at some point in the recent past, so other distros might possibly use it now or eventually, too.

For me, the only downside to SuSE is its slow and memory-inefficient package management system. It gets substantially better with each release, so it might be approaching the speed of apt-get on Ubuntu, but in 10.4, it wasn't quite there yet in performance. In features, however, it's definitely there :-).

Re:All those discs?

[X0563511]

No, you can choose Gnome, KDE3, KDE4, Minimal, and Command-Line. You can also manually select/deselect packages that will be installed. Hell, you can even add other media/repositories for use at that point. (think of actually using aptitude when installing debian/ubuntu, and having the debian-multimedia repo available at initial install)

Re:Probably not

[caluml]

Don't underestimate package management - it is critical. It is the main differentiator between distros and it is the key to Ubuntu's current success.

That's not what I'd have said, as it's the same as Debian. I'd have said Ubuntu's success was due to having little things pop up and ask you if you want to install mp3 codecs when the user tries to play an mp3, or Flash installer helpers, etc.

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[account_deleted]

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Re:Sure, why not.

[Flying Scotsman]

If you're interested in running a non-KDE desktop, have you considered Xubuntu [xubuntu.org]? It's the Ubuntu variant with the lighter-weight Xfce desktop. I run it on a 600Mhz Pentium III laptop with 128MB of RAM, and it works quite well (be sure to grab the "alternate install" disk if you're running with as little RAM as I am).

I had no issues with the non-standard desktop components on my laptop working out-of-the-box, but of course YMMV here. Wireless, sound, etc.

If Xfce is not light enough, you can always install fluxbox, wmaker, etc, all available from the offical apt repositories.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Probably not

[Anonymous Coward]

Obviously you have not installed a recent linux distribution. I dont know what live CD you downloaded , but for obvious reasons it wasnt the right one.

recently I have moved to all Sata Devices DVD, burner , and HDD's all of them installed flawlessly on opensuse 10.3 . Not to mention 11 Alpha and RC .
I am more than positive this would also work with fedora , ubuntu etc. And Im not talking about hooking them up on that cheap a$$ Jmicron crap either. They run with ICH(X) chips or nforce fine.

The funny thing is When I tried a Vista 64 Ultimate installation on the same box , I couldnt get it installed , I found out through evga support that with a sata DVD Drive you need an integrated Vista SP1 .. OOOPS didnt have one so I said FU** IT . Dont need it anyways.

Just goes to show how little you know. So whats buggier ?

Re:New Era?

[f0ad001]

openSuSE does equal Novell.

Novell SuSE is the commercial OS that Novell sells while openSuSE is the community edition. Both brought to you by...you guessed it, Novell.
http://www.opensuse.org/ [opensuse.org]

openSuSE is the test bed for new packages and configuration. Once vetted, those changes are moved upstream into Novell SuSE proper.

This is exactly the same way Fedora and RedHat work.

Re:why do you need a firewall

[Vectronic]

Oh, and as for blocking flash... you can easily use your Firewall to block a certain IP/DNS that distributes Flash based Ads on a specific (black list) basis, there are a lot of things you may need/want to have Flash enabled for...

Re:Probably not

[bcrowell]

Don't underestimate package management - it is critical. It is the main differentiator between distros and it is the key to Ubuntu's current success. It's also one of the main reasons that Linux is so much more stable than Windows.

To amplify a little on what you said, what matters for desktop use is:

1. how well the packaging system works (taking care of dependencies automatically, etc.)
2. the quality of the packages (e.g., making sure you don't get a situation where application A needs version 3.4 of a certain library and won't run with 3.5, while application B needs 3.5 and won't work with 3.4)
3. the variety of desktop apps available
4. convenience of being able to find packages without lots of hunting around on web sites
5. up to date desktop apps

My experience with desktop use has been:

• Ubuntu does all five of these things well
• FreeBSD did 1, 4, and 5 well.
• Red Hat did none of these things well.
• Vanilla Debian does 1, 2, 3, and 4 well.
• I only tried SUSE briefly, but I definitely remember that it didn't seem to do 4 well. There was no central repository, so you basically had to websurf and ask around to find web sites that were good, well-maintained sources of packages.

And before twenty people jump down my throat screaming that one of these distros really does all the things I'm talking about, please note the word "well." For example, FreeBSD's ports and packages are intended to do 2 well; it's just that in my experience there were many cases where it failed, probably because there just aren't that many people spending as many hours on packaging desktop apps for FreeBSD as there are for Ubuntu. Also note that I'm only commenting on the desktop here. E.g., I run vanilla Debian now on my server, and I like it just fine.

Re:Probably not

[G Money]

FWIW, there is a nice search tool for finding packages for OpenSUSE at Webpin [opensuse-community.org]. They've made adding repositories much easier and faster now in 11 as well (zypper is light speed ahead of the old package management tools in OpenSUSE).

Re:Probably not

[mikesd81]

Open suse has it's own repository, as well as the packman community and these [benkevan.com]. And you can even simply do yast --install and it'll go get it, or if you have a package you can do a local install and it will resolve the dependencies.

Re:Sure, why not.

[PReDiToR]

My T22 (P3 900, 256, WiFi) runs openSUSE 10.3 with either KDE 3 or Joe's Window Manager [joewing.net] that I discovered by trying out DamnSmallLinux [damnsmalllinux.org].
Basically all I use my laptop for is running NX to my home machine, so a light fast small desktop is the best solution.

On the compatibility side, I do have to run ndiswrapper to make my Linksys PCMCIA WiFi work, but once it is in, KNetworkManager takes care of all the complicated stuff.

Re:New Era?

[Anarke_Incarnate]

They give MORE than Ubuntu does. Ubuntu works off of the hard work of the Debian team and enhances UI look and feel. The underpinnings are worked on the Debian and the kernel hackers, et al. Novell is one of the biggest contributers to the kernel, Gnome, KDE and.... THEY are part of the Open Invention Network, who strive to PROTECT F/OSS users from patents.

Article gets at least three things wrong

[Whitemice]

1. openSUSE doesn't need a new era, it is doing just fine.

2. The Microsoft pact hasn't alienated any of the community that matters. There are fundamentalists that gripe and whine and spit about every intellectual property issue that they *perceive* reduces openness. And there are people who write code. There isn't much overlap at all between the coder and the fundamentalist - so there whining and spitting should just be takes as the meaningless noise that it is.

3. Yast is *extremely* modular and not in the least bit monolithic - one just has to look at the Yast packages to know that. It even has multiple front-ends. This makes as much charge as the people who accuse Evolution of being monolithic (it a highly modular app that consists mostly of cooperating components). Another Yast plus is that it works and coverts almost all configuration issues right down to certificate management. That makes SuSE / openSUSE the only distro with a comprehensive management tool.

Re:Probably not

[Anarke_Incarnate]

Not to mention, with the 1 Click Install feature, you can also set up the repository for the application you found online very easily. If you install the 3 most popular repos you have nothing to search for that you cannot find right from YaST(within reason).

Re:I will not

[sunburntkamel]

perhaps if you read their actual CTO's blog [novell.com], instead of someone related to mono development, you might find what you were looking for.

Re:Probably not -- compiz

[Intelista]

The linux kernel... rock solid. But with compiz, gnome, and wine, ... sometimes I end up rebooting because I'm not familiar enough with what to kill and restart.

Re:Probably not

[lazy_playboy]

[ubuntu's package management] ... as it's the same as Debian.

Well, it uses the same system but I don't entirely agree with you in essence. Ubuntu offers modern packages in a stable format, which is far more labour intensive than Debian's 'old but stable' philosophy.

I'm not dissing Debian for their approach, but it is quite different to Ubuntu's even though they use the same package management.

Re:Probably not -- compiz

[PReDiToR]

A lot of the time you can hit "CTRL-ALT-backspace" to restart your GUI.

If you take a look in /etc/init.d you will find a list of services. Google them (or read the documen ... wait, this is Slashdot <grin>) and not only will you gain confidence, but you can maximise your uptime to show off with.