SUSE Releases Major Linux Update

SUSE has released the next versions of its flagship operating system, SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 15 Service Pack 2 and its latest infrastructure management program, SUSE Manager 4.1. ZDNet reports: SLE 15 SP2 is available on the x86-64, Arm, IBM POWER, IBM Z, and LinuxONE hardware architectures. This new Linux server edition is based on the Linux 5.3 kernel. This new kernel release includes upstream features such as utilization clamping support in the task scheduler, and power-efficient userspace waiting. Other new and noteworthy features include:

- Support for migration from openSUSE Leap to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES). With this, you can try the free, community openSUSE Linux distro, and then, if you find it's a good choice for your business, upgrade to SLES.
- Extended Package Search. By using the new Zypper, SUSE's command line package manager, command option -- zypper search-packages -- sysadmins can now search across all SUSE repositories, even unenabled ones. This makes it easier for administrators to find required software packages.
- SLE Software Development Kit (SDK) is now integrated into SLE. Development packages are packaged alongside regular packages. - Python 3: SLE 15 offers full support for Python 3 development. SLE still supports Python 2 for the time being.
- 389 Directory Server replaces OpenLDAP as the LDAP directory service.
- Repository Mirroring Tool (RMT) replaces Subscription Management Tool (SMT). RMT allows mirroring SUSE repositories and custom repositories. You can then register systems directly with RMT. In environments with tightened security, RMT can also proxy other RMT servers.
- Better business continuity with improved SLE Live Patching. SUSE claims Live Patching increases system uptime by up to 12 months. SLE Live Patching is also now available for IBM Z and LinuxONE mainframe architectures.

As for SUSE Manager 4.1, this is an improved open-source infrastructure management and automation solution that lowers costs, identifies risk, enhances availability, and reduces complexity in edge, cloud, and data center environments. With SUSE Manager you can keep servers, VMs, containers, and clusters secure, healthy, compliant, and low maintenance whether in private, public, or hybrid cloud. That's especially important these days thanks to coronavirus pandemic IT staff disruptions. SUSE Manager 4.1 can also be used with the Salt DevOps program. Its vertical-market brother, SUSE Manager for Retail 4.1, is optimized and tailored specifically for retail. This release comes with enhancements for small store operations, enhanced offline capabilities and image management over Wi-Fi, and enhanced virtual machine management and monitoring capabilities. Simultaneously it can scale retail environments to tens of thousands of end-point devices and help modernize point-of-service rollouts.

Release notes

[paugq]

If you are interesed in the actual features and news instead of marketing lingo, here are the release notes:

SLES 15 SP2
https://www.suse.com/releaseno... [suse.com]

SUSE Manager 4.1
https://www.suse.com/releaseno... [suse.com]

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

SUSE has considerably better commercial support than Ubuntu. Out of the box there's a decent level of polish all around, better than all others that I've tried (that included a DE). It's stability it top notch, far better than Arch has been for us. We have enterprise software that just works with SUSE, unlike debian/Ubuntu/Fedora.

All of these answers are subjective opinion. You won't have the real answer for yourself unless you give it a try and spend some time with it.

Re:

[chmod a+x mojo]

Well, yes. Since we are talking about the Enterprise version of Suse. And they don't take Debian Sid and toss more bugs into it like Ubuntu does...

I'd also argue about MX / Mint / manjaro being easier to use. With the Yast control center, Suse is easily on par with any of them when it comes to ease of use. Sometimes being even easier. And this is coming from a ( mostly ) Debian stable user who has used Debian since Sarge first went stable.

Suse also has one of the most polished KDE desktops you can get. So

Re:

[kalpol]

The KDE desktop is nice, but soooo complex. I feel it tries to just stuff every function it can think of into itself. And it works way better than it used to, but is still a little buggy. I'm starting to prefer Cinnamon, and may just run Opensuse on Cinnamon for the Mint-simplicity with Opensuse advantages.

Re:

[Miguelito]

Late to the party but..

Here's my entirely personal opinion/experience with Linux Enterprise support for the last nearly20 years now (started supporting linux in house in the early 2000s), we were a 99% Solaris house (a few HP-UX) until even our ISVs were saying that everything they were doing was going linux on x86 (then x86_64) as SPARC was quickly falling behind (yet still cost insanely more $).

RedHat: Was SUPER expensive when it first went RHEL. They initially wanted something like $1600/server/year for

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:

[kalpol]

It's still great, one of the best in my opinion. You can configure the Cinnamon desktop and have the best of both worlds, the simplicity of the desktop and excellent package and configuration management (I haven't actually tried this but it's an available option in the install). The Steam client runs just fine on it too, so gaming is nice on it as well.

Re:

[theendlessnow]

AFAIK, enterprise wise, business wise, SUSE is still the big #2 behind RHEL.

I've never seen enterprises built on MX Linux or Manjaro.

Re:

[shadowknot]

I think you're right, and in fact #1 on IBM Z, Red Hat didn't jump into that space as enthusiastically as SUSE did back in the early 2000s and it still shows.

Re:

[niftydude]

Not sure - a new release on kernel 5.3 when most other distributions have been on 5.4 for months isn't a good sign though.

Re:

[sconeu]

This is SLES: SuSE Linux ENTERPRISE Server.

Big enterprises don't want bleeding edge. They want stability and security.

Re:

[isj]

Use whatever you like.
I like OpenSUSE's conservative regression tests. And "yast" is pretty neat too.

Re:

[tonique]

If you want to use KDE, OpenSUSE (and SLE, presumably) has it working well straight out of the box. Then there's the rolling distro Tumbleweed, which generally has few problems despite frequent updates. Also, Yast, the settings manager is good. It may not be groundbreaking, but it's solid.

I agree that OpenSUSEs aren't the lightest distributions.

Re:

[Vlijmen Fileer]

I'm more interested in why you would consider fleeting hobby projects like MX Linux and Manajro mainstream, or toy kits like Gentoo and Slackware customisable/performant.
All while there's Debian.

Re:

[paugq]

You are comparing apples to oranges. Manjaro, MX Linux, Gentoo or Slackware are not enteprise Linux. Red Hat and Ubuntu are enterprise Linux, each one with its own use case. Many people use SUSE Linux Enterprise because they run SAP HANA: SAP itself develops on SLES, so SLES is the recommended operating system.

Lurking Distro

[Frank Burly]

I'm not aware of a real social media presence for OpenSUSE, and their forums are not as lively as other distros. But SUSE was the first distro I installed, back when I didn't know Gnome from KDE.

I think the corporate focus of SUSE discourages dabblers and hurts their popularity (or maybe all the fun is happening in non-English forums).

Posted from an OpenSUSE laptop.

Re:

[theendlessnow]

Of course, if "lively" means something like Ubuntu, some would call 2000 replies to a thread, all with the wrong answer, lively.

I just call it noise.

What, a Linux Distro Post?!?

[dragonturtle69]

What, a Linux distro post on /. ?

Suse was my third distro. There could be some good stuff in this update for replacing Windows, well, except for Office.

Which is sort of funny, as Windows server is being replaced by Linux, by MS, even in Docker.

Meh.

[BAReFO0t]

In the last years, I lost interest in distributions. Especially RPM-based ones. (Is dependency hell still such a nightmare?)

After 20 years of Linux experience, you just end up running your own stuff. And a proper package manager is about the only thing left, even though thr actual repository is already heavily customized.

Not trying to be all snobish.
I just expect things to have developed a bit further nowadays, so everyone can easily run his own thing without the hassle I had to.go through that woild otherw

Re:

[shadowknot]

Totally agreed when it comes to personal systems. When it comes to enterprise stuff (and this is a story about SLES) having a distributor do the package assembly and vetting for you is immensely valuable. Luckily, at least for SUSE, the historical dependency hell of RPMs is largely gone. I remember having an absolute shit show of a time back in the early Red Hat days with such things but Zypper is pretty sorted in SUSE these days.

Rectification

[Vlijmen Fileer]

For a moment I thought SUSE had taken over kernel maintenance from Linux and his gang. Turns out the title is simply wrong and should have read "SUSE Releases Major SUS Update".