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Therefore, take your time, revisit your decision and, in the end, you'll end up with a lot lower software and maintenance costs, running on older equipment with only a few viruses and malware knocking at your door.

The FSF foundation is: "reviewing Novell Inc.'s right to sell new versions of Linux operating system software".

You can find a solution(s) to your problem at one or more
of the following locations:

http://www.centos.org

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/

http://en.opensuse.org

http://www.opensolaris.org/

http://www.ecomstation.com/

http://www.redhat.com

http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html

http://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/

http://www.openbsd.org/

http://www.freebsd.org/

http://www.netbsd.org/

http://www.dragonflybsd.org/

http://www.osfree.org/doku/en:start

http://www.skyos.org/

http://www.freeos.com/

http://www.minix3.org/

Added to bypass the stupid slashdot lameness filter which apparently doesn't like a post full of links. WTF is wrong with the
stupid lameness filter? Jeez, what does it want, for us to type paragraphs of meaningless drivel just to get past the lameness filter?
Sheeesh. OK, this is really stupid. Why don't ajfajf al;djal a fa fa lkdf jaa fal ja;ljf af af ajf;lajf alfjalf a fjal;fjafl; jaflakjf af;laj
jalkfaj fjf af af fajjjajal jajfa f afjdlakej2233 2235t2352 dsfalkfjal f 222j2 afdkja f23 2 2 2t2352322 233252352 2323232.

Which is what everyone says. That shows that you don't know anything about the present-day Linux desktop. Question: what mainstream app is missing from the business computing desktop environment?

1. Microsoft Outlook?Evolution and Kontact replace Outlook quite handily. Evolution can use the Evolution-Exchange Connector to communicate through Outlook Web Access (which many Enterprises enable anyway) and provide full Outlook functionality in Evolution. Kontact can use full Outlook functionality if configured correctly (not so user-friendly, but still quite possible). In addition, the junk mail filtering is better, using the locally installed SpamAssassin filter.
2. Microsoft Office?All but the most complex spreadsheets and Word documents can be handled by OpenOffice without any problem. I doubt that the complex ones even pose that much difficulty in migration. Microsoft Access is still used in some minor applications, but it's trivial to import the data to another, better RDBMS. There are several free GUI clients for managing the new database. MySQL has good desktop database solutions. You'd have to use pretty much every proprietary feature in Access to have this be a sticking point.
3. Internet Explorer?Ah, yes. The basis of the antitrust suit. I admit that if your organization went out of its way to find webapp software that worked only in IE, you might have some migration issues. However, IE6 runs quite well under emulation on recent versions of WINE, so unless that ActiveX component they chose is really screwed up, there's a good chance you can even emulate that. JavaScript migration issues are less of a problem than they used to be (another favourite sticking point) so Firefox will likely work well for a lot of apps that weren't designed to protect Microsoft's monopoly.

Well, the list goes on. Custom-written software (could work well under emulation unless designed specifically to thwart WINE), IP Telephony (Skype has a Linux client), and so on. My point is that any business that's interested could switch today if they wanted. There's no missing killer app (unless you're trying to make excuses). The roadblocks to migrating entirely to Linux on the business desktop are all artificially created by Microsoft to protect their monopoly. The most difficult part is convincing your users that it's a good choice. They've been brainwashed by years of Microsoft marketing, and believe pretty much every word that comes out of Steve's and Bill's mouths blindly. Many organisations will encounter significant resistance during training as belligerent, brain-washed Microsoft junkies demand that things go back to the way they were. That's unfortunate, because I can finally say after almost 15 years of using Linux, that using a Linux desktop is a joy, not an arduous task that requires command-line hacking to accomplish everything it can do.

The campaign will organize supporters into effective and unusual actions drawing attention to this daylight theft of computer users' rights, aggregate news stories cutting through the Vista marketing propaganda, and provide a user-friendly gateway to the adoption of free software operating systems like gNewSense (http://www.gnewsense.org).

gNewSense is derived from Ubuntu, and thus has most of the same functionality. There are a number of differences though.
* Firmware removed from kernel in main*
* Restricted removed
* Ubuntu logos replaced
* Universe enabled by default
* emacs, bsdgames, nethack and build-essential part of the default install

I'm not missing any point. However, people complaining about Vista and Aero while only looking at the requirements for a Vista Premium Ready PC are missing the point entirely. Since nobody really seems interested in Googling what you can get by with hardware-wise for a Vista + Aero experience, let me help you all.

Being honest, Windows Aero can be quite difficult to get. Firstly you need a compatible video card and then you need compatible WDDM drivers which work with that graphics card, and you need enough memory to be able to run it in the first place... remember that Windows Aero isn't just transparency within title bars of the active window... it's more like a technology in its own right.

The very minimum of requirements which need to be had on a system are:

• 128MB RAM
• DirectX 9 Support with Pixel Shader 2 support
• AGP 4x or better with compatible graphics card
• WDDM/LDDM drivers for compatible graphics card
• Screen resolution of 1024x768 at 32-bit colour

Let's compare that with the recommended settings for an XGL/AIGLX setup, courtesy of openSUSE:

The following graphics hardware is known to work well or recommended for use with XGL. Please add exceptions if there are any.

• Intel
  All intel graphics chips need the newest packages of Xgl and compiz for running flawlessly.
  • i915, i945
    Accelerated XVideo is broken on these cards. See Troubleshooting.
  • compiz --replace will most likely crash the Xserver due to a long standing DRI bug.
• NVidia
  All NVIDIA cards need the proprietary driver for running Xgl. Currently you will need to uninstall and reinstall the xgl rpm after installing the proprietary NVidia driver.
  • GeForce 4xxx series
    XVideo is not accelerated on these cards.
  • GeForce FX 5xxx series, Quadro FX series
    Accelerated XVideo is hitting a slow path on these cards, it is under investigation.
  • GeForce 6xxx series
  • GeForce 7xxx series (GeForce 7600 = not all effects are available but mostly working)
• ATI
  • Mobility Radeon 9700 SE: Xgl running with proprietary fglrx driver 8.23
  • Radeon X300: Xgl running with proprietary fglrx driver 8.23

If you are not sure what card you are using, you can run the following command (as root): hwinfo --gfxcard

If your card isn't listed then you can check out the Gentoo hardware list as well.

So basically, the hardware requirements are very similar, though Aero does require more because it simply does more, and if you don't believe me, take a real hard look at everything that it does. I'm not saying transparency and drop shadows are hard work, I'm saying Aero has much more functionality than you and a lot of people give it credit for. What does XGL/AIGLX bring to the table other than some slick animations and effects (Which I love, by the way) by rendering the screen and windows through OpenGL?

I'm not about to get sucked into a debate about why I said what I said about OS X, but I will say that it's pretty obvious you don't mind shelling out over a hundred dollars for an update to your OS every "1.5 years or so". Me, I'd rather they simply roll them up into a large update and charge the same price. You know, kind of like how Microsoft has been doing things. And if you think SP2 had no features, you really can't even notice something as obvious as the Security Center (Not that I'm saying it's the best example, but it's one of the most prominent ones). I'm not an apologist for bad software or anything because I feel they've

I'm not missing any point. However, people complaining about Vista and Aero while only looking at the requirements for a Vista Premium Ready PC are missing the point entirely. Since nobody really seems interested in Googling what you can get by with hardware-wise for a Vista + Aero experience, let me help you all.

Being honest, Windows Aero can be quite difficult to get. Firstly you need a compatible video card and then you need compatible WDDM drivers which work with that graphics card, and you need enough memory to be able to run it in the first place... remember that Windows Aero isn't just transparency within title bars of the active window... it's more like a technology in its own right.

The very minimum of requirements which need to be had on a system are:

• 128MB RAM
• DirectX 9 Support with Pixel Shader 2 support
• AGP 4x or better with compatible graphics card
• WDDM/LDDM drivers for compatible graphics card
• Screen resolution of 1024x768 at 32-bit colour

Let's compare that with the recommended settings for an XGL/AIGLX setup, courtesy of openSUSE:

The following graphics hardware is known to work well or recommended for use with XGL. Please add exceptions if there are any.

• Intel
  All intel graphics chips need the newest packages of Xgl and compiz for running flawlessly.
  • i915, i945
    Accelerated XVideo is broken on these cards. See Troubleshooting.
  • compiz --replace will most likely crash the Xserver due to a long standing DRI bug.
• NVidia
  All NVIDIA cards need the proprietary driver for running Xgl. Currently you will need to uninstall and reinstall the xgl rpm after installing the proprietary NVidia driver.
  • GeForce 4xxx series
    XVideo is not accelerated on these cards.
  • GeForce FX 5xxx series, Quadro FX series
    Accelerated XVideo is hitting a slow path on these cards, it is under investigation.
  • GeForce 6xxx series
  • GeForce 7xxx series (GeForce 7600 = not all effects are available but mostly working)
• ATI
  • Mobility Radeon 9700 SE: Xgl running with proprietary fglrx driver 8.23
  • Radeon X300: Xgl running with proprietary fglrx driver 8.23

If you are not sure what card you are using, you can run the following command (as root): hwinfo --gfxcard

If your card isn't listed then you can check out the Gentoo hardware list as well.

So basically, the hardware requirements are very similar, though Aero does require more because it simply does more, and if you don't believe me, take a real hard look at everything that it does. I'm not saying transparency and drop shadows are hard work, I'm saying Aero has much more functionality than you and a lot of people give it credit for. What does XGL/AIGLX bring to the table other than some slick animations and effects (Which I love, by the way) by rendering the screen and windows through OpenGL?

I'm not about to get sucked into a debate about why I said what I said about OS X, but I will say that it's pretty obvious you don't mind shelling out over a hundred dollars for an update to your OS every "1.5 years or so". Me, I'd rather they simply roll them up into a large update and charge the same price. You know, kind of like how Microsoft has been doing things. And if you think SP2 had no features, you really can't even notice something as obvious as the Security Center (Not that I'm saying it's the best example, but it's one of the most prominent ones). I'm not an apologist for bad software or anything because I feel they've

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0378 8.html

The size of Mark's reality distortion field gets scary if you just look at the /. thread.

Next day there will be a slashdot story title "Shark Muddleworth Tries to Lure Ubuntu Devs" about this letter titled "Invitation to ubuntu developers" sent by a "Shark Muddleworth" to the ubuntu-devel mailing list:

We would be happy to help people who want to join the openSUSE community - in any capacity, including developers and package maintainers. If you want to find out how openSUSE works you can communicate with the community (see http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate). A special introductory session is being organised for mid December, watch this space.

openSUSE is structured to empower our community to get things done, and to maximise the opportunity for collaboration between teams that share a common vision. Such tools as the openSUSE build service (http://build.opensuse.org/) help empower our community.

If you have an interest in being part of a vibrant community that cares about keeping free software widely available and protecting the rights of people to get it free of charge, free to modify, free of GPL violations, and focussing on creating the most usable Free software desktop, then please do join us.

I know that posting this message to an ubuntu list will be trolling^WControversial. I'm greatly respectful of the long tradition of excellence in the Ubuntu product and community and have no desire to undermine that with this post. That said, I think the position taken by Ubuntu leadership in their inclusion of non-gpled kernel modules linked to the GPLed kernel is disrespectful of the contributions of thousands of GPL kernel programmers and contributors to Ubuntu, and I know that many are looking for a new place to get involved that is not subject to the same arbitrary executive intervention. openSUSE is one option, as are Fedora, gnewsense other communities. Please accept this mail in that spirit.

Some openSUSE members

_

Disclaimer:

Response to http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0376 5.html, intended to highlight the inappropriateness of the original mail. Although based on facts, the above content is intended satirical and not to attack ubuntu or offend.

Next day there will be a slashdot story title "Shark Muddleworth Tries to Lure Ubuntu Devs" about this letter titled "Invitation to ubuntu developers" sent by a "Shark Muddleworth" to the ubuntu-devel mailing list:

We would be happy to help people who want to join the openSUSE community - in any capacity, including developers and package maintainers. If you want to find out how openSUSE works you can communicate with the community (see http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate). A special introductory session is being organised for mid December, watch this space.

openSUSE is structured to empower our community to get things done, and to maximise the opportunity for collaboration between teams that share a common vision. Such tools as the openSUSE build service (http://build.opensuse.org/) help empower our community.

If you have an interest in being part of a vibrant community that cares about keeping free software widely available and protecting the rights of people to get it free of charge, free to modify, free of GPL violations, and focussing on creating the most usable Free software desktop, then please do join us.

I know that posting this message to an ubuntu list will be trolling^WControversial. I'm greatly respectful of the long tradition of excellence in the Ubuntu product and community and have no desire to undermine that with this post. That said, I think the position taken by Ubuntu leadership in their inclusion of non-gpled kernel modules linked to the GPLed kernel is disrespectful of the contributions of thousands of GPL kernel programmers and contributors to Ubuntu, and I know that many are looking for a new place to get involved that is not subject to the same arbitrary executive intervention. openSUSE is one option, as are Fedora, gnewsense other communities. Please accept this mail in that spirit.

Some openSUSE members

_

Disclaimer:

Response to http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0376 5.html, intended to highlight the inappropriateness of the original mail. Although based on facts, the above content is intended satirical and not to attack ubuntu or offend.

We will not accept any updates from Novell/Suse as they are, in our opinion, contaminated with M$ code and are trojans for the Gate's monopoly.

Uh, the source is right there for you to look at (OpenSuSE). Download OpenSuSE and show me anything that even looks like infringing code, will you?

The squirming note from their CEO: come-on guys trust us! doesn't pass the sniff test.

They knew what they were doing, why they were doing it and had a long time to decide whether to do it.

The IRC meeting has been moved to monday due to some party going in in the states.

http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Special_Meeting_20 06-11-27

And again all the posts that are +5 are those that say the same thing over and over again.

The deal is done. Live with it. At least Novell tries to answer the questions people have. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. People asked that they wanted the details of the deal, so they gave them. They gave a lot of promises.

The IRC meeting will most likely also just be a lot of copy-cats yelling: Yes, but you signed a deal with M$ and we are so anti-M$ that we don't care about anything else.

So instead of yelling that it is so bad, come up with a realistic alternative what you want and what questions you want answerd. Be at the IRC meeting and/or see that your answers are asked on the site if you can't be there.

It is very much fun to react emotionaly, yet it is only spreading the FUD further, no matter who started that FUD.

The useal links:
http://lists.opensuse.org/archive/opensuse-announc e/2006-11/msg00004.html
http://dev-loki.blogspot.com/2006/11/call-to-dump- suse-linux-wtf.html
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4287912423.html
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2168151/novells- opens-microsoft
http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Status_Meeting_200 6-11-08/transcript#The_Novell.2F_Microsoft_deal

And again all the posts that are +5 are those that say the same thing over and over again.

The deal is done. Live with it. At least Novell tries to answer the questions people have. They are damned if they do and damned if they don't. People asked that they wanted the details of the deal, so they gave them. They gave a lot of promises.

The IRC meeting will most likely also just be a lot of copy-cats yelling: Yes, but you signed a deal with M$ and we are so anti-M$ that we don't care about anything else.

So instead of yelling that it is so bad, come up with a realistic alternative what you want and what questions you want answerd. Be at the IRC meeting and/or see that your answers are asked on the site if you can't be there.

It is very much fun to react emotionaly, yet it is only spreading the FUD further, no matter who started that FUD.

The useal links:
http://lists.opensuse.org/archive/opensuse-announc e/2006-11/msg00004.html
http://dev-loki.blogspot.com/2006/11/call-to-dump- suse-linux-wtf.html
http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4287912423.html
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2168151/novells- opens-microsoft
http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Status_Meeting_200 6-11-08/transcript#The_Novell.2F_Microsoft_deal

For upstream people:
reject their patches, regardless of the content.
Reject their feature requests.
Create new bug report state in trackers:
"WAITING for submitter to cancel cancerous deal with Microsoft".

For upstream people:
reject their patches, regardless of the content.
Reject their feature requests.
Create new bug report state in trackers:
"WAITING for submitter to cancel cancerous deal with Microsoft".

I wish someone could salvage opensuse from Novell's [now dirty] hands...

I wish someone could salvage opensuse from Novell's [now dirty] hands...

I agree that there is a devide in the community. For Microsoft that was not a goal. It is probably just a nice side effect for them. Unless they are realy smart and say: Let us do a deal and then let the slashdot users shred Novell to pieces.

If that is the case then Microsoft must realy thank all the people who are against Microsoft.

The nice thing is that they don't have to do anything. Let the people themselves do the FUD spreading. Now let us asume that people who are so against this deal get the upperhand. What wil happen?

Well, Novell will go bust. This will mean they will not do ANY OSS development anymore. That also means a halt to all these projects or at least a serious slowdown: http://en.opensuse.org/Novell_Supported_Projects

Nice one. RedHat will be dealt with by Oracle. There are no serious other players. Or you could asume that RedHat will become the Microsoft of Linux. One company to rule everything. Well, we have seen that before.

Perhaps it is wiser to just sit back a while and see what will happen in a year or so.

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0023 8.html (bug is marked private, so see here -and yes, I know I'm gonna get "zomg fuckfest" answers here as well)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0002 7.html (someone is in panic)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0004 2.html (someone is leaving opensuse)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0012 6.html (someone is telling suse people they got screwed)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0023 8.html (bug is marked private, so see here -and yes, I know I'm gonna get "zomg fuckfest" answers here as well)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0002 7.html (someone is in panic)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0004 2.html (someone is leaving opensuse)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0012 6.html (someone is telling suse people they got screwed)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0023 8.html (bug is marked private, so see here -and yes, I know I'm gonna get "zomg fuckfest" answers here as well)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0002 7.html (someone is in panic)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0004 2.html (someone is leaving opensuse)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0012 6.html (someone is telling suse people they got screwed)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0023 8.html (bug is marked private, so see here -and yes, I know I'm gonna get "zomg fuckfest" answers here as well)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0002 7.html (someone is in panic)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0004 2.html (someone is leaving opensuse)

http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse/2006-11/msg0012 6.html (someone is telling suse people they got screwed)

The fact that SUSE (and other distributions) have ran non-GPL stuff before seems to elude him.

Novell is even in the process of making the code more vanilla and has ripped out non-OSS stuff from the kernel, even though this might mean some hardware won't run anymore.

Also read the following:
http://www.novell.com/linux/microsoft/faq_opensour ce.html

It is fun/sad to see that the FUD is coming only from people who are 'pro OSS'. I start to think they are not pro anything. They are just anti M$.

For all those who think that Novell is suddenly the anti-christ, understand that they support more then just one OSS project:
http://en.opensuse.org/Novell_Supported_Projects

From this page

Since the announcement of the Novell-Microsoft agreement on November 2, we have been flooded with questions from the open source community about what this deal means to the Linux, the open source community, and even what this deal means for Novell. We will use this page to answer as many of those questions as possible. Check back frequently, as we will continue to add more answers as quickly as possible.

Q1. How is this agreement compatible with Novell's obligations under Section 7 of the GPL?

Our agreement with Microsoft is focused on our customers, and does not include a patent license or covenant not to sue from Microsoft to Novell (or, for that matter, from Novell to Microsoft). Novell's customers receive a covenant not to sue directly from Microsoft. We have not agreed with Microsoft to any condition that would contradict the conditions of the GPL and we are in full compliance.

Novell's end user customers receive a covenant not to sue directly from Microsoft for their use of Novell products and services, but these activities are outside the scope of the GPL.

Many more questions are answerd there. The fact that they get some money for their service is nice. Microsoft pays for the update service from Novell. Something that wasn'r free for SLES and SLED anyway. You can still get the SLES and SLED for free.

You will need an activation code FOR THE UPDATES as was always the case. openSUSE will still be available for free

http://lists.opensuse.org/archive/opensuse-project /2006-11/msg00013.html

very interesting answers on some of the questions that came up.

It is great to see that most of the FUD comes from within the OSS community. :-(

Release of openSUSE 10.2

Stop asuming that everybody who uses Windows knows how to install Windows with all the extra's that come with it. If I were able to put together a PC with specific hardware, I would also be able to make a distribution specific for that machine. Put it in and it will install.

The way I would do it is described here Especialy editing the YaST installation procedure will probably take some time to figure out, but it is not impossible.

That is how most people 'install' their system when they need to. They have a recovery disc that does all the work specificaly for their machine.

Now give joe sixpack an empty PC, a Windows CD/DVD and ask him to install a machine suitable for the office. So printing, office applications, browser, email and such.

If you want to compare, do it on the same basis, so either both machines are pre-installed or neither one is pre-installed. Also people normaly have much more experience with Windows. That means they have had some basic training at least. Look for people who have never worked with a PC and ask them to install Windows and Linux and see what is better.

Pitty the details are so vague. I wonder about the technical part. Novell is busy with the Build Service a servcie that will build all kinds of OSS software.

At this moment they have obviously software for the different SUSE distro's, but also for Debian, Mandrake and RedHat. An example can be seen on this page

During the anouncement it was said that building for Windows would not be completely out of the loop. So it can very well be that Microsoft gives Novell the needed tools so that they can compile for Windows as well.

The advatage is that people will be able to get programs only available in Linux now for Windows as well. The big advatage for developers of software is that they can use the build service and make their software available for many distributions, instead only e.g. Debian or SUSE or ...

Pitty the details are so vague. I wonder about the technical part. Novell is busy with the Build Service a servcie that will build all kinds of OSS software.

At this moment they have obviously software for the different SUSE distro's, but also for Debian, Mandrake and RedHat. An example can be seen on this page

During the anouncement it was said that building for Windows would not be completely out of the loop. So it can very well be that Microsoft gives Novell the needed tools so that they can compile for Windows as well.

The advatage is that people will be able to get programs only available in Linux now for Windows as well. The big advatage for developers of software is that they can use the build service and make their software available for many distributions, instead only e.g. Debian or SUSE or ...

Whats this open source technology thats better then Spotlight?

All we have to do is all agree what is gorgeous and what is not.

That aside, the real issue is still pre-installation. As long as you can't have a REAL choice to select your OS, it is all irrelevant. Or even better, that you are FORCED to make a selection.

Some_store: Hello, would you like the 100USD Windows or the gratis Linux with that?
Customer: What is the difference between the two?
Some_store: About 100USD.

Sure, many people will still use and select Windows, because that is what they know. In fact I asume that the majority will do that.

And again, what you thing is gorgeous will not be something I think is gorgeous. I hate both KDE and GNOME and XFCE is not yet there, so I use Windowmaker instead. As long as my distribution gives me that choice, I am happy.

Novell's distro (AKA SuSE, free version at http://www.opensuse.org/) is not exactly an unknown also-ran distro. They had several years of experience before being acquired by Novell.
Now SuSE is often, and to some extent justly, accused of being overly eager to look like Windows. But I still consider it a distro that can be recommended to Linux newbies. It is easy to install and get started with, and from there you can work your way up to more "hardcore" distributions.

1. Fonts. Linux weenies delude themselves that fonts under Xorg are just fine nowadays. BZZT. Compared to XP with cleartype the quality of font rendering in Xorg is laughable. Importing the XP fonts into a Linux system makes no difference, because they just do not look as good.

You're joking, right? Cleartype looks blurry and awful. I've yet to see a Linux distro that has fonts as painful to read as "Cleartype", just as I've yet to see a Linux distro with fonts as sharp and clear as the standard Windows font smoothing/fonts out of the box. This tutorial helped me enormously, though.

http://en.opensuse.org/Encrypted_Root_File_System_ with_SUSE_HOWTO

Thankfully not hard.

Several commenters appear to think that this is due to the arrest of Hans, In fact it was announced over a month ago, before any of the stories about Hans broke. The original announcement is from the 14th september http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2006-09 /msg00542.html

As it happens, its relatively easy to setup SuSE with an encrypted root filesystem. That protects you from malware being physically placed on your system.

Preventing malware from being remotely placed on your system boils down to the usual Internet security measures (firewall, running only needed services, Firefox with NoScript, etc).

Why do I keep hearing MS users insist filesystems need to be defraged constantly? Real OSes have fragmentation prevention built in. The prevention is not perfect, but it beats runing defrag every day. Even linux has had it since ext2 came out at least a decade ago. If MS hasn't done this by now, then they should be bopped in the head. Then again, they make their own users afraid to upgrade. WTF???

The need for defrag on modern systems is a myth. Read here and here

Ubuntu makes it easy to use the command line to quickly fix problems or in your case install software, but it is not necessary.

Ubuntu has the easy to use Add/Remove programs, plus the more powerful Synaptic, and the ability to download .deb packages, click on them and install. The command line is not needed for any of these. You do have to give your sudo password, but that is for basic security.
OpenSUSE is free, 10.1 has some problems but 10.2 should be great
I started with Ubuntu when Warty Warthog was released. I switched because SUSE was too easy and I wanted to learn. I am now having to decide whether to switch or not again, as Ubuntu causes almost no problems that I need to fix.

From http://en.opensuse.org/Download:

BEFORE YOU INSTALL READ THIS:

The package manager in SUSE 10.1 is regrettably broken on most systems.

I wouldn't be bragging about QA on a distro that ships with a broken package manager (sort of an integral part of the OS).

That's not entirely practical right now, though...

use smart package manager http://labix.org/smart. it will download things in parallel, supports multiple mirrors, package dependencies, and additional repositories http://en.opensuse.org/Additional_YaST_Package_Rep ositories, all much faster than yast/zmd whatever they're calling it these days.

Actually, you can use Xgl/compiz" with KDE. This works on SuSE 10.1/KDE 3.5.4, but you can probably coax your distro-of-choice to play nice without too much trouble.

The only thing that sucks is the lack of a GUI configuration window (to my knowledge), so you'll have to edit the compiz config by hand.

Ouch!

If you have a beefy, supported graphics chipset, you could replace X/kwin with Xgl/compiz. Its kind of neat. Much to my surprise, I haven't had to restart X once since I set it up... like 2 months ago.

It brought an amd64 to a screeching halt - not just during install or the first day or two. Its not worth it.

2006 Young Innovators Under 35 ..

Eddie Kohler
A better operating system

"Asbestos keeps personal data secure by "tagging" it with information about which programs or users can access it .. and Kohler hopes that within a few years, Asbestos will be an alternative to server operating systems such as Linux and Windows."

"(NSA) worked with Secure Computing Corporation (SCC) to develop a strong, flexible mandatory access control architecture based on Type Enforcement, a mechanism first developed for the LOCK system."

"AppArmor security policies, called "profiles", completely define what system resources individual applications can access, and with what privileges."

We are all very sorry that you do not understand what "Open Source" actually means.

We are also very sorry that you do not know anything about SuSE, the difference between SLED and OpenSuSE, and what the license is actually used for.

Now that you know you are lacking in the necessary knowledge to make the statement that you did, please go educate yourself using the free resources located at http://www.google.com/ http://www.novell.com/linux, and http://www.opensuse.org./

Good luck on your mission.

The article is talking about Xen not Zen. Oh and Novell has put a good deal of work into fixing the initial launch issues with Zen on both OpenSUSE 10.1 and SLES/D 10.

If you haven't you may want to update (assuming your system is functioning with updates enough to do so).

You run Suse? All sorts of ways to get help are collected in the wiki.

http://en.opensuse.org/Communicate

Look for resources that pertain to your specific distro. As an Ubuntu user, I use the official Ubuntu forums, and it works beautifully.

Here is a list of some SUSE resources. It has forums, wikis, mailing lists, USENETs, etc.