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SuSE 8.0 Now Shipping
MobyTurbo writes "Well, it's technically a day late, but SuSE Linux 8.0 is now shipping. The increase from 7.3 to 8.0 is due to the inclusion of KDE 3.0, a SuSE-modified kernel version 2.4.18 (with Andre's VM), an improved firewall, among other packages that have been upgraded or added. (Including a couple of new games. :-) )"
Sun's Grid Engine is included in SuSE 8.0... I think that's a significant addition, as grid computing becomes the "hot" topic amongst CS researchers nowadays. Good to see Linux on the cutting edge.
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
SuSE 8.0 also includes:
/etc/rc.config and into a Red Hat-style /etc/sysconfig. It is still managed by YaST2, just stored in a different place.
Sun's grid engine software
Star Office 5.2 and Open Office 641c
Updated YaST2 and much improved YaST2 console mode
X 4.2
Alsa 0.9
One of the best firewall scripts anywhere
Fairly major changes in how admin settings are saved, with a lot of stuff moving out of
It is polished and solid, and as always, stuffed with so much software, you could not absorb it all in several years. The upside is that almost everything you might want is in there already. SuSE may not be perfect, but they contribute huge chunks of code to the kernel, KDE, Alsa, Xfree, and NIS projects and that's good for everyone.
Some updates to KDE3 and other packages are already posted to their ftp site, so fire up the YaST Online Update right after the install to get the new goodies.
# free security updates, unlike RedHat
gee, I better uninstall those Redhat security updates, apparently they're not aware that they were supposed to be charging me for them. Thanks for spreading misinformation.
Updates are available via FTP servers for free, and through their Red Hat Network channels it's free for the end user (1 free token per user account).
So what you're paying for is to be able to manage all your computers through one interface. SuSE's YOU last time I tried it (7.3) works like Ximian's Red Carpet, or Microsoft's Windows Update, in that all the work is done on the client's side.
Michel
Michel
Fedora Project Contribut
See subject - SuSE 8.0 has been shipping for a while, I've been seeing comments about it in german and swiss newsgroups. These comments range from rather critical to absolutely enthusiastic.
Unfortunately, it's been "in" for a while to bash the "Windows from Nürnberg". IMHO SuSE is very easy to setup for newbies and gurus alike (no time to waste on configuring stuff, leaving time for tinkering on the non-obvious things) and gives you all the power of linux in a nice package.
Can't wait to get my hands on this new version, the features list is quite impressive. I'll get around to it this weekend, probably...
(using SuSE, Debian, RedHat, IPCop, ... on x86,
UltraSparc, Alpha)
Well, it's technically a *week* late. I had my copy of SuSe 8.0 Personal Package in the mailbox (Germany) already at Friday the 12th. (Preordered directly from SuSe.de web site).
:).
Just one comment: Installation went flawlessly on the Gericom Webgine 1630 Notebook. All of the hardware (expect AMR Modem) automatically recognized and initialized
bb4now,
PMC
we-go-we-fly
I am using it since 14 days now (live in Germany and subscribed it). It's ok, not many noticable improvements over 7.3 beside KDE 3.0. But what really annoys me is that the kernel is not very stable, at least for some activities. When trying to rip a CD my system freezes after a few minutes. I ripped several dozen CDs with 7.3 without a single problem. Another good way to crash the kernel is to listen to audio using an USB audio device. Sometimes it crashes after 5 minutes, sometimes after 60 minutes, but it will always crash. Since 7.3's had a bug that prevented USB audio from working it's still an improvement, but not a very good one. Playing Tribes 2 with the Nvidia drivers is better, it only crashes after several hours, and I had the same problems with Suse 7.3 as well, at least after the last driver update.
I've been updating my SuSE 7.3 to 8.0 10 days ago. The update changed some settings, for example it activated netsettings received by a DHCP-Server. I did not use a DHCP-Server before. But when I switched off the DHCP-Option, it showed all the previous Network-Settings - except the own local IP-Adress. Some Links in the kicker did not work anymore. Worst is that Ximian Evolution 1.0.3 does not work anymore. When trying to run it tells me, that it does not find the configuration database anymore. I had no time to fix that (to be more exact: I don't know anymore when I will have time to try to fix that, because Evolution is my PIM (-: ). During the Update I had a good feeling, because the update routine asked for every single file I expected it to ask for, because I did not install them via YAST2. The update is not reversible. Some other small things are broken, too. The KDE-Start-Menu was in german before the update and is now in English, for example. Mozilla 0.9.8 crashes very, very often and often crashes while booting, when it crashed before, till the X-Server is restarted. Before the update Mozilla 0.9.8 crashed maybe once a week. When installing the available Patches it did not find a patch (menu_fix-1) it recommended for update. But on the other side, there are no hardware problems, KDE 3 runs really fast and I feel some performance improvements. YAST2 is better than before, but I miss some features from YAST1 (which is not available anymore) or did not find them till now. I also installed SuSE 8.0 on a new machine and that worked absolutely great - all modern hardware was recognized and worked. Simply worked, without additional drivers as necesary in Windows XP in the same configuration. I was very impressed by that. Bye Kuesschen
That's exactly what 8.0 changed. They now have several config files, one for every package. Hack away!
>As a result, the users are now forced to use YaST 2,
>which depends on Qt.
NOT TRUE. yast2 has several frontends, you can use it with a curses interface.
Also, why anyone would use SuSE and be opposed to QT libs is indeed quite strange. No rational decision obviously.
Moritz