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'Sneak Preview' of SUSE 9.1
Roblimo writes "SUSE 9.1 won't be out until May, but Joe Barr got access to a 'secret' beta download and tried it out. He liked some of what he saw, and found things he didn't like, too, but is willing to overlook some of the negatives because, he points out, 'This is a beta. Bugs are expected. Work will be done before it goes gold.' The review's at Linux.com." Linux.com and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.
I have never been a huge SUSE fan because of their somewhat commercialized attitude, and based on the screenshots from the article it looks like this version is going to be no exception. However, if it gets more linux users on the wagon, go for it!
My $0.02.
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artlu.net
Mod me offtopic, but I for one, welcome a review from someone other than OSNews. Why? Because I want a review containing real information, not gripes about screen antialiasing, the (in)ability to compile packages, and GRUB vs. LILO flamewars.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
It would be nice if they offered the beta version for public use, eh?
I prefer GNOME, so I guess we'll have to wait until the release. I'll share the ISOs too, I'll just strap on my backpack and share the wealth!
The next least favorite thing for me was the dumbing down of menus to a single choice of application, especially when I found myself disagreeing with the choice in almost every instance.
I don't think a new user of a linux system would mind having some simple defaults to choose for. Since SUSE is aiming to please more than just hard core linux enthusiasts, I think that having a single choice is important.
In linux libertas
Shouldn't we be supporting an american company?
Why the fuck would I want to support an American company? I've never even set foot on the American continent.
Besides, I thought Novell *was* an American company.
The "My Computer" icon shows Tux sitting in front of what could only be... an iMac. Is this somebody's idea of a joke? A peek at Novell/Suse's long-range goals? A rogue OS-X-boosting employee waiting to be slapped down? Inquiring minds....
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
He doesn't say whether he reviewed SUSE 9.1 Personal or Professional.
Fact is, it sounds like he reviewed SUSE Personal which is geared to novice users and with the "one task, one app" philosophy. No wonder it has only KDE and various spit-and-polish suitable for novices. By cutting out the cruft SUSE because all the more usable for this demographic.
Fact is, Joe Barr isn't a novice user so he's going around looking for stuff that isn't there. SUSE 9.1 Personal provices a swiss-army knife selection of choices including GNOME. So he should use Professional instead of Personal if that's what he's looking for.
(Please browse at -1 to read this comment.)
I "was" a redhat fan. But I find it hard to stick to them after the free release became fecesdora.
And I am not the only one...
Suse and GNOME? It will probably end up being a lot like Java Desktop System. The demo CD of JDS I've tried is niiice. It's fast, smooth, and even detects 3D hardware automatically. I have not once been to the console in it or experienced an unexpected crash.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I've never used SuSE before but, beta or no, this hardly encourages me to give it a try. Not that that's so bad.. there's a distro for everyone after all.. still I would have liked to hear more about the integration of Ximian and SuSE under Novell's stewardship.
That was my thought, too.
From the screenshots, it looks like they were playing "Lets see how many places we can put the chameleon!". Personally, I consider that a powerful and useful feature. Hurrah to SuSE for more good product. Were I a KDE man, I'd be running it right now, likely.
Someone looks at a beta and it gets mentioned that "bugs will be fixed before it goes gold." If someone sees a leaked Microsoft beta, however, they say how awful it is that bugs are still in it. Ahh, hypocrisy...
OS X for creative types under the sky
Solaris for server farms in halls of stone
Windows for mortal men doomed to die
Linux for Big Blue on his deep blue throne
In the land of East Fishkill where the big fabs lie.
Suse to package it, Reiser to file it
Novell to service it, Gnu to compile it
In the land of East Fishkill where the big fabs lie
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Ok, it's a beta; but could we have a few more details? #1 on my list is: What's it like with the 2.6 kernel?
:-) If it's coming out in early May in Germany, it'll be the 3rd or 4th week of May before it gets to the US. Or at least that's how it's been historically. It'll be interesting to see if Novell's recent ownership changes that.
Closely followed by how is the driver scene and hardware compatibility list is, what X version is being used, and so on.
The hard thing will be having to wait for this release.
??? What's wrong with Fedora?
:):):)
I run it without flaws. And I must say the most impressive distro ever. At least from Gnome user view point.
I can hardly wait FC2. SELinux, Gnome2.6, Kernel2.6....
Even beta2 runs almost perfectly without SELinux, with SELinux there are unfinished policy settings and unwanted restrictions which might cause some problems, so it's not yet for production
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
There are two American continents
As a KDE man, I'm glad to see that SUSE/Novell is still a compelling choice with KDE fans, while Red Hat provides GNOME for GNOME fans.
I'll definitely be sticking with SUSE as my distribution of choice now.
Does SUSE still make a PowerPC version of their OS? I seem to remember one being announced but I didn't see it in their online store.
...Yet Another KDE vs Gnome and Dependency Hell Article. Can't call it a review, contrary to the billing....
Personally, I prefer KDE, but that's like saying I prefer dental surgery with a hammer and chisel vs. brain surgery with the same implements.
It's relatively painless if you do the Ximian Red Carpet install from the Ximian site.
Google confirms: Ruby is the world's most beloved programm
...heaven forbid someone complain about something non-techies consider important, like poor anti-aliasing, the inability to compile packages, and the usability of GRUB and LILO.
I read a review once where Eugenia complained about the spacing between menus. Yes, believe it or not, those are things that graphics designers would care about because it has to do with subtle factors in user interaction.
But, go ahead and stick to the reviews that are techie-only if you wanna.
Or be a Slashdot editor
I currently work as a notable figure in state politics, and I make over $90,000 a year. Most of the now Linux developers I tormented barely make it past rent.
Actually, that is the exception. All the fellow geeks I know, including myself, make more than your paultry (he he, tee hee) $90K. I scoff at your pay, it is WE who have the power. I pity you. Oh, and that pay doesn't include the extra money I make by whoring myself out for side jobs.
By "power", you must mean "constantly tethered to a pager which goes off multiple times a night and bound by SLAs written by lawyers which contractually make me the world's bitch".
..doesn't bother to explicate what makes SUSE any different from any other distro. Why not Fedora, or Mandrake? What makes SUSE, well, SUSE?
He never says.
A / S / L?
This guy just installed SuSE 9.1 without Gnome (his choice) and then complained about not having Gnome and Gnome applications!? I have installed SuSE 8.0 and 8.2 (both home and pro) a couple of times and never had any problems installing Gnome (I prefer KDE but install Gnome just in case). I don't think it's very likely that they would brake YaST so bad that you can't install Gnome. Yes, it complains about dependencies but it resolves them and installs everything you need. SuSE is by far the easiest OS I have had to install (well apart from a bizzare NIC problem...).
that it doesn't say that if any chameleons were hurt in the making of SuSE 9.1...
The Linux community _needs_ a vendor that is commerical based, it helps spread the word. I recently attended SHARE in L.A. and the only Linux retailer there was SuSE.
SHARE is mostly a mainframe conference but since z/OS (and s/390) now supports omvs (Unix System Services) it makes sense to start pushing more Linux.
I can recommend SuSE to some of my less technical friends and they will see that it's easy, and has good commerical support.
Mod +5 Drunk
Well I personally would only give my $0.00 for linux to an American company!
It is no longer uncommon to be uncommon.
Damn truth.
Does FC2-test2 have an install-time option to skip SELinux? I've been looking at other distros because test1 and the development tree leading to test2 had SELinux and I found it totally horrid to have on a personal desktop.
SuSE 9.0, which I'm using now, doesn't suffer from any of the problems listed. My guess is that they'll polish a lot of it up, unless they don't want people to upgrade from 9.1.
But yep, apart from a few interesting features, I couldn't see what was so great about it. I'll probably upgrade when it comes out, though. Assuming all the bugs have been fixed and the quality of the distro is as professional and smooth as usual.
The pop-up ads and banners mentioned was decidedly annoying though. Very, very bad policy, as the article says. I hadn't noticed before, as I've never had a need to visit the portal.
I have only install Linux once; sometime ago. This is not about Linux, but about my thought on interfaces. There has been a few slashdot articles recently about it. But it's funny how we are standardizing in some respects: clock lower right with other current running program icons. Start somewhere left, with a menu of some sort. Upper left Icons concerning Networking, My Computer, etc.
I guess it's really that it's like the phone. The design is so simple and elegant that it's hard to radically change something so right from a design perspective. I guess regardless of OS we have some general sense of where things should go on the real-estate. I think this is, as Martha would say, a good thing.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
How do you pronounce Suse? I've never seen it anywhere...
I really didnt like this review. He complained that the menus were too simple. I have used SUSE since 8.0 and am currently running 9. As far as the menu's go in 9, if you only have 1 app of a certain type, it defaults to renaming that app to whatever type it is. For example, in a default install you will only have Konquerer for a browser, so when you go to Internet->Web Browser, it will launch Konq. Now if you have Mozilla installed too, Web Brower will become a sub menu containing both Konq and Mozilla.
One way to get around the small font in the install he complained about was to change the resolution. Before you hit enter at the install bootloader, hit F3 (i think) and it will give you a list of resolutions to use. The menu is located at the bottom of the bootloader. He also complained that it didnt come with the stuff he wanted. Well cry me a river because you are a little more advanced than their target audience and are too lazy to install and configure the apps to your liking.
Also, in YAST there is an autocheck dependencies which should automatically resolve all dependencies when installing things, so he shouldn't have had to figure out what was not making his GNOME install. Maybe it is disabled for some reason in the beta, or maybe he didn't see the checkbox down there?
Maybe he should complain less and use the system more.
I known this is unsolicited advice but try not being so much of a 'fan' and more of a normal person. That is, don't let your emotions determine which distro you want to run but instead focus on the real differences between them. For example, it would only take a short period of time to install SuSE, Fedora, Mandrake, and Knoppix (and any of the other live CD distros) and then you could choose one based off of actual experience and not loyalty.
Since SUSE is aiming to please more than just hard core linux enthusiasts, I think that having a single choice is important.
Exactly, the novice user does not want to choose between a bunch of applications that have obscure names. I remember when I did my first linux install years ago and I was confronted with the choice: KDE or Gnome. I was new to linux, I didn't know wtf "KDE" or "Gnome" was. Even if the user is familiar with using a computer, they aren't going to understand the distinctions between Linux, SuSE, and KDE. And as another poster mentioned, they sure as hell aren't going to know what Konqueror or Galeon is. If SuSE wants to go after the general desktop market, they need to be a simplistic as possible. And hey, if you're an advanced linux user then you should be running Gentoo anyway... *runs*
Magnatune: Quality (DRM-free) MP3/FLAC/
And I'll say it untill something else replaces the fact that SuSE is the best all around distribution. From linux newbies looking to switch from windows for the very first time to system administrators needing to drop in a box here or there that they can setup and never think about again.
And if they need to think about it again they can remote administer it through YAST or SuSE's desktop sharing.
*DrugCheese rants*
how long will the umlaut last?
There no umlaut in SuSE. (acronym == Software und System Entwicklung)
I mainly use Gentoo on my machines, but I am looking @ this new SuSE as a possiblility for my main laptop.
I havent used SuSE since version 6.
One thing that really bugs me about the commerical distros is updating major packages, like say KDE. I tend to live on the bleeding edge and like to muck around trying new things when I have the time. I also like to keep my KDE as up to date as possible.
If I were to try out this new SuSE (I am curious about how far its come along since the last version I used), how easy is it to do major upgrades of packages. IE: living on the edge beyond what SuSE churns out?
Stock SUSE 9 comes with 2.4.21 and Gnome 2.2, in addition to the defaujlt wm KDE 3.1. I'd say you've changed your distribution quite a bit, really.
Yes it has. It's just like it was when setting firewall during install.
Under ports there is selection box: with or without
but if you already have it installed there is a howto on fedoraforums. howto disable selinux
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
Joe Barr and Eugenia Loli-Queru from OSnews will tie the knot this summer.
Honestly. That was one of the more amateurish reviews I've read in a while.
sweet. i'll have to give it another look then. i actually got rid of it when the development tree versions prevented using sudo on the command line or any of the system-config-* tools which needed the root password in gnome. Never tried them as non-root on command shell.
This is slashdot, guys! What are you trying to do, make me read the article??
free speach
Did you mean: free speech
That is, according to Chris Schlaeger, vice president, Research and Development in SUSE.
He said this at Novell's BrainShare in this LinuxToday article.
SUSE Personal will only be a KDE-distro now.
What's wrong with Fedora?
It's by far the slowest distro I've ever seen in 6 years of Linux use, both in terms of booting and running. Yes, this can be fixed, but it shouldn't have to be.
Additionally, each release is only supported for around 7-9 months. That makes it pretty much useless in a serious setting...
In my day power users could make such configuration changes themselves.
These days they seem to need the computer to ask them questions.
I guess they don't make power users like they used to.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
I have been using SuSe 9.0 Pro on my laptop and desktop since it came out, and I must admit it rocks. I use KDE so don't care much about Gnome. Most of the postings at slashdot seems to be from disgruntled and confused people..
Critiquing the quality of information in the article is hardly offtopic. My personal gripe is that the story is full of comments like, "KDE and Konqueror are OK, but I'd rather use Gnome and Mozilla." We all know that SuSE is KDE-centric, and that not everybody likes KDE, so what is he telling us that is of any interest? If you're going to do an unauthorized peek at a beta version of a product, you should use a writer who can actually talk about what's changed in the product. In the case of a Linux distro, that probably means a person who actually prefers that distro and uses it with most of its default options.
The only place I've ever seen Turing spelled with an Umlaut is in Cryptonomicon. Stephenson can't resist a linguistic joke, no matter how feeble.
But a Linux newbies is the partitioning built into the installer. It's pretty damn hard to accidently delete the Windows partition.
Doh! I ment "received" when I wrote "revieved". Sorry about the slip.
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
- Jerome Klapka Jerome
It's by far the slowest distro I've ever seen in 6 years of Linux use
;) one with 2.6kernel although I know it is not supported) with single testing and compiling and auto updating, one for 150 workstations just the same
Completely different point of view, far by fastest. And didn't fix anything.
Additionally, each release is only supported for around 7-9 months
What stops you then??? Is kernel not gonna be compatible or what?? I guess you know a little more than the rest of us.
btw. upgrade to newer version works, even rawhide repository works. But hell, I always build everything extra from sources, except workstation setups.
Serious setting as you say in my point of view
1. Single update repository for all servers that is completely controlled by you. (never trust anybody or anything, check everything)
2. Avoid using default services and try to hide the ones that you run with fake names (it is considered as good avoiding of possible known bugs)
3. Always compile from sources to ensure your serious setting to be run as serious as possible (like in samba av support, proxy av support, in my case pure-ftpd kernel-chroot support....)
4. Almost never use the default servers. Mostly they are far from the best (you know,... some have little licensing problems, in my case qmail, that little trouble with source distribution)
5. You'll have to update some intrusion detectors and some other various usefull tools someday (if you have update repository set up in a safe manner then this could be included in basic update, without troubling you)
6. Always provide your kernels because you are the one who knows your basic hardware setup best
To be honest, from any dostro I set up as server, there is very little default left at the end. so in the end I really shouldn't care which one I use, just that it hasn't got some serious bugs when starting.
And one more thing, my little setting has one deployment center for over 50-60 servers (deployed along the country - not all Fedora mostly RH 8 and 9 with even 2x7.2, yep
I hope that my setting isn't too childish for you
Let me guess, Gentoo, Slack or BSD??? In that order.
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
I like that idea a lot! Just expand on it easily. Menu *options*,and I don't mean emphasize "theming" and all that hoo-rah, the apps themselves, something like you get 3 choices a single click away, default-basic (one of everything basic, web, text reader/writer, media player, email client, chat client, etc), intermediate (more apps for different purposes, choices for each style of app),then power user with the entire kitchen sink in the menus, I mean every single last steenking teeny tiny app installed on the box.
I also think that every app should have an easy to read listing of WHERE all the files relating to the app are stored, so that if the user is confronted with having to go tweak into unknown land, they can at least find the file to tweak easily. That's the intermediate level that causes so much grief I think,(does for me anyway) going from pure point and click noob to intuitive command line.
yeah, that was wrong set up (read as missing definitons), in fc2t2 there are three possible root users as selinux defines (try logging to terminal console and you'll know what I mean) and the profile that you get when "su -" is really f*cked up and isn't allowed almost anything, far from being root.
But if you care you can still set some selinux policy without problem, there is a lot of info on that topic on Fedora site. Personally I just can't wait for them to release. selinux was one thing I always needed but never had time to test.
But when someone throws you cake in the face,... well it isn't hard to test it if it is good or not, and then run to the bakery which you haven't had time until now just because you haven't know if it is good or not.
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
Can't wait to see this and the parent post meta-modded.
That sounds about right!
This is a really really lame review. The whole thing can be summed up in about three lines:
"I installed SuSE Linux. The install went great, but I don't like KDE and none of my Gnome apps were installed off the bat, and I couldn't install them properly because I don't know how to work YaST, so it sucks. Hopefully this will be corrected when it goes gold".
Basically, he installs it, and is upset to find out that all the default apps are KDE apps. Well hello, SuSE has *always* been a KDE distro. And guess what, that is the exact same way *I* feel eevry time I am forced to install RedHat, and I have to use all Gnome apps.
If you want a Gnome-centric distro, why are you using SuSE at all?Another waste of everyone's time by Mr. Barr.
Personal Edition, on the other hand, is for "non-professionals" in home environments, and Novell/SUSE doesn't want to overwhelm these consumers with too many options, Schlaeger said.
Ya know, much as I'm a big gnomefanboy and all, I think this is a good choice. My girlfriend (big guineapig on all ease-of-use issues) gets freaked out when she sees two different [x] available.
Google confirms: Ruby is the world's most beloved programm
That "gorgeous mountain landscape" shown in the screenshot is surely gorgeous in itself, but the photograph is poor. Fuzzy and not good enough to be shown in that resolution. I bet it was taken with a digital camera by a SUSE employee at a ski vacation.
If you want to present a professional image to prospective users, a dating service ad probably isn't a great introduction.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
Where can I download it, you insensitive clod?
With Novell's announcement that YaST is to be distributed under the GPL, is this new SuSE release free, or are there remaining esential non-free parts? (Junk like Acrobat Reader, etc. doesn't count, as long as it is simple to choose not to install it.)
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
KDE never seems to work quite right on Fedora, and it gets worse when you upgrade KDE to newer versions. That is the one and only reason I am switching from Fedora to SuSE. Hope that helps.
I for one do not welcome Ximian into the SuSE
family. I have been a loyal follower of SuSE for
many years, from distro 6.0 onward. I LIKE being
able to kick javascript off of my e-mail, and I
LIKE being able to keep mail programs from automatically opening attachments in line with the
letters. There is just to much useless fluff in
Ximian.....
You should equate Ximian with Simian, for only
monkeys that care nothing for privacy nor safety
should use it.