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More SUSE Linux 9.1 Reviews
JoshuaTreeCA writes "Adam Doxtater of Mad Penguin has published another excellent review... this time on the newest SUSE Linux 9.1 beta-release. This release comes complete with the latest GNOME and KDE enviroments as well as being the first distro to present a retail package built on kernel 2.6.4 Check out the review, with screenshots."
rokzy also wrote in with another review from NeoLink Computers.
Here ya go
I just installed SuSE 9 and I must say I was very impressed... right up until the point that the mouse (which worked fine during install) didn't work on the second boot, then wouldn't work when KDE started. Had to start YaST to reconfigure it but had to reboot before it would work. THEN the mouse just stopped working after I clicked the apply button after choosing the icq2 icon scheme in gnomeicu.
I'm guessing USB mouse support still hasn't made it's way into Linux in a robust form yet?
This is pretty bad - so bad, in fact, that I'm now back in Windows XP because it, at least, knows how to understand what is now an old thing like USB mice!
SuSE 9.1 beta does not come with the latest Gnome (2.6) it comes with Gnome 2.4 because 2.6 was released too late to make it into SuSE 9.1 beta. However, Gnome 2.6 will likely be available from SuSE as a separate download.
Don't you remember Joe Barr's pathetic whining about Gnome and SuSE 9.1 beta in his Quick Look article. Possibly the worst review ever written.
The problem is not where, but when. The FTP version usually goes "public" after a month or so of the official release, and I suppose that the betas are only released to selected testers.
I believe it must be released to testers under the GPL. So I would expect a copy to be available somewhere.
The 9.1 beta is a special release that was opened up to members of the press. It is on a restricted access server. SuSE typically does not make its betas available for download like Red Hat use to with Rawhide. Additionally, SuSE typically releases new versions in boxed sets first and then makes it available by ftp about a month later.
You will probably not be able to get a hold of 9.1 until the first week in May, when you can buy the boxed set. Early June will probably be your first chance to download SuSE 9.1
Also, once you've rebooted and are in your Window manager (either Gnome or KDE), do't use YaST2 to set up your mouse - use SaX2. From there you can choose all your input devices.
If you purchased your copy of SUSE you should have also received two really good manuals, one for administration, the other for users. All of this information is covered in them.
I should have been more clear: I was running XP.
If not, this should keep you happy:
Money for nothing, pix for free
Don't know if it does this on NT-based Win OSes, since I haven't used a floppy in a while, but I doubt it.
I don't use SuSE any more, but I assume that it was using a 2.4 series kernel on 9.0.
From the problems you describe, it sounds like it may be an ICH5 sata chipset (should say on bootup), and it's using the piix driver, which is the native intel IDE driver, and its close enough to the ICH5 to support that too.
There are fairly nasty reports about the piix driver when it's supporting SATA, i.e. lockups and timeouts, and you'd have more joy using a 2.6 kernel (which has libata, and lib_piix specifically, which works much better) or getting a 2.4 kernel with the libata patch applied.
Mind you, since you've gone back to using IDE, it's a bit of a moot point. SATA is not a significant improvement over PATA (old style IDE) at this point, as the underlying drives are the same, and you'd struggle to saturate either bus. Give it a couple of years though, and SATA will be kicking PATA's ass.
Oh, and you should be able to turn the SATA off, either in the main bios, or the 'mini bios' when the controller itself tried to start.
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
Except mad penguin are only reviewing SuSE, not running their webserver on it :)
Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
Actually, I think Google mostly caches the content of the page. It still refers to the original source for a lot of images and other externally linked files. That could be why it feels like it's loading slowly.
Maybe slashdot should update the SUSE topic icon.
It looks like the lizard has been put on a diet (suse.com).
Oh, and two of his legs have been chopped off...
sounds like you're not enabling xinerama support. The easy way - use yast to reconfigure your display - look for xinerama support/dual-head support. The hard way -- ctrl-alt-F6 log in as root go to run level 3 (to do so simply type "init 3" at the command line prompt with no "'s) . Type sax2 - sax2 will kick in - configure it for dual-head support.
Enjoy
As a note, SuSE, despite their marketing claims, is not the first distribution to go to market with a commercial 2.6 kernel. This Beta is for a product that will offer the 2.6 kernel, however Gentoo is already selling Gentoo 2004.0, and Mandrake is selling copies of Mandrake 10 Community on DVD.
I don't know how SuSE defines "commercial" or "first", but if other distros are selling copies before SuSE even has released 9.1, then I'd have to say their marketing campaign needs to be revised ;)
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
You can buy SuSE Update for $49.95. It the same as Suse Pro but without the manuals.
"It wasn't me, I didn't do it, I don't post, the bite marks still haven't healed from last time." Ryan/jrc
I just finish testing 9.1. I was accepted as a beta tester starting with 8.0. Overall I was personally very pleased with SuSE's (excuse me - SUSE) latest efforts.
What surpised me the most was the stability of Beta 1. Try as I might I, and others, didn't bump into to anything kludgey to file a bug report. Others did, but the amount of bug reps filed were far less than I and others expected. In Beta 4 I did find but one in KDE and OO.o dealing with Styles and Windows Decorations. I filed my bug rep with the backtrace. Well about 2 days later the dev asked me to confirm what he suspected was the problem and sure enough it was patched/fixed - move along nothing to see here.
My test system is really mundane. A simple celery 800 on an older MSI board, on-board sound, and 133MHz memory. By most standards... Well old. What also delighted me to no end was the speed and robustness of the system. To put it plainly it was snappy and quick. 2.6 should be (what am I saying? IS) a great boost to Linux overall.
YaST has gotten a face lift, more over nice eye candy. KDE 3.2 is very nice, Gnome is working much better than it ever has on a SuSE distro. I guess having Ximian and Novell for support pays off. Installation was very nice as should be expected. I know I probably sound like a "fanboy", and to a point I am. But in all honesty SuSE has continued to make my desktop system very comfortable and a joy to use and learn.
The real nice thing is that it is by all accounts fairly enterprise ready by and large. I look forward to 9.2. It just keeps getting better. And Novell to date hasn't had any negative impact on it's development AFAICT. If anything I suspect that SuSE will get more support.
As far as X is concerned it uses the latest pre-release before XFree86 implemented its ever popular "advertising" clause. Discussions related to X.org implementation is that it's being seriously investigated as a replacement, providing that the XFree86 keeps it's present license - X.org's version 6.7.0 or later appears to be the likely candidate for 9.2, as other Linux distro's are likely to adopt this as well IMHO.