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SUSE Linux Enterprise 10, a Closer Look
Tripperfish writes "Mad Penguin's Adam Doxtater has published an in-depth review of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, Novell's alleged 'Vista Killer.' From the article: 'SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 is a very capable, industrial strength desktop which is ready to take on basic desktop chores in the corporate environment, and for the price you simply cannot go wrong. ' The review comes complete with screenshots and Flash movies of the install, new GNOME interface, and Beagle in action."
In no article I've seen has any writer actually suggested or "alleged" that SUSE Enterprise 10 is going to be a "Vista killer," as the story submitter (and transitively, /. editor) purported. Gotta love the FUD.
/. killers, and YouTube killers and now apprently Vista killers...
You certainly wouldn't hear Novell utter those words. I believe that a company that's been around as long as they have has more sense than that and knows that the best they could ever hope for is "Vista competitor." It would be interesting to know just how much of a margin Novell would have to take of Microsoft's sales in order for them to consider the maneuver to be a success.
On a side note, this "killer" stuff is getting way out of hand, with iPod killers and Flash killers, and
Please folks; enough with the killing.
Can't we all just get along?
Falun Dafa is good!
I have a SLES Admin job, and if we weren't sticking with 9 for support reasons (Dell is staying with 9 for the forseeable future 1Y+) I'd be excited to support 10.
KDE is gone - practically erased from the experience. There is a QT4 interface control panel, and a few mentions of Kthis and Kthat, but you hardly ever see it. YaST (GUI) is GTK2/Mono, the Zen software manager is Mono, the Desktop is Gnome.
The usability is almost there.. I give it until version 11, and if HP and Dell get behind it like they say they are, you can validate the 'Vista-killer' remark, no matter how stupid it is.. There will finally be two real alternatives for Intel desk/laptops: Leopard and SLED.
OK. I read the article. The replacement for the start menu is interesting (even if it is, in many ways, like the start menu in XP). I'm glad to see they like Beagle (which I haven't read much about). The fact that single sign-on works with Active Directory is also interesting. But that's not what I take away from the article.
It was written by someone who has no hopes of ever being a journalist and should stop writing to try to convince people.
After reading that article I don't want to try the new SUSE version. I probably wouldn't have if it was written well. But instead, I get an article that is mostly good with a few VERY odd bits thrown in. Like I was reading along about something on the second page or so and came across something along the lines of "... and Mac users (dirty rotten hippies all of 'em". Do you have ANY IDEA how much that makes me respect the author?
That's stupid enough, but he then goes on later to talk about Spotlight and how everyone should try it and how great it is. Last I checked, there was only one way to use Spotlight: on a Mac.
There are other little bits too. Like on the last page when he says that you don't have to worry next year when "Windows ME 2.0 is released" because Linux already has all the features. First, it doesn't. Biggest omission: DirectX 10. Now I know that's not the fault of anyone involved in Linux, but the statement is wrong. More importantly, it is a cheap shot.
If the article was all fan-boy ravings, that would be one thing. If the article was all high-quality overview, that would be another. But the author can't seem to decide which of those he is. In fact, the author couldn't even decided to take a middle ground.
This kind of stuff only hurts the community. I see next to no honest reviews of Linux. I tons of "Windows is dead!" reviews that just don't take everyday use into account for the average user. Here's a great OS. It's perfect for your little sister. But only one of her 12 games will run, that will take work. And you can't buy games for it so you are basically giving up playing commercial games on your computer. Yes, you can dual boot Windows and play games that way. What's that you say? So why bother with Linux?
This kind of stuff is just juvenile. You can point out SUSE has features of Vista now without calling it "Windows ME 2.0". You can point out people use Macs without calling them all dirty hippies.
And you can guarantee I'll never read an article off that site again.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
I think Novell's strategy with SLED isn't to bill it as a wholesale replacement for XP in the general desktop, but for "edge" workstations, like help desk people. I personally think it'd be great for a developer machine -- if you were a Java or Web developer, at least.
But if they want to be successful at all, they'll need to nail these two things:
1) Marketing
2) Alleviating fears about training and support.
And Novell has been known to suck at (1) -- and it's going to be all uphill for (2). But good luck to them, because we need more variety in computing to keep MS on their toes and valuing their developers more so that they actually have to compete on merits for a change.
random underscore blankspace at ya know hoo dot comedy.
One of the main reasons I stick with SuSE is because of bleeding edge KDE builds and bleeding edge builds of every KDE/QT based package (Amarok is very important to how I live). Is this going to be some kind of Grand Plan going forward, or is this "GNOME is easier for the average desktop user, so that's our Enterprise desktop product" because KDE has too much customization for the corporate desktop? Give SuSE's history with KDE, I would really hate to see them fall out of the K mainstream. I don't think I could live with GNOME's limitations on my customization of my own experience, it's very important to me that I can make my desktops do exactly what I want them to do for the way that I do my job.
I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop when Novell bought out Ximian, is this that shoe?
I like music
I've been on the beta the entire time and I have to say that I'm very happy with what they've done. Yes, I work quite a bit with Novell so I'm biased but having tried to support desktop Linux deployments using other solutions has been miserable. The amount of time and money that's gone into making SLED 10 enterprise ready is impressive. They even have an intro video with clips for all the major pieces of the desktop for helping new users (similar to the Windows XP new user intro) so that it's as easy as possible for new users to get up and running. The gnome menu interface is very slick with the beagle integration and the end result is a very clean desktop. For anyone who is interested in trying it out you can get it from Novell (you have to fill out a survey first). I highly recommend just giving it a try to at least see what Novell's been up to.
Always take these kind of reviews with a grain of salt. It just isn't possible to get a feel for a system after using it for just a couple of weeks.
1. Package management is very important. Can the package manager automatically handle conflicts and upgrade as many packages as possible without screwing up? Will I have to use some weird command line incantation like "yum --resolve-pkgs xyz-1.0 -f -v -qr ~/.yumrc" when things go wrong or something equally horrible?
2. Is it forward compatible? That is, does SUSE have an equivalent to "apt-get dist-upgrade"?
3. Where are the DROP SHADOWS?!? The screenshots show the Compiz WM presumably running on Xgl, so there should be drop shadows in there.
4. Since the WM used is Compiz it means you have lots of cute effects, like wobbly windows, transparency and shadows. It also means you don't have all the useful features that a mature WM like Metacity has; like proper workspaces (the desktop cube isn't fully developed yet last I looked at it), accessability options, lots of different themes to choose from, configurable keybindings etc.
5. Why Gnome 2.12? Gnome 2.12 wasn't a very good release for me, speed wise it was a noticable regression from 2.10. Thankfully most of those regressions have been fixed in 2.14 so I'm very surprised to hear about this SUSE shipping with 2.12. One would hope that the upgrade path to 2.14 would be smooth and painless, see point 2.
In short, SUSE 10 has some very exciting new features, Windows-like start menu, Beage integration, very good looking icon set and Xgl. But I doubt it is a Vista killer or even an Ubuntu killer because of the aforementioned points. I'll stick with Ubuntu, but I really hope that the Ubuntu devs will copy all the cool features from SUSE 10.
This one release isn't going to be a Windows killer. However, consistant high quality releases like this over the next few years will definatly make a huge impact. It won't happen all at once. We'll just step back in 5 years and say "wow, linux has 20% desktop market share. When did this happen?".
If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
I don't think there will be a Windows-killer until someone figures out a (legal or economic) way to get around Microsoft's network effect. It is an unfortunate fact that for many people (but not all), much of an OS's value is extrinsic - derived from the use of that same software/supported standards by others. Because MS intentionally destroys interoperability with others, and because it is the de facto standard for many things (but certainly not all), an alternative OS/software system (like OpenOffice) would have to have much higher intrinsic value to make up for the reduced extrinsic value.
Wake me up when this happens, I'll buy everyone a drink.
I've just downloaded and installed it on a Centrino laptop, and I think any enterprise which does not consider it will be missing a major opportunity.
It is a lot simpler to configure and use than XP, and the default install includes an intelligent selection of the best of open source and proprietary Linux software, from project planners to video editors. The install was as easy and quick as Doxtater suggests, and connection to our network was simple and seamless with both the wireless and wired LANs. I've only used the install for a couple of hours, but if anything, the reviewer has understated the usefulness of Beagle. When I selected text in Firefox to copy and paste here, the pop-up menu has a "Beagle" option which offers to find references to the text or the link
In fact, the version I've downloaded (RC3) looks like it's a bit more recent than the version reviewed. On the desktop is a link to a "Quick Start Tour", which is a training package in html/flash that takes you through step-by-step instructions for all of the major components of the OS and applications. There's more than sixty courses there.
The feel is much more polished than any other Linux distro I've used, and the interface is clear and consistent in use. OSX is prettier, but SLED 10 has a clean businesslike style which works well and is not intrusive. It definitely makes XP look old and clunky.
Make no mistake, this is a landmark distro. For the first time, I'd feel confident about sitting an average computer user in front of a Linux distro and telling them to get started. The clean interface and built-in training mean that most would have less difficulty making the transition to SLED than they would from Win 2000 to XP.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."