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OpenSUSE 11.3 Is Here
lukehashj writes "The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of the latest incarnation of openSUSE, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. OpenSUSE 11.3 is packed with new features and updates including SpiderOak to sync your files across the Internet for free, Rosegarden for free editing of your audio files, improved indexing with Tracker, and updates to Mozilla Firefox, and Thunderbird."
Does anyone actually use OpenSUSE anymore? For an all purpose Linux distro, Ubuntu and Fedora seem to have the market cornered. (speaking non-commercially that is)
Stand on you own head for a change! --TMBG
A bit, imho, far more relevant ones, are described in Top Features. Support for Btrfs, and the visual interface of Meego for netbooks, sound to me a bit more interesting, apart of the usual incremental improvement over previous versions.
Glad to see Rosegarden gets a mention... it's great program. Spideroak... eh - at least for the free verison. Haven't played with it, but Dropbox had this covered long before Spideroak. And I can use Truecrypt with dropbox. That and the client is 75 megs. Rather large for my tastes.
I'll have to give this a try on one of my machines (currently have 11.2 installed on one).
I was at a European conference a week ago and there were quite a few attendees with laptops running some version of openSUSE. A previous UK computer science department I was in also used openSUSE as its distro.
Seriously, can't people who write software choose meaningful, easy-to-remember names for their programs?
How the hell is 'rosegarden' supposed to make me think about editing audio files? And that 'SpiderOak' name is a joke, right?
What is this "Linux" thing? Is that a new Apple or Microsoft product?
Well when you quit submitting quality links with great summaries this website has just gone to hell.
Why don't you submit better stories with great summaries anymore?
I am of course being sarcastic, but really if you want better submit better.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
how did you get 100%?
In soviet Russia, God creates you!
Take the cost of Windows. Reduce it by 100% and you get free, which is the price of openSUSE.
Math is hard.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
It's Google's.
And had Novell not gotten in bed with Microsoft, I might even consider SuSE. However, they did, and thus SuSE was completely removed from my radar (and most everyone else in our Linux User's Group. Now it is Mandriva, Fedora, and Ubuntu.
I understand those sentiments. However, as a Linux advocate, I want Linux to grow and succeed. Part of that means that people need migration paths from Microsoft solutions to Linux solutions. Novell seems to be the one company working on interoperability and migration paths to help people.
In striking the patent deal, it helps protect Novell as they work on Samba, Mono, etc. which in turn open the door for enterprise environments to integrate Linux in a Windows envrionment.
Not to mention, since openSUSE is free (as in beer) you're not financially supporting Novell. If you don't donate or contribute back, you're actually adding to their financial burdern.
openSUSE is also community driven, so you're really spiting the community more than Novell.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Owned. Great points Andrew. I for one think that openSUSE is a great distro. I took a Linux class where we learned Linux and ran on it. I do love my Ubuntu for every day use but it is a great distro and Novell has some muscle to keep pushing Linux forward.
This is the first time BitTorrent indicated it would take more than a year to download.
Just in time for my torrent of OpenSuSe 11.4!
*ducks*
I appreciate your informative and enlightened response (I wish there were more like you on Slashdot). Do believe me when I say that the SuSE distro is a good one, and I, too, want to see everything Linux grow and succeed. I also think that the goal of furthering MS-Linux interactivity is a good one.
However, I am a very, very long term Unix and Linux users and advocate and monitor things like this pretty closely and didn't like what I saw or the outcome. I do believe that when Novell entered into that patent arrangement with Microsoft, it sent a chilling effect through the Linux/FOSS environment and caused some real damage. For that, I find it hard to "forgive" Novell. To me, it negated a lot of the good things that Novell (and through proximity, the SuSE community) had done. Support of SuSE, even if not monetary, still supports Novell's products and services (through mind share).
They could have handled it better. They could have done things differently. I think they should have. I know not everyone agrees with me, but that is OK :)
I'm worried that Microsoft could try to claim that it proves Linux as-is infringes on Microsoft patents. However, does Microsoft really want a lengthy SCO-type trial?
Linus has said he's pretty sure there is prior art for anything Microsoft would try to claim.
In the end, it infused Novell with cash (which they needed) and gave Novell security that they wouldn't be sued.
Personally, I don't think Microsoft really can start a massive patent war against Linux on the whole because the EU has already twice dropped massive fines on them, and said if they didn't work on interoperability (which I think led to the Novell deal) the EU would ban the sale of Microsoft products in the EU.
Microsoft's hands are somewhat tied here. They can try a little FUD every now and then, but they can't do much damage.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
[correction]
32 internal + [128] expansion for 160 total. I used to have a 256 RAM expansion in this machine which made Win98 run like a rocket, but one day it just stopped working. Annoying. :-|
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
openSUSE also has a lightweight version with the LXDE desktop, and an XFCE desktop.
DSL can run Linux with 32 megs of memory.
My point about migration is migrating your workflow processes and data.
If you're files are in Microsoft Office format, and your Linux distro can't open them, then you can't really switch to Linux without losing your data.
Novell is the one pushing the most with integrating with existing Microsoft products to allow people to take their data with them, or work alongside Windows boxes.
Mono also provides a .NET alternative in Linux, so you can take your .NET apps and run them in Linux.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Why are you buying a free distro?
Anybody want my mod points?
its no mater now the patent deal with suse expired and they never renewed it. manly due to m$ doing nothing to help suse. the deal was ment to let suse use Microsoft stuff with them helping make suse apps it never happond just took there money and didnt give a thing back.
I love the way they take the single most important step in their tactics to undermine Linux and pretend it is intended to achieve exactly the opposite of what it is designed for.
Still, no problem. They are rapidly gaining pace as they slide down that slippery slope with Miguel steering the sled ever more frantically.
when you buy a distro like suse it comes with non-oss software and pro support.not just the community irc but real phone support. so your buying the commercial softwhere part and support.
i don't think mono can just run a windows compile .net app lol. but it does make it easy to port .net apps over to linux.
Can I update V 11.2 , 11.1 in place and expect not lose what I have ?
Likely?, Yes ?, impossible?
or no?
Yes you can. With 11.2 you can either do it via the updater (zypper ) or do an upgrade from the appropriate CD / DVD. I can't remember if 11.1 can do a dist upgrade via zypper or not.
I normally just do the upgrade from DVD, and have always done so. I've never had any significant issues in the past. I normally do some testing on OpenSUSE releases and that is the thing I concentrate on, making sure that upgrades work (NB. I was a slacker this time and didn't do any testing on 11.3)
Ever stop to think
I installed it today. The problems I see already are that the Wiki and Forums are respectively incomplete (even for 11.2) and out of date; and the ATI and NVIDIA proprietary drivers are difficult to install. On the plus side, the open source ATI drivers for my machine were installed out of the box. The ability to set up encrypted volumes was easy using the installer. The installer is also full of features and elegant. I also like the Dolphin-Superuser mode which is absent in Kubuntu. Installation of restricted multimedia codecs, dvdcss, and flash was a one-click deal. Overall I'm impressed.
I believe Novell has been a better shepherd of this distribution than the original owners and have built a much better community. And their distro of OpenOffice.org, Go-OO, rocks--which is why it has become the default version in several other Linux distros. Honestly, I just wish they had some products that made them more money--like Netware used to--so they could go on contributing so much to the open source community. Let's face it, Samba, Mono, and Moonlight--while in many contexts being self-serving for Microsoft--really have made a serious contribution to Linux/Windows interoperability. I look forward to using the new release of openSUSE in the Linux+ class I am teaching this fall--along with Fedora and Ubuntu, of course.
Oh dear, I use Ubuntu, so I'm not nearly nerdy enough! Whatever should I do?
For the record I've used many many distros over the course of many many years and Ubuntu was the first one that didn't require directing 50% of my free time to hand-editing config files and glaring angry at man pages. Actually I think its the first distro that recognized any wifi card I've ever used, and 90% of the sound chips/cards (though still not on an old iBook). To me that is more important than being "nerdy enough".
I don't equate doing more work that I have to with being a nerd, I associate it with being stupid.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
Used to like suse, it was once my favorite, now I only use it because I have to. My biggest gripe: they think it's okay to replace 'standard' commands with their own -that don't behave the same or are just a redirect to yast. gpasswd has a -a, and no matter how broken you think grub-install is, you DON'T FUCKING RENAME SHIT THAT DOESN'T BELONG TO YOU. Rename your own whiz-bang tool and let it compete on its own merits. bastards.
My second biggest gripe is yast itself. It's great if you ONLY EVER use yast to do anything -you have to restrict yourself the (quite) narrow use case the suse devs are able to imagine. And that's really the crux of the problem with suse, just like Windows, if they didn't think of it already it's going to be unnecessarily difficult to do in suse.
Apple does the same thing on product releases, funny enough.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
I'm using SLED, the paid-for version. *Every* time there is an fglrx update, SaX2 breaks the config and I can't start X. Unfortunately I'm using a Dell desktop, so I'm guessing that is the real issue. That and the ATI proprietary module.
I get around it by running aticonfig and then rebuilding the xorg.conf file by hand.
I am not a robot. I am a unicorn.
I equate an lack of knowledge plus inability with stupidity.
That could be true, but often it only means a lack of education or experience. When I first used a computer (much less any *nix) I lacked both knowledge and ability, it wasn't stupidity. More important is the ability and willingness to learn.
Also, how does one leach off of open source? Its not like OSS is a limited commodity.
A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government. -edward abbey
The EVIL Novell has done it again! OpenSuse which by the way is free as in $0.00 USD. Patches and updates are free as $0.00 USD. If you want Novel's SLES product, guess what it is free as well AND includes 60 days worth of updates and if you want it out farther then it costs you around $30.00 USD a month The NERVE! Those fuckers from Novel hell gaul selling support AND pushing all their changes back to the Free Version they are such bastards!
You folks need to get that stick worked out of your collective asses. Novel's rock solid support of the Linux Community is on-par with Red Hat and all the rest of them and in many ways it is better.
How many distros come with an Oracle option ready to role? Yast may not handle all the various Apache configuration strangeness the way you might like it, but if you use it as designed it works damn fine. It could have a much better Firewall config utility but they are getting there. I have installed it on many many different versions of hardware and in 99% of the cases it has just found all the parts bits and pieces and handled them quite well. I even put it on a ancient IBM Thinkpad and the only glitch was a display setting and one quick google search solved that problem.
The SLED Distro is a great desktop OS and handles prety much anything you want to throw at it and then some and does it better then most any other Distro. So all you zealots can have a tall cool glass of Shut The Fuck up. And as for giving people a reason to migrate to MS, that's funny since I just moved an entire company ( 100 Desktops ) from Windows XP to OpenSuse.
Hey KID! Yeah you, get the fuck off my lawn!
Is that is comes with LXDE as one of the desktop environment options. My system is taking 90mb of ram with nothing running while using LXDE. Also it comes with the virtualbox drivers and kernel modules. I can enable seamless mode in virtualbox without installing the guest additions.
Just to be clear the non-OSS software is available for free in the non-oss repository. When you buy the distro you're buying support, full stop.
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
The ISO file supposed to be over 4 GB but I got less than 200 MB !!
This is the link I got http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/11.3/iso/openSUSE-11.3-DVD-x86_64.iso
An alternative link also got me an ISO that is less than 200 MB
http://ftp.riken.jp/Linux/opensuse/distribution/11.3/iso/openSUSE-11.3-DVD-x86_64.iso
Can someone please tell me what I have done wrong??
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
>And was this the only reason you gave up on SuSE? Grow up.
"Tom was married to Sally for 5 years. But one day Sally got strange and stabbed Tom. Tom left Sally. And that was the only reason he gave up on Sally? Grow up"
As I said all the software is available for free in the online repositories, the commercial stuff (java, flash etc.) is in non-oss but still available for free whether you bought the box or downloaded for free.
You are only paying for the support and the convenience of not having to download everything using online repositories.
(This is as far as I can tell from forum posts and info on the opensuse website, if you have other info from a reliable source please post the link.)
Pre-canned Evolution Links for all those Slashdot holy wars.
I know, we can call it "Bitterface," because of the experimental Btrfs support.
Get off my launchpad!
SuSE is from my radar as well. It doesn't even exist anymore. There is SUSE (SLES and SLED) and openSUSE. SuSE is an old name, just as S.u.S.E. was. Just like Mandrake had a name change, so did SuSE.
It is also a pity that you are led by hatred for a company. Why not just check it out to see what the "competition" is doing?
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
The wordt that could happen is that Microsoft gives code to Novell. You can bet that Novell will want that recieved as OSS. I already can see the trial.
Microsft: They have our source code
Judge: Who gave that to them?
Microsoft: We did.
Judge: Under what licence?
Microsoft: Uh, Open Source, but it is ours.
Jusdge: Case dismissed
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
>>>DSL can run Linux with 32 megs of memory.
Ditto Puppy Linux but they both suffer the same flaw - not well supported (at least that's my experience). With the 96 megabyte Lightweight Ubuntu you have a lot of software to choose from and onlinehelp backing you up.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
>>>SUSE might be the greatest OS ever made, but I want to take a moment to plug
I just suddenly realized I sound like Kanye West. "Taylor Swift congrats on your award, but I want to take a moment to plug my girl Beyonce'!"
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
If they release it open source, it is open source. It doesn't matter who has a copyright on it. No one can touch you then.
But that isn't how the Microsoft/Novell deal is working. They have a signed patent agreement protecting both companies from law suits. MS can't sue them over those patents, period.
On top of that, the Mono and Moonlight team are not only releasing GPL code, they own the copyright to the code.
Microsoft is providing technical specifications, but Novell is doing all their own coding so they own it 100%.
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Actually it has been possible to do a dup since 10.3, but it wasnt a supported option untilll 11.2. On my main desktop I have been upgrading since 10.3 and on my laptops since 11.0.
I don't care what you call it, it is the Linux distro bought/led/created/supported/owned/associated with/whatever by Novell. I don't see anything wrong with disliking what a company does and no longer wanting to support it. In fact, it is pretty normal consumer behavior. I never said the word "hate", by the way. I simply said they are no longer on my radar (nor most of the people I know that use Linux).
naw...
Just the red hat users who've jumped ship....
um...wonder how it got to be 2nd largest user base given no one is
using it...
gotta wonder who's sayin' what...
thers a few like i said and not flash or java those are not oss but free. theirs some software that is actually retail priced for linux. thers a dvd player softwhere i cant rember the name being everyone uses vlc these days. theirs a av software and some games. and in some packages suse at least used to sell would include this software.