Slashdot Mirror
SuSE 6.1 for Alpha
Philipp Rumpf writes "SuSE began shipping the first official version of their SuSE distribution for Compaq's (former Digital's) 64-bit Alpha architecture this week in Germany. "
I'm glad to see SuSE finally expanding into non-x86 platforms. With any luck, it'll be available
in the states soon.
It's nice to see that sometimes US are waiting
for our very nice products, and not the opposite.
It's nice to see that Suse are interested in
the fabulous Alpha processor.
Good things !!!
Can someone from SuSe, tell us if Simon still works there? sim@suse.de, we need some pretty important information regarding pm2 drivers from him. Apparently he's not been replying to e-mails for a few weeks. We fear much of his lastest work might be lost (if he's out of suse by now). Thanks.
Some ppl from #debian on OPN
Maybe I am wrong, but I think I've read a couple of days ago on c't that SuSE is in fact earning more money than RH selling linux distros. I haven't got the magazine here at the moment, so could someone confirm this?
No, errata is bad. It just shows they rushed 6.0 out the door and didn't bpther to take the time to clean it up before they did.
MS doesn't even release 100MB of errata. (Maybe.)
If Linux is to have a good rap for reliability, the most popular distribution shouldn't be so screwed.
(By the way, I'm using RH 5.2 now so don't get on me about being anti-linux. I'm just pro-quality.
-Girc
I'm tired of dealing with the Intel interrupt/io/base memory headaches.
Maybe someday Intel will have to think about not only Cyrix and AMD, but also Alpha, PPC, StrongArm (whatever happened to the low-electricity NetWinder?) and others.
Viva competition!
2.2 does not require anything more than what you have already. i had 2.2.9 running on a rh5.1 install.
Too bad they don't state support for the Multia
or Jensen. At least Red Hat and Debian support
the older boxes.
Maybe you should try using the SuSE mailing lists. There are even a couple of SuSE guys posting there (partly privately, I assume).
I've made good experiences with the German support, but this was some time ago, and maybe they're a little bit overwhelmed by their success at the moment.
As for your problems, I can confirm neither of them.
Try installing the SuSE rpms of KDE 1.1.1, and check again. Otherwise it may be a X server problem.
Does it ship GNOME and KDE?
Which desktop works better on 64 bit platforms?
Mostly due to imlib.
Why does an announcement like this always end up in a discussion about what distribution is best or wether a company is trying to earn money and how? Use the distribution you like and be happy :-) Lots of other ppl like one distribution or the other and that must have reasons somewhere... otherwise the distribution wouldn't exist anymore due to lack of ppl that use it. Some people see the question as to what distribution to use as a religious issue and are quite militant about it.. Try to be objective...No distribution is without flaws anyway.
I don't agree with the idea that x.0 releases should be allowed to be buggy. This is just one of those habits introduced by MS and the like.
Sure, new features usually mean new problems, but this cannot be an excuse for premature releases like RedHat 6.0.
SuSE 6.0/1 had more rough edges than 5.3 as well, but it was nowhere terrible mess with RedHat 6.0 (and RedHat 5.0/1)
My Mom would probably disagree that I'm not existing ;-)
Anyhow, regarding your request, you forgot to state, that you
- recompiled the kernel (6.1 does not ship with 2.2.9)
- have a firewall setup at home
both of which is NOT included in SuSE installation support.
If you discover bugs in SuSE Linux, you're welcome to report them to
feedback@suse.de
feedback@suse.de will not answer support questions, but they will forward bug reports to our developers.
In addition, you may want to read my answer again: I gave some tips regarding both problems.
I'm gona install it on my little multia, but
I went to their web site, can only find a few update files, no sight of the whole distro!
so where are the files?
BTW multia should be ok, right?
First, there is a weird telnet problem. I have a LAN of 4 machines sharing a cable modem via >gateway
>running Debian 2.1 / 2.2.9. Telnet from my >computer (running SuSE 6.1 / 2.2.9) to the >gateway is slow to
>the point of being absolutely unusable. Other >machines work fine.
Sounds like an interrupt conflict. Try setserial.
>And btw, windows on my machine
>works too. Never had this problem before I >installed SuSE.
I am sorry that windows works now, but it think its not so difficult to fix this. Try "format c:"
>Second, KDE keeps locking up. Once in a while it >just freezes. I can still move the mouse but >nothing works. The only way to "fix" this is by >pressing ctrl-alt-backspace to kill the X server. >Never had this problem before either.
I had this Problem also with a unnamed GX/S3 Graphics Card when running with 16 Bit color depth. With 24 Bit completely stable.
Johannes
Unfortunately, small bugs in KDE and XFree86 require rerelease of the whole package, not just the tiny part with the bugs --- that's most of the size right there.
It's also not out of line compared to RH5.0....
-- brandon s. allbery, sysadmin @ cmu electrical & computer engineering "Think, youth, THINK!"
I disagree. Errata is good. It shows someone is paying attention to problems and willing to fix errors. In this case, it is timely and thorough. More bugfixes, the merrier.
Consider the x.0 releases new that contains many changes and issues to be ironed out. I could say the same about Redhat 5.0. The rock solid releases were 4.2 and 5.2. If a person values stability, old is good and should stick with what has been fixed and proven, not the latest out the door.
SuSE 6.1 (for intel at least) has two very nasty bugs that I've been trying to get rid of (unsuccessfuly) for the last two month.
First, there is a weird telnet problem. I have a LAN of 4 machines sharing a cable modem via gateway running Debian 2.1 / 2.2.9. Telnet from my computer (running SuSE 6.1 / 2.2.9) to the gateway is slow to the point of being absolutely unusable. Other machines work fine. And btw, windows on my machine works too. Never had this problem before I installed SuSE.
Second, KDE keeps locking up. Once in a while it just freezes. I can still move the mouse but nothing works. The only way to "fix" this is by pressing ctrl-alt-backspace to kill the X server.
Never had this problem before either.
Finaly, SuSE "tech support" is non-existant. I've been trying to contact them for over a month. They finally replied yesterday only to say that they've no idea. They also said they were very busy lately. So busy, I presume that they couldn't even change their autoreply message. Last I emailed them (beginning of July), it said that their office will be closed on May 25...
I loved Debian ever since I installed Hamm almost a year ago. So I think I'll stick with it for both, server and workstation.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
Please.
The only proprietary thing about SuSE are it's setup tools, and all you "real" linux users don't need them. (YaST, sax)There is commercial software on the CD, but by default it is NOT installed, and you have a choice.
As for the microsoft comment, why don't you take a look at all the commercial, proprietary software that is RedHat "only" and tell me which is worse.
The copper bosses killed you, Joe. 'I never died', said he.
Hmmm... my RH5.2 Alpha is ticking along just fine, but I had been wanting to try out 2.2.x on it, so maybe I should just install SUSE...
Hah! For years the biggest thing holding up the Alpha platform were the three letters D, E, and C. Digital might have had it's day, but for years they've had the reputation of "legacy" and "going out of business".
Since Compaq took over, they've discovered there's a pretty big pent-up-demand for Alpha systems and Tru64/DU - People who loved the technololgy, but couldn't pull the trigger on the vendor. Right or Wrong, that's the case.
In short, Digital Equipment's brand name hasn't really had any weight for the last two or three generations of IT people. (Perhaps, it's still magic in the VMS market.) If Compaq hadn't bought DEC, they would have probably pulled a Borland and renamed themselves.
--
Business. Numbers. Money. People. Computer World.
Errata is good. It keeps systems bug free.
Most of what gets fixed is not from RedHat's sloppy distribution, it is from fixes made by people who upgrade their own software. Then RedHat makes the latest available in the form of rpms. Example: the kernel. The a newer kernel was posted because it was less prone to DNS attacks. The kernel is not written by RedHat, they just make the latest available.
Another example: Netscape 4.6 is in there. It's essentially just an upgrade from the included 4.5. You don't have to get it, but it's nice to have!
Now that they've brought installs up to a level where mere mortals can handle it, and built some intelligent sys-admin tools, the distro makers are presented with several new challenges:
- multiplatform distro (Redhat was first? with RH-alpha)
- mid-large server versions for serious servers
- development on better smp/clustering (kernel & apps)
- stablize linux desktop/workstation environments (ala gnome/kde)
It's good to see debian making progress in an area that I consider critical for the distro makers to address. On a separate but related note, I think I'm going to make my next linux box debian instead of using redhat again. I'm disapointed with the 6.x release, and debian's been getting good (peer) reviews onassist efforts to develop quality drivers for USB/Firewire/3D-Video-Cards to linux. hw vendors might be more cooperative with a "corporate partner" that they have with the myriad of kernel hackers that have developed the code so far.
-earl
I can confirm this. They made more money and they even have some winnings, unlike Red Hat.
See here their numbers
I like Beta-Testing Software, but only when I decide to do so. At other times I just want good clean software that does its job, and does it well. Nothing worse than wasting time repairing other peoples mistakes.
DEC still exsists. It's just a part of Compaq now. But the archetecture still technically belongs to Digital.
... Compaq shouldn't be allowed to disolve it.
Why must Compaq disolve all the corporations it merges with? First it was Tandem. Nobody even knows who or what Tandem is anymore. Then DEC. Slowly Compaq has started to erase the Digital name from its websites, products and manuals. They suck. DEC is a historic corporation
Right now I'm using Slackware 3.5 for general desktop apps. However, I'm looking to switch to another distro which is more easily configurable, and has better package support. I've been comparing docs and flames from a lot of source and have determined IMHO that SuSE and Debian seem to be the most complete/stable distros out there (I don't like Redhat 5.1 from experience). I would like some _serious_ input as to the quirks/features of either of these systems especially in the areas of setup utilities, glibc2 support, and security. And yes I know that Yast isn't published under GPL and that really doen't matter to me. All I want is a reliable, loaded, desktop and ftp site on one machine. I know this is a lot to ask but it would really be helpful if you told me some real experiences instead of flaming distros.
Thanks
I agree: RH 6.0 is not so good! Is More than 100MB of errata a record?
It's great to see another big player in the Linux world, expanding like this. This move by SuSE, the biggest European dist (afaik), represents a big boost to the future of Linux.
...Student, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Mong.
* Paul Madley
*...Slacker, Artist, Techie - Geek *
Remember: Nothing is Cool.