Posts Tagged 'opensuse'

OpenSUSE 11.1 ships December 18th, 2008 for both download and boxed editions!

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Category: Supporting

Published on Monday, 15 December 2008 00:00

Written by Administrator

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My favorite Linux distribution is ready to be delivered in no less than 2 days...

I will share it with bittorrent 2 weeks long and will provide some first feedback on how it react on my 2 computer.

Sneak Peeks at openSUSE 11.1: Improved Installation, Easier Administration

Vista/Mac OSX has raised the bar in the area of good looking desktop, but openSUSE is now also able to fight back, just look at the screen  shots below for getting an insight in the new openSUSE 11.1:

• Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1
• Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 RC1
• Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 5
• Screenshots of openSUSE 11.1 Beta 4

Upon logging into your openSUSE desktop, you’ll be asked to send some hardware information to the Smolt Project. I like the idea of submitting real hardware profiles to developer so they can really concentrate on real hardware support requirement. In the same area, I would like to see a post mortem process crash agent like in XP/Vista so real statistics can be made and bugs corrected faster...

Quick review of SuSE 10.0

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Category: SuSE 10.0

Published on Tuesday, 11 October 2005 00:00

Written by Administrator

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Suse 10 linux I've done right now the migration to Suse linux 10 on 2 computer

Novell has killed the SUSE pro version and now offer:

• A box version, for 59€
  
• An Eval version (identical content as the box version but without printed manual or support) this one can be download using http, ftp mirror or better bittorent.
  
• A 3rd version, which is open source only (understand without any commercial or closed source apps) can also be downloaded from www.opensuse.org
  

Note that all 3 versions above share the same source code base (open source kernel and extension developped at www.opensuse.org)

As usual, if You want to try for the first time a linux distribution, I recommend You to try the live DVD version (both 32 bits and 64 bits cpu version is available).

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My experience with Update

1. HP nx7000 has been migrated succesffuly from suse 9.3 to 10 without any pain (reboot ladtop with dvd inside and choose installation then update) Note that before updating I was forced to remove all major (and for me vital application): Videolan, mplayer, amule among others... The wireless and bluetooth card are working perfectly without any intervention (was not the case under 9.3 pro)
   
2. My destop during update always hang after 54 minutes (during install of rpm mms (a winamp like) install) I was force to do a fresh install. I am convince it can not be a SUSE fault.

Quick review:

• a lot more polished in KDE control center (thanks to KDE 3.4.2)

• blazing fast during boot time, for sure 5 times faster with my setup (same hardware) - responsiveness desktop as ever, the NVIDIA driver installed after "online update" allow 3D acceleration right out the box

• Superkaramba has been integrated into KDE, it has never been so easy to locate new themes (so call desktop widget), thanks to an integrated search engine, install or administrate them.
  
• The "search box" in start menu is so great that I do not understand why microsoft has not done it before. this "search box" act like a search engine which allow You to queries the start menu with keywords. Example? searching a browser program by "internet", or "browser" highlight matching entries

A detailled review will follow soon....

Links to reviews

1. Mad penguin http://madpenguin.org/cms/index.php/?m=show&id=5382&page=1

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SuSE 10.1 released

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Category: Suse 10.1

Published on Thursday, 11 May 2006 20:10

Written by Administrator

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SUSE Linux 10.1 is available for download at the following mirrors. This release is SuSE 10.1 and not different from what you will later be able to buy in a store. The boxed retail comes with 5 CDs for x86 and one DVD9 for x86 and x86_64 and it also includes non-OSS software. It also comes with a nice, thick printed manual and 30 days of support. You won't get that with the free download. The free download comes on 5CDs without non-OSS software and one add-on CD with this non-OSS software. Later (hopefully not much later) there will be two DVD5 releases, one for x86 and one for x86_64 that are almost identical with the retail DVD9 and that include OSS and non-OSS software. TORRENTS http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/SL-10.1/ TORRENTS (MIRROR) http://ftp-1.gwdg.de/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/ http://suse.mirrors.tds.net/pub/opensuse/distribution/SL-10.1/ http://keith.hostmatrix.org/SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-i386.torrent http://97k.ath.cx/ul/SUSE-Linux-10.1-GM-x86_64.torrent Product Highlights XGL on SUSE 10.1 For those who prefer the DVD version, You ll have to buy the box version or use a small LINUX utility called 'makeSuseDVD' out. It will take the 5 CD ISOs and build a single DVD iso.

SuSE 10.2 released

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Category: SuSE 10.2

Published on Monday, 11 December 2006 21:12

Written by Administrator

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  After lot of work, we proudly announce the availability of openSUSE 10.2 formerly know as SUSE Linux 10.x
It's available for download on http://download.openSUSE.org in x86, x86-64, and ppc versions -
via ftp from our mirrors and bittorrent.
openSUSE 10.2 will be offered as boxed product in Europe through retail as
usual. In North America the box will be available through  http://www.shopnovell.com. Due to production lead time first boxes will show up on shelves and onlineshops mid of December. Anounce HERE

I recommend You to use OpenSuSE Torrent files and a bittorrent client like Azureus.

Here are also some links to reviews:
Screenshots and Desktop Linux and a hacking guide to add non-free apps on 10.2.

A desktop review

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Category: SuSE 9.1 reviews

Published on Thursday, 26 August 2004 00:00

Written by Administrator

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SUSE 9.1
a desktop review
installing and/or migration to Linux SuSE 9.1

WORK IN PROGRESS, running SuSE 9.1 since tuesday 11 May 2004....
SuSE 9.1 soon running on compaq nx7000 notebook

Test system:

One more time, here is my system, The Linux experience you will have is very depending on hardware (and also drivers).....

What does SuSE 9.1 brings?

I wont go through the list of changes and goodies shipped in this release since SuSE itself has also a great page HERE (professional edition) and HERE (personal edition). Note that SuSE is selling at a very attracting price the personal edition (49$) with limited server capabilities and no commercial programs.

beautifulDesktop.jpg

Migration from 9.0 to SuSE 9.1

This time I retrieve the SuSE professional DVD from colleague and did not buy it, as I prefer to wait for another major release. But wait this is a major release of Linux, I think that the release number is really not so well adequate and do not reveal the number of changes does both in kernel (2.6) and desktop (kde 3.2)

If you copy the DVD, You will get no support from SuSE directly (but you will always find help on internet), also a great help section is provided in electronic format, downside it wont be readable without a working SuSE.. FTP online update is due around the 6 June 2004....

Since I have a running version of Linux, I decide this time to update the previous SuSE 9.0 through the YaST menu (Boot and choose Update System), after 21 min update, I was booting into my new desktop with my old settings. The boot time seems to take forever, it "SEEMS" to me that it is a loooot slower.

With this version, SuSE and Novell are now showing us their commitment to the open source community and have also GNU their famous configuration tool: YaST. This is also a strategical move since they want that the maximal number of third companies develop new modules for it (IBM, ....). That is a good news since a lot of people always complains on the licensing scheme of YaST. In the meantime, YaST is now a lot more polished...understand the ubiquity of the YaST logo and eye candy colors. Even the installation process has been redesigned with fancy graphics.

YouInPaleBlue.jpg

Coming from Windows?

- In order to help users to make the transition to Linux, drives (in Linux world, it is better to say devices) are a now stored under the famous icons "My Computer" and mount a lot more faster than under the 9.0. I only regret that the system choose so bad name as default (Is it needed to display a cryptic UUID in the name of devices????).

myComputer.jpg

- Dual Booting Windows and SuSE is as easier as before, and has not changed. the boot loader grub with its fancy colors is a lot better than M$ one. That should at least convince You to make a try ;-)

- SuSe is now earlier hiding, during the boot, all ouput statements done by the kernel. I must agree that nearly no one can understand all barbarians technical terms, I still recommend to press sometimes the key 'F2' to newbies, seeing if a devices did not init. may be valuable under certains conditions. (mainly hardware crash)

- the most disturbing things for a newcomer is that you do not need to double click on folder or file to do an action, to approach the windows phylosophy, go the KDE control panel, in  "peripherals", "mouse", and checked the radio button "Double-click to open files and folders (select icons on first click)". Maybe SuSE should set this as default...

- During installation, the auto login feature is checked as default. Forget this bad windows habit. If SuSe is already login the system automatically, start YaST, in "security", "Edit and create groups", select your user and click on button "Expert Options" and select "login settings", uncheck "auto login". Remember security come at a cost.

What I dislikes

• I was one more time catch by the death black screen, (I must be really dumb because that is the second time ) the autodetection of monitor (my SAMSUNG 191N was detected as SAMSUNG 4N) lead to a black screen, Maybe SuSE, should always test (with SAX2, the graphical display adapter cntrol panel of course) what it has autodetect and ask the user to confirm the detected settings.
• Icons in the taskbar are a little bit oversized as default, bigger and it look like a desktop for kids who need to click on big icons in order not to click beside :-)
• DVD playback is still not working (but in Knoppix, and Lindows it is), one more time You will have to hunt for the library libdvdcss2 (packman is no more providing binary rpm, you must compile them now due to a change in germany).
  Here you can find a tutorial and ALL library for XINE (with libdvdcss2) Daily xine RPMS
• Since SuSE is a big supporter of Reiserfs, why not providing a graphical tool for repairing devices? with a expert system? one more time typing some cryptic commands may discourage a lot of users.
• Impossible to write on NTFS drive, I have not found any captive rpm for SuSE 9.1.
• Packages conflicts....why not embeding apt-rpm? or providing always package statically compiled in order to avoid dependancies?

What I like

controlPanel.jpg

• KDE 3.2.2 with its speed blow away any previous release, and is alone worth the upgrade (But You can update SuSE 9.0 to KDE 3.2 through FTP, easy to do but then you lose the online SuSEwatcher tool and new patches).. KDE 3.3 should be available in August 2004
• The default walpaper is a lot nicer and the desktop control panel is a lot more polished too.
• A up to date JDK 1.4.2.02 is also installed as default. Nice if you plan to use java base applications like eclipse, jedit or set P2P Freenet node
• Using SMB 3.0, it is so fast and so easy to access a windows drive! in comparaison, under M$ XP, the system seem to take forever to locate by IP a share (moreover it freeze your PC :-( during seconds)....
  (example in Konqueror smb://elta68: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .0.3/Share1 )
• The kernel 2.6 even if it is running in the background all the time is not as eclatant as KDE, also it didn't have a so big visible effect as KDE speed, windows are poping so fast that it push by a magnitude the pleasure to use this release. The list of online update is quite huge (but not bigger than M$ ;-) ), but that prove the reactivity of Linux and SuSE, I've update at least 50 packages and without any OS restart. Each update has also a brief description, so You know what are the benefit of each updates. A release note is even accessible in the right corner of the screen.
• Since Novell is now bringing its expertise to Linux support, the KDE help center, is showing a better uniformity, colors, fonts and quality of documentation: 2 main sections : Administration guide and user guide. Followed by application manuals, administration; development and online ressources. One major regret: inpossibility to cut and paste some line of text/code in a terminal: copy is not possible!
  
• KDE is highly configurable and without adding any sharewares or using some obscure tweaks, of course: icons, splash screen (as desktop start, a pictures with progression of peripherals detection is shown), fonts, windows decorations and ...wallpapers can be set in kde control panel with a few clicks. Dont forget to visit www.kde-look.org  It is worth the visit!
• Konqueror can now retrieve, copy, rename data on ftp server, I still prefer the default FTP tool KBear /opt/kde3/bin/KBear
  
• I've installed today 17.06.2004 the latest kernel version 2.6.7 with source code, require a restart, but the systeem is running faster since, or at least seems to be faster.

 

patchUpdate.jpg

What I like/dislikes

• The default install provide a lot less user choice: only one chating system (Kopete) instead of the plethore in SuSE 9.0
• No 3D hardware installation as default, you need to complete the installation and then in YaST grab the latest proprietary Nvidia/ATI drivers. It is only annoying.
• YaST warn You of conflicts and dependancies but do not propose a "real" alternative, either "do not install" or "continue with risk of instability", why not:
  • Adding a third possibility: "download the missing dependancy now" or
  • Propose a UUID link on which user can click to locate the ressource (through a UDDI server), normal users don't want to write down the name of some library libdvdcss2 -1.0.6.7 p23.rpm is a pain to retain !
  • Export the list of dependancies to resolves in a new windows to shows You which library are missing, or has been installed in realtime
  • Do nothing an find a better approach...
• The only "GOOD" repositories of RPM are not given by SuSE. (understand full of rpm not approved by companies : dvd support, win32 codecs, ....) but I think this is common to all distributions: without volunteers building rpm, it will be quite difficult to live in a wwhole linux world, or at least at the beginning since not all users want to know how to compile sources versions of their favorite programs.

What I would like to see

• The ability to download any program through YaST (even non free or non supported: codecs, aMule and others), why not like in eclipse having internet page providing a XML descriptor for installing new packages and that YaST can understand?. I mean this can be a great step forward for the average user.

• Better commitments of Nvidia, Linux can be a great playing plattform if hardware manufacturer develop or give some technical help to the community for improving drivers.

Exploring Multimedia capabilities:

• Noatun is no more installed as default, Kaffeine (another interface to the famous XINE multimedia engine) is present but no interesting codecs are installed. Multimedia is, at least for me, UNUSABLE, and you need to quickly install MPLAYER/Kplayer with the full range of codecs if you want to read any DIVX, XVID, Indeo contents... I was searching Kplayer in /opt/kde3/bin/ and in YaST installer, but didnt find it. That's bad! You can find the latest version at sourceforge
  www.sourceforge.net/kplayer

mPlayer running with a special skins

• Inserting a blank CD and K3b pop up and propose You to do your compilation

• Gimp 2.0 is also included with SuSE Linux Professional, this version 2.0 has a new GUI and nicer icons.

preliminary Conclusions

WORK IN PROGRESS, running SuSE 9.1 since tuesday 11 May 2004....

With SuSE 9.1, you get a high quality distributions, and even if all the cons and drawbacks apply to this new release. It is definitely worth the update! Suse is getting even better with every release. Novell buying them has it seems already a positive affect with how the applications are running.

Even if this release is nearly filling all my expectations I am already excited about the future of SuSE, when will the version 10.0 be shipped?

Links

http://linux01.gwdg.de/apt4rpm/ how to set up atp 4 rpm for SuSE.

RPM
http://packman.links2linux.org/
http://rpm.pbone.net/
http://www.suserpms.cjb.net/
http://guru.linuxbe.org/

 

SuSE 10 and openSuSe 10 are out!

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Category: SuSE 10.0

Published on Friday, 07 October 2005 00:00

Written by Administrator

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 You can grab the latest SuSE version since the 5 october

So many names but more or less the same...

1. Box version: (buy it in shops) OSS core - licensed applications - commercial limited time applications, technical support - manual
2. Eval version: OSS core - licensed applications
3. OSS: is the OSS core only, if you decide to try this one but feel you can not live without Acrobat (instead of Kpdf), flash, real player, java etc, just add the directory suse/suse/i386/10.0/SUSE-Linux10.0-GM-Extra/ to YaST (this let you choose in YaST and install the missing package between OSS version and Eval version)

ISO filename explanations:

• SUSE-10.0-CD-i386-GM-CD*.iso 5 CDs i386 for installation from CD-R or from an ftp server with mounted iso images. Other network transfer protocols are available, too.
• SUSE-10.0-EvalDVD-i386-GM.iso Same content as CDs on one DVD
• SUSE-10.0-EvalDVD-x86_64-GM.iso Same packages for x86-64 as one the DVD above
• SUSE-10.0-LiveDVD.iso   Live DVD, boot from it and enjoy SUSE Linux without actually installing it (no data written to disk)

Download! Download! Download!

• ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/10.0/
• Bittorent SuSE 10.0 DVD 32 bits
• Bittorent SuSE 10.0 DVD 64 bits

Yast Supplemental sources for

• Kde: ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/KDE/update_for_10.0/yast-source
• Gnome ftp://ftp.suse.com/pub/suse/i386/supplementary/GNOME/update_for_10.0/yast-source 

3rd party repositories:

• ftp.packman.iu-bremen.de/suse/10.0
• ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/misc/suser-guru/rpm/10.0 (guru)
• http://pi3.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/~schiele/suse/10.0 (Robert Schiele)
• http://opensuse.linux.co.nz/apt/suser-agirardet/10.0 (super)
• ftp.gwdg.de/pub/linux/usr-local-bin/10.0  (usr local bin)
• ftp.gwdg.de/linux/misc/suser-crauch/10.0  (GnuCash)

More soon, I will be updating 3 PC this week (ladtop, 2 desktops)

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SUSE Linux 10.1 Codename Agama Lizard RC1

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Category: Suse 10.1

Published on Friday, 14 April 2006 21:46

Written by Administrator

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SUSE Linux 10.1 Codename "Agama Lizard" RC1 has been released yesterday at opensuse.org. According to the planning, the RC2 will follow next week and the final on 25 April 2006. I am already preparing my 2 computer for the update :-)

A desktop review

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Category: SuSE 9.0 reviews

Published on Thursday, 26 August 2004 00:00

Written by Administrator

Hits: 7598

This page was last modified on Mon, 16 Aug 2004 17:06:24 GMT

SUSE 9.0
a desktop review
My experience installing Linux and some throughts...
When you finish this article, You may want to read the round 2 HERE

-> this page is getting bigger and bigger with the time, I will also start soon a SUSE section and divide this page into smaller sections.

I decide to buy the professional edition instead of downloading all cd from ftp.suse even if I have a 2MB internet line. You must support company like Suse or Mandrake which develop linux distributions and buy their package. All versions or patchs can be acquire freely and download from their FTP or HTTP mirror..

If you still hesitate about Linux, I would recommend You to try a Live Eval of Linux. A live eval is a set of applications and a fully functionnal Linux (nearly 2Gb) compressed on 1 CD and It does not require a hard disk to start!

* can be download freely

Test system:

One more time, here is my system, The Linux experience you will have is very depending on hardware (and also drivers).....

My Background:

Can be read HERE and my experience with Linux? I am using Cygwin with ssh at work to connect to the HPUX development system, deployment, release management is done with ANT and bash scripts.So I am only a user but I use to write some FAQs in the past when I was using Linux at highschool (a small part is reproduced HERE, sorry it is in french ).

My collegues of XDreamTeam have installed a SUSE on a dual AMD64 Opteron server, and they will write a review soon.

Some sentences you may hear about Linux:

Linux user interface is ugly, Xp is better!
Who can still says this?, look at this KDE 3.2 pictures

Moreover you can choose another desktop manager, instead of KDE, a lot of people prefer Gnome. If you still can't live without Windows, try this windows manager under linux http://www.xpde.com/index.php

Suse (or Linux in general) is difficult to use!
Not so much, in fact the tool YAST: "Yet Another Setup Tool" do a great job when dealing with the configuration of your computer, softwares and hardware can be configured in a hierarchical control panel. I found it even better than the equivalent of "Windows world". What can be disturbing is the organisation of files and program on disk. I would say that someone who never use Windows before will have the same learning curve and encounter more or less the same difficulties with linux, the only drawback I see is that no so much friends can help you (and give you tools for which you have no licence ;-) ) since Linux as a desktop is not so much floating around. Now if you are a Windows user like me (since 10 years), you will encounter some difficulties, I prefer to say "forget some bad Windows habits", like

• Windows make no differences between upper and lower case filename, but Linux does! which is normal because we also make this distinction when we write letters and office documents.
• Windows use drive letter and this is a pain to maintain especially when you need to configure software, Linux use a directory base mapping, symbolic links can be created on files or directories. Example: 2 documents folders can have different name but point to the same folder:
  For example you have a website which is located in a directory "MywebsiteV1.12" and you want to have only one reference in all program that use your homepage (typically in configurations files), all you have to do is to open a terminal and type:

  ln -s MywebsiteV1.12 httpdocs

  and use everywhere httpdocs instead of the path to MywebsiteV1.12 in configuration files. The same apply if you want to alias office documents or media files (reference the same file under different names but always use the same target)
  this is a lot more powerful than the Window's shortcuts.

• Windows has a limited command line size, and limited number of subdirectories.
• Even on XP, you must sometimes restart your PC because the program XX has freeze and can not be terminate.
  Bill Gates said in an interview: "instability do not come from Windows itself, but merely from applications installed" For Me, a good OS must protect the user/itself from system crashing, XP isn't good at this, Linux is a little better.
  On Unix a # kill -9 pidProcess has a lot of chance to succeed and you can even restart some part of the system, without restarting the whole (restart the network server or the soundcard). Try also CTRL-ALT- ESC to kill graphically a process!

Why choosing Linux now?

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/switchsuccess.html A very good article, how you can switch with success and what your motivation can be

Here are the personal reasons why I am switching to Linux, You may find a lot of website which may present You better arguments:

• Suse (replace with any Linux distribution) come with a lot of applications (= packages) to do almost everything, not all of them are of the same qualities, or can be compared to commercial applications, but in linux world they do not require any licences! (some of them are freeware, giftware, shareware through)
• I want to live in a world where, I can search and solve problems instead of restarting the machine which is for me not a solution....(I am a developer and like challenges, restarting is like loosing a race fsor me) yeah as today 16.12.2003 I am FREE with LINUX, even if this freedom will have a cost (a relative complexity in usage at the beginning)
• Virus threat, less virus are living in Unix world. At least till today.
• You can still run Windows and Linux together thank to a great multi boot menu (no System commander, Partition Magic, old text based LILO required)
• Real Multi users system, program are running with user right privileges.
• Linux is gaining market place, I do not want to loose connection with the market reality.
• The community is extraordinary! they develop at a speed never seen before, even If I am convince that too much project are started and do the same things with more or less success . Look at Mono (.NET platform on Linux) which already support 99% of .NET ASP. Ximian (acquired at the beginning of 2003 by Novell and Suse) will continue to support the effort of Mono development.
• Linux is modular, there is like 120 distributions, 30 are dying per year and are replace instantly. Look at Flonix (Linux on a USB stick 64Mo, burning, browsing internet, webserver, GUI), or Knoppix ("From zero to GNU linux in five Minutes") this is great. Linux can be start on nearly all plattform (portability) and does not require good machine (Windows Longhorn will require 1Gb of memory (dixit Microsoft) so understand 2Gb to work flawlessy).
  Linux was first developed for 32-bit x86-based PCs (386 or higher). These days it also runs on Compaq Alpha AXP, Sun SPARC, Sun UltraSPARC, Motorola 68000, PowerPC, PowerPC64, ARM, Hitachi SuperH, IBM S/390, MIPS, HP PA-RISC, Intel IA-64, DEC VAX, AMD x86-64 , CRIS architectures. This includes Handled, celullar phone, gaming station like Xbox, Dreamcast.
• Everything is free, thanks to the open source community: Apache is the best/most used webserver, Tomcat the best servlet runner. Of course, the open source community has to find now a economical model. I am convince that developing is like speaking, you can not stop people to talk or think.
• Each days, I enjoy the use of CygWin under windows (for developing or maintaining this homepage), combining unix tools like: grep, sed, awk, and others...using ssh is now natural and I am feeling sad when I must start the poor Windows command.com terminal.
• I am using products from the open source coomunity since 3 years now, at work: mainly the Apache Fundation and their frameworks, at home a lot of tools: virtual dub, videolan, GIMP, ... and this all under Windows 2000. I am totaly satisfied by these tools, so why not replacing also windows by a totally free and open source system.
• I can install Suse Linux everywhere (on all PC I have, currently 3 desktop) and has no annoying licence scheme or registration process and even give it to friends as long as I give it for free.
• There is a difference between "choice" and "apparence of choice", before choosing an OS (Operating System) was easy:

- On one side Windows, which cover more than 90% of the market, is shipped with new PC, has many softwares of good qualities. All your friends (normal users not geek), companies or your office, are certainly running under Windows. This is good but you do not install Windows because it is your choice, you install it because it is common to install it.

- On the other side, alternatives OS: Mac, Linux, BeOS (I am also a big fan of BeOS) are installed by people who want to try something different, (remember the moto "think different" from Mac corp). Geek users accept some instabilities because they want to improve the system, or even help at the source code level. End users give a try or installed it at home because they discover it at their universities.

This was before, before mean "Linux without good support of hardware ( I remember installing Mandrake 9.0 and fighting 10 minutes to find a USB driver for my Microsoft mouse), without good desktops manager (Now this time is over thanks to KDE and Gnome), without a huge base of applications" Now this is slowly changing, On the server side, there is already a big change, HP, IBM and major actors are now committed to Linux and that is great. Now you have the choice, because now you can hesitate between Linux and Windows and/or even dual boot both (It has never been so easy as today because dual boot is integrated in many Linux distributions)

SUSE home for the version 9.0 is http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/index.html
SUSE has a page which present 10 reasons to choose Linux Suse http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/10_reasons.html
SUSE has also a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page here: http://www.suse.com/us/private/products/suse_linux/i386/faqs/index.html

Choose a file system
ext2 or ext3 or ??? a good articles can be found here: http://www.linux-mag.com/cgi-bin/printer.pl?issue=2002-10&article=jfs

Installation

Great menu everywhere for installing the OS, 10s after having insert the CD (and choosing a resolution with F2 - default is 1280x1024), the linux Kernel is loaded and guide you through the installation process.

Personnaly what I dislike is the number of "package" (understand application, with strange name and strange revision number) given, like 10 tools to do the same task...I know I do not want to see any new Microsoft take the advantage under linux, but why the open source community does not concentrate on GUI. A user will remember that the GUI was horrible even if the program has done its job. That is my point of view. As a developer, I do not care but as an end user....

I decide to install everything, this take nearly 3 Gb of hard disk, Yes it is much but do not forget that XP take alone 1.2Gb without any office, photoshop, and so on. In this case the installation took 37 minutes, too long? You can also send complaint to hard disk manufacturer!

The partition manager compute the best option depending on your configuration, in my case I reserved 80Gb for Suse but on my secondary disk. By default linux want to modify the primary disk (and move windows data if needed), I switch to manual mode and only say click on "use everything" of the second disk. YAST then install then a small graphical boot manager on disk 1. This allow me at boot to start Windows if it is needed.

One page display a resume of all settings choosen, you may change the value of each section by clicking on the topic title. No technical words at all, You must only choosing some options in selection boxes.

Due to the huge number of Linux tools, you must also deal with 5 cd or one double face DVD, each disk may copy data during 15 minutes depending on options you have selected. (I forget to say that my CD drive is an old 16X). The estimated time to complete installation is quite accurate.

After completing the first disk the system restart and continue on CD2, a windows show you the list of package copied in realtime, you must just wait (Suse is made of more than 7000 packages or programs).

The system asks then for the root password, You can use the whole keyboard layout (letters, numbers, special characters) except accent (éà è) and umlaut (öüë), I choose a highly complex root paswword and write it down, till I have time learn it. Some word about security, program on unix system are running under user privileges, that mean that a potential virus MAY only destruct your data, and no data of others users (most of Unix virus try to replace some binary executable to gain a higher level access or may install a trojan horse)

The 2 integrated networks card were detected automatically (mainboard ASUS nforce 2 desluxe has a 3COM and Nvidia 100MB network card),

The system then ask if you want to download new packages and security upgrades from internet. This is higly recommended. No compagny in the world can ship a perfect code, this is True even in Linux world. I am pretty convince bugs handling is better in opensource paradigm, because nearly all users can see the source code (OK, I admit NO all users are developers, but there is a lot of great skilled developer which in their spare time review code, not to speak about university students which may have a lot of time :-) ). On the other side, take any business compagny:

• They first try to reproduce the bugs and know how many users are affected (which is OK),
• Worse, They try to minimize effects resulting of a bug (to avoid some political problems with clients, but correct the bug as fast as possible in the background),
• They speak about money all the time (but I am happy to get paid as a developer ;-) ), can we ship in delay? can we not correct this for the next release?

In opensource world, Linux developer consider this as a hobby and may try to correct everything or at least move the delivery date.

Back to the installation, I choose stand alone, because I do not want to use this linux box as a server. In Mandrake, this is a little better, since you can choose the security level: (Mandrake install may activate the firewall for You during the install), or block installation of some packages which can help a hacker (like ssh, webserver, VNC).

I strongly recommend You to deactivate auto login, security come always at a cost, I do not want that somebody simply restart the computer to gain access to my data and read private documents: Yes you will have to enter your password at each restart. Password is limited to 8 characters...which is somehow strange The password length is limited to 8 character because the default password encryption methd is set to DES (most compatible but SUSE also allow md5 or blowfish which have no length limit but at the cost of more cpu power and the loss of backward compatibility across other systems or old software). You can change this under Yast - Security and Users Password settings

Finally the release note of suse 9.0 is displayed, You can read it to be sure that nothing has changed since the manual printout.

YAST, then dectect hardware and set a graphical resolution.

ATTENTION, always use the test button to validate any refresh rate and resolution before applying changes, otherwise you may have a black screen at the next logon! If it ever happen, the only way is to reboot and choose "safe mode", logging as root, go to /etc/X11 and open the file X86Config....or rename the previous backup done by YAST (backup named X86Config.YAST). I have also done this mistake

Manual upgrade of all drivers to the their latest status
In my case I went to www.nvidia.com and download all latest rpm (rpm are like setup.exe in windows world),

To resume: Suse has now a very good and reliable installation system. YAST is now mature, detection of most hardware is good (at least on my system). I think it is even easier to install SUSE than an equivalent Windows system, mainly because partiioning is better support in YAST

How to install RPM

There is many ways to install RPM. In facts, choose the one you prefer. Note that you must be loogged as root to install any application.

Method 1: With Konqueror: click on RPM filename and after the download completion right click and choose "install packet with YAST"
Methhod 2,3,4,5 can be found on this page http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2002/04/wessels_packageinst.html

Install divx codecs and drivers

For some legal issues, SUSE can not deliver Divx drivers in the distribution, but they can be download at www.divx.com/divx/linux/
This internet page propose binary version of all major Linux program http://packman.links2linux.org

One of the best player can be found at www.xinehq.de , Caffeine (installed as default) is only a frontend GUI and use the runtme libs from Xine.

Emulation

You can use one of the following to use some of your windows applications: www.winehq.com and for directX games www.transgaming.com (even without recompiling the game!!!) and this even without installing Windows! Vmware www.vmware.com is a commercial alternative but required a fully licensed windows images. MORE TO COME...

Killer apps

These applications are installed as default,
Open Office (OO), which can open nearly all Microsoft office documents, GUI is not as good as MS Office but it do the job. Some powerpoint made with MS Office have some strange alignment, but MS Office represent correctly document created with OO.
GIMP a program for manipulating 2D images (like photoshop), run also on Windows because of the porting of GTK (open source 2D library)

Playing DVD, MP3, all tasks can de done under Suse without having any licence!!!! I recommend you to donate some money to the authors if you like their programs (so that they can pay their homepage hosting at least)
Opera Opera is a religion. All those features, mouse gestures, keyboard shortcuts, embedded mail client, drag-around panels, skins, GREAT standards-support, it's so fast, easyness of bookmarking, the "magic-wand"... and the list goes on and on...It is not open source but I like it so much.

Files manager

I am a big fan since 1991 of Norton Commander (I was using NC 1.0 on floppy disk), In windows I am using Windows Commander a lot to order million of files.
http://www.rmonet.com/commander/ This page contains nearly all file commander clones of Norton Commander.
http://www.xnc.dubna.su/ XNC 5.0
http://krusader.sourceforge.net/

Forums and Help

French
www.linuxfrench.net
www.linuxquestion.org

English
http://librenix.com/ news site on linux
Great forums

Others reviews you can submit me a new link HERE

http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=8925/ur0310l/
http://www.arstechnica.com/etc/linux/index.html
http://madpenguin.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=503
http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=03/11/11/1929234
http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5157
http://www.linuxnetmag.com/de/issue9/m9rh_suse1.html Suse vs Redhat
http://www.internetwk.com/breakingNews/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17300233

How to/tutorials

http://www.usalug.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=8161 Step by step install of SUSE 9.0 using FTP (non need to download and burn the iso's)
http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~secollet/ Linux on HP Compaq NX7000 (that's my notebook at work)

Links

http://distrowatch.com/index.php?language=EN "This site is an attempt to provide a basic feature list and a package comparison table of major, minor and regional Linux distributions"

Links with reference to this article

When you finish this article, You may want to read the round 2 HERE

openSUSE.org homepage online!

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Details

Category: Open Your mind

Published on Tuesday, 09 August 2005 00:00

Written by Administrator

Hits: 6002

OpenSuse aims to be what Fedora is to Redhat. The openSUSE project is a worldwide community program sponsored by http://www.novell.com  that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. The program provides anyone with free and easy access to the world's most usable Linux distribution, SUSE Linux. Here at openSUSE.org, you'll find a community of developers, end users and other open source enthusiasts who all have the same goal in mind. We work together to create and distribute the world's most usable Linux. There are many ways you can participate in the openSUSE project ― first you should get a copy of SUSE Linux and install it on your machine.

Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM

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Category: Misc.

Published on Thursday, 04 October 2007 21:55

Written by Administrator

Hits: 5505

The openSUSE team is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 10.3. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, the openSUSE project provides free, easy access to the world’s most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE. openSUSE is released regularly, is stable, secure, contains the latest free and open source software, and comes with several new technologies.

openSUSE 10.3 will be supported with security and other serious updates for a period of 2 years.

This version contains new beautiful green artwork, KDE 3.5.7 and parts of KDE 4, SUSE-polished GNOME 2.20, a GTK version of YaST, a new 1-click-install technology, MP3 support out-of-the-box, new and redesigned YaST modules, compiz and compiz fusion advances, virtualisation improvements, OpenOffice.org 2.3, Xfce 4.4.1, and much more! Read on for details of what is new and available in openSUSE 10.3, and for all the necessary download links

Screenshots are available here 

Download Download Download Download Download!

• 1 DVD containing OSS and NonOSS software (torrents for: i386, x86_64, ppc). Languages supported: English, Portuguese, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Chinese (Simpl. & Trad.), Japanese, Russian, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Finnish, Danish, Swedish, Dutch
• 1 CD with a default KDE installation (i386, x86_64, not for ppc, English only)
• 1 CD with a default GNOME installation (i386, x86_64, not for ppc, English only)
• 1 AddOn CD with only NonOSS packages (i386 or x86_64, ppc)
• 1 AddOn CD with language packages that are used for extra languages (i386, x86_64, ppc, only to be used with DVDs!)