Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE, Novell SUSE, and Samsung

Gecko on tree



Summary: OpenSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8 is out, more conference notes, customised versions of OpenSUSE, and SLES

Here is a rundown of OpenSUSE news from the past week, accumulated independently from OpenSUSE Weekly.

Releases



The main story is about Andreas Jaeger announcing the release (or arrival) of OpenSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8 -- a milestone soon followed by Heise coverage:

openSUSE developer Andreas Jaeger has announced the availability of the eight milestone in the development of openSUSE 11.2, code named Fichte. The eight milestone, the last before the first release candidate, includes several changes and updates since the release of the previous milestone from mid-September.


Jaeger also wrote about the in-place upgrade mechanism while eWeek wrote a lot more about technical aspects of OpenSUSE 11.2.

The OpenSUSE Project has released the last milestone of OpenSUSE Linux before an anticipated final release in November. OpenSUSE 11.2 Milestone 8 (M8) features numerous bug fixes, Linux kernel 2.6.31, improved partioning, social networking clients, and new versions of packages including GNOME 2.28, says the project.


More here.

Conferences



OpenSUSE Conference 2009 may be over now, but some members of OpenSUSE still write about it, upload material, and share notes.

Conference was great. Meeting so many people interested in openSUSE. And so many interesting talks. Sometimes it was really hard to decide where to go as there were four simultaneous talks most of the time. My todo list was growing most of the time. I'll mention few talks I found most interesting in random order.


Zonker already prepares for another event in Canada.

The third annual Ontario Linux Fest is going to be taking place on Saturday, October 24th in Ontario, Canada — and I’m pleased to report that I’ve been asked to deliver the “Musical Guide to the Future of Linux” keynote at OLF!


Here is a new interview with Zonker, who spoke to Tux Radar.

Joe Brockmeier: Mainly, 11.2 is going to have refreshed desktops. WebYAST is very important. So overall in 11.2 I see a ton of enhancements... We should also have a Moblin version of OpenSUSE called Goblin - I'm looking forward to that for my netbook. We'll be shipping Gwibber, one of my favourite social networking tools.


Technical



Tux Training has published zypper cheatsheets for OpenSUSE and more zypper stuff comes from here. Andreas Schneider is writing about a KDE "killer app" known as kio (a personal favourite) and some other programs are being packaged, e.g. bleachbit 0.6.5.

OpenSUSE turns out to have another refugee and here is a chart that's mapping OpenSUSE ambassadors, which can be roughly indicative of adoption and following around the world.

Why distributions shouldn’t ship development versions At Desktop Summit Lubos asked me what openSUSE has to do that I will switch back to SUSE. I replied that I am satisfied with Kubuntu and so I don’t see any need to switch the distribution. So what has changed since July?


GNU/Linux adoption is generally very high in Brazil, so it turns out that OpenSUSE is rather popular there.

Brazil is doing great here, doubling any other country’s Ambassadors number in the region. No doubt it’s not just users who are pushing Open Source out there but also their government and enterprises (example:Fisl), and I am glad openSUSE is a real choice for them.


Customisation



LifeHacker has this article about the fake 'Chrome OS', which was built with SUSE Studio.

"Chrome OS" was built using SUSE Studio, a distribution and virtual appliance builder spawned from the OpenSUSE Linux distribution. It loads up with a Chrome icon, uses built-in webapp links to Google Calendar, Gmail, and other Google services as apps, and carries a copy of OpenOffice, just in case you need some straight-up desktop editing done. Most importantly, it holds the latest development copy of Google Chrome inside, along with a pre-built Flash plug-in.


This was followed by a more detailed introduction to Studio.

SUSE Studio is what powered the fan-made "Chrome OS" we posted yesterday, which, in that case, was a semi-stripped-down system loaded with the developers' version of Chrome, Google webapp links, and OpenOffice. If speed and cloud computing aren't your bag, you can create a fully functional system with Firefox, 3D graphics, and whatever apps you can find installed. Want your system to start up with an AWN dock and Launchy keystroke launcher running? Not a problem.


One variant of OpenSUSE is OpenSUSE for Education, which got some coverage along with the LXDE variant of OpenSUSE.

Another form of OpenSUSE variant makes use of Moblin, but it is not so well received so far.

Ready? Really?

As it turns out, I wound up actually "eating the dogfood," if you will -- I used the little Seashell and OpenSUSE/Moblin to post stories from this year's IDF tradeshow. I can't say that it was the ideal environment for a working compujournalist -- Moblin UI technology really is not aimed at business users. Yet, I did manage to get work done, for example posting a fairly involved photo highlights gallery.

Overall, I found Novell's Moblin implementation to be very usable, though like any OS with the Moblin UI, it's different enough from other OS environments to take a bit of getting used to. Some limitations, currently, include:

* The Firefox-based browser has been stripped of features need by "professional" browser users o The ability to right-click to copy an image or link URL o There's no way to view source without typing "view-source:" in front of the URI o No "Alt" shortcuts (Alt-backarrow [back] and Alt-r [reload] being the most useful) o No "Page Info" panel


SUSE (SLES/SLED)



Apart from a bunch of technical writings at Novell's Web site, not much news could be found this week, almost none at all. The following press release (also in PR Newswire) was probably the sole exception.

Novell today announced The Burton Corporation, the world's leading manufacturer of snowboards, moved its mission-critical applications from UNIX* to SUSE€® Linux Enterprise Server from Novell to improve system uptime and reduce overall server-related costs by 80 percent.


Samsung



Not so long ago we wrote about a Samsung phone to avoid (Samsung signed a Linux patent deal with Microsoft) and here it is again.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day
LLM Bots vs Techrights
Slows things down a bit
New Publication Sheds Lights on Abuse of Workers at the European Patent Office (EPO)
Put in simple terms, they're killing the Office, harming remaining staff, try to hire rubber-stampers
Links 21/07/2025: Hardware, Health, and Imperialism
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/07/2025: "When Buying Isn't Owning" and "CMS Special Edition"
Links for the day
Links 21/07/2025: Indie Web and Toxic Politics
Links for the day
[Meme] Microsoft Lawyers Throwing Stones in Glass Houses
threatened me with bankruptcy
Google "AI Overview" is Not AI and Not Overview
do not be misled; what Google does isn't smart, it's just ripping off the sites it already crawled for as long as 27 years
Making the Case to Dump Microsoft and GAFAM for National and Digital Sovereignty
"Sovereignty is difficult"
The Tactics of the Opposition (Microsoft Lunduke): Associate With K00ks, Throw in Vaccines to Muddy the Water
Who stands to gain from this?
Europe's Second-Largest Institution (EPO) and Largest Patent Monopoly Office Needs More Transparency, Not Less Transparency
In the EPO, what good are elections when one candidate literally bribes all the voters?
How Not to Report News About Microsoft
This pattern of misreporting is so widespread that it's hard to believe it's not intentional
Computer Science is Under Attack, They Want Everyone to be a Consumer
If people can no longer acquire Computer Science education and real Computer Science experience, they will not know how to control their own digital destiny or emancipate the very same universities that now control the syllabus and instead of teaching Computer Science encourage the outsourcing of systems
The Best Tools Are the Simplest Tools
There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
Ofcom Online Safety Group Speaks of Protecting Women Online, Will Brett Wilson LLP Ever Listen?
They've essentially became like the Taliban's "burka police"
Social Control Media Relies on Advertisers, So It'll Always Be Hostile Towards Free Software
Sales, sales, sales
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 20, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 20, 2025
Fragmentation of Data
Life is too short to "hoard" data
In Defence of "Spinning Rust"
Just because something is "old" (or older) doesn't mean it ought to become extinct
Using Free Software to Prepare Legal Documents
LibreOffice is openly complaining about OOXML as an obstacle
Tech and Technology Are Not the Same Anymore
"Are you into tech, Sir?"
Our Articles About SLAPPs Receive Recognition and Interest
This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed