11.14.09

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Novell News Summary – Part I: OpenSUSE 11.2 Release

Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, OpenSUSE at 9:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: An assemblage of a lot of coverage about OpenSUSE 11.2, which was released on Thursday

THIS WEEK is the big week OpenSUSE has been waiting for. The major new release is finally out there.

Just before the release we saw the GM preparations from developers and also some promotional material. OpenSUSE has an official “boosting” team now.

openSUSE 11.2 DVDs

As I already mentioned before, we were giving out openSUSE 11.2 promo DVDs to the people attending conference. GoldMaster was created at Friday and we were burning DVDs during night and during conference and printing out covers to have something really fresh to give to the people. And we weren’t burning new DVDs fast enough as people were really interested. We came with 30 pre-burnt DVDs and they were out in no time and the rest had to wait till we burn some more. In the end 50 people was lucky enough and received shiny new openSUSE 11.2 directly from the oven.

Parties have taken place following the announcement of the release, including one in Nürnberg. Andreas Jaeger shares some photos.

Many release announcements have appeared, including:

Here is the official page and evidence of optimism. A Malaysian news site covered it in advance.

Furthermore, you can use it to install openSUSE as well as it contains all the basic installation files and programs to get you started.

Ryan Paul did a short review.

Novell’s community-driven openSUSE distribution got a major update today with the release of version 11.2. The shiny new version brings the latest apps and a new look.

Jason Brooks’ review and accompanying screenshots suggest that it’s a good release. He adds:

Linux distributions are all about combining clusters of open-source components into well-integrated and easy-to-manage operating systems. OpenSUSE, one of the oldest and most popular Linux distributions, is packed with just this sort of integration, including worthwhile enhancements around pulling in community-packaged applications and extending the reach of the system’s well-loved suite of administration tools.

KDE4 is the default desktop environment, but here is a look at the GNOME part of OpenSUSE 11.2 (traditionally, SUSE has been very pro-choice and over-encompassing, with just a little bias towards KDE, to which it is back now, unlike SLED).

Gilouche has been the openSUSE theme for a while now and 11.2 introduces a new default, Sonar. Sonar is a metatheme consisting of window manager decorations and a widget theme. Unfortunately a key element didn’t make it in time — the icon theme. By default you still get the familiar Gilouche folders. You can, however, install the Sonar icon theme from Factory. It’s also the first time we’re using the openSUSE font, 5th Leg, for window titles. 5th Leg is the result of openSUSE’s Hackweek and have to express my gratitude to Novell for this event yet again.

This release turns out to have its GTK theme shared very openly. Joe Brockmeier, the community manager of the project, seems to be dipping his toes in the latest GNOME for the sake of a demonstration.

With openSUSE 11.2 right around the corner, let’s take a look at what’s new and interesting in the GNOME desktop for this release. Highlights include a preview of GNOME 3.0, new applets and application updates, and the incredibly attractive Sonar theme new for 11.2.

Brockmeier is actually a bit of a KDE person too and he set up his machine just before the release, later sharing some other material.

Only a few days until the openSUSE 11.2 launch. Spending time today checking media and getting ready to have the openSUSE promo DVDs created. Don’t forget: 11.2 will be released on Thursday!

Advice on setup was posted by Nikesh Jauhari, as usual.

Other notable people from SUSE have upgraded their machines to this latest solid release and then wrote about the experience, which was rarely an ordeal (reviews were overwhelmingly positive).

On Saturday I upgraded my wife’s laptop from openSUSE 11.0 to 11.2 RC. I did it using zypper dup, and there were some problems so here I describe them for the benefit of others who might try the same.

Here are some screenshots and advanced instructions for persistent LiveUSB, which is a nice feature.

The OpenSUSE community still looks for some new leaders (board) and it turns out that there is a bit of interaction between SUSE/Novell and Bugzilla. It’s really more of an upgrade.

The bugtracking tool used by the openSUSE project is the Novell bugzilla and this system will be updated to a new upstream version (version 3.4) together with some changes requested by openSUSE community and Novell employees.

A new, specialised distribution called “Ocean OS” turns out to have been created out of SUSE. A lot of this game has changed since the arrival of SUSE Studio. There is more information here.

Ocean OS is based on OpenSUSE, and users will be able to choose from the KDE or GNOME desktop environment and the OS will support 3D desktop effects using Compiz Fusion or kwin/KDE4. You’ll also be able to run a boatload of open source Linux apps including OpenOffice.org, Firefox, GIMP, and PIDGIN. The OS will support WiFi, 3G, and Bluetooth wireless connections.

Honours are given to OpenSUSE, which is technical but nonetheless cutting-edge, with many packages that continue to arrive via OBS.

There ought to be more links in Weekly News, which has now an accompanying audiocast in German. It’s not the first.

Here at Boycott Novell we recommend against the use of OpenSUSE because it helps Novell. But objectively speaking — from a technical point of view — it seems like a strong release. █

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