Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE at FOSDEM 2010, 11.3 Milestone 1, and Build Service 1.7

Lizard on leaves



Summary: A collection of news surrounding OpenSUSE so far in February

THIS post accumulates news and developments from the past couple of weeks. There was no such post last week due to lack of sufficient activity that makes a post worthwhile. So let's look at what was missed.



Events



The KDE Plasma team is preparing to meet SUSE folks later this month. OpenSUSE is currently spreading many KDE4 desktops, whose implementation is considered very solid.

Earlier this month, OpenSUSE folks also attended FOSDEM. Some took an "OpenSUSE Bus" to get there:

We arrived, very relaxed, yesterday at 21:00 thanks to our awesome openSUSE Bus.


Here are some experiences from SUSE/Novell folks who attended [1, 2, 3]. Here is FOSDEM content that relates to OpenSUSE:

Last week we updated Hermes on our production servers, they’re running a version now which will become a first Hermes release. I hope to get it packaged and released this week to present it on FOSDEM where I’ll give a talk about Hermes. Don’t miss it if you’re interested in this useful technology.


OpenSUSE is going to deliver survey results some time soon, based on this call for participation.

Participate in the openSUSE survey 2010 to give feedback to the openSUSE project about the distribution, the openSUSE tools environment and the project in general.


Releases



Henne, not Zonker, announced the first milestone of OpenSUSE 11.3. He also put it in the mailing list:

People of Earth.

Its here! The first openSUSE 11.3 Milestone. This is the first step toward the next openSUSE release. The most important goal of this first milestone is to test the build interactions between newly added features in openSUSE Factory, also known as “get the snapshot to build”. It is in no way feature complete or ready for daily usage. There is no code freeze for any component yet, so many major changes are still to come.

This 11.3 Milestone build will give you a first glimpse of the direction we are pushing the distribution. Read more on news.opensuse.org to learn about the major changes that happened since the release of openSUSE 11.2.

http://bit.ly/113_milestone_1

Have a lot of fun...


The Register gave that milestone some coverage and so did a few other news sites [1, 2, 3].

The openSUSE Project has reached its first milestone for the upcoming 11.3 release, due in July.

Milestone 1 is the first of seven planned between now and late May. The development team said its primary goal is to test build interactions between newly-added features.

The first milestone features version 2.6.32 of the Linux kernel, development version 2.29.5 of GNOME, and the first release candidate of KDE 4.4 desktop environment.


AstroGarrobo, a GNU/Linux distribution which is based on SUSE (constructed with SUSE Studio just like Bloatnux) is making its debut as public beta:

So, I’ve decided to build a Live CD using SUSE Studio, focused entirely in provide the same basic tools for learning the sky and their basic steps in Amateur Astronomy.

The name of the Project: AstroGarrobo


Reviews



We have managed to find some reviews over the past fortnight, one of which is more of a story about fitting OpenSUSE to specific hardware which is stubborn:

Some things of opensuse need some extra work like SUSPEND and HIBERNATE, I also didn't managed to get dual head working "out of the box" and I'm reluctant to change the Xorg.conf... something I did when I had my first thinkpad a second-hand 340...


As mentioned earlier, OpenSUSE is a solid KDE4 distribution and the next release of OpenSUSE seems to work well based on the tests of Linux Magazine:

OK, I’ll say it. KDE 4.4 is far superior to any release before it. Brace yourselves folks, it’s time to (finally) let go of version 3.


Here are installation instructions for KDE 4.4 in OpenSUSE 11.2.

OpenSUSE Education was put to the test as well. From the summary:

It’s a breath of fresh air to see a distribution singling out the educational institutions. This is exactly what schools need. Now the hardest part is making those schools aware of its existence. If OpenSuSE Edu can tackle that, they will have a huge success on their hands.


Here is a new video of someone talking about OpenSUSE (not in English) and here is the third part of a new OpenSUSE walkthrough.



Artwork



Some nice new Geeko artwork is being created [1, 2, 3] for whatever purpose, maybe marketing.

Technical



There were some OpenSUSE-specific problems and HOWTOs in various blogs [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], especially in HowToForge [1, 2, 3]. SJVN wrote about GNU/Linux upgrades and from his IDG blog, here is the OpenSUSE part:

With openSUSE, you'll need to download and burn a boot CD to start the Network upgrade, but after you get it going, you can go unpack the pots and pans while the upgrade automagically does its thing. In my case, with a 20Mbps cable Internet connection, I could only unpack the pots before the server would be ready for its first reboot with the latest version of openSUSE.


The most major news was OpenSUSE Build Service 1.7, which turned from a release candidate into a final release. It is finally available and The H gave this coverage (Heise has many readers who use SUSE):

The openSUSE developers have announced the availability of version 1.7 of the openSUSE Build Service. The latest update features the addition of a new attribute system that can store information related to packages or projects, and even faster build speeds. According to the developers, the SAT Solver improves the speed of dependency calculation "by [a] factor of 1,000, which means a package change submitted to the build service starts building in seconds instead of minutes".


Other than The H, there does not appear to be any news coverage of this, even though Novell's marketing people tried to create buzz. A lot of people just don't treat OpenSUSE as important anymore. In fact, one of the YaST developers finds that depressing and writes:

I no longer feel the sense of accomplishment from the things I'm working on and I'm unhappy with the way where something I was always doing with passion (ie. YaST hacking) is heading. The fact that I can do absolutely nothing to change that further deepens my blues.


Petr Mladek has been building OpenOffice.org 3.2 until its final release when he also made Novell's version of it available.

Masim Sugianto is still deploying mail applications on SLES even though he could use RHEL or CentOS (free of charge, unlike SLES).

Leftovers



Sascha 'Saigkill' Manns is still running many things around OpenSUSE.org, which includes OpenSUSE Weekly News (there is this new issue online). They need more contributions to it, as well as wiki translations.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When People Call a Best/Close Friend of Bill Gates a "Serial Rapist"
Good thing that the Linux Foundation keeps the "Linux" trademark ("Linux Mark") clean
Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia, Shutdown in Pakistan, What Next?
It seems possible that in 2025 alone Microsoft will have laid off over 50,000 workers
What Matters More Than "Market Share"
The goal is freedom, not "market share"
Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
UK Media Under Threat: Cannot Report on Data Breach, Cannot Report on Microsoft Staff Strangling Women
The story of super injunction (in the British media this week, years late)
Under the Guise of "MIT Technology Review Insights" the Site MIT Technology Review Posts Corporate Spam as 'Articles'
Some of the articles aren't even articles but 'hit pieces' against Free software and some are paid advertisements
Brett Wilson LLP Has Track Record in Scam Coin Cases (e.g. Craig Wright and More), Now It Works for 'Crypto' Scam Purveyors
But wait, it gets worse
Will Brett Wilson LLP Handle Its Own Winding Up Petition or be Struck Off for Overt Abuse of Process?
Today we sue not only the first Microsofter
 
CALEA / CALEA2 is the Real Problem, Not Chinese Operatives Exploiting CALEA / CALEA2 (as Any Other Nation Can)
CALEA / CALEA2 is more of a front door than a back door
99.99% Uptime in First Half of 2025
Since January there was only one noticeable outage
Nils Torvalds and Anna "Mikke" Torvalds (née Törnqvis) Hopefully Use GNU/Linux by Now
"Torvalds Family Uses Windows, Not Linus’ Linux"
Attack of the Slopfarms
FUD-amplifying bots with slop images, slop text (LLM slop)
Not My Problem, I Don't Care
Context/inspiration: Martin Niemöller
Honest Journalism About the European Patent Office Ceased to Exist After SLAPPs and Bribes to the Media
The EPO is basically a Mafia
Life Became Simpler When I Stopped Driving and I Don't Miss Driving When I See "Modern" Cars
Gee, wonder why car sales have plummeted...
Why I Believe Brett Wilson LLP and Its Microsoft Clients Are All Toast
So far our legal strategy has worked perfectly
EPO Jobs Are Very Toxic and Bad for One's Health
Health first, not monopolies
Response to Ryo Suwito Regarding the Four Freedoms
the point of life isn't to make more money
Microsoft's Morale Circling Down the Drain
Or gutter, toilet etc.
Tech Used to be Fun. To Many of Us It's Still Fun.
You can just watch it from afar and make fun of it all
Links 17/07/2025: "Blog Identity Crisis" and Openwashing by Nvidia
Links for the day
Greffiers and the US Attorney of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
The lawsuit can help expose extensive corruption in the American court system as well
The People Who Promoted systemd in Debian Also Promote Wayland
This is not politics
Victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, Wanted to Sue Him But Lacked the Funds (He Attacked Their Finances)
Having spoken to victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
Links 17/07/2025: Science, Hardware, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: Staying in the "Small Web" and Back on ICQ
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Exclusive: corruption in Tribunals, Greffiers, from protection rackets to cat whisperers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/07/2025: Chip Bans and Microsoft’s “Digital Escort” Program
Links for the day
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Revolving Doors: One Day You're a Judge, the Next Day You're an Attorney Paying Public Officials and Working for Violent and Dangerous Microsoft Employees
how the US justice system works
Sharing Code and Recipes
It helps explain the triviality of software freedom
Slopwatch: Noise, Plagiarism and Even Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
What are we meant to do to prevent a false association or misleading connotations? Game the LLMs? No. Boycott slopfarms.
How Many Women Has Microsoft's Alex Balabhadra Graveley Already Strangled and Where Does That End?
If you too are a victim of this man and wish to share information, contact us
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Simple Web Browsing with TLS
Links for the day
Links 16/07/2025: Fascist Slop Takes "Intelligence" Clothing, New Criminal Case Against MElon
Links for the day
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day