OpenSUSE

There appears to be plenty of activity going on these days, especially when it comes to freelance coding. Perhaps those people who take some time off their daytime job just use that time to make it a summer of code. Here are some bits of news from the OpenSUSE project (or "openSUSE", or "Opensuse" as Novell used to insist about a year ago when naming and branding were discussed. I'm sticking with "OpenSUSE" for consistency's sake from now on).

One faithful Gentoo user received a bunch of emotional reactions when he decided to move to OpenSUSE.

Now I've copied my mail and stuff back, set up a kde4 development environment and actually compiled (*sigh* does it ever end? =;) I should be able again to get some work done.

So farewell Gentoo and hello openSuse 10.2!

Microsoft's latest world domination aspiration gets tested on the latest OpenSUSE.

Microsoft Opens Up Windows Live ID

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Interestingly sample implementations are available in the Ruby, Python, Perl, and PHP open source languages amongst others -- tested on openSUSE 10.2 but expected to work on any platform that supports these languages.

The dangers of Live ID and some serious implications are worth a separate discussion, but it does not fit the theme of this Web site. On the other hand, the OpenSUSE Web site has published an Interview with Francis Giannaros, who used to participate more vocally in this site. It also gives a 1-Click Install preview. 1-Click Install is one among the big features in OpenSUSE 10.3.

Today we are taking a look at the new One-Click Install technology which aims to simplify package management for users

Here is a short review that takes a look at OpenSUSE 10.3 (beta) and the latest alpha of Ubuntu.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the progress openSUSE has made. I found the amount of “breakage” in the development version (Beta1) to be roughly similar to Gutsy. I think I’ll try to track openSUSE until 10.3 is released (early in October I think) and see how it all shapes up. I find openSUSE development to be a bit hazy still. I haven’t figured out how often Factory (the development repo) gets updated.

To summarize, for me openSUSE wins on artwork/consistency and configuration tools and Ubuntu wins on hardware setup and package management. Overall Linux is progressing awesomely and I’m proud of how Linux is innovating on the desktop.

Bill Beebe writes about his OpenSuse 10.2 upgrade experience, experiments with algol, and some NetBeans stuff too. The following day he wrote about Google Earth's latest feature under the same distro. Nice blog and a recommended read for SUSE users.

A couple of days ago, the second beta of OpenSUSE 10.3 was released.

The openSUSE Team is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 10.3 Beta 2. Though this release should not be used on any production machines, everyone can help shape this release by testing out installations and much more.

Miscellany

The Microsoft interoperability lab appears to be busy and for voice communication, the 'licensing department' seems to have been keeping busy as well. It seems to be a new trend. Whether it's worrisome or not shall remain beyond the scope of this non-critical post.

The latest poll from DesktopLinux.com suggests that SUSE has gained ground on the desktop in the past year. Meanwhile, a pro SUSE/Novell blog compares SLE[D|S] to RHEL.

In another of my many “people are always asking me ______” moments, I thought I’d jot down the top reasons why we find customers wanting to switch from Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a SUSE Linux Enterprise environment. These points are gathered from countless discussions, presentations, questions and even osmosis. I hope that these points are useful for our customers who are SLES-curious, our partners who are representing SLE to customers and I welcome any feedback or suggestions you might have.

An article on identity management discusses Novell's offering, among other things.

Oracle announced the strangely named Oracle Authentication Services for Operating Systems.

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Novell, which believed it had already hooked the Linux authentication market with eDirectory running on Linux, announced a major advance in authentication with partner, Fujitsu Microelectronics America. The two companies released a suite of new biometric login kits for Novell eDirectory.

A study on Novell's product has been published and it appears to be independent.

This brief analyses the strengths and weaknesses of Novell's enterprise security offering. Novell is rated according to its market impact (based on revenues), user sentiment (based on customer perceptions) and technology.

There is also this other noteworthy item.

VB has issued a call for submissions for the latest VB100 comparative review, which will measure the performance of products for the Novell NetWare platform under VB's strict testing protocols.

The impact of the Citrix/Xen acquisition on Novell can be inferred from some of the bits in this new interview. There is also this short article which is filled with mixed feelings about BoycottNovell and contains a link to an interesting old analysis of the Novell/Microsoft deal.