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

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