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Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE 11.1 Reviews and Regrouping

SUSE Linux 6.0



Events



LAST week was a fairly quiet one, maybe due to FOSDEM ending. Some recordings of FOSDEM are now available and this is announced in the OpenSUSE Web site.

This year Juergen and me (tom) went to FOSDEM to do the video recordings of the talks in the openSUSE developer room. Last year we had some problems with the sound quality, so this year we brought some more equipment, amongst others 2 head mics for the speakers, one mic for the audience, an 8 channel mixer and speakers for the audience.


Zonker ought to be giving a talk at SCALE 2009 right about now.

Recent setbacks have not been treating OpenSUSE so well (nor has Novell), which led to unrest. Adding to these problems, download.opensuse.org was going down for several hours today, as Peter informed colleagues and others in the opensuse-announce mailing list:






download.opensuse.org is undergoing database maintenance today (Saturday afternoon morning, 21st of February).

Since I don't know when this message will be moderated, I may already be finished when you read this.

Basic functionality is there, but if you encounter some errors please just retry in a few hours.

Please contact admin at opensuse.org with any queries.





It's all back now.

There was very little more that we could find about OpenSUSE apart from an HOWTO here and there.

Reviews



The GNU/Linux-hostile Jim Lynch reviewed OpenSUSE 11.1 and so did Jason Brooks, Eric Mesa, and Jack Wallen. Snippets below from each in turn:

It's been quite a while since I've played with openSUSE. Back in the day it was pretty much my favorite Linux distribution. Oh sure I flirted with other distros and I enjoyed using them, but openSUSE always had its own special appeal. As a result, I couldn't resist downloading openSUSE 11.1 and giving it a shot.


 

As in previous SUSE releases, OpenSUSE 11.1 seems to err on the side of complexity (or bloat, depending on your point of view) when it comes to packing in its desktop-focused features. For instance, my OpenSUSE installation gave me more configuration options for setting up my display settings than I'm accustomed to seeing from Red Hat or Ubuntu releases, but I had to use a combination of two separate, partially overlapping display settings tools to arrive at my desired setup.


 

After reading through LXF, I tried loading openSuse 11.1 with the failsafe settings and it worked in VirtualBox. So I’ll now be reviewing openSuse 11.1. Here’s the screen as it booted up.

[...]

So, openSuse is a good distro to check out. Their release engineers are doing a great job. As with last time, the only cause for hesitance is their pact with Microsoft as that may be a deal-breaker for some users out there.


 

If you are looking for an enterprise-ready Linux distribution that is primed for migrating users from Window to Linux, Novell SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop is the perfect solution. But one issue you will have to prepare to over come is the installation. Creating an automated installation with AutoYaST will become a necessity if you are planning on doing any large-scale roll outs. Outside of that, you can not go wrong with SLED as your next enterprise desktop operating system.


Miscellaneous



Novell's OpenSUSE Weekly News came a lot later than usual.

In this Week:

* Special Edition about FOSDEM2009 * OpenOffice_org 3.0.1 final available * Jan-Christoph Bornschlegel: Product Creation with the openSUSE Build Service * Henne Vogelsang: Fosdem talk about collaboration features and Contrib * kamilsok: installing 64bit Java on openSUSE 11.1


News from the past week should be assembled soon as it's not there yet. The above is for the week prior to the last, so there's catching up to do.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Ubuntu Desktop Director of Engineering Has Only One Blog Post. It Promotes Microsoft Windows.
Remember that even 15 years ago (more or less, maybe 16 years ago) Canonical appointed a a 'former' Microsoft manager (Spencer) to lead Ubuntu on the desktop
IBM Red Hat on "era of cloud computing", pushing "hey hi" (AI) hype in Microsoft Azure
LLM slop might actually be more benign than Microsoft promotion
Corruption and Rule-Breaking Prevail at the European Patent Office (EPO), Europe's Second-Largest Institution
The law does not really exist at the EPO; it can be perceived as merely a "recommendation"
404 Media Says "Workers at NASA Told to Drop Everything to Scrub Mentions of Indigenous People, Women from Its Websites" But There's Also Accessibility in the Firing Line
In the case of abandoning accessibility, everyone stands to be hurt and proprietary software can be brought in to replace standards
 
Tons of Anti-Linux 'Articles' Published by Bots (LLMs), Maybe Microsoft's
Upon closer inspection, all this FUD turned out to be LLM garbage
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Voicemail Sucks and Night of Lights
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: YouTube Takedowns Out of Control, 'DOGE' Breaking Laws
Links for the day
statCounter: More Countries Where Windows is Around 1% "Market Share" (People Have Moved to Android/Linux)
in some nations Windows is already 1% or less
When BetaNews Writes Real Articles About "Linux" They Promote Windows
The Web is in a bad state. We need to at least try to correct this.
Gemini Links 06/02/2025: Cynicism and "Real Magic on the C64"
Links for the day
Links 06/02/2025: New Sanctions, Layoffs, and Executive Orders
Links for the day
Distros and Desktop Environments, Devices
GNU/Linux focused
New Rumours of IBM Layoffs in 2025, IBM Consulting Still Struggles, Based on Management
"Hey hi" (AI) has been a common excuse for business failure
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
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IRC logs for Wednesday, February 05, 2025
Links 05/02/2025: Kessler Syndrome and News Online
Links for the day
statCounter: Monaco Now 7% GNU/Linux ("Proper")
GNU/Linux, not counting Chromebooks, is on the rise
Many Parts of Google Lose Money
It's quite apparent that many parts of Google - even some that rely on ad revenue or push ads - aren't profiting
European Internet Forum (EIF) is Dominated by American Corporations and Microsoft Lobbyists, Staff Take the Lead
Should the officials over here or the European Parliament pay attention to these people?
Links 05/02/2025: Connection without Connectivity and Unionised Grocery Workers
Links for the day
Just Because People on Top of the Microsoft Pyramid Made a Lot of Money Doesn't Mean Microsoft is Wealthy
The bigger they are the harder they fall
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Links for the day
statCounter Shows "WIntel" Chasing a Dying Market
Microsoft acts as if it's running out of money
Free Software Foundation, Inc. (FSF) Still Raising Money, Richard Stallman Contributes
total exceeding $430k
A Lot of Stuff About "Linux" in Google News is LLM Slop, Fake 'Articles'
It seems to be getting worse
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IRC logs for Tuesday, February 04, 2025
'Official' Debian Sites That Sell Proprietary and Surveillance
"Azure API throttling strikes back"
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When/if Windows market share goes down, so will Edge
Links 04/02/2025: Social Control Media Bans and US Fighting Its Allies, Not Russia
Links for the day
Links 04/02/2025: Birth of a Calf, FOSDEM, and More
Links for the day
Anti-Linux FUD Sites cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com Turn Out to be LLM Slop, Even Plagiarism That Spreads Lies
Beware false headlines and fake text from cybersecuritynews.com and gbhackers.com
BetaNews Began Removing LLM Slop About "Linux", But More of It Keeps Coming From Guardian Digital, Inc (at linuxsecurity.com)
the other Serial Slopper, Guardian Digital, Inc
Mollamby, Suicide Cluster, not trademark, the real reasons for Debian legal expenses, evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 04/02/2025: Mass Layoffs at Salesforce, Economic Pressures, Trade Wars
Links for the day
The Latest Microsoft Layoffs Are a Wake-up Call: The Company is Running Low on Money
in most areas it is not even profitable
[Video] Richard Stallman Auctioning a GNU (Gnu) at Surathkal, India
clip is only a minute-long
Software Freedom Month at NITK Surathkal and Yesterday's Talk by Richard Stallman
the message being spread by the person who started it all
Richard Stallman Has Another Talk in India Tomorrow, at Least Fourth India Talk in Recent Days
In the past month he has given at least half a dozen talks
statCounter: GNU/Linux and ChromeOS Now Measured at 2.78% in Japan (It Used to be Less Than 0.5%)
really 'took off' half a decade ago
GNU/Linux Reaches All-Time High in the United States, Based on statCounter
Windows is the loser; GNU/Linux grows at its expense
LLM Hype (Chatbots Hyped and Wrongly Characterised as "Artificial Intelligence") Cause Net Inflation
Net as in Internet, not limited to the Web
It Looks Like BetaNews' Managing Editor Wayne Williams is Taking Over From Fagioli After Repeat Pattern of LLM Slop (State-of-the-Art Plagiarism) About "Linux"
The most plausible explanation is, Fagioli got caught or his conduct could no longer be ignored
statCounter Reckons Less Than 10% in Mexico Still Use Windows to Access to Web and GNU/Linux Surges to All-Time High (Plus, Microsoft's Latest Debt Crisis)
Looking at Mexico in isolation
From India to Italy: Richard Stallman's Next Talk is Next Week in Torino
Announced less than a day ago
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Gemini Links 04/02/2025: Tolkien and New Job
Links for the day
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IRC logs for Monday, February 03, 2025