OpenSUSE 11.0 Released

OpenSUSE has just released version 11.0.

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I played with the GNOME beta for a while and this seems a significant upgrade.

I don’t use OpenSUSE these days…but for a long time it was my favorite distro. I even paid for a couple of versions back when it was still Suse Linux. It was OpenSusE which I used first to break the Microsoft addiction.

Even though I have since migrated to Linux Mint, I have a soft spot for this distro. They take way too much flak from the community for Novell’s pact with MS–to hear some people talk it was a deal with the devil.*

I am downloading the torrent and will install it in VirtualBox to see how it is progressing. OpenSUSE–like Fedora–is a cutting edge distro, use it to see where the desktop will be in a year. But–unlike Fedora–OpenSUSE usually gives me a modicum of stability.

*Note on above statement (useless rant to follow):
Fundamentalism in every guise is bad. I don’t care if it is Christians, Islamists, patriots, or open source software–it is all the same and it should be opposed. For sure, believe anything you want to…it’s your mind, do with it what you want. However, to publicly spout your own beliefs as being the only correct beliefs and to act on the “knowledge” that anyone who thinks different is misguided at best or even downright evil must be opposed in every way. Fundies can not be reasoned with–they are so entrenched in their beliefs that they can’t be budged. They refuse to even hear (let alone think about) anything that conflicts with their preconcieved ideas–by definition they are irrational.

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OpenSUSE 10.3 released

I downloaded both the KDE and GNOME CDs, burned the ISOs and I hope to get the time later today to install them on my laptop.
I’ve liked SUSE for quite some time. When I first tried to make the jump to Linux, it was SUSE that I tried. Even though it did not stick, I still have a fondness for OpenSUSE. I also think the OpenSUSE team get a bum rap from the Linux community.
People talk about Microsoft and Novel attempting to split the Linux community, but to me it seems that the GNU/Linux fundamentalists are the ones doing the splitting. Is fundamentalism always based in irrationality?
Fundies, weather they be of the Isamic or Christian bent, or of the Apple fanboy bent, or of the FOSS sort–they all suffer from the same disease. The disease manifests itself in the inability to listen, the inability to see the other side. And you cannot be rational with a fundie, best to turn away and go on about your day.
But this is not a post about fundies… I have an hour or two of work this morning (I am presently procrastinating) then take the dogs to the park, then maybe I can play with this new release.
Oh yeah, get openSUSE here.

And have a great weekend.

Update: openSUSE remains the best KDE distribution. I installed both the gnome version and the kde version on my laptop, they may take the prize for the longest install…perhaps even as long as a windows install. But you end up with a polished desktop that works. With that stated, I remain a Mint loyalist and look forward to future releases.

OpenSUSE Rocks…

All of the naysayers of the world–including the Shuttleworths–aside, this is far and away the best distro.  Kudos and props to all who have contributed to this outstanding OS.

So Novell made a deal with MS, how exactly does that impinge on OpenSUSE?  Or even SLED?  The OS exists temporally, it is a separate thing from Novell.

It does not matter what I think of Novell.  Let’s use a car analogy–always a poor thing to do when discussing computers, but…  I think, overall, Toyota makes the best cars on the planet.  If the CEO of Toyota was caught in a pedophiliac situation, would I buy a BMW?…or a Ford?  No, because Toyotas are things that are separate from my views of the company producing/supporting them.

I hate MS the company, but I love Vista.  I hate Apple the company, but I love my iPod.  I am indifferent of Novell, but I love OpenSUSE.

I come to GNU/Linux from a Windows background.  I have always preferred KDE.  But OpenSUSE 10.1 makes even Gnome a joy to use.  This distro just works.  And just works on a  wide variety of hardware.  OpenSUSE developers are the best.  If 10.2 is half the step forward that I think it will be, you folks will continue to dominate the headlines…despite the naysayers or because of them…it does not matter.  Your product rocks and all the detractors and back biters can not take that from you.  Keep up the good work!!

One month…fait accompli…

Yesterday, I switched my last box over to linux…it took a while, but I have a good install.

A month ago, I deleted my Windows partition on my main desktop…put openSUSE 10.1 on it.  In the month since then I must have installed linux 100 times in attempting to get good solid installs on the rest of my boxes.

My Media Center has openSuse on it exclusively…I still have a fair amount of work to make it into a media center…but it seems to be coming together.

My laptop/tablet is dual boot openSuse/XP Tablet…I can live without the support for the tablet and pen, but the lack of usb support makes the need for dual boot.

I gave up on making the Mac Mini into a linux box and turned it into a file server.  I have a 1.4 GHz PPC mini and it sucks.  I spent more time trying to get a decent install of linux on this box than I did the other three boxes combined.  It is comical to hear mac nuts whining about Windows proprietary this or dell proprietary that…my response comes from Jesus:

And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thy say to thy brother, “Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?” Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye. 
(from the book of Matthew)

Allow me to state something here that I have stated elsewhere.  There is a continuum, Linux is open hardware and open software; Windows is open hardware and closed software; and Macs are closed hardware and closed software.

Or, put another way:  Macs are the past, Windows is the present, and Linux is the future.

So the Mac keeps OS X on it, and becomes my file server.

Even though I have still to get my TV tuner working and I am still in need of a couple of pieces of hardware support, the transition is complete.

I had been attempting to use Linux off and on for years, all it took was a push from Microsoft’s poor implementation of WGA to get me over the edge.

Keep in mind that I never (well not since Win 9x) had malware, viri, or stability issues…I switched because MS forced me to by not allowing me to update a legal Windows install.  That coupled with all of the ads in Vista, was enough to slide me over the edge.

At last…

I got linux running on the mac mini (sort of).

After a mere 30 hours of intensive hacking, the attempted use of many distros…Fedora, opensuse, yellowdog, kubuntu, kubuntu alt, ubuntu alt…I got Ubuntu up and running.  I had to do an IBM tutorial on working with bash, I had to hack away at my xorg.conf file, I had to fret and swear….but ….

Did it.  Wireless and sound work, bluetooth is untested but supposed to work…  The problem is that so far I have been unable to install updates…the box sees them, tells me about them…but won’t install them.  Ugh!
This is the first time that I have ever gotten Ubuntu installed except under VM.  I know people swear by it, but it never supports my hardware…

I left the box dual boot, as I am not that enamored with Ubuntu/gnome.  To me Ubuntu seems a lot like OS X, a sort of lite version of a real OS.  But talk about accomplishment….major strides for john on working with the command line.  Major strides.

My current computing environment goes like this:

My main workstation (a Dell Optiplex) is pure opensuse 10.1.

My Mac test box (ppc Mini) is dual boot with OSX 10.4 and Ubuntu 6.06.

My laptop/tablet is dual boot XP Tablet and Xandros 4.

My HP Media Center is still XP MCE.

In my reckoning that is 3 out of 4!  And it informs me that I will never pay the Windows tax again!

When I started, I thought the Mac would be easy, a subset of hardware…but nope, nothing easy here.  Literally 30 hours of hacking away at config files and following error and log files.  And this from a guy who does not like the command line, who sees it as a throwback to the 80’s.   Linux has come a long way since I first tried it about 7 years ago, but this experience shows how far it still has to go…  I am a Windows power user, I can do pretty much anything I set my mind to in Windows, still this was hard…and only a basic thing.

But I do not mean to bash the Linux community….you guys and gals are the coolest, the slickest…  Thanks to all you developers, I was able to make it happen.  Kudos to you folks!

While I can scream “I did it”.  I was only able to do it because of you.  HURRAY for YOU!!!

openSUSE Rocks

I usually give SUSE a try every major release.  The last one I had tried was 9.2 which I actually bought with books and everything.  My recent misadventures with Xandros 4 (which I also bought) led me to try other distros before giving up and resorting to Windows again.  Tried FC5, but I don’t know enough about gnome to make the stuff work that I need to work, so I downloaded SUSE 10.1.  The propietary ATI driver installed without a hitch and I was up and working fast.  I think Novell has hit a home run with this release.  A simple UI without a bunch of bouncing garbage cluttering up the view.  This distro can not be called beautiful, but to me the beauty is in the function, not the form.  I’ve never really liked XP, I’ve even been quoted as saying that Win 2k was my favorite OS.  XP was out for years before I even tried it, and then I immediatly switched it to classic mode.  It was only in 2004 with the purchase of a Media Center (refurbished HP) and a tablet (refurbished Averatec) that I came to terms with XPs eye candy.  If my father were tech savy, he would say that this eye candy is a lot like having tits on a boar.

So, I like the cleanliness of SUSE.  Plus the KDE software family have seen tremendous gains in usability lately.  Amarok is a full featured music player/manager that is ad free.  While ad free music players were once common, they are rare these days.  I installed google’s Picasa, but found that I prefer Digikam for photo management/light editing.

The only thing that I am really missing at this point is a web development tool.  I tried Nvu, I can’t get it to open a php file on linux…but it works fine on Windows and Mac??  KDE includes Quanta Plus, and while it is fine, if you try to use the WYSIWYG interface, you are asking for trouble. I am currently running Dreamweaver in crossover office, but that is an imperfect solution.

I want to try novell’s new SLED 10, but I don’t want to muss up my current install.  When Vista RC1 is released, I will give it a try  and also try SLED…but I am thinking I will return to openSUSE.

Kudos to the developers, you people rock!