Thread: OpenSuse 10.3 sneak peek

It's released!

As they say before an auto race, "Gentlemen, start your downloads!"

I'm going to try the single KDE Live-CD option.

hmm, just read this article-
openSUSE News » Blog Archive » Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM

Looks pretty exciting. KDE4 + Compiz Fusion will be a combination to try out. Gonna try it soon

I just burned the ISO and first thing I noticed is a "windows based" installer program when you autorun the CD.

It seems pointless and annoying to me because it's not really windows-based. It creates a boot entry in boot.ini and you load it before booting into windows, it then access the cdrom and starts the linux based installer anyways.

Maybe they put that in for people who cant boot off their cdrom drives...

Currently downloading Fedora 8 test 3 (beta) torrent of the GNOME Live-CD, will install openSuse later tonight and report on it

Ah, another thing: The Live CDs (KDE and GNOME) will come in the next couple of weeks only. This is mentioned in the "Media and Download" section of the announcement on the blog at openSUSE News » Blog Archive » Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM

That means I'm going to install it in VMware first

I will wait for the Live CDs to come

Here's my "Installation Report" and first impression of OpenSuse 10.3 (with KDE)

Booted the CD and straight away got a hint of the "polish" level of OpenSuse. The installation supports my LCD's native 1280x1024 resolution which other distros previously would not (only 800x600) for graphical install. This must be the german heritage of quality here.

Installation took under 45 minutes under VMware with 256mb virtual RAM, running on my P4 2.4ghz with 512mb real RAM. The only other program I had running was bitlord downloading the Fedora 8 test 3 iso torrent.

During installation, I unchecked the option to "add online repositories" because with the previous version 10.2 it took ages to download the package lists on my sucky 256kbps connection. But in this version it may be improved, even after adding additional repositories.

Can't say about the safety and user-friendliness of the partitioning part because I just took the default suggestion for my virtual disk under VMware.

It gave a nice warning about my weak root password too

It also tried to detect DSL devices (which I didnt have of course) and this may be helpful for us here.

I skipped the online update during installation option, although after first boot, there were a few quick updates available including for Amarok.

It has passwordless and auto login options which I couldn't find easily in Ubuntu.

It has options to authenticate logins via NIS, Windows Active Directory, LDAP, Kerberos etc. which is cool for corporate/office desktop installations.

It even kinda detected my virtual sound card on the second boot after I added it to my virtual machine config although I had to go to the system sound config to enable and test the sound which worked.

Can't test compiz/desktop effects or video card support under vmware of course.

There is even a setup for fingerprint readers! Got to try that on the HP tablet which I'll be buying soon

So I logged in and quickly browsed the menus/config options:

Good points are that it has both Firefox and Konquerer browsers installed. Kubuntu 7.04 only came with Konquerer which was annoying to have to install FF separately.

There is KTorrent and K3B which is neat. There is also KDE4's KRFB (remote desktop sharing) and KRDC (remote desktop client connection) which I believe can connect to Windows remotely and also Windows can connect to OpenSuse remotely, although I can't test this now.

Other software: GIMP 2.2, OpenOffice 2.3, Akgregator RSS reader, Kopete (KDE's version of Pidgin which is as good IMO), KMail for email, Amarok audio player, Kaffeine video player.

I don't mind the green bootup theme but changed the green wallpaper to the old 10.2 blue wallpaper available in desktop settings.

Conclusion/Summary:

OpenSuse 10.3 is solid/polished as always. I feel it is meant for the "power user" and/or for corporate/office desktop installations as the menus and configuration options are "comprehensive" and can even be confusing to navigate!

Ubuntu in comparision keeps things clean and simple and is better for the "home user". I like Ubuntu (and its GNOME) a lot but I will switch back to OpenSuse (and KDE) if it works well on my real desktop.

Now I have to try out Fedora 8 (with GNOME) and I am downloading the "test 3" beta ISO and will post an update tomorrow. I have a feeling Fedora will fall somewhere in between OpenSuse and Ubuntu in terms of tradeoff between power and ease of use.

One thing I didn't find was virtualisation software, I'll need to figure out the repositories to install VirtualBox and VMware Server (probably after I install it on my real PC) and will post an update on that later.

vishalrao, Can you please guide me on how to use VMware to install Linux?

srk006, VMware server is available for free for both Windows and Linux. Get it from vmware.com/server and remember to register for a free license key for the OS version you download

Please try to install and operate it yourself step by step, if you face hurdles then post questions as you go along...

VMware is pretty good. Another product which is free only for personal use is VirtualBox.org but try VMware Server first.

Of course, you have to have free space (say at least 3gb) in your OS for creating the "virtual hard disk" to hold the actual installation

Plus its good to have at least 512mb RAM so you can provide 256mb virtual RAM for the installation to work smoothly...

Try it out and post questions if you face any problems...

redefine your desktop ( with a different linux distro everyday ! ) . Probably a good reason why indian isp's dont wanna give high speed unlimited connections

Thanks vishalrao.. will try it!