OpenSUSE 11.2 Review and Commentary
With the recent release of OpenSUSE 11.2, it seemed fitting to add it to our list of reviews. Today we will take you on a tour of the new release from Novell.
Installation
Once you insert the dvd in your drive and boot up, you will be greeted with the boot selection screen:
Selecting Installation will take you straight into install mode, although if you want to test the system out first, you can simply choose OpenSUSE Live.
Once you've selected Installation, we get the following startup screen that masks the typical linux text based bootup sequence. As expected, Novell has done a great job of beautifying this release.
The first screen we get at the start of the Installation provides language and keyboard selection options and asks that we agree to the OpenSUSE license agreement before proceeding.
Once you've finished reviewing the agreement and clicked next, you will be given the option to select a time zone and modify system time as required.
The next screen is the partitioning screen. Here, OpenSUSE makes some partitioning selections but if you choose to modify these on your own, you are given the option as well.
Now it's time to enter your user details. You are also given the option to automatically login if desired and to alter authentication methods (although we don't recommend changing this unless you are an advanced user).
You are now given the option to review the settings and modify any that you desire before committing and beginning the installation.
Once committed, the installation will begin.
Once installation has completed, the system will restart and begin the configuration sequence (this entails configuring hardware and post installation tasks).
After the configuration screen, you will be booted into your new desktop and presented with the following welcome screen. This introduces you to the project, provides some helpful links and even gives you an option to take a tour of KDE4 should you so desire.
When you are finished reading that screen, you can close it and you will see your new desktop. As expected, OpenSUSE 11.2 contains a beautiful new theme with sharp, attractive wallpaper. The initial icons on the desktop are a good selection to help get new users familiar with their system.
Digging a little deeper, we can pull up the YaST (stands for "Yet Another Setup Tool" and is OpenSUSE's control panel). For those who have tried or read our Mandriva 2010 review, you may see some slight similarities. In our opinion, Mandriva and OpenSUSE have both done an outstanding job on their configuration utilities and control panels and really have yet to be beat.
Now that we've seen the KDE side of things, let's see how OpenSUSE has tweaked the Gnome desktop shall we?
The Gnome desktop has seen some pretty heavy changes as well and we kind of like it:
Exploring further, we can see OpenSUSE's preferred Gnome menu (which on this particular desktop is a bit huge but there's always the option to revert to a traditional Gnome menu if you like.
And of course, we can't forget to see what they've done with the Gnome Control Center.
This screenshot below shows you a number of things. You can see the new theme in it's entirety, which for some may be a bit too green but we think it's consistent with the OpenSUSE look and nicely done. You will also notice that they have a new font in use for the Window Title Bar which is slick and bold (all of these things can be changed in appearance options of course). The control panel features a nice layout (this is not the Yast control panel but the Gnome one.) A nice little option they've included is highlighting by section. If you click on a group on the left, it will highlight all of the items within that group on the right. A nice subtle touch in our opinion.
As you can see, OpenSUSE has made some fairly significant changes to both desktops and they both feature their own unique look which is one of the things we've come to expect from Novell and the OpenSUSE team.
We think visually, this is their best release yet. Usability wise they've done a great job simplifying things and making them a bit less overwhelming. Previous YaST versions have been a bit too overwhelming for new users and they've done a great job addressing this with the last couple of releases.
The desktop felt fast and responsive and contains all of the applications we would expect. There is also the added benefit of their large repositories which contain pretty much everything one would need.
You can learn more about OpenSUSE from their website. You can download it in a number of formats from here: http://software.opensuse.org/
Thanks for stopping by the site. In my opinion, OpenSUSE edges ahead of Mandriva. I prefer the look and feel of Mandriva personally but OpenSUSE is more stable from what I've been able to see so far.
I prefer gnome personally and have been running Mandriva 2010 since it's release and find it very suitable as a Gnome desktop but I didn't find it's KDE implementation quite as slick as OpenSUSE's.
I hope that helps.
Installing the KDE version of OpenSuse has made me realise I really like Gnome and never want to use KDE again. How can this change for me?
KDEs window decoration needs to be significantly improved, currently it is extremely ugly, also parts of the Window look to big and fat (I don't know how else to describe it)
Odd graphical glitches, I can't believe that there is still issues with KDE doing things like putting holes in windows showing the background and right now Kget which is on the desktop shows through to Firefox and other windows.
The fonts used in KDE look similar to Courier new and are huge by default.
Amarok is very visually unattractive. The buttons want to make me close the app down straight away and the centre bit looks like I have highlighted it ready to copy and paste.
OpenSuse version of the task bar is almost too small, the power of and lock button is tiny. Perhaps it should be just a multi purpose shutdown/restart/lock button like Ubuntu Gnome.
So, can OpenSUSE install onto btrfs with the "compress" mount option set? That would put it way ahead of Ubuntu, which supports btrfs in the kernel, but makes it cumbersome to setup since the installer doesn't know btrfs.
Thanks for stopping by the site. It does have an updated Cups server from what I can see and I haven't experienced any issues with updating on my end. I'm not sure if it's an issue everyone would experience though or specific to your setup.
Hope that helps.
Mike
I like openSuse 11.1 a lot - it runs my server extremely, well but Mandriva all the way for my desktop.
I do wonder how can you make informed comments on stability so soon after release?
1. Sluggish GUI with poor resolution during installation. Not what we see in the screen-shots above.
2. No GUI during boot. Poor old text-only startup with [OK] and [FAILED] messages.
3. Display shifted to the right after logging into KDE. Lowering the resolution solves the problem, but after logout and re-login it is back to the old resolution again.
4. Clicked on the X11 Configuration icon in the start menu and the system hung. After reboot, I could not log into my account. Had to login as root, remove my account, create a new account to be able to login again.
5. Could not play any kind of audio (mp3, rm etc) or video (mpeg, flv, avi etc) with the players and codecs provided. I understand there could
be some licensing issues. But if a player cannot even play these formats, what is the use having them!!! After all, I have seen many other Linux distros playing them happily.
6. Could not connect to the Internet with my Sony Erricson GSM mobile phone. Again, Mandriva and Mint happily did the same for me and think many others would do as well
7. Last but not the least, the system will hang from time to time for no apparent reason. Reminds me of the days when I used to work on a M$ Windoze Desktop.
Conclusion -
As soon as I get some spare time I'll get rid of this useless thing and install a distro that won't mean a waste of time.
Appreciating Mike for the Nice review...I've just had a look at this review exactly at the moment I'm pondering over changing my laptop OS from Ubuntu 9.10 to probably Open SUSE 11.2.
First,..Why have I been looking for a change? - As long as I was using Ubuntu 9.04, I was pretty happy & didn't have to worry about any change. But I made a big mistake by upgrading to Ubuntu 9.10 which is really so buggy. The latest kernel really sucks,unable to boot to GUI. I was able to boot from older kernel but the performance is pretty poor, Its like working with Windows Vista, Also the major annoying factor is that there is no sound card detected, I've done all the troubleshooting & looks like it is a common problem that many users are experiencing as per Ubuntu Forum. Hence I should have to either go back to 9.04 or another distro afresh...
I need a distro which gives me the real desktop experience without having to spend many hours for fixing each issues & also a stable one which gives me optimum resource utilization thereby allowing me to run about 4 or 5 virtual machines simultaneously without any issues. (FYI My Laptop has been equipped with latest intel dual-core processor (64 bit) + 3 GB DDR3 RAM + 320GB SATA HD).
Would Linux Mint be a good alternative as it is a derivative from Ubuntu only with improvised performance? Or Open SUSE or Mandriva? pretty much confused...
Any suggestions in this regard are more welcome & appreciable.
I've been told that some people with older hardware are having issues with OpenSUSE as well.
They should be standard. There shouldn't have to be any user interaction to get a standard hp deskjet working. It should simply work. Same for the photsmart, the printer driver is missing and the scanner should work without any user interaction.
Why doesn't ndsiwrapper work?
This is old stuff, what's up? Forget wireless! I'm sure I can get into the inside of it all and get it working, but why? Why would I run OpenSuSE if i have to alter scripts. I can just roll my own.
YAST and Control Center?
I know the difference, but why are there two different configuration locations?
This is totally mind blowing this is insanely confusing to any new user, be it a gnubie or an expert.
Compiz/desktop effects?
Doesn't work because it's not supported by the hardware! WTH is this. There is nothing special about my hardware and this works fine on other distros (I will not name any) This is really starting to look like something going horribly wrong,
Everything I need has failed. Printers/scanning, wireless, ease of use, some eye candy...
I'm working on graphics drivers next, but if they fail, then this release is an all out failure. Unless you have some special need of OpenSUSE then save yourself headaches and choose something different.
I've just installed openSuse 11.2, and spent a morning configuring it, and I must say that I am totally thrilled with it!
I've set up the wireless connection, connected to my Windows domain, installed a couple of programming languages, set up an ftp server, and remote desktop (xdmcp).
It looks great, runs smoothly, and I really like YaST for system control.
All on a 1GHz Athlon, with 512 MB.
I last tried openSUSE 11.1, and had some problems with KDE4, but it now seems to work well.
I mostly run it as a secondary programming machine, and svn server, via both SSH login, and remote X.
Very happy with KDE4.3
Kudos, Novell and the openSUSE team!
I tried it on my laptop(Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM and 100GB HDD).
My Problem : The GUI is very slow. Everything from opening a window, even scrolling is not smooth at all. I tried both KDE and GNOME. Both are giving me the same problem.
My sondcard(Realtek HD standard) is not suported. The players simply crash when I am trying to play even the wave files.
Verdict: I am movng back to Ubuntu.
I am inspired, but downloads r bit slow, and fonts aren't that awesome.
So I’m back openSuSe using 11.2 and love it.
Same with some drivers and stuff. Just wanted to point that out. In general I have been a SuSE user, I like it even with its bugs (some upgrades are not as easy as they should), but in general is one of the leading 'brands' in the market.
I did a dirty install of 11.2 with my XP to test it, as I was planning on re-formating anyway. I was pleasantly shocked by how well openSUSE 11.2 ran on my Laptop, and I now write this at 02:30 AST watching the format bar slowly edge past 97% for XP (before I install 11.2, of course).
I guess my point is, I'm 100% for a free choice of OS for anyone who doesn't want to be only fed with Windows, and I'm extremely glad to see that, even if SUSE isn't everyone's taste, there a lot of choices out there. Pick what works with your system, and more importantly, enjoy the freedom to try them all!
Peace out to the Penguin!
Todd from Halifax, N.S.
SUSE is the best of the "new" distros for me. I did manage to get every distro working with excellent graphics, wireless, etc., but the flash problems persisted across all but SUSE so I'll stick with it for now and experiment again when the LTS Ubuntu distro comes out in April.