"First Look at SUSE LINUX 9.3 Professional"-----

honjyang

First Look at SUSE LINUX 9.3 Professional
Posted by: Adam Doxtater on 04-06-2005.

"SUSE has been one of the major players on the desktop for as long as I can remember, and for good reason. They have built a solid, sleek desktop ready for anyone who wanted to give Linux a shot but either had no luck with other distributions, or simply was curious but didn't have the time to fight their way through a long install or tedious configurations. SUSE was it. Does the distro that has kept so many people happy for so long still have what it takes to stay on top? We're about to find out..."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/logo.jpg

Features
Linux kernel 2.6.11.4
GCC 3.3.5/glibc 2.3.4
Xorg 6.8.2
GNOME 2.10
KDE 3.4
OpenOffice.org 2.0 PR
Xen 2.0.5c-4 virtualization software
Firefox 1.0.1
Beagle desktop search
F-Spot 0.0.12 image manager
NetApplet network connection manager
RealPlayer 10
Adobe Acrobat 7
This release has generated a lot of buzz in the Linux world due to the new features it's sporting. Software such as Xen and Beagle are probably the main reason for the excitement, and for good reason. Both packages have thus far been in development and not available in any other mainstream distribution. SUSE is the first commercial distribution to market with both applications.

For those who might not have heard yet, Xen is system virtualization software which will allow you to run multiple guest operating systems on your computer. Think VMWare (I know... I know it's a bad reference, but the only thing I can think of to bring about a decent mental picture) here but quite a bit more complicated, a great deal faster, and completely open sourced. Beagle is the latest system search/indexing companion for GNOME and after I was able to get it working (I go into detail later in the article) I really liked what I saw. It's probably not something you'd use every day, but worth it's weight in gold when you need it.

SUSE LINUX 9.3 is also sporting some other great little goodies such as the F-Spot image management tool, the NetApplet tray-based network connection management tool, and the latest Adobe Acrobat 7 package, which has more features and is more responsive than any other release thus far. OpenOffice.org is present as usual, but this time in a 2.0 pre-release format (see screenshot). This release is also much faster than the last, and has much improved Microsoft Office compatibility baked in. Even though it's a pre-release, I found that it worked just as well as any final code I've used from them. Feature-wise, this release should look very tempting to first time Linux users and veterans alike. SUSE's efforts have always been tailored specifically for the desktop, and for the most part, nothing has changed here.


Installation
Installation is probably the hardest thing to cover in a Linux review. I mean, what can you really say about it? It either did the trick or it didn't. There's not much in between. Every installer has the same purpose to a degree: Install Linux and a bunch of other applications onto the system. That's what SUSE's YaST installer does... and it does it very well. Anyone who's used SUSE in the past several years knows that the YaST installer hasn't change much, and this release is really no different. They've only made subtle changes each time a new release is out, and that's fine, because it's actually a decent installer. The only thing I dislike about it is that it seems to ask too many questions of the end user. In this day and age you'd think some of the things it requires input for would be somewhat automated... such as hardware detection and configuration.

There are other distros that do this, and YaST might move up a notch if it were to utilize today's improved Linux hardware detection a little more and take away some of the detailed knowledge required of the end user. Considering half of this distro's target market is home users, it would benefit them greatly. The other half is technical and/or power users so their need for better/more automatic hardware detection and setup may not be as great. Other than that, the YaST installer is second to none. Red Hat, Mandrake, and SUSE have all refined their installers to the point that they really don't need any drastic improvements at this point. They've already got the formula, now they're all spending time rounding them out.

In the end, I had no issues with the installer, save for it not recognizing my monitor or its capabilities properly. I needed to manually adjust the settings myself, but that's not a big deal. I've been doing this so long I know my hardware settings better than I know my own social security number. I also noted that the default password encryption is now set to blowfish, which will allow for longer passwords. For the first time in recent memory I was not asked to truncate it. Smart move on their part.

A note on installing with existing crypto partitions
SUSE 9.3 includes a newer encryption module than that used in earlier versions of the product, so if you are upgrading to SUSE 9.3 from an older version such as 9.1 or 9.2 you'll need to take appropriate action to guard against data loss where access to an existing encrypted file system is required.
1. Do NOT include your encrypted partition(s) during the installation
2. Run YaST Online Update after the installation has completed and you're logged into the system
3. Add your encrypted file systems using the YaST partitioning module

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/defdesk_sm.jpghttp://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/defgnome_sm.jpg
  
L to R: Default KDE and GNOME desktops



Running SUSE LINUX
SUSE has always been one of the top distributions for desktop use, but it's never been on top in terms of performance. Most commercial desktop distributions suffer from the same problem, but I'd have to say SUSE has always been at the bottom of the list in terms of raw speed and desktop performance. Even Mandrake and Fedora seem faster. The reason I'm mention this isn't to knock them on performance yet again, but to say that the feel of this desktop is much more responsive than any of their past efforts. Whether this is all in my head or completely justified remains to be seen, but I'm sure other reviewers will be commenting on this very same topic. I originally thought this might be due to the enhancements made in the the recent KDE 3.4 release, but was forced to reevaluate once I saw the Gnome desktop in action. The performance of SUSE 9.3 is actually pretty good. Not as fast as the likes of Slackware or Gentoo but beggars can't be choosers as they say. To have this many apps at my fingertips plus speed... that's just nice.

The desktop itself is organized very well, as has become the norm for SUSE LINUX releases. Actually, both KDE and GNOME have received a fair amount of attention. I wouldn't say equal, but they've placed more amount of attention on GNOME than in previous releases. KDE is still their default so it gets the gold, but in any event they are both organized well. Applications are easily found, and almost everything I used worked as advertised, with some exceptions i will get into shortly. See this screenshot for a visual.

SUSE LINUX has predominantly been a KDE-based distribution, and nothing has changed on that front, as it's default desktop is still KDE... but... since the Novell acquisition (who also acquired the Gnome gurus known collectively as Ximian if you recall) it seems that more emphasis has been placed on the Gnome desktop environment as well. It makes sense after all, to provide two of the most popular desktops available for Linux, and to put an equal amount of effort into both. Gnome has recently been just another piece of software on the SUSE CDs, but it appears that it is now being treated with the respect it deserves. Well done. I suspect part of this is due to the development efforts on Novell Linux Desktop, which is their Gnome-centric enterprise desktop release.

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is the default browser for this release and with good reason. It's fast becoming the most popular browser on the planet and SUSE knows it. As far as I'm concerned they've made a solid choice. For your reference, the Mozilla Thunderbird email client is missing from the lineup, though it's easily downloaded from the web. The default email clients for SUSE 9.3 are Novell Evolution and KMail for Gnome and KDE respectively. Even though I use Thunderbird, I've got no complaints here, as both of these have become excellent apps over the years and can easily handle heavy duty email/calendaring/contact management tasks.

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/fspot_sm.jpghttp://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/netapplet_sm.jpg
  
L to R: F-Spot image manager; NetApplet connection manager

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/xen_sm.jpg
http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/beagleoo_sm.jpg

L to R: Xen YaST module; Beagle at work



http://cdn1.tribalfusion.com/media/261156.gif


Firefox is a very capable browser but like anything else it's not for everyone... so for those who prefer to use it, Mozilla 1.7.5 is also available on install discs, which you can easily grab using YaST. It should also be noted that Epiphany and Opera 7.5 are available on the installation discs if you care to use them. One issue I found while running Firefox on both installations was with bookmarks. For some reason, each time you launch the browser and click on the Bookmarks toolbar option, the only thing that is visible are the “Bookmark this page” and “Manage bookmarks” menu items. Even if you have 100 bookmarks, you won't see them until you create a new bookmark... then they're visible... at least until you close the browser (see screenshot). The next time you open it, the same thing happens. Minor detail but frustrating all the same.

Beagle makes it's commercial debut
SUSE is the first commercial distribution to include the Beagle search tool (flash demos | wiki) for Linux and I think it should be well received. For those who have used Google's new desktop search tool, think of Beagle in much the same way but with more cool points. As you can see by the flash demo, Beagle allows you to search your entire system for any and all keywords you enter. It provides full document search, which allows you to find text inside files. While this is not a new concept (it has been available from the command line and via Konqueror's search tool for years), it's done very well. It also searches for documents, photos, music, or any other file on your system, and can do full email and instant messaging searches.

When I first tried to load Beagle, it complained that the Beagle daemon wasn't started and gave me the option to start it (see screenshot). This option did nothing at all. The beagle daemon wouldn't start when attempted under a regular user account, but when tried it logged in as root and it worked fine. I'm mentioning this problem to save a few people some headaches if they run into the same problem, as it might be a common one if you have your file system set up like I do...

On my systems, I always create /home as a separate partition, so if I decide to load a new distro, I can keep my most important files and reuse them on the new install. I did the same thing when I installed SUSE 9.3... I told it to format all partitions with the exception of /home. Now, the problem with Beagle would seem unrelated to that partitioning choice until you look a little closer. Running it with debug and foreground turned on (best --fg --debug) told the whole story. It was complaining about a lack of extended attributes on the /home file system and refused to run. Now, SUSE thought ahead and enabled extended attributes on their file systems by default, but remember I told the installer to leave that partition as-is, only to mount it as /home. In this circumstance, it did exactly as I asked and didn't flag it for extended attributes. That's not SUSE's fault, but something to watch out for. To fix it, all I needed to do was add to my file system attributes for /home, remount the file system, and it worked like a charm. See below for an /etc/fstab example...
/dev/hda3 /home reiserfs noatime,acl,user_xattr 1 2
Xen virtualization
Perhaps one of the most highly anticipated features of SUSE LINUX 9.3 is Xen virtualization software and with good reason. Xen allows for multiple guest operating systems (or domains as they are referred to by Xen) to run simultaneously on a single system. Xen requires a modified kernel which allows it to access system hardware through Xen hypercalls, allowing it to run at performance never before seen with the likes of VMWare or User Mode Linux. It is also for this reason that Microsoft Windows is not a supported operating system on Xen. Its purpose is very different anyway. It wasn't meant to be a VMWare clone.

An interesting thing I'd like to note is that the first time I installed SUSE 9.3, I chose Xen as an install option. It then copied the additional kernel the the hard drive and populated the Grub boot menu with the additional choice for the Xen-enabled kernel. The second time I loaded SUSE, I took the defaults, bypassing the choice for Xen. I then installed it after-the-fact and noted that while it did copy over the new kernel, it did not add the appropriate Grub menu entries. For those who are still catching up, the default SUSE kernel does not support Xen. A second kernel and bootloader option is required. If you want to use Xen, I recommend installing support for it when you initially install the system because it will make it easier on you in the long run. You will need to customize your software selection to accommodate it, since it's not included in a default installation.

iPod support
SUSE 9.3 features rudimentary support for connection to an Apple iPod using kio_ipodslave in KDE. With it you can browse, copy songs to and from the iPod, access and copy playlists, and more. It should be noted that I wasn't able to create new directories for new artists when I tested this feature. When you connect the iPod to the computer, it automatically creates an icon for it in My Computer on the desktop. It creates a device, available in Konqueror using the address ipod:/, that is consequently available for applications such as Amarok to play media from... that is if Amarok was able to play MP3 files... which it isn't.

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/help_sm.jpg
http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/rem-media_sm.jpg
  
L to R: SUSE LINUX help system; removable devices are well supported

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/ipod_sm.jpg
http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/amarok_sm.jpg

L to R: kio_ipodslave at work; Amarok MP3 support is crippled


Multimedia support... or lack of it
SUSE's disregard for proper multimedia playback has officially gotten out of hand. While I am not a lawyer and I confess to not knowing all of the specifics regarding the legalities of MP3 playback, the only other distribution guilty of crippling it (that I am aware of) is Red Hat. So what are the other distros (Linspire comes immediately to mind) doing to ensure their users are able to listen to their music and watch their videos? SUSE has really done a thorough job at crippling media playback in version 9.3 and it's a really sad thing to see. What's even worse is trying to fix it. Lack of a viable MP3 playback solution upsets me not only because I have tons of CDs I've ripped to MP3 over the years and can't even listen to them on this distro, but knowing that I could install practically any other distro on the planet and be back to normal again. The only way to play MP3 files on the newest SUSE release is to use the included RealPlayer 10. Nothing against Real's software, but it's not full-featured enough to be considered the default player for MP3 files, especially with the likes of Amarok on the system. Even the aging XMMS has more features.

From what it looks like, GStreamer, Arts, and aKode (the latter two are both included in the kdemultimedia packages) were all compiled without MP3 support. Unlike Red Hat, where all you need to do is install a single file to resolve, SUSE has crippled their distro in such a way that it's extremely difficult to fix. Considering the main components are part of a larger package set, you'd need to recompile KDE's multimedia section in order to properly right the situation. The problem with this would be that you're throwing off the balance of package management at that point, so future upgrades might have unpredictable results. It's also a nightmare to recompile these packages on SUSE, as you'll end up installing many development packages for the likes of KDE, Xorg, etc... not to mention the need to grab source code for other key pieces such as lame, flac, and taglib. The fastest way I was able to cure the problem was to grab the SUSE 9.2 kdemultimedia packages from a reliable KDE mirror. While this cured the problem temporarily, the next time I installed something from YaST, it reinstalled its multimedia packages. Frustrating.

This is especially concerning when you take a look at the way they are advertising this release. According to their PR material, SUSE 9.3 has Apple iPod support and that's a great thing because iPod is the hottest music player on the market these days, but what file format is most commonly found on iPods across the world? You guessed it: MP3. It also supports AAC, WAV, and a few other less common formats but as you know AAC isn't as common as MP3... not even close. If you're storing WAV files on your iPod, you're not using space wisely, as WAV files are on average ten times larger than a comparable MP3. To date, Apple has not built OGG support into their devices and I don't foresee it happening any time soon. So there goes iPod support on SUSE. It doesn't do a lot of good having support for a device that you aren't willing to provide proper playback facilities for on the desktop.

I contacted reviewer support at SUSE, and after several days I received as response confirming that it was indeed by design. They also went on to say the following:
Novell is improving the multimedia experience for audio enthusiasts with the SUSE LINUX Professional 9.3 release.

Out of the box we have standardized on RealPlayer, based on the Helix Open Source project this player provides a unique experience including a web browser plugin and is capable of playing all major multimedia formats.

For the music enthusiast we are now providing several free add-on multimedia option packs via YaST Online Update (YOU).

Those packages include players, mixers, equalizers and everything you need to set up a home music studio.

This new approach will allow us to better address the rapidly changing packages in the multimedia marketplace.
I could be wrong, but this sounds like they've realized a mistake and are going to correct it after the fact... but that still doesn't explain nor excuse the crippling of standard packages, or if they intend to right the situation at hand.





Final thoughts...
SUSE 9.3 has the potential to be a serious contender on the desktop, but sadly I cannot recommend this release to anyone looking for a well-balanced desktop Linux system. While they score points for making use of the latest and greatest desktop environments, new peripheral technology, and usability enhancements, the way they've crippled the multimedia functionality of this one-time world class distro is hard to ignore. Most of the people buying this will realize that they can no longer listen to 99% of their music with a full-featured player. Updates from YOU or not, this still equals a broken distro. Sure, in a perfect world, everyone would be using OGGs, but we don't live in a perfect world. This is a flaw that might seem trivial, but in fact it's a huge issue.

Other than that and the few issues I've noted in the review, SUSE 9.3 has potential to be an excellent distribution. This release is responsive, full of applications, has a polished interface (as all SUSE releases do), and device support is actually very good. The only thing I was not able to get working here was a Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 webcam. SUSE had no idea what to do with it, but other USB devices such as pen drives, cameras, and the Apple iPod were all detected and working well during the review. Of course I can't speak for everyone's hardware, but here it did well. This saves the end user much time and headache trying to get everything set up the way they like it.

Can you put a dollar amount on all of this? Yes you can. Everything has a monetary value associated with it. Is SUSE worth the $89.95 USD price tag they placed on it? Well, I guess that all depends on the consumer. I know during the review I had my fair share of frustration with it and it's a frustration I've never had with SUSE before so I see this as one of those “oops” releases that many developers put out. They usually quickly realize their mistake and follow quickly with either another dot release or some patches... which it looks like SUSE might do in this case. Either way nobody should be releasing a desktop without proper multimedia support in this day and age. Linspire just released a distro that will do pretty much anything save for DVD playback. What's going on with Novell/SUSE? This may seem trivial, but on a desktop distro it isn't.

The thing is, I know SUSE will get better. They've had some seriously good releases in the past and they will in the future. Let's afford them a few mistakes and look forward to the next release because if I know SUSE it will be a good one.


UPDATE!! 2005/04/06
Many people were upset over the comments I made about the lack of system-wide MP3 support in SUSE LINUX 9.3 and I would like to clarify the issue with MP3 support. Since the writing of this review, SUSE has made multimedia updates available for the 9.3 release allowing full control back to the end user. DVD playback is still not supported, and that was to be expected. No worries there.

I need to first point out a difference in the way YOU (YaST Online Update) functions as compared to the last release. In version 9.2 I had mirrors from around the globe listed in YOU. All you would need to do is find the fastest mirror and grab whatever updates you required from there. Now, fast forward to SUSE 9.3. The only mirrors listed for me were USA-based servers. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. You can add any mirror you like manually in YOU if necessary. It's actually as easy as finding the address and pasting it into the address space provided in the application.

The reason I am bringing this up is actually pretty important to support the validity of this review, which many have called into question. I would never knowingly provide false information to our readers as I'm here to serve, but in this case I was a bit misinformed. It's not the fault of anyone in particular... not myself, not SUSE, not anyone. Just lack of info on my part. That being said, I was told (and subsequently added to the review for your benefit) by SUSE that they had packages available in YOU that would remedy the situation. This is a great thing considering it's an important feature to desktop users, but it wasn't available to me during my review so it was only appropriate to comment on what I have seen thus far and inform you that SUSE has promised to rectify the situation. While this is good news, I need to review what I've seen, not what's been promised, hence the lower score.

Back to YOU... when SUSE informed me they would have these patches available I immediately checked YOU but found only Microsoft core fonts and the Nvidia proprietary video card driver (consequently the same updates available when I initially installed the distro). Let me explain clearly here: At the time of the review, no multimedia updates were available to me in any of the mirrors provided by the distro. After doing some further research today, I added their German mirror at gwdg.de to YOU and all of the sudden I had several updates that were not available from their American mirrors (see screenshots below)... including four multimedia updates. I have provided several screen shots here for you to see exactly what I mean. These were all taken today (several moments ago actually) so it is current. For a full listing of what SUSE has patched with these four updates, see this text document. You can easily see what the extent of the damage was by how many files had to be patched. Please note that not all packages listed here were a direct result of the lacking MP3 support. It's easily to see which ones are, though.

http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/mirrors_sm.png
http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/youlist1_sm.png
http://madpenguin.org/images/reviews/suse93/youlist2_sm.png
   
L to R: Mirrors as of 2005/04/06; Default USA mirror listing; address used for proper multimedia updates.


After installing their updates, full multimedia capability was restored to the distro. It is for this reason, and for the ease of installing these updates, that I am boosting the overall score of my review. It is only appropriate. Like I said, this is a world-class distro and it saddened me to see this kind of thing, but considering they have rectified the issue, even before release date, is noteworthy. As most of our steady readers know, I truly find SUSE to be an excellent distro... I always have... so just know that what I've said did not stem from bias because it most certainly did not. I am looking forward to the next release of SUSE LINUX with great anticipation, and I am sure this release will do very well. Congratulations on a job well done.


Overall Rating:
Features

Performance

Usability

Overall Value

Total Score


Product name: SUSE LINUX 9.3 Professional
Manufacturer: Novell
Price: $89.95 USD
Availability: Mid-April, 2005 (Novell is taking preorders now)


About the author...
Reviewed by Adam Doxtater - Co-author of Snort 2.1 Intrusion Detection 2nd Edition, Snort 2.0 Intrusion Detection and MCSE Designing Windows 2000 Directory Services by Syngress/Osbourne/McGraw-Hill. Adam is the founder and Chief Technology Editor of Mad PenguinTM. To contact Adam for interviews and/or consultation he is available on a first-come/first-serve basis, and can be contacted here



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.





--------------------------------------------------------------------------------