Suse 10 Goldmaster is a HIT!

openfoam

reference to http://www.geektimelinux.com

In August, Novell SUSE announced a community based development operation called OPEN SUSE. This on the heels of a very successful Suse Pro 9.3. The new distribution would be built on Novell's SUSE Pro Line and would become the successor to that line. Through several test releases, watching the distribution take shape has been enjoyable and when the release of SUSE 10.0 was announced it came without fanfare. SUSE 10.0 or if you prefer OPEN SUSE 1.
The distro, as with the Pro Line is cutting-edge, using the latest, proven packages. KDE 3.4.2, GNOME 2.12, OpenOffice.org 2.0. These are just a few of the cutting-edge packages in SUSE 10.0.

The new SUSE also includes the latest Firefox and Opera browsers as well as E-mail and IM clients. The new and much talked about “Beagle” desktop search engine and Amarok music player have also been included.

While SUSE 10 comes in two versions, I chose the one with Adobe Acro Reader 7, Real Networks RealPlayer 10, Sun's JRE (Java Runtime Environment) and Macromedia's Flash Player. The second version is for the purist and includes only open-source components.

When I found that 10.0 had become official, I immediately began looking for a mirror that was not over burdened. It took some doing, but once I began downloading, all went smoothly. Five .isos downloaded...five .isos burned and it was time for an install. Since this is the first of its kind, I decided to put it on an old machine and see how it performed.

The install on an old 1.2G AMD with 348K of RAM went flawlessly. While a bit on the slow side, the install progressed without a hitch. (I later installed on a much newer machine with 1G of RAM and the install seemed to fly!) The usual questions; language, licensing agreement, choice of install (KDE or GNOME), time zone, etc. Once answered, it was time for the install to begin. End of Disk 1, system rebooted and the install continued.

Once the install concluded, a root user and user log-in was created and it was time to look at the new system. SUSE has done an excellent job of polishing their font system and that combined with the new KDE Icons makes for a very easy to view system. (I am sure the GNOME look is also highly polished). I'm sure that the polish is second only to the stability of this distro. I have been into every program, have had multiple screens and programs open and have yet to have a freeze up, or glitch!

SUSE has used YAST for years and this control system works! From YAST, you can configure almost anything from installing or upgrading software to doing system backups to configuring hardware. YAST also offers YOU (Yast Online Updates) which will check, automatically for program and security updates. This is another extremely simple program to set up and let run.

For those that haven't felt the bite of BEAGLE, you can with this distro. BEAGLE is a desktop search tool. You need to let it index the directories of interest then you can comprehensively search for any application, file or term. BEAGLE will display a nice window as links with short descriptions that when clicked open them in the appropriate window.

I feel that having reviewed the Betas of this distro, I may be rambling and probably am, but when a distribution delivers as much for newbie and experienced user as SUSE 10 does, I won't be the only one!

SUSE 10 will be used in 2006 as the foundation for the next version of Novell's enterprise operating systems: SLES (Suse Linux Enterprise Server) and its related systems such as Open Enterprise Server.

If you prefer a box set, the retail version of Suse Linux 10 will be offered globally via all of Novell's major retail channels at a suggested retail price of $59.

I admit to being a long time SUSE user and have seen many of the changes that have taken place over the past few years with the OS. On the heels of Suse Linux Pro 9.3, this is a MUST distro.