openSUSE 11.3 released

openSUSE 11.3 is here!

The openSUSE Project is pleased to announce the release of the latest incarnation of openSUSE, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit systems. openSUSE 11.3 is packed with new features and updates including SpiderOak to sync your files across the Internet for free, Rosegarden for free editing of your audio files, improved indexing with Tracker, and updates to Mozilla Firefox, and Thunderbird.

Among these many new features, openSUSE also provides support for netbooks and the Btrfs file system support. Users can expect to see improved hardware support with the 2.6.34 Linux kernel and updated graphics drivers. And support for the next generation of interactive computing for touchscreens like the HP TouchSmart.

openSUSE continues its tradition of delivering the popular KDE, GNOME and Xfce desktop environments, and now also provides the lightweight LXDE desktop environment. With GNOME, you can use the latest 2.30.1 version or take your installation for a drive with a preview of the upcoming GNOME 3.0. Or choose KDE SC 4.4.4 for the latest updates. They all feature the polish and integration that the openSUSE distro has been known for.

Source and full article: openSUSE News
Link: openSUSE website
View: openSUSE 11.3 screenshots
Download: openSUSE 11.3

 

thanks Eice just checking out

 

Please let us know what you think, mack_guy. Maybe later I'll check it in the vm.

 

Thanks for the notification.

 

The Gnome version is HAL free, something Ubuntu and Fedora couldn't achieve and surprisingly polished for SUSE which is primarily a KDE biased distro. No Nvidia or ATI drivers yet so will have to do with 2d nouveau. Everything works quite well, the HAL less Gnome boots as fast as Ubuntu Lucid, software installation is still vauge either via YAST. Even with non free repos and pakman enabled, no SKYPE, also unlike in Ubuntu and Debian but specifically Ubuntu, if you install stuff like Skype, you are on your own, gotta do your own digging and install necessary libs which are thankfully in the repos. They need a polished packaging manager like Ubuntu and Debian, otherwise excellent distro, very nice single taskbar gnome interface, the menu is a bit confusion and not as well laid out or defined as in Ubuntu. The latest kernel means lots of goodies that you won't find with LTS Ubuntu and would have to wait for Meerkat.

 

It's bad enough slogging through a cumbersome process to download and install codecs just to play mp3's in Amarok, but Amarok crashing (didn't this happen to me in the previous openSUSE release??) was the last straw I'm getting fed up with this distro; so much promise ending in utter disappointment because something doesn't work as it should.

 

Such is linux.... better get used to it if you wanna distro hop..

 

Works fine here, Amarok is slow to load in Kubuntu as well but I get no crashes with it either on SUSE or Kubuntu. I usually use VLC for all my music and smplayer for movies.

At least you can distro hop with Linux, with WIN, its take the crap and shut up, grin and bear it, when its fixed, pay for it as its sold as new OS.

 

True, but what good is distro hopping when only 1 out of 20 distros is a pleasant trouble-free experience?

 

None of them are trouble, they all offer difference choice, they work fine on most machines they are tested on and speaking of trouble. Apart from Ubuntu, there is Fedora, SUSE, Mandriva, sidux, MINT and many more that work flawlessly. OTOH, as I said, if it don't work in Windows, you are royally screwed and have to grin and bear it and there have been many unpleasant Windows situation as well, same goes for Mac but then they make sure that hardware is controlled and there is nothing much that can be done to it in name of customization or tweaking.

Just because Windows will BSOD on your PC don't make it bad for all, same goes for Linux although BSOD is rare there regardless of machine Codecs have to be installed in Windows too but you just can't use the point and click mentality in Linux although Ubuntu and other derivatives have made it quite convenient so far.

 

Works fine here too (gnome desktop). You read the instructions here?
http://forums.opensuse.org/english/...dia-restricted-format-installation-guide.html

Is more quick than in Ubuntu ( I installed the 2 yesterday ) and MP3 and DVD playback worked after follow the instructions there.

For my Hardware (mainly the VGA - ATI x1200) this version is a huge improvement. In 11.2 I can't activate the visual effects, now it's running in ultimate. All worked OOTB. The only thing not working here is Apparmor GUI. Very nice upgrade.

 

Well, I guess we just disagree. The only distro I've had consistent good luck with is Ubuntu. The rest are varying degrees of unpleasant experiences...

On the other hand I've had nothing but pleasure and good fortune with Win 7.

Anyway, I'm not here to be a Win troll, just agreeing a little with wat0114's experiences....

Peace....

 

That's also true and that's why Ubuntu/Kubuntu rule the roost.

 

Does that make the other distros dysfunctional, I really don't think so, some offer far more than Ubuntu will ever do. Don't get me wrong, I use and appreciate Ubuntu, reason is I have to make Linux popular, however I truly admire the other distros and the choice Linux gives to enjoy their philosophy and uniqueness, distros like sidux, Mandriva, Fedora fill niche like no others and thats why they have a loyal following.

 

Yep, exactly!

 

I have personally had a bumpy ride with Win7 and so have others, till today there are myriads of reports of BSOD on Win7, take one look at MS newsgroups and you will see it, don't make it bad, just that its not invincible. As for other distros, if you used them with Windows and Ubuntu mentality, then they are definitely not for you. There are many who use them and they have loyal following, they would never ever use Ubuntu, Arch users, sidux users represent that and these are speed freaks who would go through the trouble and set up their distro just right. These things are not for hopping, these are for learning, Gentoo is a fine example of that.

 

Lets please keep this thread on Linux distros and not bring in Windows, its futile and as Windows can't be comapred to Linux. As for ease of use, those who use Linux find it easier than Windows and those who come over from Windows and use Linux find it easy as well as long as they are willing to learn. However for many Windows is it and therefore thats fine, just not worth mentioning Windows in Linux thread. In that case every security issue which Windows is notorious for, Linux then should be mentioned and peddled but then again, its just futile to do so.

 

Agreed linuxforall, however, if you read back thru the posts, I think you will discover it is YOU who first mentioned Windows.....

I was merely offering some support for wat0114's post and offering an honest opinion based on many years of distro hopping and experimenting...

Once again, let's move on......

 

Not as comparison but as perspective to indicate that issues arise with all kids of distros and OS, thats the part of software, like humans, they are made by them and therefore not infallible.

 

... Is it just me, or does trying to install anything at all (either via repos or .rpm packages) cause the package manager to try to download ~600MB of dependencies?

Happened when I tried to install VLC, Chrome, and Opera. Weird.

 

True enough. It's just that seeing the same or similar problems in three separate releases is infuriating. It's one of those distros I'd really like to see work well, but it just never seems to overcome these hurdles.

@Linuxforall, no doubt openSUSE does offer some features others don't - which is why I've tried it at least four times in the last year - but it also does not provide the satisfying user experience I've largely had with Ubuntu and its spin-off Mint.

 

Not only you, when I tried 11.2 in vbox I experienced the same. See 3rd paragraph.. https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=1617464&postcount=40 "However when I click Apply, Yast SM wants to install all the other packages shown as install on the right side."

 

I totally understand your predicament, not only that, they released this edition minus the repo for nvidia or ati drivers which have now to be installed via the manual method of adding nomodeset to the kernel parameters. Also when it comes to packaging, it still remains dependency hell, just for skype, each and every packaging has to be installed. To install nvidia drivers, unlike Debian/Ubuntu where all you do is sudo apt-get build-essential, in this you have to do kernel-dev, make, gcc separately. So even for those trying who are Linux veterans, its cumbersome but the interface is very polished in both KDE and Gnome, more so than Ubuntu or Fedora, also Gnome version is minus HAL which is a plus on the other two distros, still with packaging like this, it won't endear to many including first time users of Linux, this is where MINT and Ubuntu will continue growing. Strangely Opera is included in the repos whereas in case of Canonical anals, they refuse to do so, even PCLOS and Mandriva include it.

 

I tried openSuse 11.3 yesterday and, as in previous attempts, it sucked. No wireless driver for my Broadcom bcm4312 rev 1, no make, no gcc, a huge update after I located a wireless driver and manually installed it. Their package manager doesn't begin to compare to synaptic. Mandriva 2010.1 is a whole lot better than openSuse 11.3 or Fedora 13. But of course Ubuntu Lucid is the best of all. .

BTW, I strongly suspect that Linuxforall is a traitor to the Ubuntu cause. I suggest he be shot on sight by any and all Ubuntu loyalists. . All this praise for other distros....disgusting!!

Later...

 

They eliminated HAL