MESSAGE
| DATE | 2004-04-26 |
| FROM | From: "Inker, Evan"
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] Novell's SUSE Linux has landed
|
Novell's SUSE Linux has landed
By Sam Varghese
April 22, 2004
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/04/22/1082530280403.html
SUSE Linux 9.1 - the first version of the distribution to come out after
Novell bought the company late last year - will be available in Australia
from May 1. SUSE has the second biggest marketshare among commercial
distributions of the open source operating system.
Novell is understandably taking aim at the business desktop but given the
history of SUSE, it has had to necessarily take a very different path to
that adopted by Sun.
SUSE has a large and loyal following and thus the changes in this version,
at least, are minimal compared to version 9.0. But then, arugably, there
wasn't much need for a great deal of change because SUSE had already come to
the point where it was enterprise-ready.
Three versions of the distribution were made available to reviewers in
advance - the personal, professional (both 32-bit) and 64-bit versions. This
review covers the professional version, release candidate 2.
Novell has chosen to stick with the boxed set and manuals. The professional
version comes on five CDs or one DVD and two manuals. The admin who does
install desktops for business users has a wide choice when deciding what his
or her organisation will use. (The personal version comes on one CD; there
is also a live CD).
SUSE's YAST (yet another set-up tool) installation routine has long been
part of the distrubition and it now displays a much greater degree of
urgency than in the past. Nevertheless, the German heritage shows through
-it is thorough and there are no half-measures in the installation. Novell
has indicated that YAST will be open sourced soon.
Hardware detection is good; though the test monitor was not in the hardware
database, a generic choice ensured that the first boot after installation
brought up a graphical user interface. Installation using the default
software profile took around 40 minutes.
SUSE is the first commercial distribution to use the 2.6 kernel and the
degree of responsiveness in the system has thus increased markedly. Many
applications which seemed to be sluggish in version 9.0 now respond as
though a fire had been lit under them - though this could be a cumulative
effect, due to the lib C version and also the performance enhancements which
have been incorporated into KDE.
The KDE desktop, the more mature of the two most common desktop environments
available to Linux users, has long been favoured by SUSE and 9.1 has stayed
with it, using the 3.2.1 release. (Screenshots)
While older programs like the CD and DVD burning app have been spruced up a
great deal, this version of KDE has at least four new applications worthy of
note - JuK, a jukebox-style music player; Kopete, an instant messenger with
support for AOL Instant Messenger, MSN, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu,
Jabber, IRC, SMS and WinPopup; KWallet, which provides integrated, secure
storage of passwords and web form data; and Kontact, a unified interface
that draws KDE's email, calendaring, address book, notes and other PIM
features together.
SUSE's office suite is the free OpenOffice.org but an additional
application, the Rekall database, gives the user all that Microsoft Access
provides to the office user.
But SUSE does not confine itself to KDE - GNOME 2.4 is also present. For
those who prefer desktop environments with a lot less, the Ice Window
Manager is there.
However, while KDE is extremely well integrated and modified to a large
extent, the GNOME in SUSE is more or less the vanilla version. Novell has,
however, indicated that the next version of SUSE will see features from both
desktops becoming part of the default.
System configuration can be done from within the KDE control centre as
SUSE's own configuration tool, YAST2, can be accessed from this centre.
However, there is one annoying aspect about the configuration utility - one
has to provide the root password repeatedly for each and every config
change. For example, if one accesses YAST2 and makes some changes in a
system parameter and then wants to make some changes in a hardware setting -
while YAST2 remains open - the root password is required once again. This
will irritate people who are used to opening a terminal, assuming root
status, making all the config changes they want and then exiting back to
their user status.
The branding adopted by Sun and Novell are both borne of necessity - Sun had
to develop new branding so it went with its best-known brand, Java. Novell
knows that SUSE already has good brand recognition; additionally, it cannot
afford to antagonise the loyal band of SUSE followers. It has thus kept to
the SUSE style for the most part. It will have to continue to tread warily
while incorporating features from GNOME as there is something of a US-Europe
split on the KDE-GNOME issue.
But in another respect Sun and Novell have taken diametrically opposite
routes - Sun has cut down on software choice, and Novell has chosen to stick
with it. The admin who goes with Sun's Java Desktop System has to stick to
one set of programs unless he looks outside the pack; the one who goes the
Novell way has a choice when it comes to deciding on a standard operating
environment.
One more big name has thus been added to the list which backs Linux for
business use. And in Novell's case, there is some resonance for the open
source community - this is a company which actually took on Microsoft in the
1980s and won the networking battle.
The test machine was a PIII-800 with 256 MB of RAM, a 40-GB ATA Seagate
drive, and an integrated Gigabyte motherboard.
SUSE Linux 9.1 will retail for $54 (personal) and $107 (professional) from
May 1. For more details, contact 02 8281 3400 or visit this site.
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