Complete Step-by-Step howto for openSUSE 11

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-opensuse-11

Highly recommend the above for anyone starting out with openSUSE 11 for their personal home use. Very well written with step-by-step (including screen captures) instructions to get the most out of openSUSE 11.

Have fun.

openSUSE 11.1 roadmap published

openSUSE 11.1 roadmap has been published (see link). In summary, we should "expect" 11.1 to be generally available to the public just before Christmas 2008.

I was postulating previously (link) about SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 and its relation to openSUSE 11.x... So it looks like I'm going to get my wish. Heheh...

My openSUSE 11 Journal - 2

Let's talk User Interface.

Been reading how 3D desktop effects turned on by default... but both KDE and GNOME seemed very 2D to me on first boot. Then I realized that I had to check the option to enable it and .... get this... 3D effects switched ON IMMEDIATELY! Yes, that's right, no more mucking around with video settings, restarting X11 etc. The graphics card on my Shuttle XPC is the onboard Intel G31 Chipset with X3100 GMA.

GNOME
Noticed improvements in the fundamental UI as well as openSUSE specific ones that focus on usability. Still in my first few days of using this so I'll post more later.

KDE 4
I'll admit that I'm not all that familiar with KDE... with my last production experience with KDE 3.0 (in 2004 timeframe).

KDE 4 blew me away. Its so pretty, I can just sit there admiring it... this will pass I'm sure and I'll be more productive once I get over its beauty. The icon size are just perfect and rolling over them gives me more options (without the need to right-click)...

But it took me awhile to figure out how to turn on the 3D desktop effects though... also noticed the effects are not as fanciful compared with GNOME... I think its their usability philosophy in action... not challenging that since I do get a little carried away with 3D effects in the Beryl days... hahahah Wanna see how crazy I got? The proof is here on YouTube (link)

That's all for now...

My openSUSE 11 Journal - 1

At long last, openSUSE 11 arrived slightly over a week ago (20-21 June thereabouts) and I just had to try it out. Its no secret that the original SLE 10 had its roots somewhere between openSUSE 10 & 10.1. Therefore, trying out openSUSE 11 will give us a little insight/feel on SLE 11 when it eventually rolls out sometime in the middle of next year

... my hope its going to be based in 11.1... regardless of the fine quality I found in openSUSE 11, I still have my belief that one should wait for service pack 1 in any software... call me conservative... heh

First up, a little more details of my setup so that you know "your mileage may vary" since this is a journal of my experience:

Operating System: openSUSE 11 (64 bit)
The Box: Shuttle XPC SG31G2 (see link)
Box Specs:

• Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 (Desktop, non Intel-VT) @ 2.53Ghz
• Onboard RAM of 2Gb
• SATA HDD of 250Gb, triple-boot partition (3 OS at boot, common SWAP and DATA partition)
• Intel G31 chipset with X3100 Graphics Media Accelerator
  

I installed openSUSE 11 on 2 partitions, one with the exciting/experimental KDE 4 user interface and the other with GNOME, something I'm more accustomed.

The Good:
My hat off to the openSUSE community for their technical excellence, this is by far the faster openSUSE I've seen. From boot up and installation till its completion and ready for use, it only took me 15 minutes!!!

I've been reading how openSUSE has improved its software package management but I had no idea by THIS MUCH. I am so so grateful as this has been one of my bugbear with SUSE in general for sometime. Well DONE!

The Installation process has also been noticeably streamlined without sacrificing the power user's need to customize the install. Very pretty interface and I only had to click Next... the only part where I spent more time was the hard disk partitioning due to my triple-boot setup.

The not-so-Good:
Both the KDE and GNOME edition starts up well with no errors. Except when it tries to be helpful and offered to search for software updates online. I clicked Yes and entered my root password... after 10 minutes... nothing, the UI does not refresh.

Since I'm more familiar with GNOME, here's what I did to get online update going:

1. Computer -> Control Center -> System -> Sessions, disable PackageKit Update Applet. Normally, I would just do a log out/log in and this would remove the update applet. It didn't work for me as the update applet was removed but there is some background process running and I'm too lazy to figure out which one so I rebooted the system instead.
2. After a reboot and logging in, the update applet and its underlying processes are no long running. I clicked on Computer -> YaST (new in SLAB) -> enter root password -> Software -> Online Update
3. Viola! I am now given the option to download fixes and most importantly, Firefox 3.0 since it only became available after openSUSE 11 was launched.