Linux & Open Source - eWeek

Linux & Open Source: OpenSUSE 11.1 Takes On Ubuntu, Fedora


Novell's OpenSUSE, one of the Linux world's most prominent distributions, hit Version 11.1 late in 2008, sporting a renewed focus on community involvement. Check out this slide show to see if the latest version of OpenSUSE has what it takes to win mind share from Canonical's Ubuntu and Red Hat's Fedora Linux distributions, and stay tuned for eWEEK Labs' full review of OpenSUSE 11.1.
 
  • OpenSUSE 11.1 Takes On Ubuntu, Fedora
    by Jason Brooks
  • ThinkPad Tab
    I was impressed by the "ThinkPad" tab in the system's task manager application because I haven't seen such a tab in the other distributions that also ship with this application. However, the tab was wrong about my system being undocked.
  • Docking Applet
    On the other hand, OpenSUSE's taskbar-based dock/undock applet did correctly sense my ThinkPad's docking station status.
  • Runaway Notifications
    I appreciated the option of setting my OpenSUSE installation to fetch and apply updates automatically, but I was occasionally met by runaway system notifications that refused to obey my "Do not show this again" button presses.
  • Print Error
    While I wasn't pleased to see an error when I sought to print a document, I was intrigued by the "Diagnose" button on the error dialog.
  • Printer Debugging
    The printer diagnosis applet offered up a status message that wasn't particularly helpful (nothing like "out of paper"), but the tool offered to dig further into the issue.
  • Missing Driver
    Apparently, the driver library for my printer was missing.
  • HP Driver Pack
    I headed over to OpenSUSE's Software Manager application to search out more Hewlett-Packard printer drivers to install. The system's graphical software tool is a bit more complicated than those for Ubuntu and Fedora, but the tool served my needs well.
  • Zypper
    For a simpler installation interface, I turned to OpenSUSE's command-line software install tool, Zypper, to fetch and install the image editing application that I use for screenshot editing.
  • Moonlight
    I was able to check out the Silverlight-based content on one of Microsoft's product launch pages through Moonlight, a Linux-friendly version of the Silverlight plug-in based on Mono.
  • Control Center
    For my system administration needs, I could turn to OpenSUSE's Control Center.
  • YAST Control Center
    Somewhat confusingly, I could satisfy an overlapping set of system administration needs from OpenSUSE's YAST Control Center.
  • Display Settings
    Also confusing were the overlapping tools for configuring my display, mouse and keyboard settings.
  • Start Menu
    The OpenSUSE equivalent of Windows' Start Menu is attractive-looking, but in practice it tends to add more clicks to your application-seeking operations. I'd prefer the search box to update as I typed.
  • OpenOffice.org 3
    OpenSUSE ships with Novell's version of OpenOffice.org 3.0, which rendered Office 2007 files well for me.
  • Build Service Search
    OpenSUSE's Firefox installation comes conveniently preconfigured with a search provider for a vital back-end component of the project: the Build Service, with which users may build and host packages for OpenSUSE and other distributions.
  • No Prism Here
    The package I sought, one for Mozilla's Prism site-specific Web browser, wasn't available in the Build Service, so I set out to build one.
  • Naming Issues
    The project name I selected was invalid. The Web app offered no guidance on its desired syntax, but, as I would soon learn, I was in the wrong place, anyhow.
  • No My Projects for You
    I next clicked on the My Projects link in the left-hand navigation bar but was met with another error. Apparently, the Build Service interface is built with Ruby.
  • Home at Last
    I next tried clicking on Home Project in the navigation menu, and I appeared to be on the right track at last.
  • Package Wizard
    I crossed my fingers and started out with the Build Service's experimental package wizard.
  • More Wizardry
    I filled out a short form detailing my maiden packaging effort.
  • Another Error
    A subsequent page told me that my build status was unavailable. Clicking "trigger rebuild" turned up this error, suggesting that my project required more configuring.
  • Add Repository
    Before I could build my package, I had to configure a repository to hold it, which involved specifying which platforms to target. The service's breadth of target platforms is rather impressive.
  • Build Scheduled
    With my repository for OpenSUSE 11.1 configured, my Prism builds were duly scheduled.
  • I Surrender
    After a few hours of Prism packaging trial and error (the complexity of the Mozilla build system is a topic for another day) I surrendered, although not without an appreciation for Build Service niceties such as this dynamic build log.
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