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Linux technology and solutions-based provider SuSE said on Wednesday that its latest Linux operating system and applications package, SuSE Linux 8.0, will be broadly available for purchase on April 22.
The German-headquartered open-source company said the new version is based on Version 2.4.18 of the Linux kernel and will offer increased security, the KDE 3 desktop, seamless installation and expanded multimedia capabilities for professional and private desktop users.
Holger Dyroff, the head of SuSes American operation, said SuSE Linux 8.0 offers an array of security levels, including mouse-click activation of SuSE Personal Firewall 2.
In the event of theft, laptop and desktop data is protected by GNU Privacy Guard encryption, which allows only authorized users to read e-mail stored within the product. Version 8.0 also integrates professional e-mail and data security concepts and advanced security technologies, including OpenSSH, PAM and IPsec, he said.
Installation procedures have been improved, with better automated hardware detection, while the SuSE system assistant, YaST2, will detect existing Windows partitions and make suggestions for allocating hard disk space and software selection. YaST2 also now comes with a new module for the activation of high-rate data transfer modes for hard disks, Dyroff said.
“SuSE 8.0 will also include KDE 3, the latest graphical desktop for Linux, as well as KOffice with KWord, KSpread, KPresenter and an illustration module, and the e-mail client, KMail. It further enhances CD writing, viewing and editing videos and sound mixing with an editing studio and synthesizer,” he said.
The product will also support more than 1,200 drivers and include a range of Linux tools, including the Apache 1.3.23 Web server and the Samba 2.2.3a file and print server for Windows networks.
The recommended retail price for SuSE Linux 8.0 Personal, which will include 60 days of installation support, is $49.95, while the Professional version will be $79.95 and have 90 days of installation support. The update to SuSE Linux 8.0 Professional Update will also be available at a cost of $49.95.
SuSE Enterprise Server Goes
64-Bit”>
SuSE Enterprise Server Goes 64-Bit
At the CEBiT technology show in Hannover, Germany, SuSE on Wednesday also announced that the latest version of its advanced enterprise operating system, the 64-bit SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for IBM eServer zSeries, will be available in May. Pricing is not yet available.
“This offering now completes our product offerings for the IBM server line. IBM mainframes are the ideal solution for running mission-critical applications such as the administration of complex e-business transactions and enterprise resource planning systems,” Dyroff said.
The 64-bit version expands the possibilities of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for S/390 and zSeries. For example, complex database applications can benefit from the much larger address space and are not confined to a memory boundary of 2GB, he said.
“In order to fully retain the value of investments in existing applications, the 31-bit shared libraries of SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 support the parallel operation of 31-bit and 64-bit applications on the same machine within the same Linux instance,” Dyroff added.
This latest offering is based on Version 2.4.17 of the Linux kernel and supports both S/390 servers and IBMs latest server generation, eServer zSeries z900 and eServer zSeries z800. The support of HiperSockets, a high-performance feature unique to IBMs eServer zSeries, also substantially accelerates the speed of the data transfer between virtual servers in the mainframe.
The host operating system, z/OS, also supports HiperSockets, allowing data exchange between SuSE Linux and z/OS with maximum bandwidth and near-zero latency, he said.
“SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 7 for zSeries also supports the journaling file system ReiserFS,” Dyroff said. “Data entities containing large numbers of small files especially benefit from the efficiency and performance of ReiserFS.
“The network and disk device configuration can be modified dynamically without a reboot, while the Logical Volume Manager allows the run-time integration of dynamically attached storage devices into existing virtual volumes of almost arbitrary size, while delivering practically unlimited disk space without downtime.”