Desktop Linux Showdown

OpenSUSEs configuration tools are broken out into perhaps too many separate pieces.

Theres a search box to help cut through the control panel maze, but it doesnt always deliver. To find font configuration tools, I should have been searching for appearance.

OpenSUSE relies on Beagle for desktop search.

I wanted to check out OpenSUSEs Bluetooth functionality, and Beagle led me to the spot.

I was able to transfer files between my Treo and my Fedora 8-based test notebook, but I could not get the two talking via Fedoras new Phone Manager application.

Ubuntu turns to Tracker for its desktop search needs.

OpenSUSEs KDE implementation also leans on Beagle for desktop search. I find the KDE Beagle front end, Kerry, more useful than the GNOME-based version.

GNOME 2.20, shown here on Fedora 8, comes with a very useful backup and restore feature for Evolution. Ubuntu 7.10 also includes this option, but the version of Evolution that comes with OpenSUSE, strangely, does not.

Fedora 8 offers an early look at Red Hats Online Desktop initiative. At this point, the software amounts to little more than a handful of links to online services.

Fedora 8s online desktop demo connected me, through Firefox, to a set of online services.

As implemented in OpenSUSE, the Tomboy note-taking tool (which is one of my favorite applications) offers an integrated task list option that Ubuntu and Fedoras Tomboy implementations lack.

Ubuntu 7.10 (shown here), OpenSUSE 10.3 and Fedora 8 all ship with the OpenOffice.org 2.3 office productivity suite.

The version of OpenOffice.org that ships with OpenSUSE supports Microsofts OOXML format. Ubuntu also offers this support, while Fedora does not.

Ubuntu 7.10 made it easy to enable ATIs proprietary graphics adapter driver-once I enabled the ‘restricted’ software repository.

OpenSUSEs driver installation utility looked promising, but it didnt manage to enable my test systems ATI driver.

OpenSUSEs KDE implementation is very slick. The OpenSUSE 10.3 KDE Start Menu, for instance, definitely outshines that of its GNOME cousin.

OpenSUSEs KDE Start Menu returns search results as you type.

OpenSUSEs KDE implementation sports a rather handy system state overview page.

Ubuntu boasts a KDE implementation of its own.

OpenSUSE features bandwidth-saving delta RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) update support. Neither Fedora nor Ubuntu offers this capability.

Ubuntus package configuration application, Debconf, is a big competitive advantage for the distribution.

The new OpenSUSE 10.3 command-line software management tool, Zypper, presents information effectively.

OpenSUSEs software tools offer very granular options for resolving package dependency problems.

OpenSUSEs software dependency-resolving tools work from the command line, as well.

Fedoras software management tools warned me about removing an old kernel version from my test system.