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Despite loud arguments over Novell and Microsofs relationship, and attempts by Ubuntu to talk OpenSUSE developers into coming over to their distribution, OpenSUSE 10.2 has arrived sooner than expected.
This latest community Linux distribution from Novell, SUSE, and friends is based on a 2.6.18.2 Linux kernel. Users can choose between the KDE 3.5.5 or GNOME 2.16.1 desktop environments, both of which run on top of the X.Org 7.2rc2 windowing system.
When you first install openSUSE, the YaST partitioner now defaults to create new file systems using the ext3 file system. In the past, SUSE distributions had defaulted to using ReiserFS.
If you plan on using OpenSUSE as a server, youll find the usual popular server applications ready to go. These include the Apache 2.2.3 webserver, and the MediaWiki 1.8.2 wiki software.
If, like most OpenSUSE users, you plan on using it primarily as a desktop, the new distribution comes with a full complement of desktop applications. A small sampling of these includes the Beagle 0.2.12 desktop search program, the Evolution 2.8.2 groupware program, Firefox 2.0, KOffice 1.6, OpenOffice 2.0.4, and Thunderbird 1.5.0.4.
Developers, also, wont be lacking, since this distribution includes, besides the usual gcc and family, the Eclipse 3.2.1 IDE (integrated development environment), gtk 2.10.1 GUI toolkit, and an assortment of high-level languages. Among others, youll find Mono 1.1.18, Python 2.5, and PHP 5.2.