OpenSuSE 11.0 Review

OpenSuSE 11.0 (released 6/19/08) is the latest community release of the SuSE branded Linux distributions. YaST has recieved a major overhaul, and with it, the entire installation process. Overall, it is a very polished distribution worthy of contention with Ubuntu for ease of use.

I switched to SuSE back when SuSE Professional 9 came out, which at the time had phenomenal hardware support out of the box, and the same is still true today. Mostly it's due to the SuSE brand using proprietary or "encumbered" technologies out of the box. OpenSuSE continues in this tradition, for example, proprietary wireless drivers and MP3 support works out of the box. This makes for a system that is much closer to being fully functional upon first install.

For the purposes of evaluation, I installed on an HP nc6230 Laptop (w/ 1 Gig of RAM), an HP D530 Desktop, an HP dc7700 Desktop (w/ 3 Gigs of RAM) and in a VirtualBox Virtual Machine.

Slideshow of all Screenshots

Installation Note that I used the DVD-based installation, not the live CD

The one thing that has always set SuSE apart from other distribution is YaST (Yet Another Software Tool) which handles ALL configuration and package management. It also handles the entire installation procedure as well. With this release of SuSE, YaST is now based on KDE4, but has a native GTK port as well. The first thing I noticed was how much better it looked. While this does nothing for functionality, it does give a nice polish - something that Fedora 9 was sorely lacking. If you're installing over an existing SuSE distribution, it will give you the option to Upgrade to this release, or you can do a fresh install. If you have additional media you want to install at the outset, you can specify it on the very first page. Keep in mind though, that by "Add-on Media" they really mean something that has been packaged specifically for SuSE. One example I know of is Zenworks Configuration Management from Novell.

Another BIG selling point to SuSE, in my opinion, is that they allow you to choose from several Desktop environments. Originally SuSE was a KDE based Distribution, and then switched to Gnome. However, they must have gotten a lot of backlash, as the selection screen now says "As desktop selection is a matter of taste, we do not give a recommendation"(screenshot). As a KDE/XFCE user, I'm delighted to be able to use the SAME distribution to install whatever Desktop Environment I want. In addition they distinguish still between KDE 3.5 and KDE 4.0 (4.0 was the latest at the time of release). The partition management dialog is miles ahead of Fedora's equivalent offering. There is a slider with a graphical representation when you resize a disk. The default selections are also sane, with a checkbox to separate your home partition from root.

Finally, we get the "review" stage screen where you can change anything you've done up to this point, as well as change additional options like Software installation, default runlevel, etc. The software installation piece probably went under the most serious overhaul since the last SuSE release. The patterns view gives a nice overview if you want to install a suite of applications, however, you can also search for individual packages, sorting by package groups, the patterns, searches, etc. If you miss something here, don't worry, because this is the EXACT same interface you'll use once the machine is up and running. After reviewing the selections, the installation proceeds. If you've selected initially to use "autoconfigure" then you can walk away, and login to the system later. Otherwise, you'll be prompted for last minute configurations (X, Networking, etc).

Package Management

Package Management in SuSE is handled through YaST (as with most system configurations). Compared to prior version of YaST the first thing you notice is that it is fast. Faster even than had you had disabled the "Zenworks" service in previous releases. Unlike the Fedora PackageKit, you can select as many packages as you like. If the same package exists in multiple repositories, by using the "versions" tab you can install the specific one you want. They also changed the "Community Repositories" option that previously existed in YaST. Now it's under the "Software Repositories". When you add a new software source, there is an option at the top (above http, ftp, etc) to add a Community Repository. Here you can add the Nvidia or ATI repository (binary drivers), Build services, the Packman Repository (DVD playback/ripping, MP3 playback/ripping, etc) and others. Similar to multiverse in Ubuntu, but more granular. This version also allows you to switch back and forth between the Installation Source module and the Software Installation module.

While not strictly Package Management, YaST also centralizes all system administration. In some areas this works really well, and in others it fails. For example, SaX2 allows you to change your video resolution, drivers, enabled multi-headed displays, etc through the GUI and check the changes on the fly. I have not seen another utility that does this anywhere as well. Network management and firewall settings are easy to manage, as are new users, startup services, boot loader configurations and several other things. However, in my experience, one area YaST really fails is in administering Apache, or anything where you want granular control unavailable in the GUI. What YaST generates isn't always what you expect, and can change existing settings. The rule of thumb I've used is that if you modify a configuration using the configuration files, never touch it through YaST again, even if you run SuSEconfig.

Operating Environment

Since OpenSuSE has several Desktop Environments available, I'll discuss each in turn. I tested KDE 3.5, KDE 4.0, Gnome and XFCE.

KDE 3.5: This is the DE I use on a daily basis, on both my laptop and main desktop at work. The largest advantage SuSE has over other distributions release of KDE 3.5 is that Novell developed a completely different start menu. From what I've read, they invested a lot of time in user testing to come up with the design. The KDE development team has even adopted it for KDE 4.0. Personally I think it took some getting used to, however, since I found myself mostly using the search and favorites features. The leave tab allows you to directly boot into another operating system, which is something I haven't found on other Linux distributions either. This is really useful if you have a dual-booting system where Linux is the default, but you need to go to Windows for some reason. Network manager is 0.7 so it works identically to Fedora 9. The Knetwork manager found my AT&T wireless card, but I did have to run through a quick "add new connection" wizard and hit next a few times.

KDE 4.0: KDE 4.0 is still for beta testers only. Even 4.1 is not yet considered stable, so only embark on this journey if you feel ambitious. SuSE hasn't yet customized 4.0 in any particular way, so most everything is identical to if you install it with another distribution. YaST however has been built with 4.0 widgets, so it has a native look and feel. You can get an appreciation for how good KDE 4.0 will be when done and can even install KDE 4.0 side by side with KDE 3.5 (although I don't recommend it, some applications will start to behave oddly in KDE 3.5 once you've used them in KDE 4.0). Also, I've heard that many applications are missing features, or haven't been ported yet. It's nice that SuSE has included it to be installed at install time, but it is nowhere near ready for prime-time.

Gnome: While I personally don't use Gnome as often as KDE, when I use Ubuntu I use it rather than download the KDE environment, or to download the Kubuntu fork. And I say with all honesty what SuSE and Novell have done with Gnome is a crime. Here they have also changed the "Start Menu" but instead it only has 6 "Favorites" with a search bar at the top. This whole paradigm almost works, since it's what I use most in KDE. However, the "More Applications" button actually opens A WHOLE NEW WINDOW (screenshot). You then have this window to choose item from, and once you've opened an application, that window stays open. As my friend Jon said, "It's the NAL explorer" and as anyone who's used ZENWorks NAL explorer will understand. This paradigm shift was too inefficient for me. The Gnome Network Manager applet does detect my AT&T card in one-click, so that's something. And you can still revert the Menu back. The Gnome foundation has wisely decided to not adopt this horrendous thing. And to top it off, they also ported YaST so that it uses the same nomenclature (screenshot).

Overall

I personally use SuSE quite a bit myself, so obviously I like the interface. Someone who dislikes KDE might not like the amount of configuration needed to make Gnome "Normal". YaST is really slick for someone who is less knowledgeable about Linux based Operating Systems. Also, anything you learn on OpenSuSe is instantly transferrable to the Enterprise products (SLES and SLED) and you can usually find a lot of 3rd party support. However, there are some notable downsides to SuSE.

• There has been a lot of community backlash after Novell partnered with Microsoft over patent protection. Thus there isn't as large a community support pool for SuSE.
• While the binary drivers are easier to install than other distributions, it still isn't as easy as Ubuntu's one-click install.
• See my comments above regarding what has been done to Gnome

Despite those problems, I still highly recommend SuSE. In some areas it excels over Ubuntu in usability, and in other areas it still needs a lot of work.

I give it a 4 out of 5 stars.