Development for SUSE 10.2 is now officially under way with the release of the first alpha in what will probably be a long list of alpha and beta releases. Besides a list of known issues, I can tell you little about the release, so I guess if you want to know what’s going on, you’ll have to install it.
I like SUSE. But this doesn’t contain information about new features – only stuff that isn’t working, and generally it shouldn’t be installed by non-developers. So what’s the news?
Searching opensuse.org for “10.2” only reveals that a new lizard picture has been added!?
http://en.opensuse.org/Meetings/Status_Meeting_2006-05-30#Lizard_pi…
SuSE is under heavy development and it’s getting better and better.
With 10.1 just out (which was a great release) the first alpha of 10.2 is already available.
It’s not about the release number or what has changed but the fact that there is so much work in progress seems like a good thing to me.
Well..you can care if you want to, or not if you
don’t want to. SUSE is under continuous development
and so, about a month after the last release, Alpha
1 is out. Whether you care or not is not relevant.
It’s news because it’s an operating system and
was released. What’s so hard about that concept?
My guess is ..
stuff like :
x improved fancy 3D desktop stuff
x better working zen package management system
x reintro of delta rpms & patches instead of full rpm download
x ehh ovious .. more hardware support
x ovious : improved power management
x GNOME 2.14
[files.opensuse.org/opensuse/ en/8/82/SUSE_Linux_10.2_–_Quo_vadis.pdf] :
x drivers & utilities for bluetooth headsets ,fingerprint-sensors ,built-in cardreader support
x Improvements for use on Tablet PC’s
x Higher filesystem number support ( Reiser4 ? & JFS ? )
I wonder if any of the interface from SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 will ever come to standard SuSE .. hmmm .
I wonder if anyone will use this “rubbish” here to write an article – is a new features for 10.2 coming up on OSn
any time soon – a link to a blog – using this as a top secret rescource 
Couldnt resist – OSn still doing a fine job IMO even with a slip once in a while .
EDIT : Some of the OpenSuSE projects will oviously have some input :
http://en.opensuse.org/Projects
& the new driver framework stuff which will be available in SLES 10 would I guess sneak in at some point … or not ?
As far as Ive read it will be available in a Service Pack for SLES 9 .. so hmmm .
Edited 2006-06-14 22:34
I have great hopes for this final or offical release. I think 10.1 came out too soon, even though it was 2 months behind. I talked with 1 of the developers and they said they’ve already had 500 bugfixes for the Enterprise releases this summer. Now that they’re going have 6 or 7 months to work on OpenGL and XGL, wifi, and the new package managment system, I’m hoping this will be a pretty smokin release. I saw SLED 10 beta 8 in use with a a Novell speaker for a Linux group, and would really like to see their SLED menu system implemented into 10.2, it had the most frequently used programs like the left side of the XP menu, with a link to open the rest of the programs menu. I like this a lot better then the full menu with most used applications at the top of the list. You guys really got to see SLED 10 to see what I mean
They are pushing for GNOME 2.16 in 10.2.
if as stated, 10.2 is released in early 2007, then it is possible for it to include KDE4. that would be a major coup, especially if they got Gnome 2.16 in there as well!
not to mention X.0rg 7.2 with improved XGL support and Samba 4 as well…………
Things are not quite that simple, I’m afraid. First of all there is at least couple of months of “freeze” period, when only bug fixes are allowed to go in and KDE4 probably will not make it…
Second, Xorg got modular, so announced releases don’t necessary contain latest and juiciest code in their every single component. Though, once Suse crosses over to modular X architecture it would be much easier to update driver, some utility or any other part of the server.
Following the extremely short bugs list shows only that you have to use the text installer. I call that a step in the right direction, can’t wait to try it on my laptop this weekend.
From browsing Factory, it looks like this is simply a snapshot of the current 10.1 + updates (ie. KDE 3.5.3). Xorg is still at 6.9. The package management has been updated but that was already backported as an update for 10.1
I suspect ultimately the packaged KDE will be 3.5.4 since it’s already working through commits, *maybe* 3.5.5, but although Suse is maintaining KDE4 (such as it is right now) in their build service I can’t see it being in any way deployable before the version freeze hits. Gnome I would imagine 2.16 is reasonable to assume.
I’m sure things will be worked on as it progresses, but right now there’s not much to see that current 10.1 users don’t already have access to.
10.1 has only been out a couple months… don’t tell me you are bored with it already! 🙂
I had 10.0 installed beautifully, it upgraded flawlessly from 9.3 on my laptop and was a pleasure to use. Then I installed 10.1, and what an unpleasant surprise! No longer can I turn my touchpad off using the hardware button above it, for some reason YaST looks terrible now, with tiny icons and text, and worst of all I can no longer check the box to remember my su password, so I have to type it in EVERY TIME I open any program that needs admin access… What a PITA. I’m sure I could figure out workarounds given 4 hours of research time or so on the net, but honestly I don’t have the time or the patience. I sure hope they fix this stuff in the next release… For now I’m giving my Suse partition a rest and using XP, since the touchpad and su issues alone drive me nuts.