Novell has released their Novell Linux Desktop 9 this past week. An evaluation copy is available for download for the price of signing up for a Novell login. It’s a small price to pay to get your hands on what is certainly a true Linux business desktop, well suited for the business class end-user and well-supported by Novell’s Ximian Red Carpet Service, says OrangeCrate.
Novell Linux Desktop 9: First Impressions
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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A nice review, but I am a bit weary about how well the gnome side is part of the ‘suse’ culture. How well integrated is it, as opposed to KDE? My guess is, its probably wise to go with gnome now instead of KDE installs as I can see it being moved away from being a KDE base distro…
I think the next version 9.3? Will have a much better feel to it and at least be fully rebranded.
I installed this on my Sony TR3 Laptop last week. Eventhing went nicely (aside from the wireless). Both Gnome and KDE seem to be well integrated and laid out in a logical fashion. (Gnome integration felt a little halfassed in SUSE 9.2 Pro). It also passed the 70 year old Grandmother test (she could get online, get email, and use open office fine). All in all, it seems good deal for a SOHO or Medium business environment or even a general (non-power user)desktop.
Overall NLD is pretty good.
Things I noticed.
– They did an excellent job with Open Office. Good gnome-looking skin, MS compatible fonts, gnome file dialogs.
– Good firefox theme, I actually used it before NLD was released on my main Ubuntu install. You can get it at
http://primates.ximian.com/~glesage/stuff/firefox/
– Red carpet randomly crashed a couple times, but the app itself was good.
– The evaluation included a 30 day supscription to red carpet, and I was not impressed. They had very little in the way of packages, and no updates while I used it. Not very good for a pay service.
– Overall the look was pretty good, except that Yast looked crappy in gnome.
– Somewhat outdated packages, but nothing to be upset about.
> as I can see it being moved away from being a KDE base distro…
Sorry what? Move away as where it was before? NLD didn’t exist before!?
> – They did an excellent job with Open Office.
> Good gnome-looking skin
If run under GNOME…
> gnome file dialogs.
If run under GNOME…
Don’t be biased. Try it under KDE and you will see same integration.
I’d really like to see some screenshots about the special ximian openoffice version. Like the gnome file dialogs, really cool.
If I’m correct this stuff should be integrated in openoffice 2.0, which will be released in march ’05. That means I’ve to wait
Oh yeah, a bit bigger screenshots would be nice (I know, they are not the most important part of a review…)
> I’d really like to see some screenshots about the special ximian openoffice version.
Somewhere in there:
http://osdir.com/shots/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=159&slide=1
http://osdir.com/shots/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=158&slide=1
No bias against KDE, I just like GNOME. I use both, but decided to stick with GNOME on my laptop. I know about the screenshots too – but I wanted them not to overtake the pageI could make some available in a larger format if you really want to see them. I just tried to size the images not to take up too much space.
Hope you enjoyed the article.
— AO
Novell made a good job on firefox and openoffice, both show the gnome file dialogs!
I want to upgrade (30day evaluation) with Red Carpet but I don’t understand How?
On the old Ximian desktop on RedHat I use Redcarpet but here I don’t now how to add channels! any advice will be appreciated
The KDE shiny theme/icons doesn’t blend well with GNOME matte finish, IMHO. In this screenshot …
http://osdir.com/shots/slideshows/slideshow.php?release=159&slide=7…
The YaST logo on the Industrial window border doesn’t look nice. I hope that Novell/SuSE will have a different and complete theme/icon set that will fit/blend well on the Industrial theme. I have no bias against the KDE theme in SuSE, I just prefer the matte finish of GNOME/Industrial theme.
Then you are using the wrong distribution. SUSE is, and will be, KDE-centric. Install Fedora.
I have been waiting for this, since I heard about it early this year.
I use both KDE and GNOME. I really enjoy having choice. I think the apps work well with both KDE and GNOME. I enjoy being able to switch to each one.
Open office is amazing. I am so happy that the put it in. I hate paying for msoffice. Also, I was able to create/do all homework in OOO.
Thanks Novell and keep up the good work
SUSE is, and will be, KDE-centric.
NLD is not Suse 9.2 and Novell has made it clear that it is leaning towards Gnome.
Maybe it is you that is using the wrong distribution. Install Mandrake.
Hello! I can use redcarpet! you need first to activate Redcarpet
How?
File–> Activate–> enter de serial code you get from Novell on the web page you download the iso image!
(insert my usual comment here)
my htpc is now running GNOME 2.8, btw, and running it very nicely…
“By Lumbergh (IP: —.107.196.179.charter-stl.com)
NLD is not Suse 9.2 and Novell has made it clear that it is leaning towards Gnome.”
huh?
“Maybe it is you that is using the wrong distribution. Install Mandrake.”
Why install Mandrake, just install SUSE 9.2 if you want to use great distribution. BTW if you want to use gnome stuff use fedora, unbu-whatever user linux.
Ouch… but why, I mean, *really*, why there must be *all* this fuss between Gnome and KDE?
That’s such an enormous waste of time, development efforts, and patience of the end user…
None of the two environments is “ready”; one lacks this, perfectly implemented by the other, which in turn, lacks something else perfectly set up in the first.
The 2 desktops should stop, perfectly and seamlessly work on integration, and then follow their roads leaving a good shared subset to allow interoperability.
Stock OOffice sucks, just plain ugly, horrible Open/Save dialog, and a crazy printing window to which, if you’re smart, you pass “kprinter –stdin” in the command for printing, so you click “print” *twice*, but at least you get a good printing dialogue which allows easy customization…
How rational is that?
Mozilla’s integration in KDE sucks; last time I checked (Mandrake 10?), drag and drop wouldn’t work 40% as good and integrated as it is in windows, *by the same app*!
Instead of doing an eternal battle between monkeys and dragons, why don’t hope for a correct integration of the two environments? Who cares if K3b is a KDE app if it run seamlessly and integrates in Gnome, for instance?
Interface’s consistence is fundamental (again, my honest opinion): you can see how bad it is two have different interfaces for different programs by showing them to new users, who’ll immediately find this disorienting.
Macs were once famouse for the, at least apparent, extreme ease and intuitiveness of their programs.
Will we have this under Linux before I get children? 😉
So, kudos to every distro that professionally tries to integrate both worlds, or at least, tries to have them as working as possile without huge sacrifices…
> Novell has made it clear that it is leaning towards Gnome.
Wrong, Novell has made clear that it’s desktop neutral.
By acquiring Ximian, Novell has very clearly come down on the Gnome side of the fence. I was at a presentation by Novell guys about the NLD, and everthing was done in Gnome.
Novell, wants you to have the choice. Whatever you prefer, Gnome or KDE. As a side note, Ximian was purchased before SuSE.