OSNews

Adam did another great job reviewing this distribution release by covering several aspects both new and updated for SUSE Linux. I do have a few minor issues with this release and I hope Novell is listening.

1. Codecs:

Either find a way to legally offer licensed codecs or at least stop crippling front end players like Kaffeine for those that wish to install codecs, even open source ones.

2. Default video player:

I really don't understand the reasoning behind packaging two Xine front end players (ie: Kaffeine) with the distribution that don't even integrate with either the default browser or the others offered with the distribution. A tip for Novell is to offer one player and provide that is ready from the start. Meaning I open the browser such as Firefox and am able to play a movie trailer in my browser with out being asked to open the player seperately. MPlayer is the easiest to set up on distributions both in respect to offering the widest player support for codecs and integrated with browsers such as Firefox and Konqueror.

3. Default audio player:

Amarok is set up as the default audio player in the start menu and is the closest audio player to iTunes. So why when installing a music CD does SUSE Linux ask if I want "KsCD" opened? Amarok offers wider support for playing audio codecs and is more updated than KsCD which cannot sync with portable players like Apple's iPod which Amarok can. My suggestion to Novell is remove "KsCD" from the default installation.

Other than those gripes I have about SUSE Linux 10.0 I am really enjoying the distribution. Which finally is able to properly detect on install my Daytek/Daewoo monitors. Even my Logitech Quickcam Orbit is listed in GnomeMeeting (for Windows users it's like NetMeeting) though I'm still having difficulty getting this working properly. Once I get that working I'll be happy. Even happier since reading that the KDE developers are working on having Kopete for KDE 3.5 to finally work with MSN Messenger Webcam/VOIP.