Novell has claimed that its forthcoming SuSE Linux Professional 9.2 distribution will appeal to “Linux newcomers” as well as technical enthusiasts. Also, Novell’s Nat Friedman, vice-president of its desktop technology group, said open source vendors work off a modular, flexible development model that allows them to deliver new features to customers more regularly than Microsoft. Novell has also said Microsoft’s Longhorn delay will give it more time to push iFolder, which, like WinFS, stores data in a user’s real file system and tracks metadata in a separate location.
SuSE Linux 9.2 Announced; Novell’s SuSE woos Linux ‘newcomers’
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Will Novell Linux focus on the Gnome desktop? and Suse be their more consumer KDE desktop? Is Novell planning to merge the two together? I assume Novell Linux will be based entirely on their Xiamian group correct?
Whoooow.. 😉
I’m not really excited about the new versions of Gnome and KDE considering both can easily be updated via YaST Source tree. What I am excited to see is how the new kernel 2.6.8 and XOrg performs compared to the current 2.6.5 Kernel and XFree86. It would be nice to find that Novell has finally resolved their concerns over video codecs for the players Totem and Kaffeine on Xine that come with the distribution. Also if they have improved auto-installation of 3D drivers so as to include ATI and not just NVIDIA drivers (ie: fetchnvidia script). If though after reviews it’s found that there is little improvement then I’ll hold off on making my purchase till the next release.
Novell may very well be a good investment, especially if you work in the area of software development. I would want to have more information from Novell as to how to market my product on thier assembly line (product line), especially Mono + enterprise support.
RH and Novell are competitors, but this is the real symbiotic relationship (MS + Sun is not because they are not decentralized effectively, at least I don’t see it).
I would also wonder how IBM supports me as a software vendor that uses Novell’s product line, although the relationship is more directly with Novell. Look to Novell for leadership.
Does anyone know if iFolder will be included with SuSE Linux 9.2 Professional?
Honestly SUSE 9.1 was to first Linux distro that allowed me to get everything working without having to brother with hacking config files by hand or other stuff I stopped doing in the 80s. Today’s YAST is brilliant! Setting up your system is easier than on Windows (if all your stuff is supported!). Also the SUSE desktop looks very nice and polished!
I may just wet myself thinking about it…
>Will Novell Linux focus on the Gnome desktop?
>I assume Novell Linux will be based entirely on their
Xiamian group correct?
You seem to be a victim of the Ximian propaganda 🙂
Here’s a interview with a SuSE developer, who may clarify things a bit: http://dot.kde.org/1097096753/
I’ve preordered mine already – their stall at the Expo today were very helpful. For people who had trouble with the online ordering service on the last release, I’m pleased to tell everyone that Novell has dumped them.
Novell is not calling its Linux package Novell Linux – the SUSE name is being kept. Personally I don’t think this makes much sense outside the German-speaking world – a lot of English speakers don’t know how to pronounce SUSE anyway. (Su-say? Sousse? Sooza? Sooz? None – it’s Zooza!) SUSE in German stands for Software and System Development, so why don’t Novell call itself Novell Software & System Development (obviously putting Novell in big letters!) and call the product Novell Linux everywhere except central Europe?
Also they don’t put in the press release, but the flier mentions that there will be an Eclipse distribution with 9.2. That’s really good news. I’m also looking forward to a KDevelop 3.1 that actually works.
YAST is really useful, but I find it a bit slow, especially loading modules. You often open up a module and it takes so long that you wonder if the load has failed.
Most things i like to use simply work.One shouldn’t have to
bother with something as trivial as /etc/fstab and mounting
dvd-rw , cdr-w, cdrom etc.
I’m certainly buying this one as i did 9.1.
Also, Novell’s Nat Friedman, vice-president of its desktop technology group…
I find it interesting how after all these times Nat is still called a vice-president of its (whosea again? Ximian doesn’t exist anymore) desktop technology group in the press without any such evidence on any official Novell/SuSE website.
“…without any such evidence on any official Novell/SuSE website.”
You mean like in a Novell Press release or something?
http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/05/pr04034.html
“As companies deploy Linux on the desktop, they must ensure that users of either Windows* or Linux can collaborate with each other using existing back-end systems and familiar processes,” said Nat Friedman, vice president of the desktop technologies group at Novell.
Or maybe you meant on their Linux page?
http://www.novell.com/linux/ximian.html
“The effort quickly attracted a group of talented architects and engineers, including Nat Friedman, Ximian cofounder and now Vice President of Product Development for Novell.”
I’m a Gnomish type who also likes SUSE. My usual dsitribution is Slackware, so I’m used to doing my configuration with an editor. But, it stopped being fun a long time ago. YAST is 9.1 is fine for me. Everything I’ve need to do it has allowed me to do.
Now, the new UBL-Gnome 2.8 release on SUSE is very, very nice. Better, in my eyes, than Ubuntu or the brandnew Dropline on Slackware. Importantly, it’s also snappier and more responsive than SUSE’s KDE on my hardware,
My interest in a new SUSE release isn’t a focus on Gnome ot KDE, but the inclusion of things like a current Mono setup, some of the Project Utopia goodies like HAL and dbus, plus easy access to things like Beagle and Dashboard when they’re ready. Anyone have any scoop on these?
Any brand new technology, like ReaLPlayer 10 or reiserfs 4?
I can easily install RealPlayer myself, but I doubt that reiserfs 4 will be available this time.
Matthew Smith mentioned the pronunciation of “SUSE”. I think it depends on what language you speak. If you speak German, or want to pronounce it that way, from what I understand it is pronounced “Sue-Zuh” or “Zoo-Zuh”. Most Linux people I know, and I’ve heard it pronounced this way on TechTV (which I admit doesn’t mean $hit), pronounce it “Suzie”. SUSE is an acronym for ‘Software und System
Entwicklung’. So I think either pronounciation would be correct. Anyway, here’s an interesting link briefly explaining the conception of SUSE. Prost!
http://old.lwn.net/1998/0205/suse.html
SuSE puts out two lines of Linux for the desktop. One is what everybody is familiar with: SuSE Linux Pro/Personal 8, 8.1, 8.2, 9.0, 9.1, and now 9.2 is one line, for consumers. SuSE Linux Desktop, which is currently at 1.0, and is about to be upgraded to Novell Linux Desktop, is the enterprise desktop lineup. This line corresponds to SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and is built from the same codebase.
In other words, SLES 8 goes with SuSE Linux Desktop, as a paired server and client, and SLES9 goes with Novell Linux Desktop as a paired server and client.
According to our Novell rep, NLD will contain GroupWise client, Evolution with GroupWise connectivity, iFolder client, an NCP (NetWare) client that can parse and execute login scripts from NetWare, the Novell iPrint client, and other goodies that make NLD a good client in a Novell server environment, particularly their upcoming Open Enterprise Server product, which will include NetWare 7 and SLES 9 in the same box with Novell’s enterprise network servers that run on top of either.
According to our Novell insider, the desktop issue is solved as follows: in NLD, you will use KDE if you want or Gnome if you want. All of Novell’s stuff will work with either.
That’s all I know.
>> Since Novell Linux will be focusing on Gnome more and more, they’ll be pushing Mono and Gnome integration.
Even though I’m a huge Gnome fan…WTF?
Why is SUSE 9.1 including KDE 3.3 and only Gnome 2.6?
9.2
dipt,
Re: “KDE will be kicked to the curb once and for all and they’ll ditch the Suse name soon enough. The Suse people better brush up on their gtk# and C# skills. KDE is dead.”
Did you even read the posts on the first page of this site? Everyone can love their current desktop GUI but there’s no need to spread false info. Unless of course it’s your wishful thinking
Since you seemed to have not read the posts on the first page this link you should find enlightening http://dot.kde.org/1097096753/
Jason,
I agree with you, he’s an idiot. He obviously doesn’t have a clue as to what Novell offers in their products or how they are very competitive with developers such as Red Hat and Microsoft. I’d like to see him point out even one developer that can equal what Novell offers with SuSE Linux Professional let alone their other services at equal or lesser cost to the consumer. I’d advise not only for Mr. Reality (IP: 168.143.113.—) to get a clue but also for Eugenia to ban his IP Address for being an obnoxious repeat troll on this site.
“Why is SUSE 9.1 including KDE 3.3 and only Gnome 2.6?”
because SuSE traditionally only releases “stable” software packages with their distro
Actually I was responding to dipt who was implying that SUSE is going to become Gnome-centric.
Seems strange that they wouldn’t push back the release date a few weeks to accomodate the latest and greatest from the Gnome camp if they were really going to become Gnome-centric.
There have been many complaints about the release cycles for linux distros being way to fast for use by companies. Though a quick move to 9.2 sounds cool from a home user perspective it worries on the more corporate pleasing side of my personnality
Being a veteran of Suse Personal 7.3,8.0,8.1,8.2,9.0, and 9.1, I have some worries about spending cash on 9.2…
1.Hardware issue:Zip Drives ( nitpicky example to make a point)
I had an easy time with my IDE ZIP100 drive using the personal versions upto and including 8.2. After that, SuSE distros stopped recognizing my zip drive.. What the heck is THAT about? I find it frustrating that when they started talking about it replacing Windows, “simply change” and what not is when I started having hardware issues…Sure I can go in to /etc/fstab and get the job done, but I thought these things were supposed to be improving along with the ease of use…
2.DVD playback. Yes I know there are liabiity issues regarding the dvdcss libraries and DVD playback, but there are options…
1. Download the source files you need, build it and use yast/rpm it to get it running. BUt wait, the personal version doesnt have a compiler…great….and that was the techy way of doing things. Fine, if you aren’t going to give it to me out of the box and make me download it and/or do it manually, at least give me the tools to get the job done. Either way, with or without a compiler, that is no way to win windows mind share (not to mention market share)
2. Get into an agreement with a commercial firm like Turbolinux did. I am not averse to paying for stuff,I just want to replace windows; I am not a tree hugging hippy who wants everything for free…Either charge me for the third party stuff in your distro price from a commercial firm you have an agreement with or advertise/point me toward such a firm’s software and test it on your distro.
You wanna hang with Redmond, hang with them, but don’t just throw up your hands to the average desktop user you are aiming at and tell them to fetch it or fix it (esp.without giving them the tools to do so)…it’s not fair..you arent going to get customers or converts that way…especially in a 30 dollar/free personal distro that people are testing the waters with…
That all being said, I like SuSE. I like the company, I like their priorities in terms of organization and software development. I admire their goals. I’ve paid for these distros in support of them though I updated them myself. I tried them all for several months then passed them on to others free of charge, who have told me their issues to spread the word in my German/European-ignorance steeped American countrymen. I support their Linux systems in my spare time as well.
I just think they should make the waters as smooth sailing as possible for these people they want to convert…
I just switched from SUSE 9.1 Pro to Fedora Core 2, as I was fed up with KDE (SUSE has a real poor version of Gnome, which hopefully Ximian Desktop can fix).
I wasn’t expecting much from Fedora, but am a hardcore RedHat/Gnome fan at heart I guess, and my RH9 box is getting dated now.
Anyway, FC2’s up2date, yum and apt are certainly as good as YAST2.
I also just tried Novell’s SUSE Linux Server 9, which seems almost as good as RHEL 3ES (which is very pleasing in terms of stability and good defaults) except without a subscription, is just as useless when it comes to upgrades.
So I guess SUSE are still playing catchup to RedHat, but they’re not far behind…..
I can’t wait for FC3 with Gnome 2.8 and Evolution 2 (hopefully I can get Ximian Connector working so I can ditch my office WinXP box).
I certainly won’t be paying $90 for SUSE 9.2 Pro, when I expect FC3 to be better tested and with newer software.
When is the release really?
And are they going with Reiser4 or 3.6?
hmm now that come to think of are they coming with Xorg 6.7 or 6.8.1?
Anyway Suse is a great dist, much better than RedHat which I have used till 9.
And for all of you complaining of it not having Gnome 2.8, just download it from the net and build it. If you are a hardcore linux user then you know how, if you are a newbie then what is the difference?
Good for Novell … keep up the good work, and keep pumping out good Linux/Novell products… I’ll be more than willing to pay for some quality that contributes to the open source community. Now maybe microsquish will be forced to put out a (finally) good product instead of applying patches to existing ‘products’ and re-marketing them as the ‘new & improved’ or ‘next release of windoze.
… flame me, and die.
1. SUSE and Novell have another product line for the corporate market with a longer release cycle. The SUSE 9.x line, Personal and Pro, is a consumer product.
2. Comparisons of YAST to Yum, apt, etc., are inappropriate. The latter only deal with software installation and removal. That’s only one of the functions in YAST, which also is the configuration tool for all admin functions. E.g., I can’t configure my firewall or my printers with Yum. Someone who has actually used YAST might be assumed to know that.
Clearly, you don’t pay attention to what Novell has acquired.
Has anyone experience with running SuSE 9.1 on a AMD 64 ?
I wonder how the feel is on that platform.
Will iFolder be included with SUSE LINUX Professional 9.2 or will it only be included with Novell Linux Desktop?
I am using Gnome 2.8 in SuSE 9.1 right now.
I downloaded it with apt4rpm from usr-local-bin.
It is beautiful, fast, stable.
So clearly Gnome fans can have their way with SuSE.
Only I don’t understand why SuSE is not going to use it for their 9.2 release.
Gnome 2.8 is indeed feature rich very eycandish:-)
Just installed it.Maybe 2.8 wasn’t ready at the time they
finished the 9.2 project.I bet they allready continued with
9.3.
Linux will not be taken seriously as major tools like Macromedia Flash, for example, will not be available to Sistems running Linux.
Why not make a lobby with macromedia? release a new linux that doesn’t need to share a hard drive with windows xp!
How many people out there with me? Please reply to this post.
Thank you
Read the modded down comments (first entry) to see what comments get censored on this pro-GNOME news site. 🙁
In my opinion Suse is the most advanced linux distribution with Yast as a great administration tool with some fantastic features. Nearly half of Yast modules work in an acceptable way. That’s a very good percentage for linux administration tools.
In Germany Suse is consequently called Linux among experts. So, Linux 9.2 arrives..
But is there still the problem? in earlier versions you had to compile multimedia tools yourself, cause Suse shipped only crippled versions.
“But is there still the problem? in earlier versions you had to compile multimedia tools yourself, cause Suse shipped only crippled versions.”
I don’t think that in SuSE 9.2 e.g.xine player isn’t crippled for legal reasons as it is in SuSE 9.1. Even if you have installed libdvdcss(2) you get in a legal message displayed
why SuSE had to somewhat “cripple” xine.
Not that it is a big issue.With YAST you deinstall all xine related packages and substitute them with the latest from xine
headquarters.I would rather appreciate though when SuSE would
include a powerdvd version for Linux or a (X)-xine version
that is capable of playing encrypted dvd’s even if this would make the SuSE (professional) box more expensive.
As a Windows user for many years, I recently tried Suse 9.1 as an uncomplicated and hopefully straightforward move to Linux.
Sure, the download & install worked well enough and in seems to be much more robust. Sadly, the help & documentation is poor or absent for anything that isn’t obvious or straightforward in any case.
I was disappointed to discover that the video player would not play my movies. Now, after a long time messing around trying to download codecs & plug-ins, it still doesn’t work.
It is only now, after a day or more searching the web and finding forums such as this, that I find out that the Suse video / DVD player has been deliberately crippled.
Absolutely ******* ridiculous!
Ordinary users want an OS that just WORKS and they won’t put up with this sort of thing – and neither will I. Back to Windows I go…