Anyone trying OpenSuse 11.2 ???

[midas]

Hello, is anyone trying OpenSuse 11.2 milestone 7 by now? The secreenshots of the Gnome 2.28 version are fabulous...have you seen the screenshots?:

http://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots/11.2_Milestones

Looks nearly like...
But perhaps it is much better than Karmic Koala...good to keep an eye on the development cycle.

[markcynt]

I'm running the KDE version right now. I like it a lot. openSUSE 11.2 is going to be a very nice distro.

Don't know about the Gnome version since I always choose KDE over Gnome.

[ibm450]

the layout of opensuse looks the same as mintkde and kubuntu? so whats so good about opensuse?

i mean i havnt tried opensuse, but just by looking at the screen-shots, whats so special about it? does opensuse have better hardware support?

isnt opensuse a guinea pig distro for redhat - meaning its always beta? dont know, please advise the pros and cons of opensues besides the fact if you like it better then other distros.

[midas]

Hello markcynt and ibm450. Actually my concern is that Mint 8 will be based on Ubuntu Karmic Koala. It seems every release there are more bugs and regressions due to Ubuntu's release fever. Have you noticed the release interval between OpenSuse 11.1 and 11.2...it will be nearly 8 months or longer. Just releasing the next version when it's ready. I don't have good feelings about Mint being heavily based on Ubuntu...and if it keeps that way...I might try to switch to another distro (Mint is my main-distro) in near future.

So, I was wondering if OpenSuse 11.2 (in alpha stage) is already much better than Ubuntu Karmic (in alpha stage)...would be nice to find out.

[ibm450]

Hello markcynt and ibm450. Actually my concern is that Mint 8 will be based on Ubuntu Karmic Koala. It seems every release there are more bugs and regressions due to Ubuntu's release fever. Have you noticed the release interval between OpenSuse 11.1 and 11.2...it will be nearly 8 months or longer. Just releasing the next version when it's ready. I don't have good feelings about Mint being heavily based on Ubuntu...and if it keeps that way...I might try to switch to another distro (Mint is my main-distro) in near future.

So, I was wondering if OpenSuse 11.2 (in alpha stage) is already much better than Ubuntu Karmic (in alpha stage)...would be nice to find out.

yeah, fair comment, i personally feel mint is based more on theme difference to ubuntu and afew minor apps and installers, not much more. also feel that each ubuntu release, gnome or maybe ubuntu in general seems to get slower, as pointed out by afew in the blog and forum posts.

will download opensuse dvd version and give it a go.

[exploder]

midas, thanks for posting the link to the screen shots! The KDE version looks awesome! I agree with the comment about Ubunu's release cycle, 9.10 is a total piece of crap right now and it is getting close to the beta release. Nothing about Ubuntu 9.10 has impressed me so far. Each time I boot 9.10 after shutting it down I have to manually run fsck or else it will not boot up again! I have looked at everything else with KDE 4.3, so I might as well take a look at OpenSuse.

[midas]

Yeah...perhaps Karmic Koala will be so bad...we have to build the autumn release on a fully updated Elyssa long term stable. THAT would be a nice experiment! Normally I am more a Gnome kind of person...but will try one of the upcoming KDE 4.3 releases too. Probably PCLOS and OpenSuse. The main factor for me is just everything working out of the box. Till now I like the Mint desktop-experience and love this forum very much. So let's work together to fight the Ubuntu release-fever!

[exploder]

I just tried OpenSuse KDE from the Live CD, wow! I will see how it behaves in Virtualbox when I get home from work tonight. From the Live CD it booted quick and applications launched pretty quick. The appearance is awesome and most of the apps were up to date. I am anxious to see how this runs in Virtualbox! This is definitely higher quality than what Ubuntu is producing.

[markcynt]

the layout of opensuse looks the same as mintkde and kubuntu? so whats so good about opensuse?

i mean i havnt tried opensuse, but just by looking at the screen-shots, whats so special about it? does opensuse have better hardware support?

isnt opensuse a guinea pig distro for redhat - meaning its always beta? dont know, please advise the pros and cons of opensues besides the fact if you like it better then other distros.

The reason it looks similar is because it's another KDE distro just like most Gnome distros look similar to each other.

I learned Linux on openSUSE and KDE so I have a natural affection for both.

Actually openSUSE is a guinea pig for SLED, which is Novell's commercial version of Linux. But once openSUSE is final it's no longer beta, however bug fixes will continue to be released, just like any other distro. KDE is more of a work in progress than openSUSE but KDE 4.3 is pretty mature.

One of the reasons I like openSUSE is because of YaST, which is simlar to XP's control panel. IMO openSUSE is more stable due to it's long release cycle which recently changed from 12 to 10 months.

Right now openSUSE 11.1 and 11.2 Milestone 7 are all I am running. I've found I can do whatever I want on every distro I've tried so taste is what it all boils down to for me.

[exploder]

I am putting OpenSuse in VirtualBox right now. I want to see how this holds up in development compared to Ubuntu. My thoughts so far is that the OpenSuse milestone release is better than Ubuntu's final product will be, I will see what happens.

Edit: OpenSuse has few bugs but it really runs slow in VirtualBox.

[exploder]

No one is jumping off a sinking ship. It is just difficult to understand the reasoning and goals of Ubuntu development. Ubuntu claims it wants to be competitive but their releases are half baked as stated in a Distrowatch review. A common rule of thumb on the Ubuntu forum is to wait a couple of months after a release so that enough of the bugs are fixed that you can use the release.

Ubuntu is fast approaching the release candidate stage, yet the having to run a manual fsck problem is still present. Empathy is still an unusable application. What are the odds of these things being fixed properly before the final release? The list of bugs Ubuntu outlines for their releases gets larger with each release, just look at all of the known bugs they themselves list for Juanty, it's a huge list!

I have to wonder what audience Ubuntu is targeting? Why would you include technology that isn't even completed? Maybe they will pull off a decent release but I have to wonder what hoops I will have to jump through to have a working system this time? Hopefully I am just worrying for nothing.

[dlkreations]

I have used the 11.2 milestone 7 for a few days, and have to say that it is quite responsive and very polished. I tried both the Gnome and KDE version and am quite impressed. My only squabble is that the wireless did not work as it should, and had to resort to setting it up with the alternate way.

At this point in time however and I am running the Mandriva 2010 RC1 KDE version. Quite responsive here too. Seems like everyday though I am getting new updates. They pushed out the Amarok 2.2 beta, and man does it rock! Amarok finally has the equalizer back!!

[midas]

OK, my testdrive for a KDE 4.3 release will include openSuse, Mandriva and PCLOS...must be the top of the bunch!

[exploder]

OK, my testdrive for a KDE 4.3 release will include openSuse, Mandriva and PCLOS...must be the top of the bunch!

I have tried KDE 4.3.1 on PCLinuxOS and it runs pretty decent. I was amazed that Texstar was able to create an upgrade path that works so well. The upgraded PCLinuxOS system has been the best of the bunch for running in Virtualbox. OpenSuse seemed real solid, it just did not run very fast on a virtual machine. I have not had the patience to download Mandriva yet because the download will take hours.

I tried Debian testing with KDE 4.3.1 and it was similar to Kubuntu 9.10, kernel and ext4 issues. I am interested in Texstar's release because he is concerned with performance and has been trying to achieve similar performance to KDE 3x.

[midas]

Thanks exploder voor sharing your experiences! I am member of the dutch PCLOS-forum too and am eagerly waiting on their KDE 4.3 release. Mint will always touch my heart because it was my first reason and first step finally removing windows from my computer...and the desktop-experience is simply unique. It will probably be a hard decision...choosing for PCLOS 2009.3 or the upcoming Mint 8. But as always I go for the distro that will simply work on my system...

[ESM]

And for me that's Mint

[midas]

ESM said: 'And for me that's Mint '

Yes, till now for me too...but will keep my fingers crossed for Mint 8 release based on Karmic Koala

Let's wait and see...still one month to go!

[exploder]

And for me that's Mint

Me too, running Mint 7 KDE CE.

Thanks exploder voor sharing your experiences! I am member of the dutch PCLOS-forum too and am eagerly waiting on their KDE 4.3 release. Mint will always touch my heart because it was my first reason and first step finally removing windows from my computer...and the desktop-experience is simply unique. It will probably be a hard decision...choosing for PCLOS 2009.3 or the upcoming Mint 8. But as always I go for the distro that will simply work on my system...

I always check out Texstar's work, he is a perfectionist when it comes to packaging, building a kernel and tweaking out the system for performance. I still have a remastered CD of PCLinuxOS in my collection of disks worth keeping around. PCLinuxOS will run on just about any hardware, the kernel is not the "latest, greatest", rather it is built to maximise hardware compatibility. I like the latest, greatest when it works but there are occasions where I need easy upgrade-ability and hardware compatibility. Recently one of my friends needed a Linux distribution that would run decent on his older hardware and PCLinuxOS worked very well with his older ATI graphics card. He was happy, he had Compiz and his system was quick and stable. My friend doesn't care what kernel he is using or what version of xorg, he just wanted his computer to work. Also, since only the default repo is enabled, I do not have to worry about my friend breaking his system. I showed him how to use the built in remastering tools so he could easily make his own back ups in case something was to go wrong.

For my system Mint 7 KDE CE was a good choice. I had to take care of the Intel issue but that was the only real issue I had to fix. I have had no problems at all running Mint 7 KDE CE.

[midas]

Exploder said: 'Me too, running Mint 7 KDE CE.'

I have to admit, Gloria 64 bit (gnome) is running like a charm on my laptop - as stable as can be. But doesn't it has something to do with the lagging release date of the 64 bit version and the KDE version as well? These 2 releases are issued 3 months behind the Ubuntu release date - seems to be the easiest way lifting the quality of an Ubuntu-release. It is also advocated in a lot of Ubuntu-forums...waiting 2 or 3 months after the official release date before installing on your system. I'm afraid we're getting a bit off-topic now, but in the meantime, before releasing our own Debian-based edition...it would perhaps be common sense to do so.

[midas]

Colonel Shell said: There is such a thing as "bad Karma."

Yeah, there is definitly something wrong with Canonical's karma