OpenSUSE has always been an odd sort of Linux distribution. It's always been reasonably user friendly, very stable, and quite nicely pulled off the not-so-easy task of being good for new users while offering advanced and power users the flexibility and freedom they require.
Yet OpenSUSE often gets a bad wrap. There's that whole Novell/Microsoft/the world is ending conspiracy thing going on, for one thing. Certainly when Novell bought SuSE, it was disturbing. What were Novell's intentions? Where were things going to go from this point? Was openSUSE going to suffer for it?
Suffer? We probably wouldn't go as far as to say that. Were the changes and improvements to the distribution immediately after Novell took the helm earth-shaking? No, not particularly. They were modest, and worked well enough, but nothing that seemed leaps and bounds beyond the previous versions.
Nothing seemed leaps and bounds beyond -- until now. Today, OpenSUSE officially rolled out the 11.0 release. OpenSUSE seems to have scrutinized itself, from the kernel to the community. The developers pushed away from what seemed like an "adapt to survive" mode, and rolled out a release with changes so dramatic and beautiful that the distribution's chameleon ("geeko") mascot seems less cute and instead genuinely fitting.
If we had one word, and only one word to use to describe OpenSUSE 11.0, it would be this:
Fast.
Yes, dear readers. We just used the word "fast" (boldface, even) in relation to an OpenSUSE release. It starts and runs applications quickly, and we can say completely honestly, it installs quickly. We aren't just talking system updates and "here and there" YaST additions. No... You can boot the liveCD and have a complete OpenSUSE 11.0 system on your hard drive in what seems even slightly less time than an Ubuntu install.
This morning, the good folks over at the openSUSE project announced the official launch of the merged forums. Prior to this, English speaking openSUSE users had a bit of a confusing ride when it came to joining a support community specifically for their distro -- they had the support forums at the Novell openSUSE site, suseforums.net, and suselinuxsupport.de to choose from. The merged forums, located at forums.opensuse.org, are archived and searchable, and the new forum is open for posting (openSUSE members with an account for the wiki or bugzilla will be able to use their existing accounts on the forums, but suseforums and suselinuxsupport users will need to create new accounts).
Those who have never used openSUSE might have difficulty grasping the significance of this. It seems like a little thing, really... But the real strength of Linux (and any distro) is the knowledge and experience of the community, its experiences with different bits of hardware in different configurations. That strength is undermined when the community is divided between three sites -- even if they're three very, very good sites. If a user asks a question on one site, but the person who knows the answer is on one or two of the others (or doesn't have endless hours a day to comb forums), it is a real disadvantage to the person asking, those searching for an answer to the same problem, and ultimately the distribution in general.
The openSUSE project hopes to add more languages to the merged forums in the near future. Okay, it probably won't happen anywhere near in time for the openSUSE 11.0 release (on schedule for June 19th), but we're guessing that most people really won't mind, being much too distracted with a faster install process and a new and improved version of Zypper.
The openSUSE team has released the first beta of their popular but controversial Linux distribution, and it has some spiffy features that make it worth checking out.
The most exciting improvements are in the area of speed, as this is one OS that is often ridiculed by reviewers, mainly for its historically sluggish boot times and sloth-like package system. In contrast, openSUSE now uses an improved version of "zipper", which, long story short, makes incredibly quick package installation possible, much faster than Ubuntu or PCLinuxOS. Not only that, the system installation has been trimmed to 60%, meaning that it only takes about 24 minutes on typical hardware, which is damn fast for Suse.
There are still way too many bugs for you distro-shufflers to start revving your DVD burners, but if you would like to help with testing, check out the download page.
Please, allow me to explain. This week's FTLS was not at all what I intended it to be. For weeks now, I've been toying with idea of dual-booting a Debian based distro with a RPM based distro. Ubuntu Hardy (now reasonably mature enough for day to day use with minimal bork ups) was the obvious choice for a Debian flavor, as it already existed on my hard drive.
I am not a big fan of RPM based stuff, in general. I historically have had some real issues with installing Fedora on any piece of hardware I touch. I am intrigued to pieces by PCLinuxOS, but not intrigued enough to actually try it. SuSE, when it was just plain ol' SuSE, was the first Linux I ever tried. I liked it well enough, and it does hold a dear place in my heart. I guess it's kind of like a first crush.
The last openSUSE install I tried for any real length of time was 10.1. I installed 10.3 a month or two back to try some things, and found, though it's really usable, there wasn't anything that made me want to say, "Screw Ubuntu."
But I wanted to try openSUSE as my RPM based distro, again, because there are some nifty little apps on the horizon that seem, for now, to work best/easiest with openSUSE and/or RPM distros. I intended, wholeheartedly, to write about one of those little apps this week.
Maybe not blown away enough to stop using Ubuntu entirely... but I haven't actually booted into Hardy for some time now. And I am anxiously waiting to see what changes are in store for openSUSE 11.0, due this summer.
A long time open source advocate, Joe began using Linux in 1996, after purchasing a set of Slackware CDs at a local store. He says, "...I was blown away by the concept of 'free as in beer' software. The idea that you could share software, and even modify it and distribute it, was (and is) extremely exciting to me.
"I also find the community aspect of Linux and free and open source software particularly compelling. I love the fact that people around the world can come together and build useful tools, and then make those tools available for anyone to use. I knew pretty early on that I wanted to be part of that community." We recently got the chance to talk with Joe about Linux, Novell, and the direction openSUSE (and open source) is headed.
After filing for Chapter 11 protection in September, The SCO Group has been delisted from the Nasdaq trading index. The companies ticker symbol, formerly SCOX is kaput, although the non-indexed SCOX.PK (PK stands for "pink sheet") remains.Groklaw has brilliantly juxtaposed today's press release with the 2003 release stating SCO's intent to sue IBM.
For the uninitiated, SCO, formerly known as Caldera Systems, was at one time one of the largest Linux distributors for the business environment. In 2003, the newly named SCO systems sued IBM for $1 billion dollars, claiming that IBM's Linux products used parts of UNIX (which SCO claimed to own the rights to), thus devaluing the SCO brand. The story is extremely sordid and complicated, this Wikipedia page has a pretty good assessment of the various controversies and Groklaw has covered the various lawsuits involving SCO since 2003.
In short, SCO tried to claim intellectual property ownership of various parts of source code they claimed to be part of the open-source Linux kernel (one of the more insane claims, that SCO owned UNIX was legally dismissed in August 2007, and the actual owner of the UNIX and UNIXWare code, Novell, was awarded damages). SCO then sued manufacturers of competing Linux distributions for various claims ranging from the usage of SCO owned source code, trade secret violations and anti-competitive practices. And this from a company who's most successful product was actually called, "OpenLinux."
Objectivity aside - we can't wait for these guys to finally be out of business for good.
It's not clear which Lenovo laptop models will get the Linux treatment. But they should be on sale during the 4th quarter of 2007, and will be available to business and home users.
Pretty soon we're going to stop reporting every time a mass market computer manufacturer announces they'll
be distributing Linux PCs, because it's starting to get commonplace. Well, unless you count the possible scammers over at Medison that claim they'll be releasing a Linux-based PC for $150 using commonly available computer parts. That's not exactly commonplace. But it also looks like a case of too good to be true. We all know Microsoft Windows costs a lot of money, but picking up a fully functional PC for less than the price of Microsoft's operating system? That's probably just too good to be true.
Microsoft's been announcing partnerships with Linux distributors left and right over the last few months. First, the company reached an agreement to share intellectual property with Novell, then Xandros, and most recently Linspire.
That's led many to wonder whether Microsoft would be partnering with Canonical anytime soon. Canonical is the company behind Ubuntu, fast becoming one of the most popular Linux distributions, especially among newer Linux users. But while Ubuntu could certainly benefit from improved interoperability with Microsoft programs like Windows Media Player and Office, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth says it just ain't going to happen. Not yet, anyway.
In a nutshell, Shuttleworth says that he has not intention of caving in to Microsoft's threatened lawsuits against the open source community. And while he supports any efforts Microsoft makes towards allowing proprietary software to run better on Linux, he doesn't really believe the company is committed to open standards. He doesn't rule out working with Microsoft in the future, but Shuttleworth sees no reason to do so now.
And here's a key point. Since Microsoft is working with Novell, Xandros, and Linspire, there's every reason to think that the entire Linux community will benefit. Any changes that are made to open source software will by definition be available to all developers, and could therefore be included in future Ubuntu releases.
Functionally irrelevant but newsworthy nonetheless, Xandros -- the Debian based Linux distribution formerly known as Corel Linux -- has joined Novell in alienating the FOSS community by licensing Microsoft intellectual property and creating an illusion of indemnification against potential MS vs. Linux user lawsuits.
Few details are available about the deal. Microsoft's SVP of Server and Business tools announced the deal at MS' TechEd2007 conference in Orlando, remarking that "[Xandros has] taken the position of helping customers to ensure that when they use open-source software, the IP the industry has created is a part of that."
After Microsoft made the claim that Linux infringes on 235 of its patents, some folks became worried that the company might begin suing companies who use OSS. Even individual users have launched a 'Sue Me First' campaign, challenging the company to "put its lawyers where its mouth is" and prove the patent infringement.
Fortunately, Microsoft might not attempt to succeed where the SCO failed - at least not yet, anyway. In a statement emailed to ZDNet UK (though, strangely, posted on ZDNet Asia), a Microsoft spokesperson assured us that they would not litigate for now. "If we wanted to go down that road we could have done that three years ago" said Mr. Spokesperson. Funny - everyone was kinda under the impression that Microsoft has already been there, done that (for a recap on Microsoft's relationship with the SCO: MS was apparently funding the SCO's patent litigation efforts against IBM and their use of Linux).
The latest theory that takes into account this promise of no immediate litigation is that Microsoft is simply trying to scare OSS-slinging businesses into rethinking their position. Perhaps Redmond can convince these companies to rejoin the red, green, blue and yellow side of the fence - or at least into OSS that is sanctioned by Microsoft and/or Novell.
It's still early on in this whole patent infringement situation Microsoft has drudged up again, but the company surely isn't hurting for cash with which to fuel their army of lawyers. Still, during a time where Microsoft's reputation is likely at an all-time low and users are switching in record numbers to free and/or fruitier pastures, pulling a stunt like suing users or even businesses that pick up copies of software they haven't yet proven is infringing on anything isn't the brightest move they could make.
Microsoft and Novell have announced a collaboration "to build, market and support a series of new solutions to make Novell and Microsoft products work better together." The two companies, once upon a time fierce competitors, will be providing improved interoperability and support between Windows and Linux, in particular Novell's SUSE Linux. Microsoft will be recommending SUSE Linux to its enterprise customers and providing coupons for SUSE Enterprise Server support and maintenance. The companies will also be providing each other's customers with patent coverage for their respective products. "Microsoft and Novell are enabling customers to take advantage of each other's products where it makes sense in their enterprise infrastructure," says Novell president and CEO Ron Hovsepian. "We jointly believe that our business and patent agreements make it possible to offer the highest level of interoperability with the assurance that both our companies stand behind these solutions."
According to the press release, Microsoft and Novell are making "three important commitments" to the open source community: "First, Microsoft will work with Novell and actively contribute to several open source software projects, including projects focused on Office file formats and Web services management. Second, Microsoft will not assert its patents against individual noncommercial open source developers. And third, Microsoft is promising not to assert its patents against individual contributors to OpenSUSE.org whose code is included in the SUSE Linux Enterprise platform, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop." That third one is pretty important for small-time developers, but falls short when, say, a for-profit open source company wants to use one of those developers' GPL'd code.
The Microsoft-Novell agreement will be in place until "at least 2012." Does this really "make sense for the open source community," as Novell officials say? Time will tell.
The answer is on Debian. The OS isn't happy with Mozilla's recent hardened stance on their trademark, and doesn't even want to use the Mozilla logos in their distributions. Debian plans to change the name of Firefox in their distros and think it will only take a week to complete. Mozilla doesn't want Firefox to be marketed inside Debian without the logo. It seems that the Debian folks don't like the idea of patches and updates going through Mozilla first. Red Hat and Novell are already doing it. So if you Linux buddies told you to jump off a cliff, would you do it? Well, Debian wouldn't, or so it looks right now. I'm taking bets on names, how about Fiber-fox, or Firbuntu? No? Fine, I give up. Any other clever names for what to actually call Firefox in its altered form from brilliant minds out there?
At the ongoing LinuxWorld conference, RealNetworks announced that it will be releasing open source software that will allow Linux user to listen to and view audio and video files encoded in Microsoft's proprietary Windows Media formats. Currently Linux users are able to view Windows Media files only through closed-source components, but a deal Real inked with Microsoft after last year's anti-trust settlement paved the way for the announced open source solution, which will be released through Real's Helix Community. Novell joined RealNetworks to announce that it would be bundling the new software with Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, to be released later this year. Real is also planning to bring its Rhapsody music store to Linux, and will possibly be supporting the AAC audio compression format used by Apple.
Google recently joined the Open Document Alliance. Google recently launched Google Spreadsheets, and purchased the online word processor, Writely, made the move to support the alliance in the development of the open document industry.
The Open Document Alliance is a relatively new organization that launched March of 2006. Its goal is to help the move from paper to electronic. Promoting and enhancing the use of the OpenDocument Format (ODF).
The Alliance's current members include:
Corel
Google Inc
IBM
Novell
Oracle
Red Hat Inc
Sun Microsystems Inc
In another move in the Open Doc world, Microsoft announced support for the ODF extension with plug-in translators with their office applications.
Microsoft has taken the wraps off their new pricing
scheme for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition, and the new price is a surprise coming out of Redmond: Free! The Standard Edition
of the same product has been terminated, and moving forward there will only be the Enterprise Edition.
This move
is being done due to pressure from Novell and Red Hat flavors of Linux which are both shipping with virtualization
built in to the operating system. The Longhorn server class operating systems will ship with Windows hypervisor
technology, which is a similar form of virtualization that will be based on the same virtual hard disk file format
that Virtual Server uses, giving users an upgrade path.
OpenSUSE has always been an odd sort of Linux distribution. It's always been reasonably user friendly, very stable, and quite nicely pulled off the not-so-easy task of being good for new users while offering advanced and power users the flexibility and freedom they require.
The openSUSE team has
Please, allow me to explain. This week's FTLS was not at all what I intended it to be. For weeks now, I've been toying with idea of dual-booting a Debian based distro with a RPM based distro. 
Today, 
After Microsoft made the claim that 
Microsoft has taken the wraps off their new pricing
scheme for Virtual Server 2005 R2 Enterprise Edition, and the new price is a surprise coming out of Redmond: 
