SUSE has been one of the major players on the desktop for as long as I can remember, and for good reason. They have built a solid, sleek desktop ready for anyone who wanted to give Linux a shot but either had no luck with other distributions, or simply was curious but didn't have the time to fight their way through a long install or tedious configurations. SUSE was it. Does the distro that has kept so many people happy for so long still have what it takes to stay on top? We're about to find out...
Features
Linux kernel 2.6.11.4
GCC 3.3.5/glibc 2.3.4
Xorg 6.8.2
GNOME 2.10
KDE 3.4
OpenOffice.org 2.0 PR
Xen 2.0.5c-4 virtualization software
Firefox 1.0.1
Beagle desktop search
F-Spot 0.0.12 image manager
NetApplet network connection manager
RealPlayer 10
Adobe Acrobat 7
This release has generated a lot of buzz in the Linux world due to the new features it's sporting. Software such as Xen and Beagle are probably the main reason for the excitement, and for good reason. Both packages have thus far been in development and not available in any other mainstream distribution. SUSE is the first commercial distribution to market with both applications.
For those who might not have heard yet, Xen is system virtualization software which will allow you to run multiple guest operating systems on your computer. Think VMWare (I know... I know it's a bad reference, but the only thing I can think of to bring about a decent mental picture) here but quite a bit more complicated, a great deal faster, and completely open sourced. Beagle is the latest system search/indexing companion for GNOME and after I was able to get it working (I go into detail later in the article) I really liked what I saw. It's probably not something you'd use every day, but worth it's weight in gold when you need it.
SUSE LINUX 9.3 is also sporting some other great little goodies such as the F-Spot image management tool, the NetApplet tray-based network connection management tool, and the latest Adobe Acrobat 7 package, which has more features and is more responsive than any other release thus far. OpenOffice.org is present as usual, but this time in a 2.0 pre-release format (see screenshot). This release is also much faster than the last, and has much improved Microsoft Office compatibility baked in. Even though it's a pre-release, I found that it worked just as well as any final code I've used from them. Feature-wise, this release should look very tempting to first time Linux users and veterans alike. SUSE's efforts have always been tailored specifically for the desktop, and for the most part, nothing has changed here.
Installation
Installation is probably the hardest thing to cover in a Linux review. I mean, what can you really say about it? It either did the trick or it didn't. There's not much in between. Every installer has the same purpose to a degree: Install Linux and a bunch of other applications onto the system. That's what SUSE's YaST installer does... and it does it very well. Anyone who's used SUSE in the past several years knows that the YaST installer hasn't change much, and this release is really no different. They've only made subtle changes each time a new release is out, and that's fine, because it's actually a decent installer. The only thing I dislike about it is that it seems to ask too many questions of the end user. In this day and age you'd think some of the things it requires input for would be somewhat automated... such as hardware detection and configuration.
There are other distros that do this, and YaST might move up a notch if it were to utilize today's improved Linux hardware detection a little more and take away some of the detailed knowledge required of the end user. Considering half of this distro's target market is home users, it would benefit them greatly. The other half is technical and/or power users so their need for better/more automatic hardware detection and setup may not be as great. Other than that, the YaST installer is second to none. Red Hat, Mandrake, and SUSE have all refined their installers to the point that they really don't need any drastic improvements at this point. They've already got the formula, now they're all spending time rounding them out.
In the end, I had no issues with the installer, save for it not recognizing my monitor or its capabilities properly. I needed to manually adjust the settings myself, but that's not a big deal. I've been doing this so long I know my hardware settings better than I know my own social security number. I also noted that the default password encryption is now set to blowfish, which will allow for longer passwords. For the first time in recent memory I was not asked to truncate it. Smart move on their part.
A note on installing with existing crypto partitions
SUSE 9.3 includes a newer encryption module than that used in earlier versions of the product, so if you are upgrading to SUSE 9.3 from an older version such as 9.1 or 9.2 you'll need to take appropriate action to guard against data loss where access to an existing encrypted file system is required.
1. Do NOT include your encrypted partition(s) during the installation
2. Run YaST Online Update after the installation has completed and you're logged into the system
3. Add your encrypted file systems using the YaST partitioning module
L to R: Default KDE and GNOME desktops
Running SUSE LINUX
SUSE has always been one of the top distributions for desktop use, but it's never been on top in terms of performance. Most commercial desktop distributions suffer from the same problem, but I'd have to say SUSE has always been at the bottom of the list in terms of raw speed and desktop performance. Even Mandrake and Fedora seem faster. The reason I'm mention this isn't to knock them on performance yet again, but to say that the feel of this desktop is much more responsive than any of their past efforts. Whether this is all in my head or completely justified remains to be seen, but I'm sure other reviewers will be commenting on this very same topic. I originally thought this might be due to the enhancements made in the the recent KDE 3.4 release, but was forced to reevaluate once I saw the Gnome desktop in action. The performance of SUSE 9.3 is actually pretty good. Not as fast as the likes of Slackware or Gentoo but beggars can't be choosers as they say. To have this many apps at my fingertips plus speed... that's just nice.
The desktop itself is organized very well, as has become the norm for SUSE LINUX releases. Actually, both KDE and GNOME have received a fair amount of attention. I wouldn't say equal, but they've placed more amount of attention on GNOME than in previous releases. KDE is still their default so it gets the gold, but in any event they are both organized well. Applications are easily found, and almost everything I used worked as advertised, with some exceptions i will get into shortly. See this screenshot for a visual.
SUSE LINUX has predominantly been a KDE-based distribution, and nothing has changed on that front, as it's default desktop is still KDE... but... since the Novell acquisition (who also acquired the Gnome gurus known collectively as Ximian if you recall) it seems that more emphasis has been placed on the Gnome desktop environment as well. It makes sense after all, to provide two of the most popular desktops available for Linux, and to put an equal amount of effort into both. Gnome has recently been just another piece of software on the SUSE CDs, but it appears that it is now being treated with the respect it deserves. Well done. I suspect part of this is due to the development efforts on Novell Linux Desktop, which is their Gnome-centric enterprise desktop release.
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.1 is the default browser for this release and with good reason. It's fast becoming the most popular browser on the planet and SUSE knows it. As far as I'm concerned they've made a solid choice. For your reference, the Mozilla Thunderbird email client is missing from the lineup, though it's easily downloaded from the web. The default email clients for SUSE 9.3 are Novell Evolution and KMail for Gnome and KDE respectively. Even though I use Thunderbird, I've got no complaints here, as both of these have become excellent apps over the years and can easily handle heavy duty email/calendaring/contact management tasks.
L to R: F-Spot image manager; NetApplet connection manager
