Submitted by A preview edition of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, the desktop Novell’s been working on for the last two years, is now available for download. Reviews are also available, as well as a demo. Get it from Novell’s download page.
A preview edition of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10, the desktop Novell’s been working on for the last two years, is now available for download. Reviews are also available, as well as a demo. Get it from Novell’s download page.
Cannot wait to get my hands on this beauty.
I will definately be giving it a go. I’ll have to wait on downloading it until I get home as I’m currently sucking up enough bandwidth doing a Suse 10.1 Internet installation for a server.
SLED 10.1 does look it might make a solid work OS. However as a home desktop, which is what SLED mostly is anyway (I don’t want multi-media and wobbly windows at work), I’m not sure if it would cut it.
My current problem is Creative According to Creatives open source page, my soundblaster X-FI card won’t have support until the second quarter of 2007. Sounds like a MS/Vista conspiracy to me.
I’d love see to Novel really go after some of the hardware venders for linux support. I’d love to see open source drivers but if I can’t have that, I’d rather have a closed source driver than none at all.
In the general usability video you see their new start button, which to me appears to be “just” a new gnome panel applet, would that be a correct assumption or is there more to it seeing how pressing various things on it brings up things slightly more complex (More application button etc).
The short video clips are nice, but I found the 15-minute demo with Nat Friedman to be a more worthwhile and thorough:
http://www.novell.com/video/bs_06/monday_press_demo.mpg
I’m very impressed with the features in this release. It’s really the first of the “next-generation” Linux desktops, as it effectively accomplishes the usability leap-frog maneuver that we’ve been expecting for the last couple years. By this I mean that Desktop Linux has been slowly creeping up on Microsoft in terms of usability for years and now, quite suddenly, is evolving into a product that is more comparable to Mac OSX in its overall user experience than to Windows.
Perhaps the most impressive part of the demo began with Guy taking some digital photos of the press conference and about 60 seconds later, including explanation, ended with an edited photo uploaded to Nat’s Flickr account. Although the video playing live while wrapped around the corner of the 3D virtual desktop cube drew applause (and rightly so), the 10,000-foot perspective on SLED is all about the pervasive integration of the searchable data space across applications and across the overall desktop interface.
This is an evolution away from the application-centric model, bypassing the limitations of a task-driven interface, and finally recognizing that data is the fundamental object of desktop interaction. In other words, the true purpose of an OS (especially a desktop) is not to run a set of applications or to accomplish a set of tasks, but to process a set of data types.
Novell did real usability research to confirm this model and to arrive at this initial design. There are really only a few applications that are useful in and of themselves. These are the core communication/collaboration applications such as the web browser, email/PIM, and messaging… really that’s about it. Everything else should be a data-centric experience. Starting a media player and then selecting a video to play is an outmoded interaction model. Novell’s research shows that users are more successful and productive when they start by searching for the video, which then automatically opens in a suitable player.
The way that the new Computer “applet” (not really a menu anymore) is designed attempts to emphasize this interaction model without overly complicating the traditional approach of starting applications from the ubiquitous Start menu. Applications themselves are obviously a part of the searchable data space, so it is easy to argue that a data-centric model makes this traditional approach more usable than it was before.
I noted throughout the demo that Nat’s presentation style is a stark contrast to the hyper-enthusiastic, inspirational sermons typical of a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs. He prefaced the video-wrapped-around-a-cube demo by basically saying, I don’t know why you would do this, but I guess it’s kind of neat. Maybe he was just nervous (I didn’t realize he’s _that_ young), but I was pleased by the straightforward talk and the minimum of marketing hype.
In the end, though, there’s no usability overlord in free software land, and there are plenty of other options if you or your employer don’t feel comfortable with this kind of interface. I, for one, welcome our new usability overlords… it’s about time.
“Starting a media player and then selecting a video to play is an outmoded interaction model. Novell’s research shows that users are more successful and productive when they start by searching for the video, which then automatically opens in a suitable player.”
Ermm..you do know that you have been able to double click a file in either Windows or Mac OS..for years now..and have the proper application start and handle whatever the file is right? This is not Novell’s research..but rather the way computing has worked for quite some time. Not in the *nix world no, but in the others yes. One has not had to open an application, and then select the file for a long time, regardless of the type. By years I mean back to Windows 95, not positive on 3.1 anymore..has been a long time.
Umm, its been like Linux on that as long as I can remember as well. However, when using Windows or OS X or previous linux’s, most users tended to open up the application, the way NLD works its supposed to encourage you even more to open the data and let the application work itself out. It still did it in the past, its trying to get the users to do it more though.
Yes, you are correct…
SLED 10 has 3 menu’s:
“Main Menu” (the new one, comprising of everything you see in the demo’s etc…)
“Menu Bar” (Applications Places System menu you’re familiar with no doubt)
and
“Traditional Main Menu” (the one that is called “Main Menu” on your GNOME system…
——————————————-
IMO, this is the best way to do it… and should eliviate issues with bringing this into regular GNOME.
Its really quite intuitive, I’d use it instead of the current Menu’s available…
… in mainstream GNOME.
(for clarities sake…)
I have to say that while the reviewer did not go into the intimate details of the os’s it was overall a pretty decent review, It’s always nice to see a review that truly appears to not be bias one way or another.
package management. Downloading it now but, if yu remember the SuSe 10.1 first review was stellar until we tried to use the package manager and it was sorely broke(n). I was so excited until had to try and monk with the bugger of a package manager(s)-it had 2.
If you download updates during the 10.1 install then it’s all fixed, it’s recommened anyway.
I’m in love. I’ve been waiting a long time for someone to bring Linux to this level of ease of use. Congrats Novell!
I installed SLED and its really awesome. I prefer KDE over GNOME, but I really like Novells implementation of GNOME in this release. GNOME is version 2.12.x and not 2.14.x. The reworked menu is really cool, but I am not so sure if I like the fact that if you need to see all the apps in the menu, a new window.
Just noticed I mistakenly deleted the last part of my post above. I mean to say that
The reworked menu is really cool, but I am not so sure if I like the fact that if you need to see all the apps in the menu, a new window is open thats seperate from the rest of the menu.
So the fantastic features of SUSE 10 is a gnome-panel rewritten in mono (i guess ) and a vbasic macro
into OpenOffice.
ROTFL
I did not get that impression from reading the reviews.
Is MP3 and other multimedia support included, or is it not as in Suse 10.1? Yes, I know you can get MP3’s to work in Suse 10.1, but I mean out of the box. Also, one of the Linux shortcomings is no Voice/Video support is available for Instant Messaging such as Yahoo or MSN. This is a drawback for home use, which is necessary in order to get it into the business. If I were a developer I would have worked on it already, as libyahoo2 has the support for it, but unfortunately the developers of Gaim and Kopete don’t seem to think it is important, regardless of how many people have asked for it. Gaim is too worried about Google Talk if anything, which will limit it’s use since you have to know someone in order to get an account.
There is Helix Banshee which is able to play mp3s out of the box. I don’t think you can play encrypted dvds or other file formats without using libdvdcss or getting win 32 codecs. Since SLED/SLES is more oreinted towards business and enterprise users, support for multimedia may not be a top priority.
“There is Helix Banshee which is able to play mp3s out of the box. I don’t think you can play encrypted dvds or other file formats without using libdvdcss or getting win 32 codecs. Since SLED/SLES is more oreinted towards business and enterprise users, support for multimedia may not be a top priority.”
Thanks, I was wondering if Banshee was going to work as it did with Suse 10. I was kind of hoping they would include the Win32 codecs. Being in the US encrypted DVD’s are not possible I am afraid without breaking the law since I can’t legally get libdvdcss, unless I go with Linspire, and I prefer Suse, so unfortunately not an option. Though SLED may be geared towards business, the paradigm has changed and people now use at work what they use at home, not the other way around anymore. Until home adoption happens, it is going to be a very long and slow ride. Yahoo Voice and Video is heavily used in business by the way for remote offices to have conferences, so I would think that would get some attention.
Video support ought to work with aMSN.
“Video support ought to work with aMSN.”
From what I have read, true. Unfortunately I can’t try that one out as I don’t know anyone who uses MSN. In the US most use Yahoo, though I know MSN is used elsewhere.
I want to stress the “ought” part.
I have no knowledge of applications capable of using video with Yahoo. I don’t use Yahoo. Mostly MSN, ICQ and Jabber. But it’s worth a search though.
“I have no knowledge of applications capable of using video with Yahoo. I don’t use Yahoo. Mostly MSN, ICQ and Jabber. But it’s worth a search though.”
The ought is noted. I’ll give it a try and see if it does
Gyach-E actually does the voice and video for Yahoo, however it is prone to crashing, at least on Suse 10.1, so I would expect the same on SLED since it is essentially Suse 10.1. Is about the only thing keeping me on windows, as it gets old telling someone “We can’t conference, let me log out and reboot so we can.”, since once I reboot then I no longer have access to my other files which are on the Linux side of the box. Catch 22
That is sweet.
Looks you you have to create a account now to download SLED 10
I only got the first cd. :/
I dont think mp3 is much of a challege for any distro. I use debian and stock gnome-desktop-environment will play mp3s if I remember correctly. Sorry for being OT!
Go novell!
Novell is something!
I hate this, where is the DVD image. Is there a way to make DVD images out of the CD iso’s.
I agree. It’d be nice if they could supply a DVD image… and torrents as well. Oh well.
Is there a way to make DVD images out of the CD iso’s
Apparently there is a way…
http://en.opensuse.org/Making_a_DVD_from_CDs
I wonder when will they understand that most people do not need that much software. I’m very excited about new SLED but I can’t spare so much bandwith (15GB monthly cap).
BTW, are the changes that Novell made to Gnome (I mean source) released somwhere? I’d like to play with their panel applet
1 CD for minimal
3 CD’s for default
5 CD’s for everything
Granted thats still too much, but I filed the bug in their bugzilla related to this, and apparently they are working on it…
They need to have CD1 contain common things like Yast, Mono, OpenOffice, Firefox etc… and have seperate GNOME and KDE CD’s… this way most only need 2 CD’s to install…
I’m puzzled as to where you get 4 CD’s requirements from though?
I’m puzzled as to where you get 4 CD’s requirements from though?
I’m installing as we speak, and the installer wants 2 packages off CD4. I did not change anything during package selection, so it’s all default.
I’ve got it from the download page, there were 4 cds and no further details as what packages are on them. Thanks for explaining it.
You could try going through each CD copying the MD5SUMS from each directory they’re contained in, cat them together, copy all the contents of the CDs to a temp directory, replace the MD5SUMS with the ones that you put together for each directory. create an ISO, burn.
Might work. Or you could just wait.
Edited 2006-06-28 01:14
After the notification from Novell i started downloading the isos right away. Since this still is a test version i deceded to use vmware.
The installation is pretty smooth and went perfectly. Of cause the hardware was default so that is not so strange.
After the install i installed the vmtools by just clicking the cd icon and double clicking the rpm. The installation gump showed up and installed it. Nothing to it. Switching to fullscreen at a better res gives a better impression.
The first impression is very slick. After playing with the “computer” applet on the bottom left, the application and configuration menu i would almost forget it is a GNU/Linux system. Everything looks very simple, but also very polished and complete!
On the desktop you have a icon for a flash program that gives you tours into the basics, applications and internet & email. Perfect for the new user that wants to see how to setup everything.
The first impression is very, very good. Only thing i can say is.. Novell did it again! Sorry i cant say mutch more on the short notice but i am certain alot of articles will popup very soon about this sweety.
uhh its getting xciting again
BTW under the download section RC3 of SLES is also available which IMO is a lot more intersting as the demands will be far greater to the OS than the desktop version .
SLES RC3 review coming ?
But yeah IMO they should just have a link or so or via Zen/YOU or whatever to the appropiate rpms for all common codecs to work .
Downloading SLES
The only real issue I had with this review is the security section. Where he says that Linux may very well get virus’ the more popular it gets.
I don’t think that’s terribly true. Sure, people can claim that windows has more virus’ because it’s more popular. And that Linux doesn’t have any because it isn’t a target, but they fail to realize that the fundamentals of the OS are different.
In Linux, if everything is set up properly, you would have to manually download the virus, manually execute it, and at that point, the worst it can do is fudge up and erase your home directory. You would have to su and run it before the virus could hurt anything big.
And if you are manually downloading, and running virus’ as root, you deserve one anyways.
Edited 2006-06-28 03:49
And if you are manually downloading and running viruses as an administrator, you deserve them anyway.
not at all the same thing. running in unix as a regular user, and su’ing or sudo’ing when necessary, is normal and accepted behaviour. importantly, it’s also fairly easy to do.
doing the same in windows is a real pain, and sometimes doesn’t even work (ie running as a regular user and right click, run as, on the app you want to run with admin privs). granted, that’s supposed to be something that gets improved in vista, but in their current production lineup, it isn’t so.
From the user’s point of view, while it’s nice that the operating system itself is shielded, the user actually cares about their data.
Their data is in their home directory usually, and even if it’s not, by virtue of it being their data, it’s susceptible to malicious code, even if that’s just a script that does “rm -rf ~ &”.
As more and more “convenience” features get added to Linux, this will become more of a problem.
It won’t grow to the size of the fiasco currently known as Microsoft Windows, however.
>The only real issue I had with this review is the security section. Where he says that Linux may very well get virus’ the more popular it gets. I don’t think that’s terribly true.
You’ll be in for a slice of humble pie eventually. I think the Mac ppl were baked one a little while ago.
Baked one? There’s still no self replicating and spreading virus for the Mac and none in the wild. FUD & only FUD until it actually happens and I’m smart enough about my system to deal with that when it turns up.
“In Linux, if everything is set up properly, you would have to manually download the virus, manually execute it, and at that point, the worst it can do is fudge up and erase your home directory. You would have to su and run it before the virus could hurt anything big.”
Umm..the users home directory is where the important data files reside. A system can be rebuilt and replaced. It is the data files, which are in the users home directory, that pose the greatest loss.
This is the first Linux distro that doesn’t look like it was designed for software developers or system manager, but for ordinary business users such as accountants, secretaries and such. It seam to focus on important things like on how to find and interact with your information and fellow users, and not on how to in detail tweak the system itself to make it look cool. (It allready looks cool BTW).
Even though the videos showed some glitches. One example the person in the videos claim they speak the language of the users, but still there is a Yelp icon on the otherwise good start/computer menu thing.
With respect to usability this certainly can rivel MacOS-X and windows XP and most likely what remains of Vista when it finally ships. People will want to run this when they see it. Unfortunately many people will not be able to do that, as currently there are too few applications available for the Linux desktop. At least compared to windows. Even though this desktop comes with a lot of apps, many people will get stuck on that, to them, mission critical that they miss.
It could be Dreamweaver, it could be some accounting or tax package,…
However, I think this looks good enough, that the demand for popular apps on linux will increase to a level where commersial software companies will start to take notice. Unfortunately this is a process that will take several years. Just like it took several years for Linux to reach the datacenter, once the functiality needed was there.
Another problem for the Linux desktop have also been that large companies that probably have the most to gain from using unix or a unix clone like Linux, look very carefully at the support, and viability of the companies who deliver their desktops. This usually meant that Red Hat was the only gaim in town.
Unfortunately the Red Hat desktop is old outdated and ugly. It is that for a reason. To make sure everything works as advertised Red Hat use old an well tested software, while bleading edge goes into Fedora or Ubuntu. Now enter Novell, just like Red Hat they can offer the level of support enterprises are looking for.
This will force Red Hat to offer, something more polished if they don’t want to leave the desktop business to Novell. The same goes for all other Linux distros. The bleading edge distros will move the frontier and commersial distros will follow.
In two years time I would expect that all Linux distros will look better than Vista regardless if they are stable “everything should work for seven years” distros like Red Hat or not.
This means that the part of the windows XP users that look at real business needs, and don’t feel the need emmediatley upgrade to the latest and greates OS from Microsoft as soon as it becomes available, will have a real option when Windows XP gets end of lifed in 2011.
It is looking good for the Linux desktop. At least if we look a few years into the future.
it doesn’t really have anything new that my Gentoo install already has (i use Gnome/XGL + latest stuff) but I really like the overall package and presentation.
That new “computer” button looks interesting, and it seems to categorize everything in a clean display. But it almost has the same functionality that the default Gnome menu has anyways (simple menu categories and their corresponding apps).
I may try this out and see how a binary system and YAST works, since I am so used to using Gentoo and “emerging” (compiling) everything.
Does anyone know how many cds I need to burn of the 5 in order to install a basic system with gnome/OO?
Thanks for any information
>Does anyone know how many cds I need to burn of the 5 in order to install a basic system with gnome/OO?
1-3
Edited 2006-06-28 06:34
1) Few years ago, linux users saying that good GUI was useless and a waste of CPU times (command line roxe).
2) That Novell suxes because when they bought SuSE, and that SuSE will not be free.
The linux user’s contradiction …
And I must say SLED 10 is awesome, here is some of the highlights.
Banshee, Mp3 work out of the box.
Nvidia driver is easy to install from the “install Software” option in the menu. You just install two packages, logout then it’s done(ATI drive works this way I think).
Xgl/compiz is installed but not enabled by default but can be enabled in the control center.
I Love the new menu, it’s easy and even easier to find applications.
The quick start tour is very good, flash videos to show you how to get working.
The best Linux desktop so far by a mile, and a great job by Novell.
Edited 2006-06-28 06:49
“And I must say SLED 10 is awesome, here is some of the highlights.
Banshee, Mp3 work out of the box.
Nvidia driver is easy to install from the “install Software” option in the menu. You just install two packages, logout then it’s done(ATI drive works this way I think). ……….”
Awesome, great to hear. Still waiting to dl it and give it a whirl. Knowing that mp3 works makes me feel a bit better as it does not with Suse 10.1. Yes, I do know the difference between the 2, I just hope that Suse 10.1 does not become like fedora and continually crippled, such as mp3 support since it is “non-free”, and is not even on the additional OSS CD. And yes, even with the boxed set, which I purchased, it is the same. I wasted my money on that one thinking there would be extras.
Correct me if i wrong but i remember realplayer to have ¨out of the box” mp3 support on 10/10.1.
Works great with streamtuner to listen to shoutcast radio stations.
does the KDE desktop get an “enable Compiz/XGL” button in the config menu too?
If this is like OpenSuse 10.1 but with all the bugs fixed it would be great. But it sucks that they´re still using gnome 2.12.
is poor repository support. until suse can match ubunut’s huge universe repository, people will choose ubuntu ahead of suse, unfortunately.
novell would do well to encourage/sponsor/hire people to do nothing but create packages for their distro so that it’s as easy as enabling a universe repo and selecting a few packages to get: gstreamer-mp3/mad/lame, libdvdcss, win32codecs, etc etc.
as a temporary measure, they could port the darwin ports package over to linux and have a source repository available by default for these things.
i’m still going to try this release out, it looks stunning.
a fault of ANY distro is poor repository support
I would say a lot of distros,not all of them.I wholeheartly agree with you though.
debian,gentoo,ubuntu,arch, have exellent repository support.However you can’t blame the smaller distros.Novell shouldn’t have borked 10.1,using smart instead of YaST isn’t an real alternative.How should Joe Average windows user switching to Linux know?
I wonder what to buy next;SLED or SuSE in order to have it all working instead of paying for testing.
Edited 2006-06-28 13:15
is poor repository support. until suse can match ubunut’s huge universe repository, people will choose ubuntu ahead of suse, unfortunately.
SLED is targeted at businesses, they won’t be surfing repos looking for their software.
novell would do well to encourage/sponsor/hire people to do nothing but create packages for their distro so that it’s as easy as enabling a universe repo and selecting a few packages to get: gstreamer-mp3/mad/lame, libdvdcss, win32codecs, etc etc.
Third part repos exist already for those, as well as for backporting updated packages to released distribution versions.
As well, Suse’s new build service is a very slick tool that will automate the packaging/distribution process for developers. Source is uploaded and compiled/packaged for various versions of Suse, as well as other distros. The advantage is that bug fixes/updates get applied very quickly, and you can stay very current with experimental/cvs packages if you need to.
To the end user, it’s simply a new selection of sources to choose from in their pacakge manager.
Suse is doing ok here. Much better than they were in the past. They may not be at the level of the universe/multiverse scope in *buntu/Debian, but I’ve found Suse’s packaging is often a little more relevant and I’m building from source far less than I was in Kubuntu.
Ultimately it depends on the user’s requirements. But again, for SLED, none of this will really matter.
“SLED is targeted at businesses, they won’t be surfing repos looking for their software.
novell would do well to encourage/sponsor/hire people to do nothing but create packages for their distro so that it’s as easy as enabling a universe repo and selecting a few packages to get: gstreamer-mp3/mad/lame, libdvdcss, win32codecs, etc etc.
Third part repos exist already for those, as well as for backporting updated packages to released distribution versions.”
First you say targeted at business, then you talk about how libdvdcss and it’s kind are available from 3rd party repos. Although that is true, no company would allow libdvdcss to be installed, as it would put the company at risk of being sued. This is from a US perspective, which ironically is where Suse and Novell now reside, whether the developers live elsewhere or not, making the US the biggest target for SLED.
Could someone who already installed SLED tell me if most applications are using tango icons, and more specifically, if openoffice is using tango icons or not? Thnx!
SLED 10 rocks …. plain and simple. It is the perfect choice for Enterprise desktops since it is cheaper than and better than any Windows OS. It has all the applications that would ever be required on the enterprise. They have nice things such as Beagle, XGL/Compiz, Network Manager, Tomboy, F-Spot and all. They
are probably working towards Zen Networks Management suite and the zen-installer too. They have been working for two years and this is the distro that might introduce Linux to the enterprise desktop.
SLED 10 rocks …. plain and simple. It is the perfect choice for Enterprise desktops since it is cheaper than and better than any Windows OS. It has all the applications that would ever be required on the enterprise. They have nice things such as Beagle, XGL/Compiz, Network Manager, Tomboy, F-Spot and all.
It’s a little hard to see how stuff like XGL/Compiz, Tomboy and F-Spot would be “required” in a business setting. They come under “toys for home users” and in the case of F-Sport are not (yet) superior to conventional solutions like Digikam. More likely to be “required” is the great Linux blocker, MS Office, which would be less of an issue if more investment and work were put into Open Office (very good, but not there yet). The same could be said of Evolution which has been persistently flaky on every distro I’ve ever tried.
Imho, SLED 10 is probably very good indeed but with all these bells and whistles just who is it aimed at? Novell aren’t doing themselves any favours by dividing up their fire-power like this. On the one side there is SuSE/OpenSuSE which is losing its rep for excellence because of damaging commerce-drive decisions (releasing with a borked updater, lack of any real community participation, e.g) and on the other side there is SLED. Novell might be better off producing a single distro that is absolutely top-notch in every regard and which is known and admired under a single brand name, the only variable being pricing in terms of the support required. Considering Novell’s rather dire financial situation, they haven’t got much to lose.
Well to tell you the truth, even the Vista Enterprise Edition would have eye candy turned on by default. SO does that matter customers ?
Also Windows comes with Windows Mail (similar to OE).
Now to get MS Office + Vista Enterprise Edition, it would cost you a fortune ie $ 800 roughly.
As far as I have read SLED will cost $50. There are a lot many small businesses that cannot or will not pay $800 per PC if they only have 5 – 10 machines. They can make a
smarter choice by paying only $50 per PC.
I really think the only reason I personally will take a look at this is for the xgl functionality.As far as business’s go I can’t see them jumping on it right off.I work in a large datacenter.This distro would handle the basics of what we do but no more.For example things they would need to replace.Remedy for ticketing.There is no linux client I’m aware of.All the project management software is microsoft based.All the wow of xgl does not work with I would say alot of commodity based business video cards.Also if they charge the price of a microsoft distro with no cheap volume licensing, I would see zero incentive to save money.I would be more than happy to see linux replace all these things.I use it inside vmware at work just because I can get much more basic tasks done faster.
Has anyone taken a look at the license agreement of this thing during install? It’s fairly interesting.
Edited 2006-06-28 14:00
Hi to all. Sorry for the basic question (see Subject line).
Excellent comments and notes by everybody.
Regards,
serio.
“Hi to all. Sorry for the basic question (see Subject line).”
The difference is as Fedora is to RedHat. OpenSuse is the beta and basis for SLED, as Fedora is the beta and basis for RedHat.
Thanks DrillSgt.
serio.
dont like more than one cd Distro.
1. 5 CDs, no DVD installation media
2. Same old installation routine, which is so slow and outdated
3. nvidia card “PNY GeForce 4600Ti” was not configured correctly with the monitor to output the correct resolution and color depth and synch frequencies which is 1920×1200@24@60Hz vertical refresh rate.
4. installation of kernel source and headers were not the default so I was initialy unable to install nvidia proprietary driver, but installation of the missing packages required swapping of the whole 5 CDs.
5. When enabling Desktop Effects it missed up the nvidia module -> fixed it by reinstalling the driver
6. Desktop Effects message was : “Your Graphics Card is not in Xgl’s database.
7. Startup took 2:05 minutes on 7200rpm new HDD. 2.8 Ghz CPU 1GB dual channel memory DDR. (10seconds for BIOS POST).
8. Quick changing of windows styles and decorations on GNOME led to multiple crashed unlike in fedora or RHEL.
9. No Audio/Video format from my collection worked (.asf, .ogg, .mp3(vbr), .mpg,.mpeg, .avi, .wmv, .wma,.mov (normal and HD), wmvhd, vcd (.dat), DVD (.vob), .divx, .xvid,….
10. Banshe palyer crashed from time to time.
Good things:
1. Fasttttttttttttt start up of programs!!! like in windows.
2. Excellent design strategies for desktop improvements.
Version tested SLED 10 RC3. In my opinion it must be in beta still not a RC and definitely not RC3.
It is a far cry from opensuse which is horribly buggy and inconsistent.
Good linux competitor overall. Well Done!