Novell today unveiled SUSE LINUX 9.1 Personal and SUSE LINUX 9.1 Professional, the first complete commercial Linux products based on the 2.6 kernel, providing the only significant retail Linux products on the market, says the PR. eWEEK has an article about it too and MadPenguin an interview.
Novell Announces First Commercial Linux Featuring 2.6 Kernel
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I think the title of this item is a little bit misleading, since releasing a press release is not the same thing as actually releasing the software, which won’t be available until sometime in May.
Tell that to Novell’s PR then.
Not only that, but Mandarke is out with 2.6, and 2.6 is available on Gentoo as well.
They were implying Mandrake and Gentoo aren’t significant. Are they in terms of marketshare?
Shame to see SuSE stay with plain GNOME instead of XD2, IMHO. Would make it a really killer distro if they went Ximianised.
I would love to see it with Apples Aqua. Why not license it Novell. The GUI is the only thing holding Linux back
“Why not license it Novell”
well because thats what makes OSX special
its because they are so technically similar that apple wont license it..
aqua. quartz and the macintosh UI are the things that separate OSX from the various other *nixs (linux included). if these are available on other systems then people have less incentive to buy what apple is really trying to sell you… its hardware..
I’m using Gentoo, and I’m using it with 2.6.4. But the 2.6.x kernel is still in development and not in production! So this makes Gentoo not officially using 2.6.x.
It is running well with it by the way, so nothing is stopping you to use it
Well, they did say first significant “commercial” distro with 2.6; Gentoo certainly isn’t commercial, and Mandrake 10 is still on the “Community” edition, not the boxed “Official” version, so I guess SuSE is sort of correct.
Anyway, this all sounds like good stuff. I’m running 2.6 on Gentoo as well, and I’ve had no problems at all. I don’t really notice things being faster, but it’s nice and fast anyway, and KDE 3.2 probably made the biggest difference. But 2.6 with ALSA and ACPI makes for a nice system; oh, and it coped with a loadavg of 25 on a single 512MB Athlon without falling over 😉
http://madpenguin.org/Article1060.html says it’s GNOME 2.4 with Ximian patches.
I wished they would have included OpenOffice.org 1.1.1, Gimp 2.0 Final, based it on gcc 3.4, with Xorg server and included GNOME 2.6.
Anyone got any comment on how stable/usabel 2.6 is now, does
it take a good beating ?
I’m still having in mind the horror I had with the first
distros shipping an early 2.4 kernel..
And most people seem to be using either gentoo-dev-sources (2.6+gentoo patches) mm-sources (Andrew Morton’s patches +2.6) or development-sources (vanilla 2.6).
Gentoo leaves the kernel version to the installer, so there isn’t really any way to say something is official, unless perhaps the non-testing (x86, amd64, sparc, alpha which it is umasked upon)
I’m running 2.6.3 on my Gentoo box with full-fledged KDE and everything, and haven’t had any gripes so far. With the usual caveat – make sure all your device drivers are available for / in the 2.6 kernel – it should be save to use.
Yeah… and when these versions would be available, they would again have to wait for the upcoming KDE 3.3, Evolution 2.0, program X version Y.Z, etc…
I think they made the right decision. They can brag that they’re the first major commercial distro supporting the 2.6 kernel and the newest KDE. They focus on KDE so I don’t see why should they wait for GNOME 2.6.
KDE 3.3 and Evolution 2.0 are far more away than the ones I listed for which all release candidates exist or will be published next week. And SuSE 9.1 will be shipped not sooner than in a month.
The German press release mentions that OOo is fully integrated into KDE 3.2.1 with icons and look – I wonder if that is the first result of http://kde.openoffice.org
In general the German pages seem to already contain more infos (because it’s released earlier in Germany):
http://www.suse.de/de/company/press/press_releases/archive04/91.htm…
http://www.edv-buchversand.de/suse/91/index2.html
http://www.edv-buchversand.de/EDV-BUCH/SUSE/catalog.nsf/vaw3Product…
http://www.edv-buchversand.de/edv-buch/suse/catalog.nsf/vaw3OrderNu…
http://www.edv-buchversand.de/suse/interview/index2.html
SUSE actually has a long history of being ‘behind’ in terms of GUIs, especially GNOME. Remember that version 9.0 released with GNOME 2.2 *after* 2.4 had been released.
I wouldn’t touch SUSE if it made XD2 its main GUI, even for GNOME. SUSE is the only distro which has a choice of three versions of GNOME (plain SUSE, XD2 and ULB). Why would they want to ruin that by imposing Ximian on everyone? I’ve always preferred ULB because Ximian seemed to slow my system down and imposed its settings on KDE which I really did not want.
I don’t agree with the person who said they should make Aqua the GUI, and I speak as someone who recently bought a Mac. Aqua lacks virtual screens, for example, which all of the major X desktops have now (though the Expose feature in 10.3 ameliorates this somewhat). Not that Apple *will* license it, of course.
You’re assuming they’ll be available soon when we don’t really know. Yes, there are RCs of OOo, GNOME and GIMP, yet it doesn’t tell us when the final version will come out. It can be tomorrow like it can be in three months. Furthermore, using GCC 3.4 would probably a really bad choice. You just don’t compile a whole distribution with a brand new compiler.
Honestly, I don’t think SuSE’s customers are living on the bleeding edge. They probably don’t know what X.org’s X server is and probably can live with an older version of GNOME (esp. since SuSE is KDE-centric) and OOo.
I hope they use KDE Plastik as the default theme instead of the old SuSE 8.2/9.0 appearance that looks outdated and not very business-like.
Not only that, but Mandarke is out with 2.6, and 2.6 is available on Gentoo as well.
And Debian has kernel 2.6.0 to 2.6.4 in unstable.
This was just a fluffy press-release. If you go to Suse’s mailing lists, you will see that they are nowhere nearing a release. There is still a lot of testing to do. This is just a preemptive strike by the PR department of Novell to try to steal the limelight form Mandrake and other distributions that are about to come out with an official release soon.
> You just don’t compile a whole distribution with a brand new compiler.
SUSE does. Don’t remember the release which was based on gcc 3.3pre?
Well, wouldn’t look it strange when they present something at CeBIT about which they have not released a press release? That’s the reason you read it today. They could also have made a press release when/before Mandrake was released.
I am still using kernel 2.4 due to HSF drivers which probably wont work with k2.6. Does anyone know if I can get k2.4 with backported patches from k2.6 to work with my RH9?
I think that the new 2.6 kernel has suprised everybody becouse of its stability, performance, etc. But it’s too soon for a official “server” release from a big company like SuSE. Still, this is good because that will fix lots of bugs…
On hte other hand, even if distros don’t want to put 2.6 as the “official supported” kernel, I guess that all of them have a alternative (not supported) 2.6 kernel for those who want to test…
from eweek article..
“Ungershick also reiterated that, unlike Red Hat Inc. and other major Linux players, Novell and SuSE remained committed to a Linux consumer desktop offering going forward.
Ungershick also said the SuSE Linux 9.1 update would be a significant release vehicle for KDE 3.2.1, released last week. The open-source desktop offers a number of feature enhancements, including accessibility improvements and application enhancements, including Kontacts[sic], which now has a unified user interface for all e-mail, calendaring and addressing. He also drew attention to Konquer[sic], the interface’s browser-file explorer, which now supports spell checking and password storage in a single place.
The updated SuSE Linux software will also support the Gnome 2.4.2 desktop, and there were several enhancements to this as well, including Windows-based printing configuration. “
Regarding desktop, I think it seems quite clear now that, with Novell owning both SuSE and Ximian, it is the task of SuSE to create a consumer-friendly KDE based desktop while Ximian targets to make its business-like Gnome based counterpart.
SUSE 9.1 is no “server” release but targetted at home users. Standard/Enterprise Server 9 will be.
As long as you have broadband and you can download new packages over the net when you release is really almost irrelevant (eg. Gentoo, Debian, FreeBSD, Madrake/Fedora if you have some good repository). In fact the only thing a distros really needs is a good installer and setup tools (eg. internet conection) so that A user can get there box barely up and running. After that as long as you can download Gnome 2.6 KDE 3.3 or Evolution 8 it’s all good.
Will this release have a Novell Client? Or when they will release it? Didn’t see it in the press release.
>> I think the title of this item is a little bit misleading, since releasing a press release is not the same thing as actually releasing the software, which won’t be available until sometime in May.
They are not talking about the press release, they are talking about the showing they gave it at CeBIT. With CeBIT being held in Germany it is not a surprise that SUSE would want to make a big announcement there.
I agree that this is no more the ‘First Commercial Linux Featuring 2.6 Kernel’ than Mandrake Community Edition is, unless it is actually possible to buy SuSE 9.1 at CeBIT.
It is interesting that it will difference in between the Pro and Home editions in various countries.
UK Germany US
Pro £64.95 £60.62 £49.20
Home £29.95 £20.18 £16.38
The home version is about half the price of the pro version in the UK, however in the US and Germany it is about a third of the price.
I personally can’t wait for the distro to drop. I work for a rather large computer manufacturer with a VERY significant stack in linux (wink wink) so the developers get copies of the major distro before the hit the retail shelves. The 9.1 should show up on our mirrors within the next couple of weeks…I’ll have to post a review when it shows up…I have been checking out each release of the SLES 9 (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server) and it is progressing very nicely, and KDE 3.2 on SuSE kick the perverbial a$$… and I would have to agre with the subject, SuSE “will” be the first commercial distro with 2.6.. Mandrake 10.0 is still under devel, the community edition isnt the commercial edition, and RHEL 4 isnt do out until later in the year..Gentoo is still using developmental version also…I used the test5 2.6 kernel in 9.0 a it was already very stable….guess we’ll see how it goes, SuSE is my personal favorite, and I have tested probably 75% of the top 30-40 distros, and multiple releases of each since Redhat 6.1…
I wonder whether some people with USB keyboards or mouses will have any problem with the uhci-hcd module.
I too am using Gentoo (For AMD 64) with the 2.6 kernel. This is nothing new. Hey it’s Linux (kernel) if you really want 2.6 there’s ways to figure out how to upgrade. Gentoo and Mandrake, also about 20 others have 2.6 already. Big deal.
no problem for me as of yet with USB, as a matter of fact, the SLES9 works really well with the random usb devised i plug into the box just to see if it works lol..
Well, I was referring to the release.
Search at
http://bugzilla.kernel.org/
for “usb”.
I bought a new PS/2 keyboard after I found out that the UHCI-HCD module when loaded was causing my keyboard not to work. That module is the most important USB module. When I unloaded it, my keyboard would work, because my motherboard supports it thru “legacy”, but my mouse (USB) wheel would stop working.
I am not the only one having USB problems with the new 2.6.x kernel. You can check at
https://qa.mandrakesoft.com/
I say that it’s a bold release because they will make some customers upset when they find out that not even their keyboards and mouses are working.
But now I am cool about it. Harder was when I didn’t know where the problem laid.
Just so to make my point, sometimes I have to pass “nousb” to the kernel for it to load correctly.
Right now I am running a 2.6.4 kernel on top of debian and it really is awesome. But the GNOME and KDE crew really have to test their solutions with “dual head” monitors. For stability problems I am running fluxbox, and I have tested 2 GNOMEs (2.4.2 unstable and the latest garnome) and 2 KDEs (3.1.5 and 3.2.1). The latest KDE is really awesome.
SuSE always seems behind on the GUI versions, but such a thing is really common for commercial distributions like SuSE & Red Hat anyways. Given the fact that they cater to corporate customers (paying customers when it comes to linuxes!
), who would always choose proven reliability over bleeding edge technology it should come as no surprize that they usually dont have the latest & greatest stuff in their release versions. This is especially true of the Enterprise versions of software from both SuSE & Red Hat.
RPMs of the latest KDE, GNOME & XFree86 are usually made available for download from their website, however for anyone who wants to upgrade.
“I would love to see it with Apples Aqua. Why not license it Novell. The GUI is the only thing holding Linux back”
KDE is great, Mac can keep thier GUI.
> SuSE always seems behind on the GUI versions
This is not true as SUSE 9.1 and KDE 3.2.1 shows. Blame Ximian that there is no Ximian GNOME 2.6 release candidate, otherwise it would have been included for sure.
“Novell Announces SUSE Linux 9.1” would have been a better headlines.
”
By Helfrez Gama (IP: —.nc.us.ibm.com) – Posted on 2004-03-18 15:57:33
no problem for me as of yet with USB, as a matter of fact, the SLES9 works really well with the random usb devised i plug into the box just to see if it works lol..
”
Are you beta testing SLES9? I’m just asking ’cause you’re @ ibm.com 🙂
Linux now has PR guys speaking half-truths.
Oh this is going to be fun, everyone has basically the same product but each has to make a case why they are better.
“we were the first green distro with lizards”
“we had the first FOOBAR certification, 4 hours 22 minutes and 16 seconds before <competition here>”
popcorn!
“KDE is great, Mac can keep thier GUI.”
Indeed, and Gnome is great so Apple can still keep their GUI.
Yes I am and yes I am lol…the unnamed part was a joke lol…i also run the rumoured “Blue Linux” lol
I TOTALLY agree…dual monitor support sux pretty bad, KDE is even worse than GNOME…try getting 2 panels to dock at the bottom of both screens lol, at least in gnome u can put panels where u want them KDE is pretty picky about placement of child panels,etc…
I’m looking forward to your review. If it is a pre-release version then you may want to verify that no non-disclosure agreement is in place.
Drag-n-drop of web links in Konqueror got broken in KDE 3.2.1. I hope SuSE patches-in a fix.
The major difference between SuSE and Fedora is the price, the printed doc and the personal support. It shall be interesting to see what way the wind blows.
I’m sorry if some of you guys didn’t read or understand SUSE’s press release, but they clearly said the first commercial distro. Which isn’t a half truth at all. They will be the first commercial distro to do so, with Mandrake falling in shortly there after. For those of you who would like to give Mandrake the crown, run 10 now and tell me that it is a stable commercial quality release… it isn’t, not even close.
All distros are equally capable of running the latest kernel/kde/gnome… Who cares if gentoo has 2.6.4 in portage. SUSE will be the first to offer commercial grade technical support for it.
Why does everybody in the Linux world get uptight when a company, who puts vasts amount of money into open source development (ask all of the full time kde developers on SUSE’s payroll), treats linux as a business. It needs to be treated as a business to get respect. There need to be press releases, advertisements, and boxed products with big bold lettering… accept it and move on
Yeah dats the only reason I rarely post reviews..IMO what people are most concerned about are the quirks, broken stuff that got fixed, and and new stuff.. I keep it short and sweet and as vague as possible..lol dont expect screenshots and package lists lol…