openSUSE 10.2 Alpha 3

[nfm]

I got some news for linux lovers I myself prefer open suse over ubuntu, gentoo, debian or **** small linux.

I'm glad to announce the third alpha release of our 10.2 product.

It's the first time that we're call our distribution "openSUSE"

instead of "SUSE Linux". The codename of openSUSE 10.2 is "Basilisk

Lizard". With the rename of the distribution, we renamed also the

name in bugzilla.novell.com so that you have to report bugs against

"openSUSE 10.2".

Compared with Alpha2, we've made a number of significant changes:

* We switched to kernel 2.6.18rc4 - and neither all kernel module

packages (kmp) nor the Xen packages have been adopted for the new

kernel.

* openSUSE 10.2 contains KDE 3.5.4

* We started the switch to GNOME 2.16 Beta and have now the base

packages in, more to come later for Alpha4.

* The new branding "openSUSE" is shown in the first places but there's

still some existing SUSE Linux 10.1 branding.

* X11 R7.1 with different pathes (no more /usr/X11R6 for the xorg

packages): Users with a working X11 configuration will not see many

real changes. First, the pathes have changed, so most applications

that lived in /usr/X11R6/bin now exist in /usr/bin. So, hard coded

paths need to be changed. The X11 Release 7 is fully

modularized. This is reflected in our packaging as it enables us to

provide updates for individual components like drivers and libraries

once they become available independently of the release cycle of the

X Window System.

As with every major update, a lot of bugs have been fixed in all

areas.

The changed pathes broke building of packages, so developers might

need to change their software.

* cups 1.2.2: This is a major update (from version 1.1.x), the

highlights are IPv6 support, network printer discovery (CUPS can now

find printers on the LAN using SNMP) and LDAP support. A cool

feature are unique job ids: CUPS maintains a new job-uuid attribute

which provides a unique identifier that can be used to track a job

on your network or anywhere in the world

* Updated development tools like gettext 0.15 and autoconf 2.60.

* We now have a gcc package and a gcc41 package in such a way that in

the future a gcc42 package might be available as well, giving you

the chance to use different gcc versions at the same time.

* Using patterns instead of selections in the package manager (think

of patterns as package groups with some semantics). We have

currently only a basic set of patterns and will enhance them.

All these changes needed changes by other packages, so a lot of other

packages have been fixed to build again (and updated), and some still

need updating.

Alphas of openSUSE are rather untested and more for the experimental

folks. I do not suggest to use it in production. But I do consider

especially Alpha3 an important milestone for development and testing.

The list of known bugs is available as usual at:

http://en.opensuse.org/Bugs:Most_Annoying_...SE_10.2_Alpha_3

The current ones are:

* YaST does not allow X11 configuration since it asks for

non-existant xorg-x11-server-glx Bug #198250. Note: I could run X11

nevertheless and logged into both KDE and GNOME.

* zen-updater always shows patterns to update Bug #198379

* f-spot does not work Bug #198377

* gnome-wm does not handle X11R7 Bug #198380

* Firefox does not start Bug #197928

* Registration fails with an internal server error Bug #198381

* applications using python-gtk are broken, e.g. smart-gui Bug #198391

* kde su does not accept correct password Bug #198408

* Most kernel module packages are not build against the new 2.6.18rc4

kernel. If you need them, I advise to wait for their update. The Xen

packages are not adjusted either.

source: http://en.opensuse.org/

[medhunter]

I 'll stick to 10.1.

Eagerly waiting RC2 or final 10.2