Review: openSUSE 11 Beta 2
openSUSE 11 is currently in beta still, and will be officially released in June. I downloaded and installed it using the KDE 4 LiveCD, but was rather disappointed with what I saw.
openSUSE/KDE 4
As for its look, KDE 4 ("openSUSE edition") is quite impressive, though I'm not sure it is ready for much more then tracking the development. The following details my attempts at making it work for me.
Installation
I still think openSUSE's installation procedure is way too technical and far from being intuitive. Though easy to finish successfully, YaST is awkward, too detailed, and the installation involves too many stages (especially when compared to other desktop distros, such as Ubuntu, or even PC-BSD and DesktopBSD, which manage to get it done with quite effectively).
Credit: openSUSE GNOME variant installer from Novell's website
- The only problem I run into with the installer was finding myself at the console (at runlevel 3) when it was all done... mind you, "startx" works just fine...
WiFi
- Netopia WiFi Pen: does not work with WPA, works fine unencrypted (didn't try WEP). Surprisingly, the card got associated with router, and I got an IP address, but couldn't connect to the Internet, even though the routing table seemed OK.
Mass storage devices
- Removable Media (DOK): could mount and unmount, though couldn't access the content, unless as root
- Camera (Sony Alpha 100): was mounted as a (VFAT) mass storage device, but was not accessible to me, unless as root. Also, digiKam (still not ported to KDE 4) could not identify the camera, nor access it as a mass storage device.
- Trying to poke around AppArmor profiles...
Desktop & User interface
KDE 4 seems to have come along just fine, and openSUSE is one of the best showcases of what's going on so far, with almost all parts integrated and functional... sort of (see notes above).
- Konqueror seems to render pages rather differently then Fireofx 3 (Beta 5), and they don't look very pretty. In some case, like on Blogger, the text disappears as the mouse hover over the text.
Conclusion
Though I can't say openSUSE 11 is ready (it is in beta after all), I was hoping for a smoother experience at this stage. Most of the things which did not work for me here, worked with other distros, but not all. PC-BSD seems to crash when using the Netopia WiFi Pen for a while, and other distros, such as Ubuntu, could not complete WPA authentication either.
Notes:
- AFAIK there are no drivers ready for nVidia (unless installed manually)
Links:
More screenshots of openSUSE 11 beta 2
Posts
6 comments:
The installable livecds have a somewhat simplified installer for new users. The DVD is closer to the traditional install method.
Please file bug reports at http://bugzilla.novell.com for the apparmour issues in particular, and any other bugs you encountered.
Go OpenSUSE! I respect their effort in the KDE4 venture. I currently use PCLOS but I'm intently watching for distros using KDE4 and it looks like Suse will be the early leader in implementation. Keep up the good work!
I wouldn't judge openSuse by using the live KDE 4 Beta CD. I've used other distributions before, (like Ubuntu), and always came back to openSuse.
The final releases have always been a full solution for me. Nvidia Drivers are 1-Click and all the software I could want is included: Firefox, OpenOffice, Amarok, etc (even Codecs). Plus Repositories full of Apps.
As far as the installation goes, I like to be able to set up my machine the way I like it from the start. I like to be able to change and manage my complete configuration. (I guess that's why I am a KDE fan.)
However, I have seen great strides as they have improved the install process over the last few releases.
Anyway, for me, OpenSuse has be a complete replacement for windows at work and home.
Yep. I agree openSUSE's KDE 4 implementation is one of the best yet, but I'm still not convinced it's ready. Looking forward though. I think it'll be amazing to have a compozitation integrated desktop and good performance.
Roy, I wasn't judging, just reporting. I would of course report the bugs formally as soon as I get a chance.
About the Installer, since I've almost always "Next, Next" through the installation, I think the defaults are good enough. IMHO YaST is really an system admin tool, not an end user tool. So it feels at least.
If you want a stable and fast openSUSE 11, try the GNOME version. KDE 4 is still far, far from useable; no matter in which distribution.
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