Linux for Open Minds

Once upon a time in a land far away, Andrew Tanenbaum’s 12,000 lines of code served as the start point for a young lad called Linus Torvalds to release Linux version 0.01 in 1991. Since then Linux has come a long way and is only geared for more growth and glory.

Today that journey continues and openSUSE, a community project sponsored by Novell has just released version 11.2. What can we expect from this spanking new version?

At a cursory glance we have the latest 2.6.31 Linux kernel and Ext4 as the default filesystem offering up-to 1EB filesystem size and 16TB file-size. With this version support for desktops and notebooks claims to be improved by the use of a kernel specially tuned for desktop users besides the support for more hardware.

The desktop wars continue in the Linux microcosm and just like the larger battle of the OS-es, KDE and Gnome cross cursors with their respective fan followings cheering on. Without taking sides, openSUSE allows you to choose yourself. Irrespective, we have the plethora of applications that make OS wars seem pithy in today’s of web apps. Yes the ubiquitous internet browser that makes most other software apps obsolete. Firefox 3.5 serves the purpose with Open Office 3.1 steadily plodding along to serve the user’s routine tasks.

All that talk of web apps and no mention of the social tsunami that has struck our civilization would be blasphemous. Apparently I’m not the only one to think thus and therefore openSUSE offers desktop clients supporting Twitter, Facebook and Identiti.ca protocols.

YAST or Yet Another Setup Tool is the powerful installation and system management tool which is far simpler to use than previous versions while maintaining its robust functionality. The repository ensures that you stay up to date and added functionality is just a click away. Adding suggested repositories like Google or Packman to the list gives productivity a boost.

This version is definitely a step in the right direction, but how it compares to Fedora 12, Mandriva 2010 and Linux Mint is just a matter of reckoning. Feeling up to the task? Keep an open mind and try openSUSE 11.2 here.