OpenSUSE 11.3 Released: Screenshots and Features
You can download OpenSUSE 11.3 in several different versions. Because the default DVD is 4.7GB, you may consider purchasing OpenSUSE 11.3 for a few bucks, although smaller live CD versions are also available.
In This Article:
- The New Release Cycle
- BtrFS Filesystem
- KDE Features
- GNOME Features
- LXDE Features
- Applications
- OpenSUSE 11.3 Screenshots
The last time OpenSUSE users enjoyed a stable release was in November 2009 making today’s release of OpenSUSE 11.3 a pretty big deal. This is the first release in the new fixed eight month release schedule for OpenSUSE. I like the new release schedule because it separates OpenSUSE from the other top distros. People got overwhelmed with the old Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, within 30 days schedule. So we agree they got the release timing right but what about 11.3 features, are they worth checking out?
OpenSUSE 11.3 has a new installer option that lets users choose the BtrFS file system which is under heavy development but offers many advanced features including Writable snapshots, Subvolumes, and more. Users will need to go into the Partitioning part of the installer and select Advanced. Under Formatting Options you can change the file system to BtrFS. This is an experimental feature and as the installer warning states, you’ll likely experience problems if you turn this feature on.
KDE is now the default desktop environment for OpenSUSE however, users have come to expect a polished release of KDE with each stable release anyway. OpenSUSE 11.3 features a customized KDE SC 4.4.4 desktop environment which is full of cutting edge options for users who like a high resource, featured-filled, desktop. One cool feature in OpenSUSE 11.3 KDE the netbook option located under KDE Settings — Desktop — Workspace. You can turn on the Plasma Netbook edition which is the lightweight, netbook friendly version of OpenSUSE 11.3.
If you have 3D support on your openSUSE 11.3 GNOME desktop you’ll be able to try the GNOME 3.0 preview GNOME Shell, a cutting edge version of the GNOME desktop environment. Check out the new accessibility stack which is disabled by default. Although all of the features are not there yet and GNOME Shell is in heavy development but it’s fully functional and worth testing.
The biggest feature for me personally in this release of OpenSUSE is a no-brainer. The inclusion of LXDE on the OpenSUSE 11.3 DVD has got to be the biggest enhancement of the whole release. KDE, GNOME, and even Xfce can be slow and with OpenSUSE only offering those heavier environments OpenSUSE completely misses all of the low spec users, and there’s a lot of them. LXDE 0.5.5 is integrated into this version of OpenSUSE along with Lxdm 0.2.0 default login manager, Pcmanfm 0.9.7, Gnome-keyring support, Brasero without GNOME dependencies and several other features.
This version of OpenSUSE features new and improved versions of over 1,000 open source desktop applications. A full suite of server software as well as open source development tools are also included. Changes to the desktop application lineup include the addition of SpiderOak client, GoogleCL, OpenOffice.org 3.2.1, Mozilla Firefox 3.6.6, Rosegarden 10.04, and Thunderbird 3.0.5.
What’s your favorite OpenSUSE 11.3 feature, change or enhancement?
best feature – mono
. And im pleased about Suse, cause they finally killed gnome community.
@Aint
Your contribution (if it could be called that) is not even worthy to wipe my arse with
Best feature — Best gnome distribution !!!
@Aint
Last time I looked – this morning – the Gnome community was still going strong, with stable tools, desktop effects and iPod/iPhone support.
It’s a nice KDE based distro that gives you the option to use other desktops and the other desktops aren’t some ignored bolt on.
YAST is a nice one stop config tool. I don’t mind editing config files but these are now getting so complex, especially for desktop, that I don’t really want to break things too much.
I’ll try the Brother printer drivers later and if all looks OK will install to my primary partition as my main Linux system.
opensuse is slow. yast is crap and slow. rpms are crap and slow. the amount of software in the repositries is crap. having to upgrade from cds is slow and crap
arch linux rapes opensuse
archlinux + icewm = awesome
Tried to upgrade my laptop from a nice stable 11.2 setup to 11.3 and had to backtrack to 11.2 immediately. Networking stopped working – I could ping web sites from a shell, but no GUI tool (Firefox, Konqueror, YAST) would connect. I’ve been a SuSE user since version 5.2, and this is the first time that an upgrade has failed.
Disappointing.
OpenSUSE 11.3 is pretty nice and fast. I like the inclusion of GCC 4.5 the most. Nice to see SUSE catch up to Fedora for once.
I have just installed opensuse 11.3 yesterday
It is good.
the GUI is nice, nothing to complain until now
I used Slackware from the beginning .
I think it time to get a new fresh air.
If opensuse doesn’t satisfy my work
I shall come back to Slackware
opensuse 11.3 (gnome) has to be the worst release I’ve tried in years. pure garbage. it had no problems with hardware recognition, but the way it’s set up and handles things is phucking bullsh*t. that was suse’s last chance chance to win me over. I’ll stick with ubuntu, fedora, mandriva, debian, puppy, or just about anything besides opengarbage. and people wonder why openBS doesn’t get much love from the press. idiots.
i’m actually embarrassed to be called a linux user after the release of openmorons 11.3
the state of linux just got set back 3 years because of their foolishness. i actually hope M$ buys novell, as they don’t deserve to be part of the mainstream linux community.
I’ve checked this new version out and really I did not perceived any tremendous improvement from the previous version (11.2). Except maybe the upgrades of several applications. In terms of “eye-candy” approach, try Ubuntu 10.04; it rocks. Ubuntu made indeed a step forward in this area. As far as the statement “opensuse KDE killed the Gnome community” is concerned, again try Ubuntu 10.04 and will have the depth of Gnome. I am not a fan of Ubuntu ( I used Opensuse over 70% from the total time spent in Linux environment) but I have to say that my expectation for 11.3 were bigger than what we got here. I’ll keep an eye on opensuse further development; so far fair well opensuse welcome Ubuntu.
An 11.3 update worked wonders for RAM usage and X11 performance on my desktop, but completely knackered both my laptops. I’ve been using SuSE since 7.2 so I’ll give Novell some time so sort these issues out, but I’m very disappointed to experience such major setbacks from an update, especially since I use my laptops heavily for work.
I like 11.3. It looks polished and both Gnome and KDE look good (I have preferred KDE for years). I used to use Ubuntu but 10.04 wasn’t enough to move me back from OpenSuse. I’m still using 11.2 for work but will look at upgrading shortly after I’ve done some testing on a virtual machine. My needs are simple, I need stability, not flashy interfaces.
TL;DR; but you have pretty images.
@Nicholas Buckner Nichola, how are old are you? You sound like about 12 or so. It also very obvious you never even tried 11.3 because everything you said is wrong.