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OpenSUSE, is a general purpose operating system developed by the openSUSE Project. After acquiring SUSE Linux in January 2004, Novell decided to release the SUSE Linux Professional product as a 100% open source project, involving the community in the development process. The initial release was a beta version of SUSE Linux 10.0, and as of June 2008 the current stable release is openSUSE 11.0.

Beyond the distribution, the openSUSE Project provides a web portal for community involvement. The community assists in developing openSUSE collaboratively with representatives from Novell by contributing code through the openSUSE Build Service, writing documentation, designing artwork, fostering discussion on open mailing lists and in Internet Relay Chat channels, and improving the openSUSE site through its wiki interface. Novell employed over 500 developers working on SUSE in 2004. Novell markets openSUSE as the best, easiest distribution for all users.

Like most distributions it includes both a default graphical user interface (GUI) and a command line interface option; it allows the user (during installation) to select which GUI they are comfortable with (either KDE, GNOME or XFCE), and supports thousands of software packages across the full range of open source development.


History

The SUSE Linux distribution was originally a German translation of Slackware Linux. The Slackware distribution (maintained by Patrick Volkerding) was initially based largely on Softlanding Linux System. In mid-1992, SLS was founded by Peter MacDonald, and was the first comprehensive distribution to contain elements such as X and TCP/IP.

S.u.S.E was founded in late 1992 as a UNIX consulting group, which among other things regularly released software packages that included SLS and Slackware, and printed UNIX/Linux manuals. S.u.S.E is an acronym for the German phrase "Software- und System-Entwicklung" ("Software and system development"), however in English speaking communities a rumour still circulates that the name is a tribute to the German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse, whose name in English has similar pronunciation. They released the first CD version of SLS/Slackware in 1994, under the name S.u.S.E Linux 1.0. It later integrated with the Jurix distribution by Florian La Roche, to release the first really unique S.u.S.E Linux 4.2 in 1996. Over time, SuSE Linux incorporated many aspects of Red Hat Linux (e.g., using RPMs and /etc/sysconfig). In a move to more effectively reach its business audience, SuSE introduced the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server in 2001, and consecutively changed the company name to SUSE Linux in September 2003 as a part of its overall new branding strategy, as announced by SUSE's marketing VP Uwe Schmid.

On November 4, 2003, Novell announced it would acquire SuSE. The acquisition was finalized in January 2004. J. Philips (Novell's corporate technology strategist for the Asia Pacific region) stated that Novell would not "in the medium term" alter the way in which SUSE continues to be developed.[11] At Novell's annual BrainShare gathering in 2004, all computers ran SUSE Linux for the first time. At this gathering it was also announced that the proprietary SUSE administration program YaST2 would be released into the public under the GPL license.

On August 4, 2005, Novell spokesman and director of public relations Bruce Lowry announced that the development of the SUSE Professional series will become more open and within the community project openSUSE try to reach a wider audience of users and developers. The software, by definition of open source, already had their coding "open," but now the development process will be more "open" than before, allowing developers and users to test the product and help develop it. Previously all development work was done in-house by SUSE, and version 10.0 was the first version that had public beta testing. As part of the change, YaST Online Update server access will be complimentary for SUSE Linux users, and along the lines of most open source distributions, there will both be a free download available on the web and a boxed edition. This change in philosophy led to the release of the SUSE Linux 10.0 release on October 6, 2005 in "OSS" (completely open source), "eval" (has both open source and proprietary applications and is actually a fully featured version) and retail boxed-set editions.

The current mascot of SUSE is commonly referred to as a gecko called Geeko, but is actually a chameleon.

Features

openSUSE has many features, which include:

Live USB

A Live USB of OpenSUSE can be created manually  or with UNetbootin.

Versions

10.x Series

The initial stable release from the openSUSE Project was SUSE Linux 10.0, released on October 6, 2005. This was released as a freely downloadable ISO image and as a boxed retail package, with certain bundled software only included in the retail package.

On May 11, 2006, the openSUSE Project released SUSE Linux 10.1, with the mailing list announcement identifying Xgl, NetworkManager, AppArmor and Xen as prominent features.For their third release, the openSUSE Project renamed their distribution, releasing openSUSE 10.2 on December 7, 2006. Several areas that developers focused their efforts on were reworking the menus used to launch programs in KDE and GNOME, moving to ext3 as the default file system, providing support for internal readers of Secure Digital cards commonly used in digital cameras, improving power management framework (more computers can enter suspended states instead of shutting down and starting up) and the package management system. This release also featured version 2.0 of Mozilla Firefox.

The fourth release, openSUSE 10.3, was made available as a stable version on October 4, 2007. An overhaul of the software package management system (including support for 1-Click-Install), legal MP3 support from Fluendo and improved boot-time are some of the areas focused on for this release.

11.x Series

OpenSUSE 11.0 was released on June 19, 2008. It includes the latest version GNOME and two versions of KDE (the older, stable 3.5.9 and the newer 4.0.4). It comes in three freely downloadable versions: a complete installation DVD (including GNOME, KDE3, and KDE4), and two Live CDs Package management and installation were made significantly faster with ZYpp. (GNOME, and KDE4 respectively). A KDE3 Live CD was not produced, however, due to limited resources.

OpenSUSE 11.1 Alpha 1 was released on July 24, 2008. The final version is expected to be released on December 18, 2008. Updated software is expected to include GNOME 2.24, KDE 4.1.1, continued improvement in the software update stack and Linux kernel 2.6.27 (or later).

openSUSE 11.0, KDE 4.0

openSUSE 11.0, KDE 3.5

openSUSE 11.0, GNOME

openSUSE 10.3, GNOME.

openSUSE 10.3, KDE 3.

Hardware Compatibility

openSUSE has full support for 32 bit i386 and 64 bit x86-64 PC hardware.

As of v10.0, openSUSE resumed support for the PowerPC based systems from Apple:

  • Old World
    • PCI Based 601, 603, & 604 systems (G3 or G4 upgrade highly recommended as well as 256MB RAM)
    • Powerbook G3 Wallstreet
    • PowerMac G3 Beige
    • Powerbook 2400, 3400 & G3 (Kanga, not officially supported(Max RAM less than 256MB RAM)
    • NuBus based PowerMacs and Powerbooks are not supported.
  • New World
    • Blue & White G3
    • Powerbook G3 Lombard
    • Powerbook G3 Pismo
    • Powerbook G4(all)
    • iBook G3 (all)
    • iBook G4 (all)
    • Powermac G4 (all)
    • Powermac G5 (all)

IBM Power based systems and the Cell/PS3 are also supported as well as other some other Power based systems such as the Genesi Pegasos G3/G4 and Efika.

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