The openSUSE Project is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 11.0 — everything you need to get started with Linux on the desktop and on the server. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, the openSUSE Project provides free, easy access to the world’s most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE.

The 11.0 release of openSUSE includes more than 200 new features specific to openSUSE, a redesigned installer that makes openSUSE even easier to install, faster package management thanks to major updates in the ZYpp stack, and KDE 4, GNOME 2.22, Compiz Fusion, and much more.

On the Desktop

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Whether you use GNOME or KDE, the openSUSE 11.0 desktop is a beautiful experience. Users have the choice of GNOME 2.22, KDE 4, KDE 3.5, Xfce, and more! See the screenshot page for a in-depth look at the openSUSE desktop.

GNOME 2.22

GNOME users will find a lot to like in openSUSE 11.0. openSUSE’s GNOME is very close to upstream GNOME, because Novell and openSUSE want to do as much work as possible in the upstream release. However, we do modify GNOME’s artwork to provide a unified look and feel for the distro. The default GNOME configuration, such as panel layout, is slightly different than “stock” GNOME, and the openSUSE GNOME team backports a number of bug fixes into our GNOME release to ensure stability and the best possible GNOME experience.

GNOME 2.22 in openSUSE 11.0 includes the GNOME Virtual File System (GVFS), with better support for networked file systems, PulseAudio for better sound management, improvements in Evolution and Tomboy, and much more!

KDE 4.0

openSUSE 11.0 is the first openSUSE release to include a stable release of KDE 4.0. This release includes sweeping changes in the KDE desktop, and represents the next generation of KDE. This release includes a new desktop shell, called Plasma, a new look and feel (called Oxygen), and many interface and usability improvements.

KControl has been replaced with Systemsettings, which makes system configuration much easier. KDE’s window manager, KWin, now supports 3-D desktop effects.

KDE 4.0 doesn’t include KDEPIM applications, so the openSUSE team has included beta versions of the KDEPIM suite (KMail, KOrganizer, Akregator, etc.) from the KDE 4.1 branch that’s in development and scheduled to be released in July and for online update.

Note that KDE 3.5 is still available on the openSUSE DVD for KDE users who aren’t quite ready to make the leap to KDE 4.

Compiz Fusion

The openSUSE desktop is not only a green glorious sight to behold, it’s also available in 3-D! Compiz Fusion is now the default in openSUSE 11.0. You’ll find a slew of interesting Compiz plugins, as well as easier configuration with Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) and the more comprehensive CompizConfig Settings Manager that allows detailed configuration of your Compiz setup. See the Sneak Peek for a detailed look at Compiz Fusion on openSUSE 11.0.

Firefox 3.0

Firefox is one of the most popular open source applications on the planet, and the openSUSE desktop just wouldn’t be complete without Mozilla Firefox. The 3.0 release has a number of new features and improvements that will make browsing the Web on openSUSE convenient and safe, including better site identification features, simplified add-on installation and management, detection of “phishing” sites, the ability to save tabs on exit, better download manager, and a new page zoom feature that lets you zoom text or the entire page.

Note that openSUSE 11.0 ships with Firefox 3.0 beta 5, and updates to the final 3.0 release will be available through online update.

Banshee 1.0

openSUSE 11.0 includes Banshee 1.0. The Banshee media player has been re-written to improve performance and includes many new features, including video playback, better “shuffle” playback, support for iPods, MTP devices, and mass storage player devices, and support for podcasts and better Last.fm integration.

OpenOffice.org 2.4

You can work hard and play hard with openSUSE. If you need a high-quality office suite that’s Microsoft Office compatible, look no further than Novell’s OpenOffice.org 2.4. This release includes import support for OpenXML, 3-D transitions in Impress, SVG import support, improved performance over standard OpenOffice.org, and better Excel support and VBA macro support.

NetworkManager 0.7

NetworkManager has been vastly improved since 10.3, and now includes support for multiple network interfaces and UTMS and EV-DO cards.

Under the Hood

• Linux kernel 2.6.25
• glibc 2.8
• GCC 4.3

Media and Download

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openSUSE is now available for immediate download. The openSUSE 11.0 release brings several new options for installation media, as well as familiar choices:

• openSUSE 11.0 DVD 32-bit
• openSUSE 11.0 DVD 64-bit
• openSUSE 11.0 KDE 4 32-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.0 GNOME 32-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.0 KDE 4 64-bit Live CD
• openSUSE 11.0 GNOME 64-bit Live CD

You can download openSUSE 11.0 via HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, and Metalink from software.openSUSE.org.

You can also purchase a retail box with openSUSE 11.0 that includes 90-day installation support, physical media, and a printed Getting Started guide.

Communicate

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We want to hear from you! The openSUSE Project has many channels of communication:

• Official openSUSE Forums: forums.opensuse.org.
• Mailing Lists: The openSUSE mailing lists.
• IRC: #opensuse on irc.freenode.net and and other channels.
• Jabber, Usenet, and more.

To keep up to date with openSUSE, be sure to keep an eye on openSUSE News and watch Planet SUSE for blog posts from the openSUSE community.

Want to help the openSUSE Project? To get involved with openSUSE see the How to Participate page on the openSUSE wiki. We can use lots of different skills to help the project, so feel free to jump in!

All of the contributors who have worked on openSUSE deserve a huge thank you. Without your hard work, this release would not have been possible. openSUSE 11.0 is the best openSUSE release yet, and will help promote the use of Linux everywhere! Now, get openSUSE 11.0 and have a lot of fun!

In this final Sneak Peeks article we will be taking a look at some of the other improvements making their way into openSUSE 11.0.

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Just a few hours before openSUSE 11.0 is officially released! Here we’ll take a look at GNOME in openSUSE 11.0, and talk to Vincent Untz, openSUSE developer and a member of the GNOME Foundation Board.

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With openSUSE 11.0 just a few days away, it’s time to look at one of the stars of the show: KDE. In openSUSE 11.0, you get two KDEs for the price of one. Here we’ll take a look at what’s coming in KDE, and talk to one of openSUSE’s KDE contributors, Stephan Binner.

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The Banshee team has released version 1.0! This release will be found in openSUSE 11.0, and includes tons of new features and improvements over the previous Banshee releases. This is a ground-up rewrite that improves speed, a redesigned interface, better integration with Last.fm, and video management!

See the entire release announcement on the Banshee homepage, including screenshots and a full list of new and notable features.If you’d like to help spread the news, please use this Digg link to vote it up.

The Banshee team includes openSUSE contributors Aaron Bockover, Gabriel Burt, and James Willcox.

Building packages for multiple distros can be a major pain — which is why we provide the openSUSE Build Service. One of the Build Service’s many features is the ability to create packages for many distros — including openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, and Ubuntu. One of the projects making the most of the Build Service is KDevelop. We talked with KDevelop developer Amilcar do Carmo Lucas about how the KDevelop project is using the build service.

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Attention openSUSE users and contributors! It’s time to exercise your vote and help the openSUSE team identify the bugs that need to be squashed prior to the openSUSE 11.0 release. On May 22nd, we’re having a bug voting day to help ensure we identify the most troublesome issues in Bugzilla under openSUSE 11.0.

Please join us on Thursday, May 22nd from 07:00 UTC until 19:00 UTC. Check out the voting instructions on the Bugzilla and openSUSE wiki. We’ll also have live help available in the #openSUSE-Factory channel on Freenode.

If you don’t have a Bugzilla account yet, you can sign up for one here. You know you want one! Sign up today!

By prioritizing the bugs, we can ensure that we’ve got the right bugs in our sights for the openSUSE 11.0 release.

Of course, you can help with bug voting at any time. There’s no need to wait for a bug day! Just roll up your sleeves and head over to the openSUSE Bugzilla and jump right in.

Questions or suggestions before the bug day? Drop me a note at zonker@opensuse.org.

Hello avid gamers and game developers!

We decided to restructure and cleanup the games projects in the openSUSE Build Service. Before the change we had 8 projects for each game genre (action, adventure, arcade, board, puzzle, roleplay, strategy/realtime, strategy/turn-base) and one separate project for game libraries (so you can play games even on older distributions with obsoleted libraries).

This situation was causing more harm than good, so now we will only have one “games” repository with all game genres together. If you have already added old game repositories, please remove them and add the brand new one located at download.opensuse.org/repositories/games/ and then the directory of your distribution. The old URLs for the individual games repositories will no longer work.

If your favorite game is not yet packaged you can add it to the Games Wishlist at openSUSE wiki. Or even better, you can try to package it by yourself and when you are finished contact Pavol Rusnak and we will add the game to the repository. You can also ask on the opensuse-packaging@opensuse.org (subscribe) mailing list you have any troubles with the packaging.

Game On!

With RC2 for openSUSE 10.3 the openSUSE-Education project starts the last testing phase before we release the final version of openSUSE-Education 1.0 for openSUSE 10.3. At this point, the only things left for the release is fixing possible bugs in the current packages and working on the documentation.

Recent Changes

In contrast to the normal release work-flow, we updated many packages and even added new ones to the media. Below is an incomplete list of changes with this release:

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Zonker wrote the following:

I’m happy to announce that the openSUSE Project has been accepted to Google’s Summer of Code 2008! Now the real fun begins!

We’re now in the “interim period” for students to discuss application ideas with mentoring organizations. (That’d be us.) Students will then have from March 24th through March 31st to apply to Google. See our ideas page, and Google’s SoC 2008 FAQ for more info and timeline.

Kudos to Google for acting quickly on this — applications for organizations were due last Wednesday, and I was notified this afternoon that we had been accepted. That’s pretty speedy, given the number of applications I’m sure they had to read through.

Discussion about openSUSE’s participation in Google’s SoC 2008 is most appropriate on the opensuse-project mailing list.