Novell openSUSE (previously known as SUSE Linux) is a community based
desktop
Linux operating environment with thousands of desktop software
packages. It has a long history of being regarded as a popular
distributions in terms of features, comprehensive selection of
software, good hard support, extensive user support, and high quality
printed documentation.
It has a user-friendly installation procedure and it will work on
virtually any desktop or laptop computer.
Originally SuSE Linux was owned by a German company with the same
name. In January 2004, the firm was purchased by
Novell,
which has continued to further enhance and add more SuSE specific
features..
The openSUSE project
has three main goals: make openSUSE the easiest Linux for anyone to
obtain and the most widely used Linux distribution; leverage open
source collaboration to make openSUSE the world's most usable Linux
distribution and desktop environment for new and experienced Linux
users; dramatically simplify and open the development and packaging
processes to make openSUSE the platform of choice for Linux developers
and software vendors.
The openSUSE CDs come with thousands of packages, but there are many
more available
in the online repository, and in the OpenSUSE Build Service. The
openSUSE Build Service is an open and complete distribution
development platform that provides infrastructure for the development
of future openSUSE-based distributions. It provides software developers
with a tool to compile, release, and publish their software for the
broad user audience, including creation of their own Linux distribution
based on openSUSE for various hardware architectures.
The minimum specification for installing OpenSuSE Linux is a Pentium
class processor with at least 256
MB RAM and plenty of disk space. Kickoff is the new usability and
productivity-centric KDE
Menu designed by openSUSE. It comes as the
result of extensive start menu research, examining work-flow,
functionality, and simplicity.
OpenSUSE 10.3
Key Facts
Developer:
Sponsored
by Novell
Price:
Free to
download
Released:
4
October 2007
Installation
Media:
CD (5),
DVD (1),
Metalink, BitTorrent
[Note only CD 1-3 are required for a default GNOME/KDE
desktop
install (in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Brazilian
Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese and Czech). CD 4-5 provide extra
packages].
Architectures
supported:
x86,
x86_64, PPC
Package
Management:
openSUSE
Software
Management suite (lightweight package management system) or ZMD
