Linux lines up
Although Ubuntu Linux gets the majority of attention from Linux watchers, OpenSuse, Fedora and Mandriva are also producing quality releases, and all three are preparing new versions. We look at what they each offer.
OpenSuse 11.3
OpenSuse, backed by Novell, is one of the most popular of the Linux distributions and is widely used in business and government applications.
OpenSuse’s next release will be known as 11.3 and Milestone 4, a pre-release version, was released last week.
Some of the most obvious changes to OpenSuse 11.3 include an update for OpenOffice.org 3.2.1 beta, the latest Gnome 2.30 desktop interface and the KDE 4.4.1 desktop interface. The Gnome update means that the new benefits of the Nautilus file browser – including split view mode – are included with the release and a newer version of Empathy, the IM client, includes support for dragging and dropping files as well as IRC support. Although not yet the default in OpenSuse 11.3, Empathy is planned to be made the default with the next pre-release of OpenSuse.
The KDE 4.4.1 update is included for its many fixes for bugs in KMail, Plasma widgets and Konsole. KDE 4.4.1 also includes Amarok 2.3, the latest version of the multimedia player, and a new beta version of k3b, a CD/DVD burning application.
One of the interesting inclusions in the OpenSuse 11.3 release is the Moblin interface, the Linux desktop created by Intel. The Moblin interface is designed for small form factor netbooks and smartbooks that have limited screen sizes. Mandriva included the Moblin interface in its 2010 release late last year, so this is a bit of catch up from OpenSuse.
Another fine inclusion are the VirtualBox Guest Tools software on the LiveCD version. These tools add the ability to run the OS in a VirtualBox virtual environment seamlessly and share common clipboards as well as many other features.
The final release of OpenSuse 11.3 is scheduled for July 15.
Fedora 13
Fedora is the community version of Red Hat and has over the past couple of releases become a distribution well worth watching. Fedora tends to include a lot of new, bleeding-edge software, many of which ultimately end up in the more conservative commercial Red Hat release much further down the line.
The pre-releases of Fedora 13 include features such as automatic print-driver installations, the brand new Btrfs filesystem and enhanced 3D support.
One of the big changes in Fedora 13 is hopefully real plug-and-play printer installations. Using the combined power of RPM and the PackageKit tool users should in theory simply have to plug in a print and hit the print button.
3D graphics support has also been improved, specifically for Nvidia-based systems using the open source Nouveau Gallium3D driver. Being able to supply users with proper 3D graphics without needing the proprietary Nvidia drivers has long been a goal of most Linux distributors.
The RPM package manager in Fedora 13 has also been upgraded which supports better dependency handling as well as many bug fixes.
As far as networking goes Fedora’s Network Manager has been upgraded and has better support for 3G cellular connections, roaming status and Bluetooth Dial-Up networking.
Fedora 13 uses the KDE 4.4 desktop environment by default which includes better audio support among other major changes.
Mandriva 2010.1
Mandriva Linux is one of the most user-friendly of the Linux distributions, particularly when it comes to netbooks. Like OpenSuse 11.3 and Fedora 13, Mandriva also includes the latest version of the Gnome desktop, version 2.30. This adds the split-screen view in the file browser, and the ability to configure a different background for each monitor used in a multi-monitor setup.
For KDE fans, Mandriva includes KDE 4.4 beta 2 in the most recent pre-release which includes Nepomuk for indexing files across multiple applications. Nepomuk also now uses Virtuoso as its back-end to store data, which should give faster tagging and indexing.
Aside from Nepomuk for indexing files, Mandriva 2010.1 is also testing Tracker as a document search tool in place of Beagle. The developers believe that it is faster and more efficient than Beagle.
The final release of Mandriva 2010.1 is scheduled for June 3.
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