The Installer For OpenSUSE 11.0

[phoronix]

Phoronix: The Installer For OpenSUSE 11.0

Yesterday OpenSUSE 11.0 RC 1 was released with 578 bug-fixes since OpenSuSE 11.0 beta 3. This summer release of OpenSuSE 11.0 brings quite a bit to the table, among which is a new installer...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=NjQ5Ng

[jeffro-tull]

Uh, what's the big deal? They took the installer from OpenSUSE 10.3 (which is very much like 10.2, if I'm not mistaken) and gave it Bold New Graphics. They ported it to Qt4, but that's really about where it ends.

The buttons are prettier, the colors are more pleasing, the fonts look better, blah blah blah. It's prettied up, but functions almost identically to before. Well, except for the post-install hardware configuration. Now it just kinda does its own thing and hopes for the best (which completely caught me off guard, but it was successful).

Don't get me wrong, I like OpenSUSE. I have 10.3 on my desktop and have 11.0 (well, I guess you'd call it Factory for now) on my laptop. I like the distro. And I like the installer. I guess I just don't see why no one's talking about the vastly improved package management system, or the large step backwards they took (IMHO) with KNetworkManager in KDE4, or about how they made KDE4.0.x look and feel like a logical progression (by and large) from their 3.5.x desktop. So many other things to talk about with this upcoming release, and all anyone seems to care about is that the installer got a facelift. Big deal.

[Vadi]

Still looks like the "too much info" issue is there, and not enough "advanced" settings are under the advanced button, to me.

But it looks pretty, +1.

[lordmozilla]

the opensuse installer has always owned the ubuntu one. But the bit that I love the advanced partitioner. Any chance you could get some screenshots of that? Their partitioning tool has always been good especially compared to ubuntu/debian which can only do an LVM with their alternate install CD and you can't choose to remove basic packages from the install etc....

[some-guy]

I also agree that phoronix should focus on more things
The installer is a one-time thing (per-install)
But zypper/yast, and the DE's are everyday things.

But I can feel that this is going to be a great release

[deanjo]

Uh, what's the big deal? They took the installer from OpenSUSE 10.3 (which is very much like 10.2, if I'm not mistaken) and gave it Bold New Graphics. They ported it to Qt4, but that's really about where it ends.

The buttons are prettier, the colors are more pleasing, the fonts look better, blah blah blah. It's prettied up, but functions almost identically to before. Well, except for the post-install hardware configuration. Now it just kinda does its own thing and hopes for the best (which completely caught me off guard, but it was successful).

Don't get me wrong, I like OpenSUSE. I have 10.3 on my desktop and have 11.0 (well, I guess you'd call it Factory for now) on my laptop. I like the distro. And I like the installer. I guess I just don't see why no one's talking about the vastly improved package management system, or the large step backwards they took (IMHO) with KNetworkManager in KDE4, or about how they made KDE4.0.x look and feel like a logical progression (by and large) from their 3.5.x desktop. So many other things to talk about with this upcoming release, and all anyone seems to care about is that the installer got a facelift. Big deal.

AFIK there never has been a review of any of the opensuse releases here. Mostly screenshots of alpha's and beta's with a brief note. The more in depth reviews are concentrated on *buntu / fedora / solaris. It is a pity that items such as a installer takes limelight when the real power and features of the opensuse lie in it's tools and refinements that don't seem to get the attention they deserve.

But this article just came out and goes a bit more in depth.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8988

[jeffro-tull]

AFIK there never has been a review of any of the opensuse releases here. Mostly screenshots of alpha's and beta's with a brief note. The more in depth reviews are concentrated on *buntu / fedora / solaris. It is a pity that items such as a installer takes limelight when the real power and features of the opensuse lie in it's tools and refinements that don't seem to get the attention they deserve.

But this article just came out and goes a bit more in depth.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=8988

Agreed, regarding the pity part. I love this site, and I don't want to sound like too much of a Suse fan-boy, but the world of Linux doesn't start at Canonical and end at Red Hat with no detours in between. I've used various *buntu's from time to time, and have heard good things about Fedora, but Suse 11 has more going for it than a Qt4 installer. It'd be nice if, rather than an update on every single development release of Ubuntu and Fedora, maybe some other distros got a word in here and there.

[Vadi]

Ubuntu, OpenSuse, and Fedora. That's about it for human-usable distros that have any real power behind them.

So yep, OpenSuse should get a preview article too.