Novell unveils openSUSE 11.2

 

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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 13 Nov 2009 at 11:42

Novell has announced the arrival of openSUSE 11.2, just weeks after Canonical pushed the latest version of Ubuntu out the door.

The new version includes version 2.6.31 of the Linux kernel, as well as a desktop specific kernel for the first time. It also includes KDE 4.3 and Gnome 2.28 desktop environments.

"For users coming from 11.1, openSUSE 11.2 actually features two Gnome releases worth of updates," notes open-source community manager Joe Brockmeier.

"Because of the lengthy release cycle, openSUSE skipped the 2.26 release and jumped to Gnome 2.28, which was made available in September."

Drivers have also been updated, with "special attention" paid to making the OS work on netbooks. OpenSUSE can also be installed from a USB, making it even more netbook friendly.

Version 11.2 includes Firefox 3.5, OpenOffice 3.1, and a host of social networking applications built in. In all, the package comes with more than 1,000 open source desktop apps, as well as a suite of server and development tools, Novell claims.

The filesystem has been upgraded to ext4, and the entire disk can now be encrypted. In addition, it includes what Novell claims is the first tech preview of WebYaST, a new web-based admin tool.