Product Reviews

Novell's SuSE Professional Linux 9.2 was always going to be a hard act to follow. In Shopper March 2005 we gave it the thumbs up. But just a few months later, there's another release that promises more. So does this new distribution match the rate of progress set by its predecessor? And might Novell be the first Linux producer to give Microsoft a bloody nose?

This is a big distribution, and it comes complete with both CD and DVD media. The CD set runs to five discs and the two DVDs hold the full 32- and 64-bit systems. Should you wish to build your own setup, there's also the complete source code tree for the operating system.

The documentation is extensive, too, and comes in two volumes. The User Guide is a no-nonsense introduction to what's available. The larger Administration Guide covers the essentials of running the various parts of the distribution, including all the bundled servers.

A full installation takes just under 7GB of disk space, but a minimal desktop system is a more manageable 2GB, plus 500MB for virtual memory. YaST, the graphical system configuration tool, handles the installation, which now asks for your agreement to install Macromedia's Flash Player 7. Although some open source purists might baulk at this inclusion, most will be glad they don't have to download it themselves.

Once installed and booted, there are several desktop environments to choose from, including KDE 3.4.0.28 and Gnome 2.10.0-4. KDE will be familiar to Windows desktop users, with its horizontal taskbar and a pop-up launch menu at the bottom left. Gnome, on the other hand, will be more familiar to users of the Apple Macintosh.

The most significant part of this release is the inclusion of several Voice over IP (VoIP) applications. Linphone is a free VoIP program that allows you to talk to other users anywhere in the world without telephone connection charges. You use the internet as a phone network and all you need is a sound card, speakers and microphone to start making calls. Kphone, another similar program, is also included. This allows video calling, as does Gnome Meeting, which also handles teleconferencing.

SuSE 9.3 caters for traditional methods of electronic communication, too. Novell Evolution and KDE's Kontact both handle email, while the excellent Gaim and Kopete allow the user to contact friends and relatives over a wide range of instant messaging systems, including AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, IRC and Microsoft's MSN.

Audio CDs will play without any problems, but DVDs are another matter. Due to licensing restrictions on proprietary video codecs, the bundled applications won't play most DVDs unless you first find and install the correct software. This is where Microsoft Windows XP scores; it includes, or provides easy access to, the required codecs.

ADVERTISEMENT

SuSE 9.3 has been designed so it is easy to install on the same system as Windows, which means you can freely boot between the two. If switching back into Windows to watch a film is not a problem for you, the lack of codecs won't be an issue.

For bundled games, this distribution wins hands-down. There are over 90 games, from Chess to Asteroids. There are also over 80 traditional UNIX text-based games and pastimes, including an implementation of the original adventure game Colossal Cave.

SuSE 9.3 comes with the excellent Gwenview and F-spot photo indexers, along with the digital photography application Digikam, which Novell claims is now compatible with most digital cameras. Digikam is used to download photos from the camera to the PC's hard disk. The distribution also includes GIMP 2.2, which can manipulate images to the same standard as expensive Windows packages. In addition, there are two 3D graphics packages: Blender and KPovModeller.

There are several bundled word processors, spreadsheets, databases, presentation packages and address books. This is in addition to the pre-release version of OpenOffice.org 2.0, a mature, largely compatible rival to Microsoft Office that even writes PDF files. You'll need something to view PDF files, of course; luckily, the distribution also carries Adobe Acrobat for Linux.

For those who like to get down and dirty with the operating system, there are several command-line shells. The distribution also carries a full set of system development tools. Everything is bundled, from editors, code management systems, compilers and interpreters to full visual development environments such as KDevelop, Eclipse and Novell's own Mono, which can run Microsoft .NET programs.

This distribution has more toys than Woolworths. Particularly fascinating is a program called KSimus, which enables you to create and run virtual digital electronic circuits and devices in real time. Other intriguing packages include programs to help increase your word power, learn Japanese and even brush up on your Latin. Also included is a preview copy of the new Beagle desktop search tool. Just as a search engine indexes millions of websites, Beagle's job is to index information on your computer and so put everything at your fingertips. It can find everything from documents, web search histories and instant messaging conversation logs to images and source code.

Xen is another useful addition. This virtual hardware program enables you to run multiple operating systems. Each instance of an operating system believes it is running on its own hardware and this enables several servers to coexist on one physical computer, reducing hardware and management costs. Sadly, Windows is not supported yet.

Linux is now a mature, stable operating system. SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 is a fully featured distribution that wouldn't look out of place next to Windows XP. With so much on offer, there's always the danger of having too much of a good thing. Few people need nine different pocket calculators, even if some are faithful simulations of real life graphing and programmable models.

It's probably not worth upgrading from version 9.2, but if you want to install a brand new Linux system from scratch and you don't want to spend time downloading shed-loads of software before you start working, SuSE Linux Professional 9.3 is extremely good value.