Novell have released openSUSE 11.0, the latest free version of its Linux operating system distribution which then will be the base for Novell’s award winning SUSE Linux Enterprise products.
OpenSUSE 11.0 comes with the latest versions of KDE and GNOME, with KDE 4.0.4 replaced KDE 3.5 as the default KDE. With DVD installer, you can choose to install KDE or GNOME during the installation process.
The openSUSE Project is proud to announce the release of openSUSE 11.0 — everything you need to get started with Linux on the desktop and on the server. Promoting the use of Linux everywhere, the openSUSE Project provides free, easy access to the world’s most usable Linux distribution, openSUSE.
The 11.0 release of openSUSE includes more than 200 new features specific to openSUSE, a redesigned installer that makes openSUSE even easier to install, faster package management thanks to major updates in the ZYpp stack, and KDE 4, GNOME 2.22, Compiz Fusion, and much more.
Features of openSUSE 11.0 are:
YaST, which is the default installer in openSUSE get a stunning new look. The dark green-grey theme is used throughout openSUSE 11.0 for splash and boot screens. The installer also underwent many changes to make the installation both easier and quicker. The developer said that you can perform a complete openSUSE installation in under 20 minutes!
Read the rest of this entry »
About a week ago, Fedora 9, codename Sulphur was released to the public. Fedora 9 comes with a lot of new features and updated softwares such as the latest Gnome 2.22, KDE 4.0.3, Xfce 4.4.2, Mozilla Firefox Beta 5, Open Office 2.4 and a 2.6.25 based kernel. Here are some of reviews about Fedora 9 that I have found over the internet.
Linux.com conclude that:
Aside from the problems with PackageKit — and, to a lesser extent, the inclusion of KDE 4.0.3 — Fedora 9 manages to balance innovation with a high degree of usability. Over the last few months, Fedora has been increasingly compared favorably with Ubuntu on both accounts, and, to a large extent, it deserves this praise. If anything, it has probably exceeded Ubuntu in innovation, with at least a dozen major new ideas in every release. It is a rare release, too, in which Fedora’s menus and dialog do not show minor tinkering to fine-tune the user experience.
Yet the problems in Fedora 9 emphasize how difficult a balance the Fedora project tries to maintain. The fact that improvements are coming for both KDE and PackageKit, and that, meanwhile, workarounds exist, is beside the point — these facts are lucky accidents, and nothing that Fedora has done.
Although Fedora’s innovations make it one of the more interesting distributions to use and watch these days, the project needs to temper its creativity with more consideration of how changes affect users. Perhaps these relatively minor problems will help the distribution correct its release policies before a major disaster happens in a future release.
Source: Fedora 9: Leading edge or bleeding edge?
Read the rest of this entry »
Finally, after 4 days of hard work, I managed to get Ubuntu 8.04: Hardy Heron running on my laptop. I’m very happy with that even though I had to spent a lot of time on fixing the problems. Now, everything is working perfectly in my Ubuntu system except Hardware Information. The Hardware Information keep crashing when I try to open it. In this post, I want to share my experience upgrading to Hardy Heron.
Upgrading Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04
On Saturday, I upgraded my Ubuntu 7.10 to Ubuntu 8.04 using the update manager. I clicked on upgrade and followed the instruction. A dialog box pop-up showing the upgrading process. After a while, the process stop and I got a dialog box saying that there was a problem with internet connection. It might be caused by too much load put on the server. For those with slow internet connection, I recommend you to download a live Cd.
Because of that problem, I decided to download a live CD. I torrent a Dvd image of 3.7 GB in just 2 hours. It was super amazing fast; the download speed went up to 600 KB/s. I burned the iso file and loaded it up. I wait for about an hour and the upgrading process finish. The process was really smooth, no problem occurred during the installation process.
Read the rest of this entry »
Here are some screenshots of post installation of Hardy Heron

Read the rest of this entry »
Here are some sceenshoots taken during the upgrading process

Read the rest of this entry »

The waiting is finally over, the Canonical has released the second LTS, long term support of Ubuntu 8.04 codename Hardy Heron to the public today. Ubuntu 8.04 will be officially supported and maintained by Ubuntu team for three years on desktop and five years on server.
The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) on desktop and server, continuing Ubuntu’s tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.
For Ubuntu 7.10 user, you can upgrade to Ubuntu 8.04 via update manager and for others, you can download Ubuntu 8.04 from the Ubuntu official website and other mirrors. You also can request free CDs of Ubuntu 8.04. You don’t have to worry about the shipping cost, it will be shipped by Canonical free of charge. You just need to fill up a form.
Download: Ubuntu 8.04
Read the rest of this entry »