06.14.08
Do-No-Evil Saturday - Part I: OpenSUSE 11.0 Just Days Away
This is the last weekly report about OpenSUSE which comes before the release of version 11.0. There have been no major developments in the past week, but OpenSUSE is getting some final touches.
OpenSUSE 11.0 on the Desktop
Duncan Mac-Vicar posts under news.opensuse.org for a change. He typically publishes reports in his personal blog.
In this article we will be covering all of the changes in and around the package management stack in the upcoming openSUSE 11.0. There have been a plethora of both visual and behind-the-scenes changes. We’ll also be talking to Duncan Mac-Vicar, YaST team lead, ZYpp and KDE developer, to find out a little more later.
“An exciting openSUSE month” is the prediction of one developer.
It has been several months since I blogged about exciting openSUSE stuff happening (all about at the same time).
There is already some fanfare over at Daniweb.com.
OpenSuSE 11 is the latest Linux entry to the world-at-large with its plethora of virtualization tools and software and the new KDE4 Window Manager. OpenSuSE’s public release will no doubt garner its share of converts. It’s faster, easier to install, and has excellent hardware detection and installation than its predecessors–namely OpenSuSE 10.x.
Repositories
SUSEBlog shows the many different ways of installing software in OpenSUSE. One blogger shares his list of repos.
With openSUSE 11.0’s release coming around the corner, I felt it was about time that we talk about some of the most useful repositories to make the best out of your openSUSE experience (which will be great with or without the additions of the repos I have included).
The important 1.0 milestone of Build Service is has reached Release Candidate 1 and more from the development front you can find in the weekly news.
People
In ‘People of openSUSE’, Cornelius Schumacher is the latest star.
Before openSUSE 11.0 GM get released next Thursday, we have the chance to meet Cornelius Schumacher - member of the incubation team, former Build Service developer, KDE vice president, and also the one who started writing down the openSUSE Guiding Principles.
Byfield did a piece about Zonker, who is the community’s leader.
Of all the community distributions, probably the least known is openSUSE. After two and a half years, the distro is not only still working out details about how its community operates — including how its governing board is elected — but also struggling to come out of the shadow of its corporate parent Novell, much as Fedora has emerged from its initial dominance by Red Hat. With the pending release of openSUSE 11.0, community manager Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier suggests that the distribution is finally starting to get the recognition it deserves. In the middle of preparations for the new release, Brockmeier took the time to talk with Linux.com about the priorities within the community and its relation with the larger world of free software.
Zonker also announced the complete merger of various SUSE forums, some of which were maintained by community members rather than Novell. This type of centralisation makes one wonder about Novell’s control.
The openSUSE Project is proud to announce the launch of forums.opensuse.org, a merger of the openSUSE Novell support forums, suseforums.net, and suselinuxsupport.de - the three largest English-language dedicated support forums for openSUSE. The merged forums at forums.opensuse.org will provide a single forum for the openSUSE community to find support and discuss openSUSE.
OpenSUSE talks from LinuxTag 2008 are now available for viewing online. It is helpful to know who’s who. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.