Today's a big day over at openSUSE: they've released version 11.1 of that distribution, and my friend Joe Brockmeier is sure to be busy handling all of the attendant chores with this event. Of course, I can't feel too sorry for him, since it's 72 and sunny where he is right now, and it's 20 with a snow storm here.
Joe's release responsibilities are a bit different from what you might expect. Unlike other distributions' release days, where software may go gold just hours before getting pushed out to the mirrors, openSUSE has actually had a gold release master finished for quite sometime. That's becuase openSUSE still offers itself in a retail, boxed version, alongside the now-ubiquitous download versions.
It struck me that possibly keeping a boxed version around is a bit outdated, but when I asked Joe about it, he indicated that while the retail users represented a small slice of the total openSUSE userbase, the retail purchasers were a very loyal group of customers who really want this offering to continue.
"A lot of people still aren't comfortable with downloading and burning software onto a DVD," he told me.
Eventually, the conversation turned to this new release itself and what changes it brings to the operating system table. What was of interest to me was that the least visible change to the distribution could prove to be the most significant to proponents of free software.
On visible side, users are going to see an incremental release of GNOME (2.24.1, if you're keeping score) and a full-on release of KDE 4, specifically 4.1.3, with some 4.2 features backported in. (If you are still leery of KDE 4, don't worry, openSUSE 11.1 is still coming out with KDE 3.5.10.)
Joe was geared for the KDE 4 desktop in 11.1. He typically uses GNOME, but he's been testing the KDE desktop in openSUSE 11.1, and he's found it to be a very solid offering.
OpenOffice.org users will be pleased to see OpenOffice.org 3.0 in 11.1, a significant update from 11.0's OO.o 2.4. YaST has had some nice new features added as well, including a security module that can (with permission) take a look at your current set up and suggest areas where you might want to tighten down your system.
According to today's release statement, other software updates include:
- Linux 2.6.27.7
- Glibc 2.9
- Python 2.6
- Perl 5.10
- Mono 2.0
But here's the really interesting news, which Joe actually announced on his blog in late November: there's no longer an End User License Agreement for openSUSE users. The team has swapped out the EULA structure, which was based on Novell's other EULAs, for an aggregate license that is based on the GPL and, notably, the Fedora Project's license.
What this means, Joe explained, is that while each component of openSUSE still has its own license, there are no longer any significant hassles to redistributing openSUSE has a complete piece of software.
There were some changes that had to be made to accomodate this change, most notably the removal of non-free software (like Adobe Reader and Fluendo) from the distribution media. The non-free software is still available on openSUSE's repositories, so the first time users need one of these applications, they can easily download and install it.
The removal of the EULA, which Joe said was not a hard sell to the Novell brass once the concern was explained to them, should make this new release of openSUSE that much more appealing to those who believe in Free Software.
As a user of openSUSE 11.0 now, I'm looking forward to pulling down the new bytes and enjoying my upcoming holiday relaxing in front of a warm, glowing LCD screen.
