Novell Ships Community-Developed SUSE 10.1 Release

Published: May 15, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

It took a few weeks longer than expected, but commercial Linux distributor Novell last week released the electronic version of its SUSE Linux 10.1 implementation of Linux. SUSE Linux 10.1 is the first community-driven version of the SUSE Linux platform. It was created by the openSUSE community, which Novell set up last year to counter criticisms that it had closed off its Linux to outsiders and to enlist the assistance of SUSE enthusiasts the world over to make it a better platform.

Only a little more than a month ago, at the LinuxWorld trade show, Novell was offering up a preview of SUSE 10.1 as it revealed its plans to convert the AutoBuild system--created by the formerly independent German Linux distributor SUSE to make its own distro--into the openSUSE build service, which would be available to anyone who wanted to make an open source software stack from the various projects in the world and maintain it.

If SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 will be the flagship product for Novell when it ships this summer--meaning that it is the most ruggedized, hardened, and tested of its several Linux variants--then SUSE 10.1 is the scout vessel that is way out in front, testing out new ideas and new code that might eventually make it into a future SLES 10 or SLES 11 product. Late last year, Novell was saying that SLES 10, which is based on a hardened version of the SUSE 10.0 code, was expected sometime around May, but since earlier this year, Novell has been saying that it would be around the middle of summer.

The speculation is that the integration of virtualization components, such as support for the Xen virtualization hypervisor and support for the AVT virtualization features in AMD's Opteron processors and the similar (but different) VT features in Intel's Xeon and Itanium processors are making the schedule for SLES 10 stretch a bit. With rival Red Hat even further behind on its integration of the Xen hypervisor and hardware-assisted virtualization, and Red Hat not expected to ship Enterprise Linux 5 until the end of this year, the heat is not exactly on Novell to rush SLES 10 to market. But, then again, every edge helps push sales.

SUSE Linux 10.1, which would have been called SUSE Professional under the naming scheme Novell used last year, is really aimed at Linux enthusiasts who like to live on the cutting edge and see what technologies may make it into the next corporate releases of the SUSE product--SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (formerly known as the Novell Linux Desktop) and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (which has always been called SLES). In addition to the virtualization support, it also includes previews of 3-D graphics extensions that Novell has been working on called X over OpenGL (XgL), which Novell previewed in February. SUSE Linux 10.1 includes over 1,500 different open source applications, including the usual suspects for Linux nerds: OpenOffice 2.0 office suite, the Firefox 1.5 browser, the Gnome 2.12.2 and KDE 3.5.1 graphical user interfaces, RealPlayer 10.0.6, plus a bunch of other things like the Gaim IM client, the Beagle desktop search, the Mono, Eclipse, and Kdevelop development environments, and the Linphone and KPhone VOIP clients.

Novell said that SUSE Linux 10.1 is available for download now, and will ship in a retail boxed set--including manuals--within the next two weeks. The boxed set, which includes a DVD and a set of CDs as well as a manual, costs $59.95; it also includes 90 days of installation support. Novell does not offer official tech support for SUSE Linux 10.1. If you want business-class tech support, you have to go back one iteration and use SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 9.

Novell also said that the openSUSE project now has over 25,000 members, and that SUSE Linux 10.0, the prior scout release, has recently broken through 1.6 million verified installations.

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