OpenSuSE 10.3 - Review - Part 1 - Installation...

Finally I did download the DVD of OpenSuSE 10.3 and installed it on my computer. The configuration of the test machine was :-

• HP nx 6110 laptop
• 512MB RAM (DDR)
• Intel Pentium M (centrino) 1.6Ghz processor
• 2MB L2 cache memory.

The DVD booted into a very cool and refreshing looking welcome screen. Then I began the installation. The DVD however had a default video resolution of 800X600. My screen has 1024X768 resolution. And because of this, I was not able to see the installer of SuSE, YaST. I rebooted and selected the video mode to 1024X768 and it worked seamlessly.

Then I was asked some typical language selection questions and stuff. Then I was surprised to see that I was able to add the OSS and NON-OSS repositories before the start of the installation. I clicked the option to add the repositories. Then I was asked to configure the networking. The network manager detected both the wireless and lan cards on the laptop, but showed them as disconnected from the motherboard. It warned me not to proceed. But I knew that the cards were connected and I proceeded. And it worked fine again.

The next step was partitioning and software selection. The default partitioner scheme was good for me. Use the existing Linux partitions (root and home for SuSE 10.2) after formatting and then mount windows partition. I selected some additional software from the manager and proceeded to install.

The installation went pretty smooth. I was asked to chose a desktop environment. I selected gnome as I prefer it over KDE. But I am going to get KDE 4 once it's available. Another addition is XFCE is on the DVD. No problems encountered. The additional packages from the repositories were downloaded and installed. An addition made is that, you can view the release notes while the system is being installed. An upgrade from previous version.

Then the user configuration and root password setting was done. After that I was asked to configure networking and online update configuration. As the networking was already done for adding repositories, the installer just checked if I was still connected to net by downloading the release notes. Then the online update repository was added and I proceeded with the update.

After that the system configuration screen greeted me. Bluetooth was disabled. When I clicked on enable. The installer said that I did not have some essential S/W for Bluetooth. And that the installer will have to install the S/W. I clicked on install and the installer installed the S/W. One thing to note here is that, the S/W was not on the DVD but on the repositories. And so I dreaded the parsing of files as in 10.2 version of SuSE. But, as promised by the team of SuSE, the parsing of files is no longer required.

The package manager is improved a lot. It took literally 30 seconds to find the S/W on the repository and download it (I have 256kbps connection and in the 10.2 version, it used to take about a minute and half).

After that, I was shown the release notes and the the new system booted. The visual effects are great. Some new additions have been made. But for that stay tuned till the next part, Desktop - First look is published.
Total points for the installer :- 9/10

Pros :-

1. The installer is quick.
2. User friendly.
3. New features like adding repositories are very good.
4. The ability to download additional S/W after installation, for system configuration is very good.

Cons :-

1. The H/W detection is still not very good.
2. Too many options can confuse new users. A newbie friendly installation should be provided.

Screenshots :-

( I was not able to take screenshots during the installation process. Once I get them, I will put them here).
(you can enjoy the screenshots of the distribution on the official openSUSE website).

Aditya Shevade