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The openSUSE project recently released openSUSE 13.1, a modest, but important update that sees openSUSE focusing on stability and overall polish. There are quite a few new features to play with -- like a re-written YaST and some new developer tools, even a new version of openSUSE for Raspberry Pi -- but 13.1 sees openSUSE really focused on building a rock-solid Linux distro that "just works".
Indeed, 13.1 is stable enough that SUSE has deemed this an "<a href="https://news.opensuse.org/2013/08/26/upcoming-opensuse-13-1-will-be-kept-evergreen/">Evergreen</a>" release. Evergreen is SUSE-speak for long term release and means that openSUSE 13.1 will be supported well beyond the usual 18 months, with security updates and important bugfixes coming for at least three years.
Part of the reason for the stability improvements revolves around openSUSE's automated testing tools, which have been improved (which means better testing for future releases as well). The openSUSE project also sponsored a global bug fixing hackathon, which helped as well.
The Evergreen status is well-deserved. OpenSUSE is always a stable distro, like Debian it prioritizes stability over flash, but in my testing openSUSE 13.1 has been exceptionally fast and stable, with no problems at all. That said, if you need proprietary Nvidia drivers, you may want to wait. At the time of writing there's no Nvidia Repository available, though one is reportedly in the works.
If the lack of Nvidia drivers brings you down, perhaps news that openSUSE now considers the btrfs file system "stable for everyday usage" will lift your spirits. Btrfs is still not the default file system -- at least in the everything-and-the-kitchen-sink DVD installer I used -- but it's a single click away. I took the plunge and have had no problems at all in two months of testing.
OpenSUSE 13.1 ships with the latest kernel, the 3.11 series. That's a full four releases ahead of the last openSUSE release, which means more hardware support, better power management and all the new features in the 3.11 kernel.
OpenSUSE is somewhat unique in the Linux world in that it remains surprisingly desktop-agnostic. It's put more effort into the cosmetics of the KDE version for sure, but in terms of actual tools everything works roughly the same. Even YaST, an openSUSE strong point, works the same whether you're on KDE or GNOME. It just uses Qt on KDE and GTK on GNOME.
Provided that you download the DVD installer, openSUSE gives every desktop equal footing. True, KDE is checked by default, but GNOME, Xfce, LXDE and even a plain text-based interface for server installations are all there, just a radio button away.
That said, I've always used KDE as my openSUSE desktop because it offers, to my mind anyway, the best KDE-based desktop around. As of this release openSUSE is using KDE 4.11, which isn't a radical departure from its predecessor, but it does bring some improvements to KDE's NEPOMUK search tool, making it a little speedier when indexing your files.
As I've said in past reviews, the default KDE desktop theme for openSUSE is one of the nicest you're likely to find. The openSUSE team even manages to make outside apps like Firefox or GIMP feel like a natural part of the KDE desktop. If you're a KDE fan and you don't want to spend a bunch of time tricking out your desktop, openSUSE has you covered.
While KDE is check by default during installation, GNOME is still there for those who want it. Lately the openSUSE project has been pouring a bit more effort into giving GNOME the same sort of openSUSE visual flavoring that the KDE desktop has long enjoyed. At the moment that theming seems limited to the background image, which thankfully works well with GNOME's default darker theme.
Should you opt to go with GNOME as your desktop in openSUSE 13.1 you'll get GNOME 3.10, which has been out for a few weeks now and offers some new features that most users will already be familiar with. Among the notable new elements are new, GNOME-grown Maps, Music and Videos apps and support for the Wayland display server. GNOME 3.10 also has a new unified notifications panel which gives you control over wifi, airplane mode, Bluetooth, screen brightness and the like all in one place.
While openSUSE 13.1 is all about stability and speed, there is one major under the hood change in this release (which makes the stability all the more impressive): YaST has been re-written in Ruby.
A favorite of system admins, YaST is openSUSE's administrative control panel, handling tasks like software management, user administration, disk partitioning and a variety of other admin and maintenance tasks.
Those who rely on YaST to administer large networks have no reason to panic. OpenSUSE 13.1 hasn't changed anything about how YaST works -- on the surface YaST looks and behaves just as it always has -- but under the hood YaST is now written in Ruby.
The move to Ruby should help attract more developers. Previously if you wanted to write any kind of custom tools based on YaST it meant learning something called YCP, a language created solely for YaST development. That limits the number of people who contributed to the project (and who are working to extend and expand it as well). The new Ruby-based YaST changes that and means anyone who know Ruby can easily contribute to and even customize YaST.
Developers have some other nice new tools in this release, including an updated version of OpenStack, the popular set of cloud computing tools originally developed by NASA. The new OpenStack, known as Havana, comes with nearly 400 new features.
Server admins get some love in this release with the latest Apache, MySQL and MariaDB updates, as well as Ruby 2.0 and Ruby on Rails 4. Also useful, openSUSE now ships with s3fs. That means you can now mount Amazon s3 buckets as local file systems and interact with them the way you would any other mounted drive.
This release also has some good news for anyone looking to run openSUSE on non-desktop hardware. OpenSUSE 13.1 offers much better support for ARM, including 64-bit ARM. That means openSUSE will be ready for all the 64bit ARM devices on the horizon. OpenSUSE 13.1 brings some improvements in 32-bit ARM, and there's also now a special build of openSUSE for the ultra-cheap Raspberry Pi.
There's much to love in openSUSE 13.1 and if you're tired of your current distro this release is worth a look. OpenSUSE feels like a distro designed with the end user in mind rather than one focused primarily on running on the coolest new gadgets.
The openSUSE release announcement claims that, "while a combination of over 6000 packages supporting 5 architectures can never be perfect, we’re proud to say this really does represent the best free software has to offer." It's a bold claim, but spend a little time with openSUSE 13.1 and you just might find yourself agreeing.
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