Best desktop distro: openSUSE

openSUSE is among the best GNU/Linux based operating systems which offers a great out-of-the-box experience. I have been using the rolling release version of openSUSE, but for the sake of this review I did a fresh install of openSUSE 13.2 to check what’s new and give my readers an overview of this great distribution.

Fresher than green tea

openSUSE brings a breeze of fresh air with each upgrade through new themes icons and color scheme. This release is greener, calmer than the previous releases.

The first thing any Linux user would notice is the great integration with the chosen desktop environment. The simple reason is that openSUSE does an incredible job at patching packages, as and when needed, to integrate that application with the rest of the OS. One such example is that of Firefox which looks out of the place in Plasma desktop, but openSUSE patching makes it look great. I actually used the openSUSE patched version of Firefox on my Arch Linux box, just to get a better integration with my Plasma system.

openSUSE 13.2 is greener, faster more polished and a pleasure to use.

The default theme of openSUSE 13.2 is pleasant and refreshing. One advantage openSUSE has over distros like Ubuntu is the ability to easily customize the whole system; you can download as many themes as you want and change it to your likings.

openSUSE + KDE Plasma give you full control over the customization of your system. There are hundreds of themes to choose from.

For this release openSUSE has created a new theme called openSUSElight which showcases a brand new wallpaper and splash screen.

It got to be stable; it got to be rolling

openSUSE is extremely stable – I never saw any crashed even when I was using the pre-release beta version of it. With this release, stability is going to get better as openSUSE is changing the development model. Factory (the rolling release) and Greg KH maintained Tumbleweed are merging to create a true, Arch Linux-like, rolling release distribution. Factory will become the internal ‘development’ release to be used by developers to push packages. The merged project will be called ‘Tumbleweed’ targeted at those who want an always-updated rolling release distro. That doesn’t meant openSUSE is moving to rolling release model.

There are actually three releases of openSUSE: the rolling release, the regular release and ever green. The last one is community supported effort to extend the maintenance of a chosen version beyond of the end-of-life. Currently 13.1 is the Ever Green release.

Depending on what you use your system for, you can choose the appropriate version. If you are someone like me who wants the latest packages then Tumbleweed is for you. Additional benefit of Tumbleweed is that you won’t have to worry about ‘upgrading’ it every time a new version of openSUSE is out.

Up, up and upgrade…

Talking about upgrade, one thing I started missing in non Debian-based distributions (or rolling releases) was the lack of an smooth upgrade path. I noticed the ‘upgrade’ option in the install menu of openSUSE. I haven’t tried it out yet, so I can’t really commit how smooth will it really be. Since I am a distro hopper I go for fresh installs on desktops.

There is an ‘upgrade’ option in openSUSE 13.2 installer.

If you want to upgrade from your current version to 13.2, you should read this document.

If it’s easy to manage it should be easy to install

openSUSE is among one of the easiest-to-install distributions. It contrasts the installer of Fedora which is capable of intimidating someone like me who is an Arch user and has been using GNU/Linux since 2005. One good news for new users is that openSUSE doesn’t write anything, during partitioning the hard-drive, until you click that ‘Install’ button at the end of the procedure thus give a new user more room for ‘mistakes’ (hello, there Windows users). openSUSE gives you an overview of of the changes it will make to your system before it initiates writing anything to your hard drive and also allows a user to go back and make changes.

Back to future with Snapper

openSUSE is now using Btrfs as the default file system for root partitions, something we already saw as default in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12. openSUSE is using Snapper which allows users to take snapshots of their system and go back to previous version if something breaks.

Check ex SUSE-developer, and the second-in-command of the Linux kernel, Greg KH giving a demo of Snapper.

Its wicked networking habits

openSUSE is switching to ‘Wicked’, which solves many problems that networking on a GNU/Linux system face. As the GitHub page explains:

One of the bigger problems with network interface management today, and with the ifup scripts in general, is that different layers of network management get jumbled together into one single script, or at most two different scripts, that interact with each other in a not-really-well-defined way, with side effects that are difficult to be aware of, obscure constraints and conventions, etc. Several layers of special hacks for a variety of different scenarios cover them like barnacles. Address configuration protocols are being used that are implemented via daemons like dhcpcd, which interact rather poorly with the rest of the infrastructure. Funky interface naming schemes that require heavy udev support are introduced to achieve persistent identification of interfaces.

In other words, a maintenance nightmare.”

Wicked was started by Olaf Kirch of SUSE/openSUSE to deal with these problems.

Cutting boot time with Dracut

As we are are getting used to instant boot devices, boot time is really important for GNU/Linux distributions. openSUSE 13.2 is using Dracut which ensures faster boot time.

What’s new in the desktop

openSUSE 13.2 comes with the latest stable release of KDE software. The press release states:

KDE 4.14, dedicated to the memory of Volker Lanz, provides a familiar look, feel and functionality with the rock-solid stability of the latest version of the long-term support Plasma Workspace (4.11.12) and the applications from latest Software Compilation (4.14.2). The KDE Telepathy stack offers features as off-the-record (OTR) encryption for instant messaging, multi-protocol support and a set of applets for the Plasma Workspace. KDE applications requiring multimedia are now based on the 1.0 version of the GStreamer multimedia framework, allowing a noticeable reduction in dependencies.

I am already using Plasma 5 on one of my desktops and openSUSE 13.2 really makes it extremely easy to use Plasma 5, along side your current KDE without breaking your system. 13.2 comes with the preview of Plasma 5 which you can install from the Yast Software Manager.

openSUSE + KDE has so many options to expand the functionality of your computer.

Easy to navigate menu with integrated search which can search local documents, bookmarks and much more.

A polished Calender!

Go Gnome

What I like the most about openSUSE is that they really do a great job at offering the best experience for the desktop environment you choose. 13.2 comes with Gnome 3.14 which has many new features, check out my review of Gnome 3.14.. You can run multiple desktop environments on openSUSE without breaking the system. If you want to install Gnome on your system, go to Yast Software Manager and choose Gnome from Patterns; it may ask you to removed KDE Patterns – which is safe to do.

These are not the only two desktop environments supported by openSUSE. openSUSE recently added MATE to its repositories and 13.2 is the first release of openSUSE to offer MATE (1.8.1), which provides a traditional desktop experience ideal for those users who loved GNOME 2.

This release also comes with XFCE (4.10), LXDE (0.55), Enlightenment 19 (0.19.0) and Awesome (3.4.15).

openSUSE press release says, “All of them have received updates and polishing ranging from the most user-visible interface improvements to better integration with underlying subsystems like systemd and upower.”

Docker has docked

A lot of decisions made in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12, are also affecting openSUSE (in a positive way). This release comes with Docker 1.2 and there are 13.2 images available at Docker Hub which gives user the opportunity to use it an ideal base system to distribute applications.

This release also comes with Linux Containers 1.0.6 and the full visualization solutions traditionally provided by openSUSE (with QEMU 2.1 and VirtualBox 4.3.18).

The reason I love YaST is you get a ‘command station’ from where you can control every component of your computer.

YaST, my favorite tool which I wish was available for other distributions, has also received improvements – it’s faster and more stable. Only feature that I miss in YaST is the inability to install packages from OBS or software.opensuse.org.

In a nutshell

In a nutshell openSUSE 13.2 is an impressive release with many new features such as Snapshots, systemd and Btrfs. openSUSE has become such a reliable distribution that it is hard to find any flaw in it. It continues to get better, more polished with each release. I have grown fond of openSUSE for numerous reasons and find it the most appealing distribution for a desktop user.

In fact I am surprised by how it does a few things better than Ubuntu. And installing applications from 3rd party developers is one such thing. It’s far more easier to install applications from OBS’ one-click install than Googling a PPA, manually adding it, updating repositories and installing any application on Ubuntu systems.

OBS of openSUSE/SUSE can be considered it’s greatest contribution to the GNU/Linux and Open Source world as it enables projects like ownCloud, LibreOffice and many more to compile and package their software for the users of different distributions.

If you are an openSUSE user, you should obviously be upgrading to this release. I will, actually, encourage you to switch to Tumbleweed so you are always running the latest and greatest software. If you are a new Linux user, openSUSE will be my most recommended distribution due to the polish, maturity, ease of installing new packages and great user-experience for the desired desktop-environment.

You can download openSUSE 13.2 from this link.

Let me know what you think of this release in the comments below.