OpenSUSE

openSUSE logo

The openSUSE distribution is a stable, easy to use and complete multi-purpose distribution.

It is aimed towards users and developers working on the desktop or server. It is great for beginners, experienced users and hardcore linux enthusaists alike, in short, it is perfect for everybody! The latest release, openSUSE 13.1, features new and massively improved versions of all useful server and desktop applications. It comes with more than 1,000 open source applications.

openSUSE is also the base for SUSE's award-winning SUSE Linux Enterprise products.

Why use openSUSE?

• It uses the best .rpm based package manager
• It has a very professional and easy-to-use installer with stable btrfs support
• Packages are fairly recent but the system is very stable.
• It is geared towards both newcomers and advanced users
• It features the YaST which is the best Linux setup-tool known to man, covering everything DE settings dont cover, with an appealing GTK+, Qt or ncurses UI
• Has 2 equally supported default desktops: GNOME and KDE. openSUSE is known to deliver the best KDE experience, and the second-best GNOME experience with their customized Desktop Environments.

Useful repositories

Tumbleweed

The Tumbleweed project provides a rolling release version of openSUSE containing the latest stable versions of all software instead of relying on rigid periodic release cycles. The project does this for users that want the newest, but stable software.

The difference to Factory is that Factory is bleeding edge, often experimental, not yet stabilized software that needs more work to become useful. Tumbleweed contains the latest stable applications and is ready for daily use. More information

Packman

Packman is an huge repository, that mostly contains codecs and other multimedia-related applications. You can enable it from the GUI using YaST, or from the terminal using Zypper:

zypper ar -f packman-essentials http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_13.1/Essentials/ packman-essentials

zypper ar -f packman-multimedia http://packman.inode.at/suse/openSUSE_13.1/Multimedia/ packman-multimedia

More information

KDE

OpenSUSE provides a repository to use if you want to install the latest stable KDE (Plasma desktop and the application suite).

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Release:/412/openSUSE_13.1/ kde-stable

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:/Extra/KDE_Release_412_openSUSE_13.1/ kde-stable-extra

More information

GNOME

More information

Kernel

OpenSUSE has a repository to get the latest stable kernel. To add it,

zypper ar -f http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Kernel:/stable/standard/ stable-kernel

More information