openSUSE11.2 … an OS per excellence

Finally, I got hold of the openSUSE 11.2 DVD (64bit) and installed immediately after it arrived. The installation environment was similar to the previous release but a little polished and the default file system of ext4 type. A notable change is the choice of default desktop environment (DE) which is KDE 4.3. Well, the other desktop options are still there and they are  just of a click only. It includes the latest linux kernel 2.6.31 and GNOME 2.28. Also bundled are regulars like OpenOffice.org 3.1 and firefox 3.5. Firefox 3.5 is integrated into KDE. I installed with KDE as the default DE. After the install it booted into a beautiful green KDE 4.3. This KDE version is almost neat unlike the previous version. I wasted no time and configured the network using then new network configuration applet. But one thing to remember is that network is defaulted to IPv6. i failed in the first attempt to get connected to internet but after a little bit of research I figured out  problem and using yast control centre I changed the network mode to IPv4 and voila my network worked. Internet was up and running in no time. I configured the network to work with my GPRS/3G mobile connection and my office wifi as well. The pretty good thing about the distro is that it detected all my hardware properly for my laptop. And after a reboot, it rendered the native resolution of my monitor also (1920×1080). I used yast to add the packman and other community repositories and fired up the software manager to download all the necessary dependencies and softwares to make it full multimedia ready. now I can play all my DVDs and MP3s without any problem. I downloaded the proprietary ATI drivers for my graphics card and after installing it the compiz fusion effects worked beautifully. A whole lot of eye candy. I will explore a bit deeper into the world of openSUSE 11.2 and after some time come up with a detailed discussion including a step-by-step guide to enable multimedia and installation. Meanwhile do check back to find some new posts.

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