Adventures in openSUSE Linux

For those not intimately familiar with +SUSE  and +openSUSE  , it bears mentioning what YaST actually is. YaST is our administrative control panel, composed of numerous modules for Software Management, User Management, Partitioning, and a variety of other tasks. It has interfaces implemented with +GTK  , +Qt Project  , and a command line interface. The command line interface is particularly nice in the case that you are running a server without a graphical environment, or if for some reason your graphical environment is not working. YaST even powers our very advanced graphical installer, providing us with power and stability during the install process that I haven't seen any other distribution able to replicate. WebYaST brings the power of YaST to remote administration, allowing you to remotely administer your machines from a comfortable web-based graphical interface. For a couple of years now I've been hearing rumors about YaST being switched to +Ruby  from the proprie

+Fluendo   aims at improving the global multimedia experience in the Free Software world by funding, developing and maintaining the +GStreamer   media framework and providing a wide range of commercial and free products on top of it. For this test I did a clean install of +openSUSE   12.2 with the +GNOME   3 environment. I endeavored where possible to only use the multimedia applications included as part of our Gnome 3 pattern. So for most things I've used either Totem or +Banshee   which both use the GStreamer framework, which is what the Fluendo Codec pack is for, and what their DVD Player is based on. The Fluendo codec pack promises superior playback capability with hardware acceleration. It certainly delivers an overall better multimedia experience. As I mentioned I have endeavored to keep a minimal install. Typically I have found Banshee to be glitchy and unpredictable. Though I knew Banshee was a darling media player for many, I hadn't the least idea why. However, af

Gamers and Linux enthusiasts have been all abuzz about  +Steam  for  +Linux  since it was announced by  +Valve   . On Valentines Day  +Valve Linux  celebrated its official release with an update and a spectacular sale of Linux titles at 50-75% off regular retail price. This sale is good through the 21st of February. Thanks to the hard work of our community members, our very own installer has been added to the Games community repository. This installer primarily fetches the archived binary provided by Valve and installs it transparently without any needed user interaction. It installs like any other package in openSUSE. This link will take you straight to the page in  +Open Build Service  ; Steam for openSUSE . Simply use the "One-Click Install" and get ready for an amazing gaming experience. I've been playing with the Steam client in beta for a while and had previously been unimpressed by its frequent freezes and failures to launch my games (I acquired the keys throu

As promised I got back in to writing, and pumped out a few articles. You might have noticed a lull in my posting recently. Well, I got hit by a truck. Seriously, not joking. On the 13th I was visiting with friends and went to go get something from the nearby grocery. I crossed one half of the street, then waited on the median to see how the traffic was so I could cross the rest of the way. As typical I step out a bit to make sure drivers can see me, and the two approaching cars slow down. I proceed to cross, and suddenly notice the SUV hasn't stopped and it was too close and too fast to react. After tumbling through the air for some while I landed on my back, in the middle of the street. Assessing the damage I realize that I wasn't too badly hurt... except for the bones protruding from my right leg. I spent a little over a week in the hospital. They implanted metal rods into the fibula and tibia as opposed to casting it. I prefer the rods since I think that'll make thing