OpenSUSE Linux Rants

I hit the final straw with 64-bit Gentoo this evening and ripped it out of my new 64-bit system. I can’t even remember what that last straw was. Gentoo is too high-maintenance for me. My computer is one of my tools. I need it to help me get stuff done. I don’t have time to play around trying to get my tools to work. I need to be using them to get things done. That is one of the reasons I really love SUSE Linux. Once you have it installed, you can hit the ground running. Of course, I usually spend an hour tweaking all of my settings, themes, icons, and all that. I have a document outlining exactly every setting that I tweak after a freshly-installed system. There is nothing more irritating than when you’re flying around your system, being super-productive, and then you hit a wall because some stupid preference isn’t set right somewhere. My friend Steve can back me on this (yo Steve). It stops you dead in your tracks, derails your entire thought process, and you stare blankly at the screen for the next 10 minutes wondering what you were doing. That kind of crap sucks.

My new beefy system now has SUSE 10.0 (10.1 RC2 isn’t stable enough for my taste for installation on a production system, yet) on it. I spent a few minutes researching which installation sources will work with 64-bit installations. I found out that a goodly handful of them already have the 64-bit packages on them, making them usable with my 64-bit system. There were a few sources that only had 32-bit packages on them. Also, I found a handful of 64-bit install sources with updated packages for KDE and Gnome, as well as some others with additional extra stuff. Needless to say, I am spending the next little while updating the packages on my system.

I’ve written another script like I did for 32-bit SUSE systems which will automatically insert the installation sources into YAST. If you are running a 64-bit version of SUSE Linux 10.0, this script is all yours. If you aren’t, well, I wouldn’t suggest using it.

As with the previous script, some of the sources will return with the following error: ERROR(Media:operation is not supported by media). However, apparently, they still work just fine. You can go into YAST, and the ones that gave that error are in the list. You can even refresh them, etc.

Ere it pass from my mind, here is a link to the script. If it blows up your system, kills your toe fungus, or reformats your tivo and puts Windows on it, don’t come after me.

I also came across some pretty slick SUSE Linux Wallpapers that I wanted to throw out there for you all.

Some interesting news about Firefox zealots has surfaced. It seems that they aim to ‘destroy’ IE with campaign. Well, I’m not quite sure that one campaign will do it, but personally, I wish them the best. I’d love nothing more than for them to accomplish their goals with that.

Looks like Reuters is going to be running their systems on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. That’s pretty sweet. SUSE is a solid platform.

Oh, I also put some more Windows screw-ups into my Error Gallery.