openSUSE GNOME Live CD

openSUSE GNOME Live CD is an open source distribution of Linux that provides both GNOME and openSUSE fans with a straightforward way to test the controversial desktop environment on one of the most usable operating systems.

Distributed as 32-bit and 64-bit Live DVDs

Just like the KDE4 Live CD, the GNOME flavor of openSUSE is distributed as two Live CD ISO-hybrid images, one for each of the supported 32-bit and 64-bit hardware platforms.

Boot options

While on the boot prompt of the Live ISO image says “openSUSE installer,” the boot medium can be used to start the live environment, run a memory test, start an existing operating system, as well as to install the entire OS.

In addition, users can change the language, keyboard layout, video mode or add a specific boot (kernel) parameter before running the live session. The GNOME desktop environment used in this Linux flavor is untouched, but contains a plethora of applications.

Default applications

Default applications include the Deja Dup backup tool, Empathy instant messenger, GIMP image editor, Evolution email and groupware client, Brasero CD/DVD burning software, Cheese webcam viewer, Mozilla Firefox web browser, and Liferea news aggregator.

In addition, the Gedit text editor, Shotwell image viewer and organizer, GNOME Maps, GNOME Music, XChat IRC client, Transmission torrent downloader, Totem video player, Nautilus file manager, Grsync rsync GUI, and all the GNOME games are also included in this openSUSE Live CD edition.

The world’s most usable Linux-based operating system

openSUSE is a one of the world’s most usable Linux-based operating system. It allows users to browse the Internet, manage their photos and video files, send and receive emails, play music or videos, and do office work.

The GNOME Live CD flavor of the openSUSE Linux distribution is designed from the ground up to provide users with one of the most stable and reliable open source operating systems. Unfortunately, it not suitable for low-end machines.

What is new in this release:

• Innovative:
• Built around the most innovative technologies Linux has to offer: Snapper to take the most from snapshots capability of the powerful Btrfs filesystem offered as default option, Wicked to bring light to network configuration, Dracut to ensure shorter boot times... For users asking for even more innovation Plasma 5.1, the next generation workspace by KDE, is also available as a technical preview.
• Polished:
• This version presents the first step to adopt the new openSUSE design guidelines system-wide. The graphical revamp is noticeable everywhere: the installer, the bootloader, the boot sequence and all of the (seven!) supported desktops (KDE, GNOME, Xfce, LXDE, Enlightenment 19, Mate and Awesome). Even the experimental Plasma 5.1 is adapted to the overall experience.
• Easy:
• The new openSUSE 13.2 installer comes with several changes targeted to make the installation process easier and more welcoming to new users. Those changes include a new and more straightforward installation work flow, better and smarter automatic proposals, less cluttered configuration options and a brand new layout for the user interface. In addition, several tools are included to easy the administration of any system like the Profile Management Tools for AppArmor or the YaST module for Snapper, just to name a few.
• GNOME:
• GNOME 3.14 includes greatly improved support for HiDPI screens and MultiTouch input devices, including gestures support. Network and geolocation capabilities has been also dramaticaly improved, as well as Wayland integration. All GNOME applications have received a lot of new features and improvement. In addition, this is the first release of openSUSE including GNOME Software, the ‘AppStore' for the GNOME Desktop, nicely integrated with default openSUSE package management system.
• Virtualization:
• In addition to Linux Containers 1.0.6 and the full virtualization solutions traditionally provided by openSUSE (with QEMU 2.1 and VirtualBox 4.3.18), this release also includes Docker 1.2 which, together with the availability of openSUSE 13.2 images at Docker Hub, makes openSUSE a perfect base system to distribute applications.
• Improved YaST:
• Several parts of YaST have been improved and cleaned up after the automatic conversion from YCP language to Ruby shipped with 13.1. Compared to that version, the new YaST is faster, more stable and better integrated with systemd, Btrfs and the other cutting edge technologies included in openSUSE 13.2. The new installation work flow allows to run the whole configuration phase and skip the final step, getting a complete reusable AutoYaST profile instead of an installed system.
• IDEs and tooling:
• This release offers the latest version of the fully featured IDE KDevelop (4.7.0), the last of the versions based on the 4.x KDE development platform. In addition to C++, there are plugins available which extend its support for additional languages such as PHP or Python. In addition, most recent version of several other popular IDEs are shipped, like Anjuta 3.14 and two flavors of Qt Creator 3.2.1 (for Qt4 and Qt5).
• Languages and Libraries:
• KDE Frameworks 5, a series of development libraries on top of Qt 5 made by KDE, is present in its latest stable release (5.3.0). The libraries co-exist with the existing 4.x variants, allowing development of KF5-based applications within a stable 4.x based workspace. In the land of dynamic languages, Ruby packaging is now even easier. Need JRuby? Want Rubinius? No problem. We can do it. Not only Ruby has been updated (2.1.3), but also Python (2.7.8 and 3.4.1), PHP (5.6.1), Perl (5.20) and many others.

What is new in version 13.2 RC1:

• This release includes GNOME 3.14, which brings new animations, better handling of WiFi hotspots, improvements in some applications like Weather and Photos and much more. Another highlight is the brand new Firefox 32, with new HTTP cache for improved performance and public key pinning support. Updates to KDE (from version 4.14.0 to 4.14.1) and Plymouth (from 0.8.8 to 0.9.0) should also help to boost stability and to smooth the end user experience.

What is new in version 13.2 Milestone 0:

• The btrfs filesystem is default (and comes with btrfsprogs 3.12), as is the wicked network management tool and the dracut initrd replacement
• YaST sports a new look and its Qt front-end is ported to Qt5
• Zypper is at the 1.10.x branch for the next release, introducing a number of bug fixes and minor improvements
• KDE Frameworks 5 packages are included, as well as the latest Application and Platform releases in the 4.x series
• Our infrastructure is updated: rpm 4.11.2 introduces weak dependencies, PackageKit 0.8.16 comes with a new appdata format and there are binutils .24, Bluez 5.15, systemd 210, pulseaudio at 5.0 and the latest 3.14RC kernel
• In the graphics area we now have packages for wayland 1.4, freetype 2.5.2 (changing font weights) and Mesa 10.1
• Cloud and databases bring xen 4.4, virtualbox 4.3.8 and postgresql 9.3.
• For developers we've included GCC 4.9 (default still 4.8.2), make 4.0, llvm 3.4, cmake 3.0(rc), gdb 7.7, git 1.9.0 and subversion 1.8.8
• In the language area, we've now got ruby 2.1, php5 5.5.9 and python 2.7.6 and 3.4.0(rc)

What is new in version 13.1:

• Stabilized:
• Much effort was put in testing openSUSE 13.1, with improvements to our automated openQA testing tool, a global bug fixing hackathon and more. The btrfs file system has received a serious workout and while not default, is considered stable for everyday usage. This release has been selected for Evergreen maintenance extending its life cycle to 3 years.
• Networked:
• This release introduces the latest OpenStack Havana with almost 400 new features. Web server admins will appreciate the latest Apache, MySQL and MariaDB updates. Web developers benefit from an updated Ruby 2.0 on Rails 4 with improvements from core classes to better caching in the Rails framework and the latest php 5.4.2 comes with a build-in testing server. End users can now mount Amazon s3 buckets as local file system and use much improved Samba 4.1 with better windows domains support.
• Evolved:
• openSUSE moves forward with AArch64, making openSUSE ready for development on the upcoming generation of 64bit ARM devices. 32bit ARM support has been heavily improved and a special Raspberry Pi build for openSUSE is available. This release also delivers GCC 4.8 with new error reporting abilities, the latest glibc supporting AArch64, C11 and Intel TSX Lock Elision, the new SDL2 and Qt 5.1, bringing QML and C++11 features to developers..
• Polished:
• openSUSE 13.1 comes with much improved font hinting thanks to the new font engine in Freetype 2.5. YaST has been ported to Ruby, opening contribution up to a large number of skilled developers. In this release, ActiveDoc replaces doc.opensuse.org and the majority of packaged documents in openSUSE, lowering the barrier to contribution.
• Faster:
• New is accelerated video with VDPAU support in MESA and an optimized version of glibc for 32bit systems. Linux 3.11 includes work on ‘page reclaim', maintaining performance during disk operations.
• Feature-full:
• Desktop users will appreciate the Android devices integration in the KDE file manager, in the shell and in music player Amarok. Artists have to try out the new Krita improvements with textured painting, greyscale masks & selections and more. GNOME Shell introduces a redesign of the system status bar and Header Bars in many applications, making better use of screen space. Enlightenment now also has an openSUSE theme.
• Innovative:
• This release comes with a number of experimental technologies to try out. This includes preliminary Wayland support with Weston compositor in GNOME Shell and KDE Plasma Desktop as well as improved support for Ultra high-resolution in applications and shells. New is also the LightDM KDE greeter and a plasma NetworkManagement applet for testing.

What is new in version 13.1 RC2:

• systemd was updated to version 208
• Shim should now work which means the secure boot is possible
• Plasma-nm no longer replaces the knetworkmanager
• Calibre is now fully operational
• kernel was updated with more fixes and one speedy improvement everyone could read about on phoronix (the radeon/nouveau timer improvements)
• In the area of virtualization the xen and libvirt packages were updated
• A lot of migration issues were fixed so zypper dup from older release will go smoother
• Apper should no longer choke on multiple license agreements
• YaST parts were updated fixing bunch of installer bugs
• XFCE can now properly suspend
• e17 artwork was openSUSEfied (yay!)
• Akonadi should better handle PostgreSQL as backend
• Our vlc version was updated to 2.1 which is the latest and coolest provided
• Translations updates

What is new in version 13.1 RC1:

• KDE-4.11.2
• Gnome-3.10
• Kernel-3.11.3 + load of btrfs fixes thanks to feedback from beta
• snapper-0.1.7 (btrfs!)
• nginx - finaly built properly
• bluez5 - pulseaudio/gnome/kde integration to provide bluez5 is finally in place
• plasma-nm - alternative gui for networkmanager in KDE was adjusted and now provides some sane usability
• Tons of bugs fixed and closed
• zypper dup from 12.3 should now not render the system unable to log in...

What is new in version 13.1 Beta 1:

• kernel 3.11.1
• llvm/clang 3.3
• Mesa 9.2.0
• systemd 207
• php5 5.4.19
• tcl 8.6
• bluez 5
• wine 1.7
• samba 4.1
• KDE SC 4.11.1 and GNOME 3.9.91
• apache2 2.4.6
• texlive 2013
• vim 7.4
• Amarok 2.8

What is new in version 13.1 Milestone 2:

• livecds using overlayfs now with persistent hybrid support
• automake 1.12.1->1.13.2
• boost 1.49.0->1.53.0
• util-linux 2.21.2->2.23.1
• evolution 3.8.1->3.9.1
• gtk3 3.8.1->3.9.0
• icu 50.1.2->51.2
• iproute2 3.7.0->3.9.0
• kernel 3.9.0->3.10.rc4
• libreoffice 4.0.2.2.1->4.0.3.3.2
• MozillaFirefox 20.0->21.0
• pulseaudio 3.0->4.0
• qemu 1.4.0->1.5.0

What is new in version 13.1 Milestone 1:

• GNOME 3.6 > 3.8.1
• apache2 2.2.22 > 2.4.3
• digikam 3.0.0 > 3.1.0
• giflib 4.1.6 > 5.0.3
• icecream 0.9.7 > 1.0.0
• kernel 3.7.10 > 3.9.0
• libreoffice 3.6.3.2.4 > 4.0.2.2.1
• ocaml 3.12.1 > 4.00.1
• qemu 1.3.0 > 1.4.0
• qt-creator 2.6.2 > 2.7.0
• ruby 1.9.3 > 2.0
• systemd 195 > 202
• wpa_supplicant 1.1 > 2.0
• xorg-x11-server 1.13.2 > 1.14.1