Wake Up Lil SUSE, Minty Goodness, and Caine Mutiny
Today in Linux news Simon Phipps discusses what the merger completion means for SUSE and Dedoimedo.com reviews openSUSE 13.2. Linux Mint 17.1 update was released a couple of days ago and Chris Hoffman and Craciun Dan cover what's new. Matt Weinberger has a layman's guide to Docker "without getting lost in the weeds, and without breaking out the diagrams" and Jamie Watson reviews Caine Linux.
The Micro Focus and Attachmate merger was finalized yesterday and Simon Phipps asked, "Will this latest move help or hurt the venerable Linux distributor?" He examines a bit of SUSE's history of struggles and recent achievements, but seems to worry a bit of the proprietary past of Micro Focus. Phipps said, "Micro Focus seems to have no significant open source products in its existing portfolio, so understanding the community-based dynamic of Suse's business may be new territory." But he concluded that the cloud just might offer up new opportunities.
A little closer to home, Dedoimedo.com said he lost interest in openSUSE around version 12, so he tested 13.2 to see if he could get his Geeko-passion back. He said the installer is "by far the safest and most intelligent around, with the best suggested partitioning scheme, but my recommendation is to make this smart wizard even smarter." He liked the package management saying it was "fast and true" if a bit "enterprisy." The application stack was "okay" and for multimedia "the initial system update took care of that." Dedoimedo said of resources, "openSUSE 13.2 did not drink too much digital juice." Despite his saying that "openSUSE is a top performer once again," it wasn't all rosy.
Chris Hoffman begins his look at Mint by saying, "Mint isn't chasing touch interfaces, rethinking the way we use the desktop, or enacting any other grand experiment. It's just a polished, modern Linux desktop system — and that's why people love it." He said that Compiz now works well and is easy to set up in Mint 17.1 MATE, "Desktop cubes, wobbly windows, and more — it's all back." Cinnamon 2.4 offers a "smoother experience" and the update manager is much improved this release according to Hoffman who concluded, "Overall, this is exactly the kind of release I—and many other Linux users—like to see." In related news, Tuxarena.com has a look at 15 applications that shipped with Mint 17.1.
In other news:
* Hands on with Caine Linux: Pentesting and UEFI compatible
* Contain yourself: The layman's guide to Docker
* FLOSS Works – Now It Has Salesmen (LibreOffice)