The latest round of Linux distros (versions) are just about complete, and
DistroWatch has a
'first look' review of openSUSE 11.1 in its weekly news section.
I've been working with openSUSE all weekend and I was impressed with every part of it. All the software I could ever want in available. openSUSE is most popular on the continent. Like Fedora 10, I'm happy to see that openSUSE took chances and got it right. (Wake up Canonical, you're falling behind fast!) Even Novell's flavor of OpenOffice 3 is far better than their 2.4 version. Being Microsoft-free, I don't need their built-in proprietary formats. openSUSE's stability and noticeable improvement on speed are welcome, and being able to encrypt your HD during installation is a nice touch. My ATI 4850 radeonHD drivers were installed at setup.
However, here are the caveats: (1) Fedora 10 seems to have done a better job with KDE 4, if for no other reason, more of the desktop's features are available; (2) Fonts were terrible on my 1900x1200 display, but that was easily corrected; (3) Customizing software package installation at setup was tedious, and like the partition view, did not give you a single view of what you were installing; (4) Loved the partition screen, but there really should be a simpler version. You either had to go with their auto-selected choices (which were not previewed), or pick what looked like an expert mode. I was left confused, but somehow I got it right.
As the author states, you really won't go wrong with 11.1, and it's a solid major version you can sit on for as long as you want.
