SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop
Encyclopedia
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED), formerly introduced as Novell Linux Desktop, is a Linux distribution
supplied by Novell
and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for desktops
. New major versions are released at an interval of 24–36 months, while minor versions (called service packs) are released every 9–12 months. SUSE Linux Enterprise products, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, receive much more intense testing than the openSUSE
community product, with the intention that only mature, stable versions of the included components will make it through to the released enterprise product.
The current version is SLED 11, which is developed from a common codebase with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
and other SUSE Linux Enterprise products. SLED includes Novell Evolution
2.6 and many other popular open source packages as well as some proprietary software
such as Adobe Reader and RealPlayer
.
since August 2004. SP3 was released on December 22, 2005.
, and software engineering
) and "fixed-function" systems (data entry workstations, kiosk, etc.)
With SLED 10, Novell
has increased the focus on features for a broader range of corporate users by focusing on meeting the needs for basic office workers, positioning SLED as a competitor to Microsoft Windows
. Basic office workers are defined in this context as users who need basic desktop functionality, including an office suite
, a collaboration client, a web browser
, and instant messaging
. Novell attempts to meet these needs by concentrating on making these components very compatible with existing enterprise infrastructure, such as Microsoft Office data files, Microsoft Active Directory
, and Microsoft Exchange
or Novell GroupWise
collaboration systems.
It also includes the Beagle
desktop search tool, similar to Spotlight
in Mac OS X v10.4. The Xgl+Compiz
support enables a variety of advanced graphical effects in the user interface, such as "application tiling" (similar to Exposé
). Other features include making it easier for Linux beginners to connect digital cameras to the computer and play audio files such as MP3
s using Helix Banshee.
Desktop Effects was built upon Xgl
and Compiz
to enable a variety of advanced graphical effects in the user interface, such as "application tiling" (similar to Exposé
) and a spinning cube that interactively switches between desktops
.
, built upon the Beagle
project.
team, led by Michael Meeks
, managed to create reasonably solid support for VBA macros
in Microsoft Excel
documents, and a new spreadsheet feature called "Data Pilot" which offers compatibility with Microsoft Excel Pivot Table
s .
s and iPod
s to a computer, and have an appropriate application automatically start when this happens.
, Novell provides legal MP3
encoding (ripping) using the Helix Banshee
.
2006 in San Francisco, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop won both the Best of Show and Best Desktop Solution awards. InfoWorld subsequently gave it the Technology of the Year award as "Best Linux Desktop" in January 2007.
, one of the two founders of Ximian
. Nat was aided by a host of former Ximian and SUSE
hackers, with product manager Guy Lunardi and engineering manager Kelli Frame.
Micro-Star International
offers MSI Wind Netbook
s with SLED 10 preinstalled. Sun Microsystems
previously licensed SLED as the basis of the Linux version of Java Desktop System
.
Linux distribution
A Linux distribution is a member of the family of Unix-like operating systems built on top of the Linux kernel. Such distributions are operating systems including a large collection of software applications such as word processors, spreadsheets, media players, and database applications...
supplied by Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for desktops
Desktop computer
A desktop computer is a personal computer in a form intended for regular use at a single location, as opposed to a mobile laptop or portable computer. Early desktop computers are designed to lay flat on the desk, while modern towers stand upright...
. New major versions are released at an interval of 24–36 months, while minor versions (called service packs) are released every 9–12 months. SUSE Linux Enterprise products, including SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, receive much more intense testing than the openSUSE
OpenSUSE
openSUSE is a general purpose operating system built on top of the Linux kernel, developed by the community-supported openSUSE Project and sponsored by SUSE...
community product, with the intention that only mature, stable versions of the included components will make it through to the released enterprise product.
The current version is SLED 11, which is developed from a common codebase with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a Linux distribution supplied by SUSE and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 3-4 years, while...
and other SUSE Linux Enterprise products. SLED includes Novell Evolution
Novell Evolution
Evolution or Novell Evolution is the official personal information manager and workgroup information management tool for GNOME. It combines e-mail, calendar, address book, and task list management functions. It has been an official part of GNOME since version 2.8 in September 2004...
2.6 and many other popular open source packages as well as some proprietary software
Proprietary software
Proprietary software is computer software licensed under exclusive legal right of the copyright holder. The licensee is given the right to use the software under certain conditions, while restricted from other uses, such as modification, further distribution, or reverse engineering.Complementary...
such as Adobe Reader and RealPlayer
RealPlayer
RealPlayer is a cross-platform media player by RealNetworks that plays a number of multimedia formats including MP3, MPEG-4, QuickTime, Windows Media, and multiple versions of proprietary RealAudio and RealVideo formats.-History:...
.
Novell Linux Desktop 9
There have been a number of Service Packs (SP's) released for NLD 9. SP1 was released on February 11, 2005 and contained many updates. After that, SP2 was released on August 9, 2005, containing all the released updates and bugfixesSoftware bug
A software bug is the common term used to describe an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's...
since August 2004. SP3 was released on December 22, 2005.
Basic Office Workers
Although it has grown a significant community of adherents, desktop Linux generally has not been adopted in the business world. Most distribution vendors usually concentrated on the server side of Linux, where the platform was rapidly becoming adopted. Desktop Linux continued to be focused on technical workstations (mostly CAD, EDAElectronic design automation
Electronic design automation is a category of software tools for designing electronic systems such as printed circuit boards and integrated circuits...
, and software engineering
Software engineering
Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software...
) and "fixed-function" systems (data entry workstations, kiosk, etc.)
With SLED 10, Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
has increased the focus on features for a broader range of corporate users by focusing on meeting the needs for basic office workers, positioning SLED as a competitor to Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
. Basic office workers are defined in this context as users who need basic desktop functionality, including an office suite
Office suite
In computing, an office suite, sometimes called an office software suite or productivity suite is a collection of programs intended to be used by knowledge workers...
, a collaboration client, a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
, and instant messaging
Instant messaging
Instant Messaging is a form of real-time direct text-based chatting communication in push mode between two or more people using personal computers or other devices, along with shared clients. The user's text is conveyed over a network, such as the Internet...
. Novell attempts to meet these needs by concentrating on making these components very compatible with existing enterprise infrastructure, such as Microsoft Office data files, Microsoft Active Directory
Active Directory
Active Directory is a directory service created by Microsoft for Windows domain networks. It is included in most Windows Server operating systems. Server computers on which Active Directory is running are called domain controllers....
, and Microsoft Exchange
Microsoft Exchange Server
Microsoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
or Novell GroupWise
Novell GroupWise
GroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server...
collaboration systems.
It also includes the Beagle
Beagle (software)
Beagle is a search system for Linux and other such modern Unix-like systems, enabling the user to search documents, chat logs, email and contact lists in a similar way to Spotlight in Mac OS X, and Windows Search or Google Desktop under Linux or Microsoft Windows...
desktop search tool, similar to Spotlight
Spotlight (software)
Spotlight is a system-wide desktop search feature of Apple's Mac OS X operating system. Spotlight is a selection-based search system, which creates a virtual index of all items and files on the system. It is designed to allow the user to quickly locate a wide variety of items on the computer,...
in Mac OS X v10.4. The Xgl+Compiz
Compiz
Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins...
support enables a variety of advanced graphical effects in the user interface, such as "application tiling" (similar to Exposé
Exposé (Mac OS X)
Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need...
). Other features include making it easier for Linux beginners to connect digital cameras to the computer and play audio files such as MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
s using Helix Banshee.
Innovation
Novell's work on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop brought about several new open source features for Linux desktops.Desktop Effects
Xgl
Xgl was an X server architecture designed to take advantage of modern graphics cards via their OpenGL drivers, layered on top of OpenGL via glitz. It supported hardware acceleration of all X, OpenGL and XVideo applications and graphical effects by a compositing window manager such as Compiz or...
and Compiz
Compiz
Compiz is one of the first compositing window managers for the X Window System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast compositing desktop effects for window management. The effects, such as a minimization effect and a cube workspace are implemented as loadable plugins...
to enable a variety of advanced graphical effects in the user interface, such as "application tiling" (similar to Exposé
Exposé (Mac OS X)
Exposé is a feature of the Mac OS X operating system. First previewed on 23 June 2003 at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference as a feature of the then forthcoming Mac OS X v10.3, Exposé allows a user to quickly locate an open window, or to hide all windows and show the desktop without the need...
) and a spinning cube that interactively switches between desktops
Virtual desktop
In computing, a virtual desktop is a term used with respect to user interfaces, usually within the WIMP paradigm, to describe ways in which the size of a computer's desktop environment is expanded beyond the physical limits of the screen's real estate through the use of software, This saves space...
.
Desktop Search
SLED10 includes Desktop SearchDesktop search
Desktop search is the name for the field of search tools which search the contents of a user's own computer files, rather than searching the Internet...
, built upon the Beagle
Beagle (software)
Beagle is a search system for Linux and other such modern Unix-like systems, enabling the user to search documents, chat logs, email and contact lists in a similar way to Spotlight in Mac OS X, and Windows Search or Google Desktop under Linux or Microsoft Windows...
project.
OpenOffice.org Improvements
The Novell OpenOffice.orgOpenOffice.org
OpenOffice.org, commonly known as OOo or OpenOffice, is an open-source application suite whose main components are for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, graphics, and databases. OpenOffice is available for a number of different computer operating systems, is distributed as free software...
team, led by Michael Meeks
Michael Meeks
Michael Meeks may refer to:*Michael Meeks , Canadian former basketball player*Michael Meeks , British software developer...
, managed to create reasonably solid support for VBA macros
Visual Basic for Applications
Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft's event-driven programming language Visual Basic 6 and its associated integrated development environment , which are built into most Microsoft Office applications...
in Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
documents, and a new spreadsheet feature called "Data Pilot" which offers compatibility with Microsoft Excel Pivot Table
Pivot table
In data processing, a pivot table is a data summarization tool found in data visualization programs such as spreadsheets or business intelligence software. Among other functions, pivot-table tools can automatically sort, count, total or give the average of the data stored in one table or spreadsheet...
s .
Device and Application Support
SLED10 also includes the ability to connect digital cameraDigital camera
A digital camera is a camera that takes video or still photographs, or both, digitally by recording images via an electronic image sensor. It is the main device used in the field of digital photography...
s and iPod
IPod
iPod is a line of portable media players created and marketed by Apple Inc. The product line-up currently consists of the hard drive-based iPod Classic, the touchscreen iPod Touch, the compact iPod Nano, and the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle...
s to a computer, and have an appropriate application automatically start when this happens.
Legal MP3 Encoding
Through a partnership with RealNetworksRealNetworks
RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of Internet media delivery software and services based in Downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The company is the creator of RealAudio, a compressed audio format; RealVideo, a compressed video format; RealPlayer, a media player; RealDownloader, a download...
, Novell provides legal MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
encoding (ripping) using the Helix Banshee
Banshee (music player)
Banshee is an open-source media player, called Sonance until 2005. Built upon Mono and Gtk#, it uses the GStreamer multimedia platform for encoding and decoding various media formats, including Ogg Vorbis, MP3 and FLAC. Banshee can play and import audio CDs and supports many portable media players,...
.
Recognition
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop earned Novell wide acclaim for producing an extremely polished, mature, and fully functional Linux desktop. At LinuxWorld ExpoLinuxWorld Conference and Expo
OpenSource World is a conference and trade show that focuses on open source and Linux solutions in the information technology sector.The show is owned and managed by IDG World Expo, a business unit of International Data Group...
2006 in San Francisco, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop won both the Best of Show and Best Desktop Solution awards. InfoWorld subsequently gave it the Technology of the Year award as "Best Linux Desktop" in January 2007.
People
Novell's effort on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 was led by Nat FriedmanNat Friedman
Nathaniel Dourif Friedman , known as Nat, is a programmer who co-founded Ximian along with Miguel de Icaza in 1999, a company that was later bought by Novell in 2003....
, one of the two founders of Ximian
Ximian
Ximian was a company that provided free software desktop applications for Linux and Unix based on the GNOME platform. Ximian was founded by Miguel de Icaza and Nat Friedman in October, 1999, and was bought by Novell on August 4, 2003...
. Nat was aided by a host of former Ximian and SUSE
SUSE Linux distributions
SUSE Linux is a computer operating system. It is built on top of the open source Linux kernel and is distributed with system and application software from other open source projects. SUSE Linux is of German origin and mainly developed in Europe. The first version appeared in early 1994, making...
hackers, with product manager Guy Lunardi and engineering manager Kelli Frame.
Partnerships
HP offers business notebooks with SLED 11 preinstalled, under both its own brand and the Compaq brand.Micro-Star International
Micro-Star International
Micro-Star International Co., Ltd is a Taiwan-based electronics company and one of the world's largest motherboard and video card manufacturers.-Overview:MSI is one of the top three motherboard and video card manufacturers worldwide...
offers MSI Wind Netbook
MSI Wind Netbook
The MSI Wind Notebook is a family of subnotebooks / netbooks designed by Micro-Star International . Wind stands for "Wi-Fi Network Device". The first model was announced at CeBIT 2008, and first listed for pre-orders on May 9, 2008. While initially 8.9- and 10.1-inch screen versions existed, as...
s with SLED 10 preinstalled. Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
previously licensed SLED as the basis of the Linux version of Java Desktop System
Java Desktop System
OpenSolaris Desktop, formerly Java Desktop System , is a desktop environment now developed by Oracle Corporation available for Solaris, and formerly Linux....
.
See also
- SUSE Linux distributionsSUSE Linux distributionsSUSE Linux is a computer operating system. It is built on top of the open source Linux kernel and is distributed with system and application software from other open source projects. SUSE Linux is of German origin and mainly developed in Europe. The first version appeared in early 1994, making...
- Linux on zSeries
- List of Linux distributions
- Comparison of Linux distributionsComparison of Linux distributionsTechnical variations of Linux distributions include support for different hardware devices and systems or software package configurations. Organizational differences may be motivated by historical reasons...
External links
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop product page
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop cool solutions - tips & tricks, guides, tools and other resources submitted by the SUSE Linux Enterprise community
- Example story of SLED 10 use in an educational environment
- Interview with Novell's Ted Haeger on NLD
- News about the next Novell Linux Desktop
- Novell aims rebranded SUSE Linux 10 at enterprise desktops - DesktopLinux.com news item about upcoming SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10