openSUSE 10.2

OpenSUSE 10.2 is the newer version of the Linux distribution by Novell. I had tried 10.1 at first, because that is all I had on a DVD, but this laptop (the system I installed it on) didn’t appear to like it. It ran very slow. According to others’ experiences, it was an issue with 10.1, not my laptop.

When I tried installing 10.2, I noticed a big difference in the speed of things loading on the screen compared to 10.1. I unfortunately had to go through a very long Internet install, because the DVD drive wasn’t recognized by openSUSE I guess. I’d say about 2+ hours.

Everything seemed to work right after openSUSE was installed, except for the wireless card, which I guess is normal. Following some guides on the Internet, nothing seemed to get it working, although openSUSE did recognize it on its own. It turns out that I needed to use the drivers that came with the card, rather than downloading them and then change one module setting in the hardware settings to display “ndiswrapper”.

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Terminal on Demand

Anytime I install Linux I have to customize it how I like it. This includes adding little “widgets”, as most people would call them, on the desktop. I usually would start off with opening a terminal (gnome-terminal) and customizing it so it is transparent and without a border or frame. Then I would have a terminal right on the desktop to use whenever I needed.

This is where Yakuake comes in. I’m not sure how I found it. Currently, the developer doesn’t keep the website up-to-date, but you can go here to a page that has information about it and a link to download.

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Firefox Extension

I don’t know about everyone else, but I just hate when something happens to my computer and I lose all of my bookmarks. I recently found a nice extension for Firefox, called FavoriteSync.

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Invisible Browser

This one is new to me. The name might sound a little familiar to most of you. Ghostzilla is a browser that uses the same open source platform Firefox uses. Unfortunately, it is run on Windows only.

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Rid Your Inbox of Spam

With Spam Arrest, you can remove unwanted spam e-mails from your inbox. Supported e-mail clients include: Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird and Eudora, or even use their online webmail system to access your e-mail from anywhere in the world.

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