DRM - Daniel’s Random Mutterings

This (see screenshot) was on the technorati front page when I just visited. People have accused me of having a strange sense of humour — I just find this extremely amusing.

I just upgraded my main PC from SUSE Linux 10.0 to openSUSE 10.2 and I must say that I’m very pleased and very impressed.

Overall, the update went pretty smoothly. There were a few hiccups at the beginning, when the package manager complained about installation conflicts and wouldn’t go away and let me continue the installation even though the conflicts had all been resolved (all I was left with was an empty window with an “OK - Check again” button). After another reboot and restarting the upgrade procedure, this problem didn’t come up again and the installation from the DVD completed smoothly.

The most noticeable new feature, probably, is the new KDE start menu. This makes a very good first impression. Everyday work will have to show how useful it really is (or if it gets in the way a lot). The “Search” feature at the top of the menu is a huge relief. No more clicking through menus, submenus, folders, etc., looking for that elusive system tool you just know is in there somewhere. The customizable favourites menu, providing quick access to often-used applications can also speed up your day-to-day work.

As is to be expected, openSUSE 10.2 comes with a whole bunch of updated packages. A current KDE (3.5.5), OpenOffice 2.0, Firefox 2, Thunderbird 1.5.0.8, and ever so much more. They’ve updated the package management and system update system to the ZENworks system.

As Pradeep just pointed out in my Blog comments, he used parts of my posting on video blogging with Django (which is funnily enough always referenced as “Create your own YouTube site” - a claim I wouldn’t have dared make myself ) as basis/inspiration for a presentation at Bar Camp Bangalore. BarCamp describes itself as “an open, welcoming event for geeks to hang out with or without wifi and smash their brains together.” Sounds like the kind of place I’d enjoy.
Check out his slides, cleverly titled “YourTube” — they’re available online.
Pradeep left out the Django-related stuff and focused on the bare-bones process, with some HTML and some info on the tools - hopefully making everybody think “Hey! I can do that!”.

Anyway - how cool is that? Quoted at BarCamp in Bangalore. Thanks, Pradeep! You made my day.