Review: Novell Suse Linux Enterprise 10

If you’re planning to deploy Linux, the Suse Linux Enterprise 10 is a hard act to beat, especially if migrating from or integrating with Windows.

It’s not free – at least not if you want updates and support – but is available for servers and desktops for much less than the Windows equivalents.

At heart it’s another Linux distro, complete with the usual bundle of applications.

However, it is different in the way Novell has made everything fit together and in the time and effort that has gone into making the software as easy as possible to use.

For example, the same Yast tool is used to configure Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) and the Desktop package (SLED), and it is one of the slickest setup utilities around.

It takes a while to load everything, but you’re led through each step with lots of explanations and automatic hardware identification and default suggestions.

We started with the desktop product, choosing the default Gnome interface, which in this release has a Windows look and feel.

That includes a taskbar complete with applets and a start menu (labelled Computer) from which it’s possible to access all the installed programs.

Recently used and Favourites lists are also maintained here, plus there’s a good search facility and tools to show disk usage and network setup.

There’s even a Windows-like control panel.

Of course, it takes more than a flashy GUI to impress Windows users, so it’s good to find integrated support for Server Message Block (SMB) workgroups and domains plus enhanced Microsoft and Novell directory integration.

We had no problems getting the Suse software to work with our test networks.

We were also impressed by the application bundle, installed as standard on the desktop product.

This includes the latest Open Office productivity suite, plus a copy of Novell’s Evolution email/groupware client, a Firefox browser and a variety of other tools and utilities.

You also get a desktop firewall and software called Apparmor to protect applications against malicious modification.

Unlike some Linux servers, the Gnome desktop is also installed on the server, but with a lot more available behind the scenes.

However, extra care is required during setup because, as is common these days, if you take only the defaults you’ll end up with a minimal configuration.

Fortunately, it’s easy enough to choose what you want during the Yast install, with one-button options to enable file and printer sharing, configure a Lamp (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP) server and enable Xen virtualisation.

These options make it possible to quickly configure a server to handle a variety of small-business applications.

The Xen 3.0 virtualisation software is now closely integrated into the Suse Linux platform and comes with new graphical tools, making it easy to consolidate several software servers onto the same hardware platform.

Add new high-availability clustering (Heartbeat 2) and graphical ISCSI management tools, and Suse Linux Enterprise is one of the most comprehensive distributions available.

On the downside you have to pay for updates via an annual subscription.

However, this includes 30 days of phone and email support following activation, and it’s a lot cheaper than Windows, especially if you take the bundled software into consideration.