openSUSE Project Releases openSUSE 11.3

WALTHAM, Mass. - The openSUSE Project, a worldwide project sponsored by Novell, announced today the release of openSUSE 11.3, with support for 32-bit and 64-bit x86 systems. Immediately available for download at http://software.opensuse.org, openSUSE is a free Linux-based operating system for PCs and servers that caters to both beginners and experienced users. openSUSE provides the base for Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise products and version 11.3 brings a host of new features and updates. openSUSE 11.3, like all openSUSE releases, reflects vibrant collaboration between Novell and the larger openSUSE contributor community.

What’s New
openSUSE 11.3 continues the tradition of delivering GNOME, KDE and Xfce desktop environments while also providing the lightweight LXDE environment. Key features found in openSUSE 11.3 include:

* Support for the latest version of GNOME, 2.30.1, as well as the option of installing a preview of GNOME 3.0. The latest updates of KDE SC 4.4.4 have also been made available. All desktop environments feature the polish and integration for which openSUSE is well-known.
* Support for netbooks and the Btrfs file system.
* Improved hardware support with the 2.6.34 Linux kernel, and updated graphics drivers.
* Support for HP TouchSmart computers out-of-the-box.
* SpiderOak, a significant new feature, provides the ability to sync files across the internet for free.
* Rosegarden enables free editing of audio files and updates to Mozilla, Firefox, GoogleCL and Thunderbird.
* New MariaDB and MySQL Cluster services, for servers and development platforms, are included, as well as Conntrack to filter network packets for iptables.

Developers will also appreciate the plethora of tools available at their fingertips with GCC, GDB and Mono and IDEs such as Netbeans, Qt-Creator and others. This is all on top of the countless libraries available through the openSUSE Build Service (OBS).

Availability
Available immediately, openSUSE 11.3 is free of charge and free to distribute. To join the openSUSE community or download openSUSE 11.3 today, visit http://software.opensuse.org. The next release of openSUSE is expected in March 2011.