SuSE Linux 6.4 available

Nuremberg 20 Mar 00 SuSE Linux AG announced the latest version of SuSE Linux. Available April 3rd in Germany and approximately two weeks later in the US, SuSE Linux 6.4 focuses on optimal installation and server support while offering over 1500 programs.

SuSE Linux 6.4 features improvements to SuSE's graphical installation tool, YaST2. The graphical installation tool features even more automatic hardware detection. This significantly simplifies the configuration of common devices, such as sound cards and printers that are supplied by a wide range of manufacturers. In the past, these devices frequently had to be identified and configured individually by the user. SuSE also added a "Quick Start" beginner's manual with step-by-step screen shots, guiding the new user through the installation process.

"This is by far the easiest Linux installation on the market," said Stefan Wintermeyer, President of SuSE Inc. "Easier installation means that more users will be able to install Linux without technical support, further encouraging the adoption of Linux in the desktop market."

For advanced users, SuSE Linux 6.4 will be the first distribution to include a release of XFree86 4.0. "Due to its current instability, 4.0 will not be installed as a default, but we like to make this software widely available to the community for testing," explained Dirk Hohndel, CTO of SuSE Linux AG and Vice President of the XFree86 project. SuSE 6.4 continues providing the features advanced users expect, including hardware support for advanced multimedia, such as support for graphics cards with 3D chipsets from Intel, NVIDIA, Matrox, ATI and S3.

SuSE Linux 6.4 features supporting server systems include: memory to 3.5 GB; the SuSE Proxy Suite, SuSE's open source firewall tool and FTP proxy; and the journaling Reiser-Filesystem. Each of these features was developed in part by SuSE research and the results made available to the Open Source Community. The journaling file system logs every change to data structures in the file system, enabling its re-creation within a few seconds after a sudden system failure (e.g. power outage). "We are very proud to give the Linux users another stable filesystem. Our installation tool is the first on the market that allows users to choose either the journaling filesystem or ext2 at installation."

Ad Emmen

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