MPI-2 standard has become much popular, and it is expected most MPI libraries will support MPI-2 standard. However, mpich1 is built in Suse 11, why not MPICH2? MPICH2 supports both MPI-1 and MPI-2.
From my experience, MPI application software is distributed as source only, mostly in Fortran. Further, the MPI itself should be built with the compilers to be used for the application. These compilers are often not the ones included with a distribution. Therefore, from my perspective, including a version of MPI with a distribution like OpenSUSE verges on the pointless.
Also, I will argue that if you know enough about what MPI is to be using it, you’ll likely want to build your own to suit your specific needs anyhow. Again, from my perspective, whether or not any form of MPI is included with OpenSUSE, much less which version and flavor (I’m an OpenMPI guy myself) is a non-issue.
I think packages mvapich and mvapich-devel supply the required functionality.
I agree if one uses the Fortran module that this is compiler dependent, but if one uses the C binding, i.e. mpi.h then this can be useful. The Global Arrays toolkit for instance Global Arrays uses the C bindings and is used widely for parallel applications. It builds nicely with both the mpich (MPI 1) and mvapich (MPI 2 packages) that are in the repositories.
It’s not true that MPI application software is distributed as source only. For convenience, some MPI software developers(e.g.,MPICH2) provide binary as well as source code. Mpi library is unrelated to the compiler with which MPI library is built. But if you use fortran mpi module, it does depend on the adopted compiler. Built-in MPI-2 software is quite convenient for users.