I have been running openSUSE 11.3 since it was released and I have only had a few updates come through. Being used to Ubuntu where the updates come thick and fasr, I don’t know whether to:
a) Be happy that so few updates are needed or
b) Be worried that things aren’t being fixed quickly
I’m leaning towards a) but have just a few seeds of doubt. Is it normal for there to be so few updates after a new release?
Welcome to the world of openSUSE, where final releases deserve that title. 
In a terminal do
zypper lu
It will tell you all you need to know
as su -
zypper up
will update
I joinn tempusgugit in his happiness.
The policy in openSUSE is that it is released and that it stays like that until the next release. Exceptions are security updates and realy “have to” patches which are called “recomended”. Both are provided through the Update repo. Sometimes there are a few in a week, sometimes in one or two weeks there are none. That is about the frequency you can prepare yourself for. This is all to give you a stable system.
For those who have as hobbyy to test or try the newest of the newest and are not that interested if there bank account can be reached tomorrow (to name just one of the things that can happen when you are not going for stability), one can use all sorts of repos named Factory and the like.
Given the stability I have experienced since using this distro, I figured it was the former but having been conditioned over many years to expect (and dare I say welcome) a deluge of updates… well I guess old habits die hard, old dogs new tricks etc 
I don’t think I’ll be using Factory unless I do so in a VM where I won’t care so much :\
I like that. Kind of like Debian but not so out of date!
On Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:36:02 +0000, richard-g wrote:
> Given the stability I have experienced since using this distro, I
> figured it was the former but having been conditioned over many years to
> expect (and dare I say welcome) a deluge of updates… well I guess old
> habits die hard, old dogs new tricks etc 
One thing that you might find (I know I did on 11.2) is that there are
non-critical (optional) updates that one won’t be notified of - at least
in the default configuration. I occasionally will launch YaST’s software
installer just to see, for example, if there’s a new version of
OpenOffice to pull down. If there’s no security update, it won’t
automatically show up.
But I’ve been very happy with the stability myself, and I attribute that
in part to only listing updates that fix something critical (like from a
security standpoint).
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
You can manually track updates. There are three update repos. New(experimental, not tested), QA(being tested), and Released(in the main update repo).
https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/new_11.3
https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/qa_11.3#anker-34735
https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/released_11.3#anker-34644
On Sat, 31 Jul 2010 00:06:02 +0000, 67GTA wrote:
> You can manually track updates. There are three update repos.
> New(experimental, not tested), QA(being tested), and Released(in the
> main update repo).
>
> https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/new_11.3
>
> https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/qa_11.3#anker-34735
>
> https://build.opensuse.org/maintenance/released_11.3#anker-34644
That’s cool, I didn’t realise that was there. Thanks!
Jim
–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C
I just found it last week while exploring the new wiki. Portal:Maintenance - openSUSE
Superb. I don’t know that I’ll spend much time looking at it, but it is nice to know I can
My usual OS is Kubuntu. I’m now using OpenSUSE-11.3-KDE4-i686 and loving it. I like the fact that the updates are few and far between.
I’ve been using Linux type OS’s for about 8 years now having started off with Mandrake which I bought at Wally-World for ~$30.00. Yes, a long time ago you could buy Linux off the shelf, it’s really true
I’m tired of tweaking, breaking, crashing, re-installing…trust me, it get’s old. And just a side note, %95 of the time it was not due to the OS I was using, it was just me - lol
I believe I have finally found an OS I can stick with. I really don’t want to be on the bleeding edge any longer. I’ve spent my fair share of time on the front lines so to speak…Anyways, point being - hardly any updates? Fine by me!
Great this was news for me toooo…cheers