I am considering upgrading to OpenSuse 11.2, currently running 10.3 without significant issues. I have hesitated insofar as this is in some sense in the category of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. Anyone wish to comment on their experience updating 10.3 to 11.2?
TIA,
Barry Newberger
10.3 may not be broke but it is out of support.
Backup, format everything and clean install. Period!
I once updated from 10.3 to 11.1 but never from 10.3 to 11.2.
Note 11.2 offers Ext4 file system. Was 10.3 on Ext3 or Reiser?
Note KDE3 is NOT available as an install option for 11.2. Thus far NO ONE in the community (who rants about KDE3) has put together an easily installable KDE3 for 11.2 on a liveCD (using something like Studio).
The KDE4 version (in 11.2) with 4.3.1 is much better than the 4.0.3 ( ? ) in 10.3. So much better that if you have any config files at all in your 10.3 /home for KDE-4.0.3 - I would remove them. They may cause 4.3.1 to act funny.
One easy way to ensure a good KDE-4.3.1 experience is to simply start a new user for 11.2. Or if you wish to use Ext4 in 11.2 another way is to simply reformat your /home (after having backed up).
11.2’s newer kernel, xorg, and mesa while having more capabilities, struggles with some graphic cards. Some Intel and ATI cards do not work well with 11.2.
So I recommend you download and trial a liveCD first. Speaking of liveCD, there are many different liveCDs for 11.1 and 11.2, with selections of KDE3 (for 11.1), KDE-4.3.2 (for 11.1), LXDE (for 11.1), Enlightenment (for 11.2), KDE-4.3.1 (for 11.2) and Gnome (for 11.1 and 11.2). You can trial any of those via the liveCD. http://en.opensuse.org/Live_CD
I think 11.2 is an improvement on 3 of my 6 PCs (over 11.1). On two of my other 3 PCs, I simply did not install 11.2 based on what I saw on the live CD. On my 6th PC where I installed 11.2, it was worse than 11.1 in some cases and better in others. YMMV.