OpenSUSE 11.3 is a very bleeding edge release with all the latest OSS available and comes with GNOME 2.30.1 and the following changes:

• GNOME 3.0 preview is available with GNOME Shell and the new accessibility stack (disabled by default)
• Tracker is the default file indexer, replacing beagle.
• Empathy is the default IM client for GNOME. Empathy supports now sending files via drag and drop and the IRC module now includes support for common IRC commands such as /join.
• Access to iPhone and iPod touch files from nautilus. Rhythmbox can also play music from those devices.
• Transmission is shipped with DHT enabled
• Tomboy’s start-up time has been drastically improved. Syncing notes can now be done automatically by enabling it in the preferences.
• Nautilus’ user interface now includes a new split view mode and the default is set to browser mode.
• Simple right-click menu item to open a an archive file (zip, .tar.gz, etc.) in nautilus.
• Improved selection of screen-savers and games installed by default.
• Complete move away from hal to udisks/upower.
• Removal of the GNOME 1.x stack.
• Massive improvements to Banshee - the default media player, new grid view for albums, automatic play queuing modes to ensure non-stop playback, gap less playback eliminating the annoying little gap between tracks, new extensions such as showing Wikipedia information for current artist, related YouTube videos and much more, support for audio equalizer.
• Evolution has improved imap (imap ) implementation with live view updates, non-blocking operations and IDLE support. 'evolution --express' provides better user experience for netbook users.
• Huge improvements to YaST-GTK Software Management: general improvements to the interface, simple check-box interface to install/remove software, improved search box, "Available", "Upgrades", "Installed" tabs have been removed and replaced by optional status filters, "History of changes" (from Menubar -> Extras) shows a history of all installed/removed packages and repositories, "Summary of changes" box that shows all changes to packages in the current package management session, and allows you to "undo" changes, option to close package-manager or return to it after all installation/removal is done is shown in the summary box that pops-up when user hits the "apply" button, options "Clean-up when deleting packages" and "Allow vendor change" are now available (Menubar -> Options), and buttons to "Upgrade patches" and "Upgrade all" are shown when the "Upgradeable" filter is selected.

Screenshots (more click here):

GNOME Shell in GNOME 3.0	Plasma Desktop on KDE SC 4.4.4

OpenSUSE 11.3 is much more developer friendly. Of course you have the option to use OBS to build your packages or grab the GNOME unstable releases.

Category: Linux, OpenSUSE, OS, Release