openSUSE

openSUSE is a free and open source Linux distribution (or operating system) designed primarily for desktop / laptop computers and servers. The first (or initial) version of the distribution was released in October 2005, and previously it was known as SUSE Linux. openSUSE is a complete and multipurpose operating system that is most suitable for individual users, system administrators and software developers. Like other Linux distributions, openSUSE supports various desktop environments such as GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, MATE, LXQt, and Xfce, which users can choose before installing it on a computer. Users can also go with the default desktop environment provided by the company in the ISO image file. SUSE Linux Enterprise software such as SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop uses the openSUSE operating system as codebase.

The default installation of openSUSE includes general software applications that are essential in personal and business computing, such as office suite, web browser, email client, media player, photo / video library manager, PDF viewer, file manager, VNC viewer etc., some other open source tools developed by the community such as YaST,  Open Build Service, Firewall, openQA, Snapper, Machinery and Portus are also available in the installation.

At present there are two separate releases of openSUSE distribution, called 'Tumbleweed' and 'Leap'. Tumbleweed is a rolling release and contains the latest software guided by the development team, while the Leap release is considered stable and recommended to use it.

Notable features of openSUSE

Some notable features of openSUSE Linux distribution are:

• All Linux features.
• Multi-purpose operating system.
• Choose between many different desktop environments like GNOME, Cinnamon, KDE, and MATE.
• Useful pre-installed apps are bundled.
• Community build tools such as YaST, Open Build Service are available.
• Live Boot / CD / USB.
• Multilingual.
• Free and Open Source.

openSUSE facts

• openSUSE is the codebase of SUSE Linux Enterprise.
• openSUSE was first known as SUSE Linux.
• openSUSE is one of most popular Linux distributions.