openSUSE.org Facelift, Mageia NetworkManager Kerfuffle

The openSUSE project recently unveiled their new web portal to reflect the direction the distribution. Claire Robinson proposed using Network Manager replacing drakx as default in Mageia 6, causing a bit of a dust-up. Kevin Fenzi posted his latest "This week in Rawhide" and Adam Williamson discussed Fedora Atomic in blog posts today.

openSUSE.org recently received a facelift heavy on effects and using HTML5 and javascript. When arriving at the new www.opensuse.org main elements Tumbleweed and Leap scroll in and bounce around. Hovering either producing link boxes for more information or download. Further down the new homepage openSUSE Tools are highlighted, also with scrolling or fading in of the choices. Next is the news section, which features forward and back arrows to shuffle through news items. Contribute to openSUSE is next with more effects for Code or Hardware followed by an attention grabbing link to more information on conferences. It looks great, check it out.

Mageia may default to NetworkManager in version 6, replacing drakx, mainly because drakx doesn't "integrate particularly well into modern desktop environments," according to Claire Robinson. Network Manager is "somewhat of a de-facto standard" and users may find drakx cumbersome or difficult. Robinson added that NetworkManager is well maintained upstream, reducing Mageia workloads. But mainly, desktops are built around NetworkManager and Mageia folks have to hack and crack to get drakx integrated instead. Robinson thinks it'd be better to just use what desktops are developed to use.

However, some folks found the proposal worrisome. One responder thinks folks use Mageia for their original tools and had several others agreeing. Some think NetworkManager is more difficult than Mageia's drakx while others say the opposite. Alexey Loginov said NW doesn't work well with VPN and someone using the nom de plume Bit Twister threw a grenade by suggesting "the new-and-improved systemd-networkd.service." Bruno Cornec said if he wanted to use Fedora, he'd use Fedora and that NW only offered him problems in the past. Colin Guthrie thanked Robinson for her proposal and scolded those complaining by saying, "Either put up or shut up!" Whichever side respondents took on the default, most suggested keeping both around.

Kevin Fenzi posted his week in Rawhide report today saying, "Current rawhide should be back to ‘mostly signed’ packages." He also answered a question that he gets all the time on whether a regular user should use Rawhide. He said he usually writes something to the effect of, "Oh no, rawhide breaks all the time" or "It will blow up on you." He added a section on the Rawhide wiki page addressing the issue of Audience discouraging regular uses from partaking in bleeding-edge Fedora. In other Fedora news, Adam Williamson pondered the idea of Fedora Atomic.

In other news:

* Hands-on with Manjaro Linux 15.09: A new favourite

* Architecting Containers Part 2: Why the User Space Matters

* 3 Open Source Desktop Publishing Tools for Small Businesses