[bigtomrodney]

Since the release of 10.0, the development of the SUSE distro has been managed by the openSUSE project. As of release 10.2 the community distro is also called openSUSE. What this means is that the distribution is now created completely with the intention of being Free and Open Source. Any bundling of commercial software with the distribution is now available only through an add-on disc. In the case of the download CD version this is as an extra disc, though these are fully included on the downloadable DVD and in the Retail packages. There is an alternative Enterprise release of SUSE knwon as SUSE Linux Enterprise which can be purchased directly from Novell's website

Release details for openSUSE 10.2
Retail
The retail version is only available by purchasing it. This can be done directly from the Novell/openSUSE site. Retail version comes with 90 days end user support from Novell and the following media -

• 6 CDs (including the commercial add-on CD)
• 1 DVD (DVD9 - includes 32bit and 64 bit versions)
• Printed manuals for the distribution

Download
The downloadable version is available in 32bit and 64bit CD/DVD releases. It is completely free though comes with no support. The standard CD download is 5 discs, although the commercial add-on disc can be downloaded freely also.

• 5 CDs - Free/Open Source
• 1 CD add-on
• 1 DVD (4GB version - 32 bit or 64 bit seperately)
• Net Boot Image - A small disc image that allows you to install directly over a network connection
• Live DVD (32 bit only)

Please visit the openSUSE site for more details and check out the latest releases on their downloads page

The scheduled date for the next SUSE release is October 4th 2007. Planned enhancements include installation from a live cd, a reduced boot time and a preview of the forthcoming KDE 4.0 desktop.