SUSE LINUX Introduces New Linux Version for Home Users

Version 8.2 Professional and Personal now easier to use with feature-rich applications and advanced mobility and multimedia features

Oakland, CA — 03/12/03 — SUSE LINUX today unveiled its latest version of Europe's most popular, and the U.S.'s fastest growing, Linux package - introducing an easy to use, application rich desktop for home users.

Available April 14, SUSE LINUX 8.2, sets a new milestone for ease of use - incorporating the latest version of KDE 3.1 - giving home users who want the stability and security of Linux easy transition from other platforms. Also, the wide variety of the latest Linux tools and applications provide customers a feature-rich and comprehensive Open Source operating system.

Desktop Comfort and Feature-Rich Applications for the Home PC

SUSE LINUX 8.2 desktop features include:

• KDE 3.1 - which includes a new look -- eases Internet access with a new tabbed browsing functionality and includes a download manager that greatly simplifies downloading. The scheduler application KOrganizer now supports Exchange 2000 servers, enabling customers to easily sync their KOrganizer data with Exchange.
• GNOME 2.2 desktop - with improved usability and the accounting application GNU Cash that includes the home banking standard protocol HBCI.

Complete Office Solution

OpenOffice.org 1.0.2 delivers advanced word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation tools, together with mature filter functions for data exchange from/to various formats. Also included are advanced fax and phone capabilities for ISDN cards-- incoming fax messages can be received by e-mail and calls can be automatically received by e-mail as sound files.

Everything for Multimedia and Mobility

In addition to CD/DVD writing applications, sound mixing, editing, and an integrated synthesizer, SUSE LINUX 8.2 is the first distribution to include MainActor, a professional video editing application, enabling customers to compose and edit digital movies. The KDE scanning application Kooka and the commercial OCR tool Kadmos enable users to scan both printed and hand-written texts into the word processing application.

With the comfortable and enhanced SUSE configuration profile manager, notebook users, who commute between different locations, can switch to the network and hardware configurations of every office site and therefore, can use scanners and printers of the respective location with a simple mouse click. Laptop users will also value the improved wireless LAN support that can be easily configured with SUSE YaST2 tool (Yet another Setup tool). Interesting for application developers and for quality assurance: KDE's new "Desktop Sharing" allows remote control of the screens of several network hosts across hardware borders.

Quick, Easy Installation

SUSE LINUX 8.2's unique installation and configuration tool -- YaST2 -- gives users the fastest, most comprehensive and secure set-up package in the industry - quickly and easily installing the software, identifying hardware components, setting up user administration, and configuring Internet access. The new SUSE Watcher also automatically informs users about security-related enhancements, enabling them to keep their systems always up-to-date.

Power for Experienced Linux Users - Protecting Data and Hosts

SUSE LINUX 8.2 also delivers the most innovative Linux technologies for experienced users. The SUSE-optimized kernel 2.4.20 -- with more than 1,200 drivers -- represents the latest stage of Linux development, ensuring outstanding performance. Version 4.3 of XFree86 supports even more graphics cards. SUSE LINUX 8.2 also includes a pre-release of gcc 3.3 and the latest version of SunJava2 (1.4.1).

In version 8.2, SUSE again focused on protecting data and hosts. Apart from proven tools such as SUSE Firewall 2 and a crypto file system for protecting data in the event of theft, further security enhancements include support S/MIME standards for e-mail encryption and the possibility to store folders in the running system in a crypto file system without the need for a new partitioning. The KDE desktop security system Kiosk can be used to limit individual configuration changes, thereby improving the efficiency of the administration of multiple users.

Availability and Pricing

On April 14, SUSE LINUX 8.2 will be available directly from the manufacturer and at computer retailers. The recommended retail price for SUSE LINUX 8.2 Personal (3 CDs, User Guide, 60 days of installation support) is $39.95; the price for SUSE LINUX 8.2 Professional (5 CDs, 2 DVDs, User Guide + Administration Guide, 90 days of installation support) is $79.95.