Just a quick word from the street that after a couple of days with OpenSuSE, I am still REALLY loving it.

Some things that I didn’t expect:

• OpenSuSE comes with gcc-4, the latest version of the compiler. This caused the afore-mentioned compilation difficulties with VMWare’s kernel modules which I found a fix for yesterday. This also caused a bug in KDE’s libkcal, which caused some pretty annoying side-effects with floating calender events. However, the amazing Reinhold was extraordinarily helpful and fixed the bug immediately. A quick svn update later, I was back in business, with the bug having been fixed. Oh–also, along the way, I learned about valgrind, and was able to use it (at Reinhold’s direction) to find the problem in libkcal’s code. Sweet!!
• As fate would have it, I installed OpenSuSE beta1 on the very day that beta2 was released. But (and here’s the cool part), thanks to this post that I found on planetsuse.org, I entered the new installation sources, ran through the software update, and found that after I came back from the movies with my wonderful son (saw Star Wars – Episode III–first time for J! =:) ), I was completely updated to OpenSuSE beta2. Sweet mama!!
• I use a wireless LAN card at the office and at home. OpenSuSE is using hotplug/udev for everything they possibly can, it seems, including pcmcia. This means that there is no /etc/init.d/pcmcia to run to pick up my wireless card on boot, which means that I have to eject it and re-insert it into my laptop to have it kick in. Small annoyance, and I’ve not looked into the solution yet, so this isn’t all that big of a deal, really. And I expect that there will be an easy solution to it, just like everything else in OpenSuSE.
• I cannot put my finger on what is different about OpenSuSE exactly, but the system seems really, really fast. It might be because I’ve started with a completely clean $HOME/.kde directory too. But I’m really enjoying this!

In addition, it is a really nice, cool evening. My vanilla candle is burning on my desk, giving off the most delicious smell and soothing lighting effects. The windows are open, letting the cool air into the house, which is a really nice change from the non-stop air-conditioning we’ve had lately. And the crickets and night-time insects are giving me a tremendous symphony outside my open windows.

Thanks, God. This is a really nice ending to the day and week. =:)