S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3 and KDE 1.0 in VirtualBox
The next stop on the train through SUSE's history is S.u.S.E. Linux 5.3, released September 10, 1998.
This release shipped the first stable release of KDE, version 1.0. Although the graphics drivers render the experience rather hideous, it worth noting that KDE 1.0 most certainly would have been an aesthetically pleasing and feature complete desktop environment on par with MacOS 8 and Windows 98. Most of its utilities were still in development though, and YaST would warn me of this if I installed them. Its usage of the then closed source Qt development toolkit would spark some controversy and later lead to the development of GNOME.
There didn't seem to be anything else too special about YaST in this release. I tinkered with pico (predecessor to nano under different license, still developed last I checked), and it's fun to see that most command line utilities remain unchanged. less, free, top, and df all were relatively similar in functionality and usage to their modern counterparts.
Setting up this release and getting the graphics to run were rather similar to 5.1 and 5.2. The graphics are also at best 16 color with this release. To get any graphics I start the XF86Setup utility from a root virtual terminal, then switch back to another root terminal and enter another command "DISPLAY=:7.0 xterm". Switching back to the graphic session running for XF86Setup there's then an xterm window from which we can type "kde" or "fvwm". Switching virtual terminals in VirtualBox's default setup is done by pressing the right control key then the F key for the virtual terminal you want to switch to. It typically takes several attempts to switch virtual terminals. Setting the OS to Linux kernel 2.2 in the VirtualBox New VM wizard, there were little hiccups with set up and installation.
Back one, S.u.S.E. Linux 5.2: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...tualbox-38137/
Next up, SuSE Linux 6.0: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...tualbox-38139/
This release shipped the first stable release of KDE, version 1.0. Although the graphics drivers render the experience rather hideous, it worth noting that KDE 1.0 most certainly would have been an aesthetically pleasing and feature complete desktop environment on par with MacOS 8 and Windows 98. Most of its utilities were still in development though, and YaST would warn me of this if I installed them. Its usage of the then closed source Qt development toolkit would spark some controversy and later lead to the development of GNOME.
There didn't seem to be anything else too special about YaST in this release. I tinkered with pico (predecessor to nano under different license, still developed last I checked), and it's fun to see that most command line utilities remain unchanged. less, free, top, and df all were relatively similar in functionality and usage to their modern counterparts.
Setting up this release and getting the graphics to run were rather similar to 5.1 and 5.2. The graphics are also at best 16 color with this release. To get any graphics I start the XF86Setup utility from a root virtual terminal, then switch back to another root terminal and enter another command "DISPLAY=:7.0 xterm". Switching back to the graphic session running for XF86Setup there's then an xterm window from which we can type "kde" or "fvwm". Switching virtual terminals in VirtualBox's default setup is done by pressing the right control key then the F key for the virtual terminal you want to switch to. It typically takes several attempts to switch virtual terminals. Setting the OS to Linux kernel 2.2 in the VirtualBox New VM wizard, there were little hiccups with set up and installation.
Back one, S.u.S.E. Linux 5.2: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...tualbox-38137/
Next up, SuSE Linux 6.0: https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...tualbox-38139/
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