SUSE ships Enterprise Linux SP2, the first under new management

SUSE shipped yesterday the second service pack of its Enterprise Linux 11, which is notable for two key reasons aside from its enhanced file system and virtualization capabilities.

First, it is the first release of the Linux distribution since Novell handed over the reigns to Attachmate last April. Execs are pleased to report that the SUSE business unit is functioning in semi-autonomous fashion and is focused solely on Linux. SUSECon is being held September 18-21 in Orlando, Florida.

Second, it the first version of SUSE to be developed under the unit's new "forward porting" development model. The aim is to exploit the latest innovations of the Linux kernel while maintaining enterprise grade level of reliability and compatibility.

As the Linux kernel development process matures, so does Linux distribution development, SUSE executives say. In that vein, the new SUSE model is designed to bring the latest innovations customers often see in the OpenSUSE open source version first much faster to the commercially supported enterprise edition.  SUSE customers include Stock Exchange, Walgreens, SONY, Sesame Workshop and Office Depot.

SP2 , for instance, exploits key news features of the seven month old Linux 3.0 kernel with support for more than 500 of the latest CPUs, chipsets, storage and networking devices and the latest hardware innovations from Dell and HP.

It is also the first Linux distribution to offer commercial Btrfs (aka ButterFS) file system and support for Linux Container, executives noted. "Xen, KVM, ESX and Hyper-V [are supported]so customers can run a wide variety of virtual configurations," the company's official statement noted. "Linux Container support available in SP2 helps customers improve efficiency by lowering OS-level virtualization overhead."