OpenSUSE 13.1: What's New in the Latest Linux Distribution

1) OpenSUSE 13.1

This past week marked the on-time debut of the openSUSE 13.1 Linux distribution.

Among the big highlights of the release is full support for the KDE 4.11 and the GNOME 3.10 Linux desktops. For cloud users, the release includes the latest OpenStack Havana platform. ARM is another key focus for openSUSE 13.1 though it's not yet quite as mature as x86, according to Agustin Bethencourt, openSUSE team lead at SUSE. "openSUSE on ARM is not yet as mature as on x86/x64, though we are making good and steady progress," Bethencourt said. "We are working to bring those improvements and new ones to openSUSE 13.1 and will announce them when they become fully available."

2) Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5

Red Hat's flagship enterprise Linux release was update last week to version 6.5 providing new capabilities to users. Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6.5 is the first from Red Hat to support the Precision Timing Protocol (PTP) which offers the promise of sub-microsecond accuracy for timestamping. The new release also includes the ability to hot swap virtual CPU capacity inside of KVM, enabling new virtualization scale up and down capabilities. Red Hat is also making moves with RHEL 6.5 to provide support for the increasingly popular Docker container technology.

"Red Hat and Docker have jointly collaborated to ensure that Docker images can be run on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5, but customers should refer to Docker for supported versions,"Siddharth Nagar, principal product manager, Red Hat Enterprise Linux said. "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.5 now includes the necessary support in the operating system for Docker; however, users will need additional software directly from Docker to manage and manipulate images."

3) Linux 3.13

Linux creator Linus Torvalds is wasting no time getting the next (and likely final) release of the Linux kernel out in 2013. Typically Torvalds releases RC milestone on the weekend, but for the first Linux 3.13 RC he came out a bit early.

"So you had an extra week to prepare your pull requests, and if you were planning on sending it in the last two days thinking I'd close the merge window on Sunday as usual, I can only laugh derisively in your general direction, and call you bad names," Torvalds wrote. "Because I'm not interested in your excuses. I did warn people about this in the 3.12 release notes. As it was, there were a few people who cut it fairly close today. You know who you are."

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at Linux Planet and InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist