I've just got a new netbook from HP with SLED 11 pre-installed. It works OK, but I cannot find the software I need in the online repostories. I am a FreeBSD and Debian user, so for me, "if it's not in the ports (or apt-get), it does not exist" 🙂 Am I asking too much from SUSE? All I need is basic open source stuff, like git, subversion, g++/gdb/ddd, Sun JDK, R, python-scipy, GHC haskell, LaTeX, etc.
Can someone point me to the zypper (or yum) .repo files for SLED11?
Also, can I use OpenSUSE (or other) repos in SLED?
I really want to give SUSE a try, so please help me out SUSE fans!
PS Please don't suggest to download and burn SUSE SDK CD – there must be some online repos!
Best Answer
Downloading and burning (or storing as an ISO and referencing via a loopback mount) the SDK is the true right answer. Sorry. If you're not willing to do that, I'd suggest ditching SLED for OpenSuSE, which is far more usable for a developer-type personality. Back on the other hand, SLED11 is a much more stable desktop OS than OpenSuSE 11.0 was; things like KDE4 and Compiz along with Flash and my nVidia graphics card "just work" instead of requiring tedious excess configuration and lots of third-party repos.*
I would not try mixing in packages from OpenSUSE, although there are some packages in the Build Service (select SLED/SLES 11 in the dropdown) that are targeted towards SLE 11. Just like Redhat does with RHEL, Novell backports extensively into the SLE line, which can lead to unintended consequences when installing packages compiled either without those backported patches or with more current versions of base development libraries. However, you can safely install packages from the Build Service on SLED/SLES 11, and you can add the specific build service software item as a repository in your zypper/yast config.
( * - Significant exception was getting multiple monitors working in X11 Xinerama, but that's always a headache with nvidia. Ubuntu has it down, everyone else is still in the dark ages.)