6. Configuration Utilities

Package management facilities strongly influence the general Linux experience for most users, especially those who hail from predominantly Windows backgrounds. They also happen to be instrumental in maintaining the wide variety of installed applications, libraries, and drivers in a centralized fashion. In fact, many user experiences are based on these facilities alone since they provide a harness for exercising greater control over the installed inventory in addition to pulling down updates, patches, and new software through a centralized and fairly friendly control panel.

Where openSUSE is concerned, Yet Another Setup Tool (YaST) is the method of choice for centralized graphical management where Fedora leverages the Yellow Dog Updater, Modified (YUM) command line utility through a YUM Extender (YUMEX) GUI. At first glance, both belong to the school of minimalism (a good thing) though YaST can be a bit more involved than YUMEX. Take a look at the next two screen shots to see these tools at work, and to compare their look and feel.

openSUSE YaST

Fedora YUMEX

openSUSE also has a nice interface for selecting the graphical desktop to be used.

openSUSE desktop selection interface -
Click on the above image to see a larger version.

In terms of software categorization YaST definitely has the upper hand: it organizes related software topics such as notebook and mobility options both neatly and quickly. Using YUMEX you search for appropriate utilities, though it would be helpful to include software groups as does Fedora's minimalist Add/Remove Packages facility.

openSUSE notebook component choice interface -
Click on the above image to see a larger version.

There are also standard software tools to fall back on, pictured below.

openSUSE software installer

openSUSE software updater

Fedora Package Manager

Fedora Package Updater

In terms of software categorization YaST definitely has the upper hand, neatly organizing related software topics such as the laptop and mobility options. Through YUMEX this becomes a simple matter of searching for the appropriate utilities though it would be thoughtful to include software groups in a similar fashion to Fedora's minimalist Add/Remove Packages facility.

Fedora Add/Remove Packages