Grub2 and Plymouth
It's actually the small things that make a Linux users heart beat fast. Adding Plymouth and migrating to Grub2 was a timely choice although casual users wouldn't really notice any difference other than the spanking new splash screen. A Plymouth boot screen in openSUSE was a change of pace and seemed to complement whatever speed modifications were added to openSUSE. Personally, I couldn't wait to run informal benchmarks with the new setup.
I was surprised, however, that openSUSE's installation wizard failed to detect Lubuntu on my ASUS EEEPC 1000H. Instead, setup prompted to use the whole hard disk instead. Unconvinced, I tested the LiveUSB on my Lenovo Ideapad Z360 with an Ubuntu Unity and Windows 7 setup. The installation wizard was able to detect Windows 7 and the Ubuntu partitions though I'm not quite sure it would list Ubuntu once openSUSE 12.2 has been installed. Obviously, there's nothing wrong with modifying the partition setup and Grub2 to chain load other Linux systems, but it isn't exactly fun for those who haven't tried it before.
Other Linux systems are pretty good with detecting and working with another Linux system and I was somewhat surprised openSUSE didn't fare too well in this regard. On the other hand, I can understand why most Linux installation procedures are focused on dual-booting with Windows - unless you're a Linux distribution fanatic, there's really no need to have more than one Linux distro on your machine. Just install your other favorite Linux distribution on another desktop or laptop.
Applications Galore and Online Update
I've discussed openSUSE's penchant for having too much bloatware in my previous openSUSE reviews. To this day, I am amazed at just how many KDE utilities and applications are pre-installed with openSUSE KDE. Most users can ignore the presence of KsCD, KOrganizer, KMail, Amarok, Kaffeine, and the rest and just install their preferred applications. Hard drives today are huge anyway and most of the applications don't really run in the background.
For my part, I've been using openSUSE long enough to automatically go to Yast2 and uninstall all the unnecessary applications without it really bothering me. I prefer going through this procedure than customizing my own openSUSE via SUSE Studio (though DIY-ers with plenty of time should go this route). One thing I did notice is that users of openSUSE 12.2 should start uninstalling applications after the first Online Update.
Linux distributions are designed to get you started immediately after installation, but due to issues regarding proprietary technology there are some Linux distributions like Fedora and openSUSE that don't package MP3 and video codecs with their release. openSUSE, however, works around this issue via Online Update. After installing openSUSE 12.2, I don't recommend installing applications (or uninstalling applications) until after doing a basic online update - the online update will actually offer to install Adobe Flash and the Gstreamer MP3 audio codec. Plus, openSUSE 12.2 adds a new twist to their Online Update - they add several other applications that weren't included in the LiveCD including Marble Desktop, a standalone Flash Player, DNG image converter, Panorama stitcher, Photo Layouts editor, SIP phone, IceTea and OpenJDK(for Java), and the Synaptiks touchpad utility.
I'm pretty sure long-time Linux users might resent this approach as a type of force-feeding (though you can easily uncheck the applications during the Online Update). This is, however, a pretty good way of introducing new applications that users aren't aware of and getting the Linux community to try them out. There are plenty of exceptional utilities that are undiscovered out there. Surprisingly, the new additions bundled with the Online Update were mostly photography applications.
For users who are somewhat put off by the thought of having to uninstall applications in openSUSE KDE, it actually takes less time than it seems, especially with the speed gains in Yast2. It took me less than four minutes to search the 9 applications (plus the KDE games) in Yast2 and uninstall them.
Apper - KDE's undependable software manager
Ubuntu Software Center was a good idea though I hardly ever used it, but Apper in KDE is as bad as Fedora's packagekit manager. Apper is slow as molasses and suffers from the same packagekit issue that prevents user from running Yum in Fedora, but this time affecting Yast2 and Zypper. After hoping for the best and searching for the note-taking utility Cherrytree, Apper crashed and I had to reboot to be able to run Yast2. My recommendation? Uninstall Apper with the rest of the bloatware.
openSUSE 12.2 repositories available in China!
This particular section is only for users in China. I had been running openSUSE for over a year until I lost the ability to access the openSUSE 12.1 repositories here in Shanghai. I couldn't update nor could I install any applications using Yast or via Zypper even after a clean install. The issue no longer applies to openSUSE 12.2. In fact, the updates were fast and refreshing the repositories now only took a minute or two. I now have a reason to remove my Ubuntu Unity LTS install and switch to openSUSE 12.2.
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