Desktop

- Update of bundled desktop environments: KDE 4.6, GNOME 2.32, Xfce 4.8, LXDE 0.5;
- Despite the fact that GNOME 2.32 is used as the base GNOME environment, the distribution is fully ready to install the GNOME 3 release, after which the packages with which will be available as regular updates in early April. In addition, the Zeitgeist system has already been integrated into the distribution to track user activity, and the GNOME Shell is also available as an option.;
- As the default web browser, the latest test version of Firefox 4 is supplied as part of the distribution, which will be updated to the final version after the release of Firefox 4. The decision was not easy: Insufficient support for the new version in popular add-ons testified against Firefox 4, and against Firefox 3.6.13 - a short period of support for the 3.6.x branch by the Mozilla project;
- Updated versions of user applications: XOrg 7.6, GnuCash 2.4, Scribus 1.4, Amarok 2.4.0, Digikam 1.8.0, KOffice 2.3.1, k3b 2.0.2, KDevelop 4.2, KMyMoney 4.5, Rekonq 0.6, BlueDevil 1.0.1, Clutter 1.5, Inkscape 0.48, gramps 3.2.5, Gnash 0.8.8, Licq 1.5 (with XMPP support);
- Removed from the distribution package OpenOffice.org, the latest release of LibreOffice 3.3.1 is included instead;
- Improved integration of LibreOffice and Firefox GTK applications into the KDE Plasma environment, native KDE file selection dialogs and Oxygen styling are used.
- Several additional applications are included in the basic delivery: the lightweight Midori web browser, the Rosegarden 10.10 music editor and the monodevelop 2.4 development environment;

System

- Using Linux kernel 2.6.37. A patch is integrated into the distribution with the implementation of the idea of automatic grouping of tasks to increase interactivity on the desktop. Separately, the final departure in kernel 2.6.37 from the use of the outdated global BKL lock (Big Kernel Lock), which remained a bottleneck in some subsystems for many years, is noted. The new version also updated device drivers, for example, drivers for Broadcom wireless cards and open video drivers.
- HAL (Hardware Abstraction Layer) has been completely removed from the system, instead of which udev is now used in combination with udisks (DeviceKit-disks, interaction with block devices) and upower (DeviceKit-power, power management);
- Instead of the classic Vixie cron system, the anacron cron daemon is integrated into the new version of the distribution, which is more flexible and allows you to define periodic tasks that will be performed after turning on the computer if the system was turned off at the time of their scheduled execution.
- The optional possibility of installing the systemd system manager is presented (the classic SysV initialization system is still used by default). Systemd is aimed at more intensive parallelization of the execution of services at the system boot stage, incorporating the best features of such systems as launchd (Mac OS X), SMF (Solaris) and Upstart (Ubuntu, Fedora). In addition to running services, systemd provides functions for monitoring the execution of background processes;

Applications

- WebYaST, originally developed for SLES web interface for remote system administration, is integrated into the distribution;
- The distribution package has integrated developments to increase the performance of network operations related to package management: the version of the libzypp library (8.10) has been updated, which introduces a new backend for downloading packages via http and ftp, improved support for meta links and added the ability to specify multiple URLs for downloading packages; Instead of the MediaAria backend, MultiCurl is now used, which implements support for zsync transmission and improved Metalink downloads. From the user's point of view, these changes are noticeable in accelerating the update of repository status data, reducing the time for installing packages and performing update operations. Metalink support allows you to organize parallel downloading of packages, while different parts of packages can be downloaded from different mirrors. ZSync support reduces the amount of data transferred, due to the fact that only modified parts of files are downloaded.
- The latest version of the Horde group development package is integrated into the composition;
- Improved support for virtualization systems, added kernel-xen and kernel-ec2 packages based on kernel 2.6.37.
- VirtualBox 4.0.4, Xen 4.0.2, KVM 0.14 virtualization systems with support for the extended QEMU disk format and the SPICE protocol are included in the delivery. The package also includes drivers for VMware Workstation/player and packages with add-ons for open-vm-tools and virtualbox-guest-tools guest systems;
- Updating NetworkManager to version 0.8.2;
- Python 2.7, Qt 4.7.1 and Qt Creator 2.1, KDevelop 4.2 are included in the distribution kit;
- Updated server applications: Apache 2.2.17, lighttpd 1.4.26, ngninx 0.8.54, PostgreSQL 9.0.3, MySQL 5.1.53, MariaDB 5.1;
- Updated the graphical loader gfxboot 4.3.5, as an option, the possibility of using GRUB2 is provided.

Additionally

for openSUSE 11.4 users, the Tumbleweed repository has been put into operation, which uses the idea of a continuous update release cycle (rolling updates). Unlike the Factory repository, only stable versions of packages are supported within Tumbleweed. Using Tumbleweed, users can use always fresh versions of programs at their discretion, without fear of possible stability problems that are not excluded when using Factory.