openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 2 was released two days ago, a month after Milestone 1 was released. The final edition, openSUSE 12.3, is not expected until around the ides of March 2013, so a milestone release offers a good opportunity to see what goodies will be on the final version.

I haven’t used openSUSE since version 7.3, when it was still called SuSE Linux. Back then, the most important features that made me a fan were the installer and the set of tools that came with YAST, the distribution’s graphical management application. Much like Mandriva‘s/ROSA Linux‘s/Mageia‘s administrative tools, they are much better than what’s available on any other distribution.

The tools I used back then are still there, and a few more have been added. The first two screen shots show YAST’s components. This shows the tools in the upper section of YAST’s window.