Submitted by “The openSUSE team announced today the open sourcing of our openSUSE Build Service. We believe that it is not only important to release an excellent Open Source distribution but also create it in an open way with Open Source tools together with the openSUSE community. Releasing the build service as Open Source makes the complete project build on Open Source.”
Thank you. A good move that I appreciate. Novell keeps doing this one step forward, one step backward. If only the hackers were in charge, that company could really kick some butt.
Here’s to hoping that Novell does prosper as they do have a lot to offer to the opensource world, if they manage to stay afloat and not to get us all in trouble, which is a big if.
But anyway, thank you very much for this very generous move. This is much better than Linspire’s click-n-run as it means anyone can build their own “click-n-run”.
Indeed. The OpenSuse guys deserve some thanks. I’m from the Fedora/CentOS camp, myself. But I have great respect for the people who stand by the distro they believe in… despite the public derision that has been so unfairly directed their way by the fundamentalists.
I try out *Suse periodically, and it has never been my cup of tea. But one never knows. I’m overdue to try it again.
Join me?
Edited 2007-01-26 02:15
I had a hurrrrr post ready to go about calling OpenSuse evil no matter what they did due to their association with Novell, but I figured it might spark a small riot.
On a serious note, 10.2 is worth a go. I’m still not happy with they way they work their updates with all Suse distros. I run a Novell shop and I can’t be arsed to deal with their registration and update process. Even doing updates on their servers makes me pine for Windows updates. OpenSuse is the least painful of the Suse branded distros in that regard.
On topic, good on them for opening the build service.
“””
I had a hurrrrr post ready to go about calling OpenSuse evil no matter what they did due to their association with Novell, but I figured it might spark a small riot.
“””
Probably would have. The day we forget we are a team is the day we lose.
The enemy knows that is our point of vulnerability. And they are doing what they can to capitalize upon it.
Good to meet ya! 😉
-Steve
Edited 2007-01-26 03:44
For those unfamiliar with the openSUSE build service, you can consider it a combination package repository + automated build farm.
Developers are able to upload code to the build service, set some parameters (dependencies, meta data, target distributions/versions) and then the build service takes over. The code will be automatically built against the core pacakges/dependencies for the target distributions/versions. If one of those dependencies changes or is upgraded, it will automatically trigger a rebuild. If there is a modification uploaded to one of the core files in the project, it will automatically trigger a rebuild.
Assuming no errors occur, the packages will appear externally in the appropriate section of the build service, and can be utilized by conventional package managers.
The openSUSE build service has given users access to (as an example), current svn builds of the KDE4 libraries built automatically for different versions of Suse, GPL-compatible drivers that are not included in the kernel or formally packaged by Suse (ie. webcame etc.) that are automatically updated with incremental each kernel update, access to developmental libraries like Xorg 7.3 that would be a bear to configure/compile from source, community repos for projects like KDE or Gnome that provide current builds for popular community projects, updated Beryl/Compiz packages for each distro version, etc.
What Suse users have gained via the openSUSE build service is easy, reliable access to latest-version outside packages, non-core updates, community projects etc. which become much easier to maintain for Suse/Community devs without having the army of maintainers a project like Debian has. But it also gives access to the bleeding edge, alpha/developmental/proof-of-concept stuff that changes rapidly and would be very difficult for any one maintainer to keep updated and packaged for various distributions. By packaging projects that are normally source-distributed or svn-based, users get the ability to receive updates/upgrades are part of their standard package management including dependency upgrades etc. It’s basically a very slick pacakge production mechanism.
What it’s lacking is an easy-to-use interface to help guide users to the available packages etc., right now you pretty much have to browse through the various repos/project directories or be directed there by the openSUSE team, or forums etc. Hopefully now that it’s been officially open sourced, we’ll start seeing more community involvement in optimizing and simplifying it even further, both for users and end users.
It can also become a powerful tool for any individual, group or organization producing and distributing packaged software. Distros can use it to automate their building and ensuring packages are avaialble concurrently for previous versions; projects like Mozilla (as a simple example) could simply the distribution of distro-specific packages and allow native-package management systems to update versions; ISV’s / commercial providers could use it to package software for a variety of distributions, again in a native format for various package management systems with full dependency resolution et al.
I just hope this project and contribution is judged on merit and doesn’t get wrapped up in the tired politics of Novell vs. everyone. It’s a powerful tool for the community at large.
Just my hopeful 2c…
Elsewhere, thanks for taking the time to explain the build service. And as an aside, thanks for taking the time to write well thought out posts. It’s a welcome thing.
Will this make it easier for other distros to try incorporating YaST?