The OpenSUSE project, Novell’s community programme aimed at promoting the use of the Linux operating system, has announced the availability of the first beta of openSUSE 10.3.
OpenSUSE 10.3 is a state-of-the-art operating system based on Linux kernel 2.6.22 with a large variety of the latest open source applications for desktops, servers and application development. The beta is available at www.opensuse.org/download.
Novell also announced improvements to the openSUSE Build Service, the framework that provides an infrastructure for software developers to easily create and compile packages for multiple Linux distributions. The development team yesterday released the first version of the end-user interface for the Build Service, with which users of any openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or Mandriva distribution can easily search and browse new software for their distribution.
The OpenSUSE Build Service now has more than 700 projects and 20,000 software packages.
Users of the upcoming OpenSUSE 10.3 can install their software with one click directly from the web interface. In the past four months, more than 13 million packages have been downloaded from the OpenSUSE Build Service, said Novell.
“We appreciate all the contributions the community has made to the openSUSE project during the past two years,” said Michael Loeffler, OpenSUSE product manager at Novell, on the second anniversary of its establishment. “The goal of the OpenSUSE project is to promote the use of Linux everywhere and our strong community of developers, testers, writers, translators, artists and users have been instrumental in creating one of the world’s best Linux distributions. And as we seek to streamline and improve collaboration between all Linux developers, the OpenSUSE Build Service has changed the way packages have been built. The build service is quickly becoming a centre for building any Linux distribution.”
AMD has provided hardware and development expertise for the project.
The OpenSUSE Build Service uses the system imaging tool KIWI, with which open source developers can more quickly build a Linux distribution that meets their needs, rigorously test it to ensure product quality and easily package it for quick installation.
It is completely open source, giving developers and users free and full access to build their choice of Linux packages, whether based on openSUSE, SUSE Linux Enterprise, Fedora, Debian, Ubuntu or other projects. An essential part of the openSUSE project, the openSUSE Build Service is available at www.opensuse.org/Build_Service and the new end-user interface can be found at Software.opensuse.org.
By Niall Byrne
