Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.10.2012 - klo:18:49
1 October 2012, 5:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F09%2FARMopenSUSE-300x294.png&hash=47db5c7374edcc6338a0396f4d7151287a9df01d)
After 11 months of grueling work, openSUSE is pleased to announce the first Release Candidate for openSUSE 12.2 on the ARM architecture. After discussing ARM first at the openSUSE Conference in 2011, the openSUSE ARM team (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AARM) has managed to bring up openSUSE from nowhere to being a truly usable and functional distribution on the ARM version 7 architecture in time for the new openSUSE Conference in Prague next month (http://conference.opensuse.org)!
Hardware and device support This RC1 release is focused on ARMv7 which encompasses the Cortex-A processor profile from the Cambridge, UK based chip designer. Due to the current nature of the existing ARM landscape it doesn’t mean that all devices that use a v7 SoC are supported though. As such openSUSE took the engineering decision to focus on a subset of devices to minimize the time it takes to bring the distribution up on the architecture. The supported SoC vendors for this release are Texas Instruments’ OMAP3 & OMAP4 and Freescale I.MX51; the supported devices running with these SoCs are the Beagleboard, Beagleboard-xM, Pandaboard, Pandaboard-ES and the EfikaMX smarttop/smartbook. There is also an image for the VersatileExpress which is suitable for use in Qemu as well as a generic root file system tarball that users and developers may use to help bring up unsupported devices. The images are available from the download section (http://download.opensuse.org/ports/armv7hl/distribution/12.2-RC1/images/), the .xz archive files contain the full image (filesystem + kernel + initrd) and the .tar.bz do NOT contain a filesystem (kernel + initrd only).
More information Information for each platform is available on this wiki page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASupported_ARM_boards) and a quick guide on how to get up and running with openSUSE on ARM is available on this page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AOpenSUSE_on_your_ARM_board). As with everything that openSUSE does, we invite everyone who is interested in joining in and help make openSUSE the premier distribution for the ARM platform. There is a brief guide on how to submit package fixes for ARM (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AARM_distribution_howto), for those that wish to see what the Action Items and the TODO list are there is a Trello Board (https://trello.com/#board/opensuse-on-arm/5007cfc12cf0ae352e21d8dc) which is open to everyone, there are also the usual communications channels of IRC(#opensuse-arm on Freenode) and mailing list (opensuse-arm@opensuse.org) (subscription (opensuse-arm+subscribe@opensuse.org) to the list is required, here is the list archive (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-arm/)). If you have a device that isn’t currently supported, openSUSE would love to help you get it up and running.
Thanks The openSUSE-ARM effort has been built using the Open Build Service, leveraging Qemu for emulation of the target architecture, ensuring a single package source for all architectures and simplifying software maintenance. This method has led to numerous bugs being found and subsequently fixed with all fixes submitted upstream to Qemu, OBS, Kiwi as well as many other packages. A native build farm mirrored the OBS environment to verify package failures as well as testing builds. This native farm would not have been possible if it were not for the sponsorship (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AARM/Sponsors) of hardware from Texas Instruments/Pandaboard Project, Genesi, ARM and the openSUSE community.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.10.2012 - klo:18:49
2 October 2012, 4:26 pm
The openSUSE Conference in Prague is about to happen and we know that all of you are really excited about it. One more year with great talks and workshops and the warmth of the openSUSE Community around. Being there is really awesome and being a part of it is really great. Since having fun has no limits for us we feel the need to ask you the following:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FKostas2-300x225.jpg&hash=0cfc7e70ca48255866f8d9c447b98a9839cd3e3b) (http://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/02/opensuse-conference-2012-invitation-to-lightning-talks-and-speedy-geeko-2/kostas-4/)
- Did you wanted to submit a talk and you were late?
- Do you feel like talking about something that has to do with openSUSE?
- Do you feel like talking about something that has nothing to do with the openSUSE?
- Do you feel the need to have an on-stage group-hug with Izabel and Kostas?
- Can you do all that in 2 to max 5 minutes?
This year, on oSC we bring one more time the openSUSE lightning talks and the Speedy Geeko and we encourage everyone to come and be a part of it.
Lightning Talks After many people submitted talks a bit late to fit on the regular conference Schedule or weren’t sure if they wanted to submit a whole talk in order to present something related to openSUSE, we recognised the need to organise something for all of you. After all there should be place for everyone in the openSUSE Conference.
We invite all people that want to make a short talk or talk short about their work inside openSUSE to join us in Lightning talks. Send your requests, info below.
How it works?
- Each Presenter gets 10 minutes to present their topic (depending on the number of submissions…)
- The topic should be related to openSUSE
- You must send a description of your talk until the 10th of october and have the slides ready to send before the beginning of this years oSC
- Your talk has no slide limit
Speedy Geeko After last year’s huge success and fun we dare to do it one more time. This year we promise to entertain you showing you the other stuff that openSUSE people do. Last year we had bacon, bees, countries, global personalities plus other cool stuff, this year we hope to be at least that interesting and exciting.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FKlaas1-300x225.jpg&hash=35fa3c935e0331553d1a06e1682fc51aac5e8a30) (http://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/02/opensuse-conference-2012-invitation-to-lightning-talks-and-speedy-geeko-2/klaas-3/)
How it works?
- Each Presenter gets 4 minutes to present their topic
- Each Presenter will present with 20 slides
- The slides progress every 15 seconds whether the Presenter is ready or not
- The topic can NOT be related to openSUSE
Instructions If you feel like participating all you have to do is to follow the instructions below:
- For submitting a lightning talk click here (izabelvalverde@opensuse.org) with subject title: Lightning talks
- For submitting a Speedy Geeko talk email click here (warlordfff@opensuse.org) with subject title: Speedy Geeko
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FJan1-300x225.jpg&hash=1d3a8196c98a9d4fe6b243997defcd1e269eb6d1) (http://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/02/opensuse-conference-2012-invitation-to-lightning-talks-and-speedy-geeko-2/jan-2/)
After we release the schedules all you have to do is to be sure that you will have your presentations given to us at some point before this year’s openSUSE conference.
Of course in an open format, preferably ODF or PDF!
Your hosts
Izabel Valverde and Kostas Koudaras
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.10.2012 - klo:18:49
3 October 2012, 11:00 am
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Ffactory-tested.png&hash=f65b2470fd34c4aa4b8733981d6ea2dd2c7bfd06)
Good news! openSUSE Milestone 0 of openSUSE 12.3 is out! While we’re still discussing the schedule and won’t be deciding anything before the openSUSE Conference in Prague later this month (http://conference.opensuse.org), development is picking up steam.
Changes Ismael Doenmez was kind enough to provide us with a quick overview of the latest changes in Factory:
- KDE is updated to 4.9.1 release
- Glibc is updated to 2.16 release
- Kernel is updated to 3.6.0-rc7
- X.org updated to 1.13 release
- All X.org video drivers are updated to latest stable release (or snapshot).
- Mesa updated to upcoming v9 snapshot.
- DRM libraries updated to 2.4.33 release
- Qt updated to 4.8.2 release.
- Emacs updated to 24.2 release.
- OpenJDK updated to 1.7.0.6 release
- Banshee media player is updated to 2.5.1 release.
- zsh is updated to 5.0 release
- SourceCodePro font from Adobe is now available among other new font packages.
- Support for OPUS codec added via libopus
- jpeg-turbo is now the default jpegv8 implementation, jpegv6 is dropped.
Helping out easier than ever! As expected from a development release, there is still a lot of work to do, so your input at this early stage will be a huge help in making the final release into the beautifully polished work that we aim for. openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 0 has a list of most annoying bugs here (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMost_annoying_bugs_12.3_dev), please add issues you find and help fix them. As Will Stephenson recently blogged (http://lizards.opensuse.org/2011/05/16/have-you-burped-yet-today/), fixing an issue is a matter of BURPing on build.opensuse.org (http://build.opensuse.org)! Find a how-to here (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABuild_Service_Collaboration#Example_with_web_interface).
So run, don’t crawl, to your nearest downloader and see for yourself what the next version of openSUSE has in store for you at our download center (http://software.opensuse.org/developer/en).
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.10.2012 - klo:18:49
3 October 2012, 5:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Flogo.png&hash=525205384694797cde23e440d76f2616ae7d6181)
Within three weeks, in Prague, the openSUSE Conference will start off again. Like last year, we have not only an awesome program (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org/schedule/) but also reserved time for small sessions to get work done. We’ve got a wiki page where you can schedule such sessions before the event (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_BoF_sessions) and on the event itself we’ll allow scheduling more sessions Unconference style. Read on to learn more about the BoF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_a_Feather_(computing)) session, based on an article from last year’s conference.
Definition Wikipedia defines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_a_Feather_(computing)) a BoF as ‘an informal discussion group’, ‘often formed in an ad-hoc manner’. It also describes a BoF as ‘an informal meet-up at conferences, where the attendees group together based on a shared interest and carry out discussions without any pre-planned agenda’.
The central concepts are informal, shared interests and ad-hoc. What is not mentioned are goals, the why of such a session. But based on the concepts, you can get an idea. The informal factor means everyone is equal and can and should voice their opinions. The shared interests mean you get together people who care about a particular subject. The ad-hoc factor merely re-inforces the other two. A BoF is very much like meeting for dinner: you talk as friends about whatever interests you! That is not to say a BoF can’t have goals. Often, BoFs have a number of things the participants want to discuss. The person organizing the BoF is usually the person who puts one or more topics forward, but everyone is free to bring up other issues. This is central to the concept of a BoF – discuss things.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2363%2F2311306708_5a29c44a0b_m.jpg&hash=48bec8ab3abd1ca462243ac2dfb3408265d5e700) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourkitchens/2311306708/) Why? Free Software communities work online in a collaborative fashion. That’s marketing speak for: we work together, alone. While each of us sits behind his computer, either alone or with others in an office, we form one team. We communicate over mail, IRC and other online channels.
For asking questions, basic decision making or just getting work done, this is excellent. For socializing, it is less optimal, but you’ll still find plenty of social interactions especially in IRC channels. It gets much harder however, when complicated issues surface. If decisions have to be made about processes or fundamental technical directions, the online aspect gets in the way. You quickly run into misunderstandings and while our hacker culture compels us to fairly direct (‘rude’) communication, still emotions can run wild.
This is where face to face meetings help. Getting to know each other over dinner or during a party is a powerful enabler for future online communication. But it is also the perfect moment to make those hard decisions! And that is where the BoF comes in.
How? Discussions about future directions or day to day business like improving a review process or working together more efficiently – all things done better in person. In a BoF, a team working together on-line meets and discusses these things, face to face, in an open manner. Not completely unstructured, mind you, but still very open. The organizer of the BoF is there merely to start up the discussion and possibly facilitate it. Facilitate by making sure some decisions are actually taken. And recorded!
A typical BoF starts with a short ‘hi all, thanks for coming’, and if needed an introduction of the participants. Then, it is time to find the subjects of the discussion at hand. The organizer can coin a few things he or she things need to be discussed and others can chime in. From there on, it’s a matter of actually going over the subjects one by one.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F49%2F171249238_1421d15dca_m.jpg&hash=923c594cd37e015058966282384a2d84c6c761e1) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/shrued/171249238/) The challenge now is to keep the discussion from going in all directions – something which is fine at a dinner but not productive at a BoF. Gently reminding the team of what the goal of the current topic is is usually sufficient. You all share the same goals, after all. The second challenge is to make sure decisions are taken and recorded. Creating the typical action list of who does what is the best way to go. It might make sense, with a large BoF team, to have one person lead the discussion while someone else takes notes.
Know that the person organizing the BoF does not have to be a ‘team leader’, nor a ‘great communicator’! Every attendee is equally responsible for the quality and results of the discussion. Organizing the BoF is merely a technical detail – not a huge deal at all, and anyone can do it.
Responsibilities and tools Organizing a BoF is surprisingly simple if the right people turn up. For that, a clear description is usually enough. A title like “Factory review process discussion” will most likely attract those involved with review of packages in Factory and interested in improving the process. If the review process has had hickups in the last few months it is highly unlikely that the discussion won’t be attended or not attract the right people. Nor is it likely to not have ‘enough to talk about’. The problem is usually more one of getting sidetracked and not actually finishing discussing the topic with a proper todo list!
What do you need to organize a BoF? Almost nothing. Pen and paper (for the todo!) will usually suffice. A whiteboard might be nice for more complicated problems like mapping out a new API, creating a flow diagram of a process or simply noting down the agreed-upon topics for the BoF. Otherwise, just talk! Introduce the topic quickly and ask for opinions will fire it off easily.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2797%2F4537737867_3ebfc19183_m.jpg&hash=2c384b903aaa0bf8104639b4404bd204d7b470bb) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tfdavis/4537737867/) Scheduling BoF’s Usually, BoF’s are scheduled ‘on the spot’ using a big whiteboard in the main hall of the conference or on an open wiki page. That can lead to two similar BoF’s or two BoF’s targeting the same team at the same time, however. It also means you might not have a spot at a decent time. Which might result in being forced to plan a BoF in the time slot of a talk about the same subject . This is why the openSUSE CfP team asks you to plan BoF’s in advance! We’ll also offer room to schedule BoF sessions at the event itself, of course.
The biggest perceived problem with planning a BoF is the inherent contradiction in ‘planning’ and ‘BoF’. Yes, you might not know now what will be an issue 3 months from now. However, you don’t have to nail the agenda down today, that would indeed run counter to the whole concept of a BoF. If you think your team will benefit from having a good, open discussion about what you do and how you (want to) do it, simply send in a quick proposal to the openSUSE Conference Paper Committee. It is no problem if something more urgent pops up and you discuss that instead of following the initial description. The main reason for ‘planning’ (part of) the BoF’s beforehand is to allow the CfP team to try and schedule things in such a way there is little overlap with talks and other BoF’s and to allow teams to reserve a room.
So go to the BoF wiki page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_BoF_sessions) and add a BoF! You’ve got until the day before the conference to do this – after that, we’ll schedule at the event itself using whiteboards.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 09.10.2012 - klo:01:00
8 October 2012, 11:23 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Flogo2.png&hash=31105cd7e334906a4ae42960588e308fbbbb67a8)
Less than two weeks from now the openSUSE Conference will start. The location itself is almost enough reason to attend: the openSUSE Conference 2012 is in the beautiful, historic city of Prague. For those jaded by gothic beauty, the conference program will provide all the motivation you need!
If you’re new to the world of Linux and software conferences, you might think that you’ll be out of your depth, especially when you recognize some of the leading lights in Free Software development and culture among the speakers. But there’s plenty at the openSUSE conference for the Linux newbie – in fact, it’s the perfect way to dive into the world of open source. Held in context with the local Linux Days and incorporating also SUSE Labs and a Gentoo miniconference, this openSUSE conference has something for everyone.
Read on to get a taste of the contents of the conference, with video and text interviews!
Video Interviews We’ve interviewed Agustin Benito, our keynote speaker, who will talk about the importance of Small and Medium businesses for Linux World Dominance. See below or click here (http://blip.tv/opensuse/interview-with-keynote-speaker-agustin-benito-from-suse-linux-6389522) for a link to blip.tv
The second speaker we interviewed is Linux Defender Armijn Hemel from the Open Invention Network. Click here (http://blip.tv/opensuse/interview-with-linux-defender-armijn-hemel-from-oin-6389518) for a blip.tv link.
Getting involved Monday afternoon offers some really useful talks for participants who are interested in getting involved in spreading the word about FLOSS and taking an active role in their project’s public face.
Isabel Valverde kicks things off after lunch with a presentation about the openSUSE Travel Support program. Many contributors are on a tight budget, so travel to events can be a real challenge. Providing direct assistance with travel and accommodation costs helps bring people together, creating a dynamic environment and allowing face-to-face communcation where problems are quickly solved and new ideas generated. Isabel explains how openSUSE’s approach to providing this assistance works and looks and costs and benefits.
openSUSE Ambassador Kostas Koudaras is the veteran of many conferences and events and has been heavily involved in developinng the Greek openSUSE community. Establishing successful programs for marketing and community involvement can be a trial-and-error process: you can never be sure how something will work until the ‘rubber hits the road’. In this talk, Kostas sets out the roadmap for the newly invigorated openSUSE ‘Ambassadors 2.0′ . Find out how you can get involved or leverage these ideas for your own FLOSS project.
Following on from Kostas is his countryman Ευστάθιος Ιωσηφίδης (Efstathios Iosifidis). Stathis was a driving force in establishing the Greek openSUSE community and is a key member of the translation team. He is also a member of the GNOME foundation.and participated in mentoring for Google Summer of Code. He also has experience at some huge events including a Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and FOSSCOMM.
Ih his talk on ‘nonverbal communication at the booth’, Stathis shares some tips on reaching out to attendees and creating a successful rappor. Linux events are building a reputation for being inclusive and welcoming. It’s not always easy to do – sometimes the most ‘natural’ assumptions can be wrong: you’d be right about my status as ‘just a user’, but that other grey-haired older woman over there – she’s been writing bare metal code since before you were though of. Meanwhile for those of us who are naturally a bit reserved (and who isn’t more comfortable behind a monitor?), the face-to-face interactions with strangers at a booth can be pretty daunting. I asked Stathis about his approach to breaking out of one’s shell.
“To begin with, I’ll look at the impression we create in the first few minutes – first impressions count! Things like clothes and body language are important if the visitor will want to interact with you or just pass by. Where you stand is the key. If you stand behind the table, it’s kind of defensive. You need to stand in front of the table, so that way the visitor will like you and feel more friendly.”
That makes a lot of sense – I’ve seen some booths where the tables felt more like a fortress and the attendants were hidden away behind them, and I felt like an intruder disturbing a private meeting. Not a nice experience! An openSUSE booth I’ve attended previously had a great solution to this problem, with a table for merchandise on one side, but open on the other, and attendants standing to talk to people at eye level. Of course, even then, some people, and especially new conference-goers, can be hesitant to approach.
“Many visitors are reticent and just check out our booth from a distance,” Stathis notes “When this happens you need to take the ‘offensive’ approach. Smile, say hi and talk first. Then you can give them promo materials and start the conversation.”
Stathis has identified some common mistakes that booth attendants make at open source events, but suggests that it isn’t really that difficult to improve your user experience.
“We don’t tend to let visitors talk, and we don’t listen, ” he explains. “Instead, we say what we want to say. What we are focusing on is not always what the visitor wants to listen to – for example, if the visitor wants to hear that Gnome is faster, has beautiful colours, has userful extensions etc, the chances are that we will be telling them that ‘openSUSE currently has Gnome 3.4 and soon we’ll have Gnome 3.6, that it has gtk3 instead of gtk2…’ – and that’s a huge mistake. “The key to everything is ask the right questions – and shut up and listen! It’s a point I really want to emphasise – it’s the visitor who should be talking most of the time, and not you. You do the listening. ”
Stathis feels that a personal connection is important, and evergreen wisdom still holds true. “Remember too that people like to hear their name, so try to remember names and use them in conversation.” That’s an ‘oldie but a goodie’ that I struggle with – thank heavens for conference nametags! Part of the process of the conversation is finding out why they are there and what they need from you. Stathis says “After you evaluate their statements and questions, then you need to either “forward” the visitor to someone from the group that knows best the answer, or depending the personality and the issue, give them some answers yourself.”
More advanced Programmers who have mastered some coding skills will find many talks to help them enhance their ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ skills, exploring ideas around development as well as lessons and hands-on workshops.
‘Building RPMs for Starters’ is a fantastic choice if you’re interested in getting ‘hands on’ with Linux. Learn basic packaging skills that you can apply to your own software or even use to help maintain packages for the distribution. (ask Nelson for a quote about this). Straight after this talk is Stephan ‘coolo’ Kulow’s session on packaging perl, python, ruby and java.
Web developers aren’t forgotten. As part of the Linux Days proram you can catch Michal Čihař ;s ‘Online translation using Weblate’ at 11.30. You can learn how to make your software accessable to Linux users with Nelson Marques.
How will your software fit in the world of open source? Learn more about the ecosystem with Libor Pecháček’s ‘How software gets from the community to commercial enterprise’.
There are many more advanced sessions at the conference, see more in the schedule (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org/schedule/).
Be there! The conference will start in less than two weeks! That means it is time to find accomodation (http://www.linuxdays.cz/accomodation/), start planning your trip and of course make sure you are registered (http://conference.opensuse.org/Register/)!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 11.10.2012 - klo:19:00
11 October 2012, 5:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Ffuturemedia_color-300x129.png&hash=e2f1a82640a5d0b1fcdb2eb881b88c8b4a7c1aa7)
The openSUSE Conference 2012 (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org) takes place next week from October 20th to 23rd in Prague, Czech Republic.
When you first step into the world of Free Software, it isn’t always easy: to paraphrase Richard Stallman, we are used to “trading freedom for convenience”. Understanding why you are using Free/Libre/OpenSource Software and seeing it at work can be inspiring – you might well find yourself on the path to be a Free/Libre Open Source Software contributor or advocate. Seeing how the principles of FLOSS are applied to things other than software can be equally inspiring and like Free Software, it is a revolution you can contribute to! You’ll find this and more inspiration in the Future Media track (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org/futuremedia) at this year’s conference (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org).
This track aimed specifically at bringing a wider scope to the conference and with talks by people like Georg Greve, founder of the Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfe.org), Lydia Pintscher from the WikiMedia Foundation (http://www.wikimedia.org) and Bas van Abel from the FabLab (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fab_lab) movement, the sessions will you a proper knowledge base on the why and what of the ‘open’ movement.
We spoke with a number of the speakers to give you an idea what they will talk about.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FGeeko-with-you-212x300.png&hash=6f87ec70189b1fbab26eb8a16e5121002c5e82d2)
Earlier interviews On Tuesday we already published the interview with Linux Defender Armijn Hemel from the Open Invention Network. Click here (http://blip.tv/opensuse/interview-with-linux-defender-armijn-hemel-from-oin-6389518) for a blip.tv link. and here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EW2PLhvKDfg) for YouTube and we also interviewed Agustin Benito, our keynote speaker, who will talk about the importance of Small and Medium businesses for Linux World Dominance. See here for Agustin on youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_oi2B6KBp8) or click here for a link to blip.tv (http://blip.tv/opensuse/interview-with-keynote-speaker-agustin-benito-from-suse-linux-6389522).
Gamification and Engaging Design After the Keynote on Saturday morning comes the first choice from the packed program. You might like to consider Thijs de Vries’ (http://creativeseeds.nl/) session on Gamification, using concepts from gaming in software design.
Thijs de Vries’ talk on Gamification provides inspiration for software developers who want to explore design concepts and create a richer user experience. Discover how software developers are using ideas from the world of gaming to create more intuitive user inferfaces, engaging websites and fun. As Free Software developer, getting your users engaged in your application is a good thing – the more people care, the more likely they are to be willing to contribute.
We did a video interview with Thijs de Vries, which you can watch below or click here for blip.tv (http://blip.tv/opensuse/thijs-de-vries-on-engaging-users-through-gamification-6392133) if you prefer that.
If you can’t open it, you don’t own it! Bas van Abel (http://news.opensuse.org/waag.org/nl/persoon/bas) tells us to start demanding open products. He states that “if you’re not open-sourcing and making stuff radically transparent, the way it happened in open source, (…) in the physical world then stuff will not change.”
Bas has been involved in the ‘maker’ movement, setting up fablabs in the Netherlands and in short advancing the case of decentralized production. He believes that, by bringing products closer to the consumers, there can be more innovation and less waste. He explains fablabs and his vision in the interview below. Click here (http://blip.tv/opensuse/bas-van-abel-tells-us-to-start-demanding-open-products-6393501) for blip.
Why Groupware matters Likewise, Georg Greve’s ‘What you don’t understand will still control you’ takes a look at the importance of Free Software. Georg founded the Free Software Foundation Europe and has since moved on to ‘solving’ the problem of moving businesses to Free Software. According to him, the ‘office challenge’ consists of three pillars: the browser; the office suite; and groupware. While the browser and the office suite are well taken care of, free software groupware solutions are still very limited. And that blocks the other pillars. If you get a free office license with your groupware solution, why use LibreOffice? And if the collaboration tools integrated with our office and groupware require you to use a Microsoft browser, why also install Firefox?
But the current open source groupware solutions all have some fatal flaws. There are problems like bad scaling, no cross-platform clients, bad infrastructure, bad licencing, no community involvement and more. One solution exists which solves most of these: Kolab. Kolab however really needed a dedicated, commercial entity pushing development forward, providing enterprise-level support and marketing and assisting in deployments. So, Georg co-founded KolabSys (http://kolabsys.com/) to kickstart the progress of this groupware suite. Recently, version 3.0 was released with a boatload of improvements. In the interview below, Georg explains the importance of Kolab, the third pillar and why the solution they have developed is so good. Click here for blip.tv (http://blip.tv/opensuse/georg-greve-on-the-pillars-of-freedom-in-the-business-6394425).
Ramon Roca: Building Networks Ramon Roca is a well known Spanish activist fighting for a free network. In 2004 he co-founded guifi.net, a grassroots Broadband initiative in which citizens provide themselves the telecommunication infrastructure they use without the participation of traditional Internet Service Providers (ISP’s). Today, Guifi.net connects more that eighteen thousand homes through a more than thirty three thousand kilometers-long network through radio links and optic fiber channels in Spain.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Fguifi-300x149.jpg&hash=5c53931139f3d1bc6409eaa4e35c4387aeb0a49e) (http://guifi.net/en/)Guifi in action – from guifi.net To give some insight into his presentation, Ramon Roca spoke with Thanasis ‘Zoumpis’ Rousinopoulos. Ramon, born in rural Catalonia and in his late forties has been “a corporate IT professional for around 25 years, living in various places”. He’s now back in Catalonia where he has started a family.
He explained that Guifi.net started when “several people began cooperating by aggregating wireless networks”. The infrastructure is shared and supported by a social network of people who care about it and it has now grown into “a collective initiative led by the people with the aim of providing broadband as an alternative of traditional telcos. Just like in open source, you can participate in many ways” but here, we’re talking infrastructure, the main goal for the network. When asked what he considered big successes of Guifi, Ramon answered that for him “every single connection is a success itself, so now we can say that there are many thousands of successes, with different technologies (wireless or cable)”. He himself is of course also connected to the network, with “a fiber optic with 1 Gig symmetric at home. There is no magic behind it: when we manage the infrastructure, you’ll get the full benefit of the state of the art of it, and that is what fiber optic currently provides”. Finally, the end goal for Ramon is “Internet for all. That means having a network commons alternative worldwide, regardless if you call it guifi.net or not”.
Be there! This year oSC12 will take place at the Czech Technical University (http://www.cvut.cz/en) in Prague. The campus is located in the Dejvice district and is next to an underground station that gets you directly to the old town - an opportunity you can’t miss!
As the interviews show, we have an incredible schedule (http://bootstrapping-awesome.org/schedule/) lined up for you with speakers about a wide variety of topics, both going in-depth into core Linux technologies as well as folks talking about the why and how of Software (and hardware!) Freedom.
We expect to welcome about 500 Open Source developers, testers, usability experts, artists and professional attendees to the openSUSE conference, but we won’t be alone: this year, we work together with the local LinuxDays, SUSE Labs and the Gentoo community, making one big, smashing event!
The entire combined conference is expected to attract well over 1000 visitors. Admission to the openSUSE conference as well as LinuxDays, the SUSE Labs conference and the Gentoo miniconf is of course completely free.
The conference starts on October 20 2012 and ends on the 23rd. Be there (http://conference.opensuse.org/Register/)!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.10.2012 - klo:19:00
12 October 2012, 5:30 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FoSC3-Logo2-197x300.png&hash=c8fc831475fa3b91de7b055e231b83048017a7b0)
Everyone knows what really matters at a conference happens outside the scheduled talks, right? The life of the openSUSE project happens when we get together, talk and plan, and this happens much faster face to face than on the mailing lists or forums. These Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions are how we do this.
Team members within the openSUSE Project should take the opportunity the openSUSE Conference offers to sit down together and hash out their plans for future activity.
Get your team’s BoF Session at openSUSE Conference 2012 planned now!
BoF HOW-TO:
- Enter your BoF into the openSUSE Wiki page here (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_BoF_sessions). There are 29 hour-long slots available in both venues over the four days of the conference, so there is plenty of time to talk.
- Plan your BoF. Agree an agenda, consult team members who are not attending oSC12 for input, and make sure the important things you want to do for upcoming openSUSE distribution releases or changes you would like to have in the project are on the list.
- Remind people who haven’t yet decided if they are coming to the conference.
- Announce your BoF on mailing lists – face to face meetings are the best way to turn interested conference visitors into new and motivated contributors.
- Nominate a BoF chair who will be responsible for running the session
- We recommend that you keep your BoF short and sweet – one or two hours, if you have a detailed agenda to work through in your team.
- Nominate someone to take minutes, and publish those minutes on the relevant meeting list and add them to the openSUSE wiki!
- Read more info and tips in this article (http://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/03/osc-2012-bof-sessions-can-be-scheduled/)
We look forward to seeing lots of you talking until your jaws ache!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 16.10.2012 - klo:01:01
15 October 2012, 8:00 pm
Next weekend the openSUSE Conference 2012 begins in Prague, Czech Republic. Without the generous and comprehensive support of our sponsors, this event would not be possible. So we’d like to present them to you in this post.
Platinum sponsor SUSE Linux GmbH
No surprises here, SUSE, as the main sponsor of the openSUSE Project, is supporting the conference.
SUSE is the original provider of the enterprise Linux distribution and the most interoperable platform for mission-critical computing. It’s the only Linux recommended by VMware, Microsoft and SAP. And it’s supported on more hardware and software than any other enterprise Linux distribution.
Gold sponsor Aeroaccess GmbH
Aeroaccess stands for integrated mobile communication. Aeroaccess are specialists for design, implementation and management of your mobile communication and network environment, in order to enable integrated business communication, independent of location and time.
Silver sponsor Google, Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.
Bronze sponsor B1 Systems
B1 Systems offers professional consulting, specific development, individual and continuous support as well as qualified trainings.
B1′s comprehensive Linux / Open Source project experience is based on the successful completion of many projects for numerous major enterprises as well as on the professional accomplishment of long-term support. In close collaboration with the customer B1 Systems develops target-oriented and customized solutions. With established Linux solutions based on practical experience B1 has built an excellent reputation and is happy to pass this knowledge on through individual support, professional books and practical work in a wide variety of Linux / Open Source community & enterprise projects.
Supporting Sponsors ownCloud, Inc.
ownCloud is a flexible, open source file sync and share solution. Whether using a mobile device, a workstation, or a web client, ownCloud provides the ability to put the right files at your employees’ fingertips on any device in one simple-to-use, secure, private and controlled solution.
Univention GmbH
Univention is the most important producer of Open Source complete solutions, the enterprise Linux distribution Univention Corporate Server (UCS), identity and infrastructure management systems and groupware and desktop solutions in the German-speaking world.
Media Partners Linux Magazine
Available in both print and digital editions, Linux Magazine brings practical, hands-on solutions for real users who depend on Linux in their daily lives. Our readers are a new generation of Linux experts who are pushing the limits of Linux as a server, desktop, and development platform. They read Linux Magazine to learn more about technologies and products for Linux. Our unique combination of advanced coverage with a practical emphasis makes Linux Magazine a great fit for the kinds of reader who tend to make decisions and pass on recommendations.
Root.cz
Root.cz is a well-known IT and open source technology news site in the Czech Republic.
Thanks! We’re very gratful for the support these sponsors provide us for the event.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: jmp - 29.10.2012 - klo:17:10
17:00 OpenSUSE Suomi
Tuorein openSUSE yleisesittely
SUSE Manager
OpenStack (SUSE Cloud)
18:30-21:00 Vapaata keskustelua, sauna, ruokaa ja juomaa
Paikka on Pitäjänmäellä Valimon aseman tuntumassa. Parhaiten paikalle pääsee A- junalla tai bussilla 54 (päätepysäkki).
Myös kaikki Vihdintietä kulkevat bussit menevät läheltä. Kartta (https://maps.google.fi/maps?q=Valimotie+16,+Helsinki&hl=fi&sll=60.383002,25.029048&sspn=0.012386,0.038581&oq=valimotie+16,+helsinki&t=h&hnear=Valimotie+16,+00380+Helsinki&z=15).
Pääoven luona on henkilö, joka ohjaa eteenpäin klo 16:00 Flug- yhdistyksen kokoukseen ja klo 17:00 yhdistyksen ja openSUSEn yhteiseen iltatilaisuuteen.
Jos tulet eri aikaan, niin soita numeroon 050 5407788 (Tuomas Levoniemi)
Ole hyvä ja ilmoittaudu Doodlen kautta: http://www.doodle.com/wngd5fbw535w66g8
Kirjoitti: guest405 - 07.11.2012 - klo:15:34
T: Tuomas Levoniemi
Kirjoitti: guest405 - 11.11.2012 - klo:11:20
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/311398_10151234316589356_1777754805_n.jpg)
Kirjoitti: jmp - 11.11.2012 - klo:17:55
Jostain syystä tuo kuvien ottaminen unohtuu mutta tässä nyt muutama kuva.
(https://opensuse.fi/stuff/jmp/teemailta/12110002.jpg)
(https://opensuse.fi/stuff/jmp/teemailta/12110004.jpg)
(https://opensuse.fi/stuff/jmp/teemailta/12110006.jpg)
(https://opensuse.fi/stuff/jmp/teemailta/12110008.jpg)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
7 November 2012, 9:50 pm
Kevin Carillo, a PhD student currently living in Wellington (New Zealand) is doing some research on Free/Open Source Software communities. He asked the openSUSE community for help, especially those who have joined the openSUSE community after January 2010 (within approximately the last 3 years), in assisting him with his research. He is looking to find out how newcomers to a FOSS community become valued, sustained contributors and thus he needs input from people, both technical and non-technical, on their experiences as newcomers. Find the survey here (https://limesurvey.sim.vuw.ac.nz/index.php?sid=65151&lang=en). Read on to find out what Kevin has to say about the survey!
A quest for community citizens openSUSE is a successful community that keeps attracting new contributors and that has a reputation of being extremely newcomer-friendly. But is this enough to make sure that openSUSE remains a healthy and growing project?
Suppose a community manages to attract 20 new members every month and suppose a large number of them do not comply to the code of conduct, commit changes without considering the people or modules/components being affected by the commits, do not attend or contribute to any of the community events, do not assist any other members when they seek for help, do not treat other members with respect … It will not take a lot of time until the health of the community will be affected and the future of the project seriously jeopardized.
The main assumption that motivated this project is that attracting new members has become crucial for a large majority of FOSS communities but this is not a sufficient condition to ensure the success and prosperity of a project.
So, yes … it is important to attract newcomers but a community needs to make sure that a certain proportion of these newcomers become ‘good’ contributors from the community perspective. ‘Good’ in the sense that they shall contribute to the well-being and growth of the community. ‘Good’ as good community citizens.
What do newcomers really experience? Keeping all that in mind, FOSS projects have thus to do a good job at ‘socializing’ their newcomers and turning them into contributors. Doing a good job here means that FOSS projects shall ensure that they help generate those citizenship behaviors from newcomers by designing appropriate newcomer programmes and procedures.
openSUSE has initiatives to facilitate the integration of newcomers with its active involvement in GSoC or GCI, or the use of junior jobs for instance. Other large FOSS projects may rely on other types of newcomer initiatives such as the use of newcomer resources (e.g. tutorials), newcomer sub-communities, formal/informal mentoring, or sponsorship mechanisms…
However, it seems that the other side of the coin is less understood by communities: the actual experience of newcomers.
How are the contributions and the behavior of a new member affected if he or she has received formal mentoring by one or several experienced members? Are junior jobs really helping integrate newcomers? How important is the support of a community towards its newcomers? This is what I am trying to find out.
How is this study going to help openSUSE? The data will help gain insights about the experience of newcomers within the openSUSE community. In addition, it will allow to understand how to design effective newcomer initiatives to ensure that openSUSE will remain a successful and healthy community.
The dataset will be released under a share-alike ODbL license so that openSUSE contributors can extract as much value as possible from the data.
Since this survey involves other large FOSS projects such as Mozilla, Debian, Gnome, Ubuntu, or Gentoo to name but a few, it will also be possible to compare practices across projects in order to identify what works from what does not work when facilitating the integration of newcomers.
About the survey This survey is anonymous, and no information that would identify you is being collected. I expect the survey to take around 20 minutes of your time.
The survey is available at this site (https://limesurvey.sim.vuw.ac.nz/index.php?sid=65151&lang=en).
It will be available until Tuesday, 20 November, 2012.
If you know members of the openSUSE community who you think would be interested in completing it, please do not hesitate to let them know about this research.
I will post news about my progress with this research, and the results on my blog (http://kevincarillo.org). Don’t hesitate to contact me by mail (kevin.carillo-at-vuw.ac.nz).
Thanks for participating!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
8 November 2012, 7:34 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2Ffactory-tested.png&hash=f65b2470fd34c4aa4b8733981d6ea2dd2c7bfd06)
News fresh from the Factory: the openSUSE Release team has made the openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 1 available for testing and feedback. There has been lots of plumbing in the infrastructure, with most prominently the removal of SuSEconfig – the capitalization of its name should give a hint about its age. If you want to get a taste of the upcoming release or want to help test and develop this awesome, green Linux distribution: come and get it!
Updated infrastructure With Milestone One of openSUSE 12.3, things start getting interesting. For starters, the init system continues to evolve rapidly. Sysvinit has now been removed, following some discussion. Given complete dominion over the boot procedure and device management, systemd has swallowed udev and udisks whole, and the result is systemd v195, up from v44!. This offers the following features:
- Completely migrated to /usr
- Improved journal data and queries
- Additional conditions for unit files (the systemd equivalent of /etc/init.d/ scripts under sysvinit)
- /media temporary mount points are now under /run/user/
- Suspend, hibernate and the laptop lid switch are now handled by systemd
Dracut and PackageKit Discussions about Dracut vs the custom mkinitrd scripts are ongoing. Currently, different scripts are used to create images in different places and Dracut offers an opportunity to fix that – but it is in dire need of more testing and also still lacks a number of features. There are also talks about what to do with PackageKit: the current zypper backend does not work very well and the new PackageKit (which brings a great many desirable changes) really needs a fully rewritten version.
SuSEconfig Another piece of long-time S.u.S.E., SuSE, SUSE and openSUSE infrastructure to be demolished for 12.3 is SuSEconfig, probably the most annoying command to enter manually. SuSEconfig was created to replace /etc/rc.config and the often-criticized direct modification of config files by YaST, as a modular host for configuration scripts to apply system-wide changes after installing or removing groups of packages – for example, rebuilding the font database, applying policy stored in a standard format in /etc/sysconfig to the actual config files, or migrating gconf schemas after a version update. Performing these actions once after installing a group of packages reduced installation time. With the trend to performing these actions in post-install/post-uninstall specfile stanzas, or via rpm triggers, the move to dynamic self-configuration by Xorg and NetworkManager, and the removal of slow operations at install time, SuSEconfig is without a role for the first time in more than 12 years, and sysadmins’ pinkie fingers will get a much-needed break.
Software changes This milestone of course also brings many newer versions in toolchain and for end users. GNOME is now updated to version 3.6 and this milestone also includes the 1.0 version of GStreamer. The software collection from KDE is incremented to 4.9.2 with Qt 4.8.3 underneath. Firefox and Thunderbird are updated to latest stable 16.0.2 releases and colord-gtk and nginx are new. Removals include the Evolution GroupWise connector, removed due to lack of maintenance. F-Spot likewise falls by the wayside, as does the Sabayon configuration management tool. The Smolt hardware tool was dropped as it was deemed to have served its purpose.
In the toolchain and platform section we have the following major changes:
- Switched to libpng 1.5
- binutils 2.23 (previous was 2.22)
- gcc has been updated to 4.7.2 release
- We are now shipping bison 2.6 and flex 2.5.37
- Python 3.3 is now shipped (up from 3.2)
- Mesa 9.
- xf86-video-ati 6.98.1 (CHANGES??)
- xf86-video-intel 2.20.12
- We are now shipping the stable 3.6.3 kernel
See for yourself what the next version of openSUSE has in store for you at our download center (http://software.opensuse.org/developer/en).
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
13 November 2012, 11:00 am
This years openSUSE Election Committee is in the pleasant position to announce the 2012 Board elections[0].
The timeline we decided for this year election is the following:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FGeekoVote.png&hash=657be312c0cf64ff4e855ec11885a75e132a059d) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=14576)
November 13th (Phase 0)
- Announcement of the openSUSE Board election for 2012.
- Start of 2 week period to apply for an openSUSE membership (in order to vote).
- Start of 2 week phase to stand for a position in the openSUSE Board.
November 27th
- Notification of intent to run, and application for an openSUSE membership close (end of phase 0).
November 28th (Phase 1)
- Start of 1 week campaign for the candidates before the ballots open (campaign might be done until ballots close).
December 5th (Phase 2)
- Ballots open
December 16th
- Ballots close (end of phase 2)
December 17th
- Announcement of the results
So, if you want to participate in the openSUSE board and influence the future direction of the project please stand up and announce your candidacy. If you want to vote for the candidates, please make sure your openSUSE membership [1] is approved. If you are a contributor of openSUSE but you are not a member yet, apply for membership now[2] and be a part of the changes to come.
For the openSUSE Board will be 2 seats to be elected, each for a 2 year term.
If you have any questions about the election or the board’s tasks, please contact the election commitee (election-officials@opensuse.org) or the board (board@opensuse.org).
With Honour
This year Election Committee
Bryen M Yunashko
Izabel Valverde
Thomas Schmidt
- http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_election [1] http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Members
[2] http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Membership_officials#Process
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
21 November 2012, 12:49 am
Two weeks ago, openSUSE Ambassadors Ilias and Diomidis joined the SUSE crew at LinuxCon in Barcelona, Spain, to represent the Geeko to the visitors of this conference. As most ambassadors do, they wrote an excellent report about the event which we didn’t want you all to miss. To give you a taste of the event, Ilias send the report with the following comment: “it was an amazing experience for me and Diomidis.” Read on for more details!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FPB050115-300x225.jpg&hash=42a761b67865d5d4ad8e1b95d4fd9d54425af2ae) (https://plus.google.com/photos/114050975028455021748/albums/5807999003949295585/5807999670170728562)Booth after setting it up (with us in it) Introduction The openSUSE Project participated at LinuxCon Europe 2012 (05-08 Nov 2012), sharing booth space with SUSE. Two ambassadors (Zoumpis (http://www.zoumpis.eu/),Diomidis (http://en.opensuse.org/User%3ADiomidis)] were there to represent the openSUSE Community during the conference. Let’s see what happened there!
Pre conference Day On Sunday evening we made our first visit at the Linuxcon Venue. Our first mission was to visit the registration desk and get our ID’s and T-Shirts, then we went to the co-hosted (SUSE/openSUSE) booth and started to unpack the SUSE goodies. Allan Clark, who organized the SUSE attendance at the event, also joined us to help with the booth setup.
First day Our day started early, at 7.30 am. We went directly to Hotel Fira Palace, where the LinuxCon was hosted and we prepared the booth. We attended the morning keynotes: Advancing the User Experience (http://linuxconeurope2012.sched.org/event/a6a44d86215d0bdf0799c67a30cb59e6?iframe=no&w=900&sidebar=yes&bg=no#.UJvYiXlg6co) by Mark Suttleworth and
Why Evernote runs their own Linux servers instead of “The Cloud” (http://linuxconeurope2012.sched.org/event/0ee5d5a648edf63b1a58eff9dfad5ee5?iframe=no&w=900&sidebar=yes&bg=no#.UJvZlXlg6co) by Dave Engberg.
We didn’t attend more presentations than the above because we had to be at the booth. At the booth our main job was to welcome, assist and help the visitors. Also we had the biggest promo staff give away on Monday. openSUSE dvd’s, hats, stickers, lighters, openSUSE Community flyers and USB sticks. Finally we had a contest for winning 4 SUSE laptop bags and the draw took place on Wednesday.
Feedback The feedback we got from the conference attendees was very good and friendly about the openSUSE distro and community of course. The common questions that people had were:
- Which is the difference between SUSE and openSUSE
- What software and features does include the openSUSE 12.2 Promo DVD
- Does openSUSE 12.2 support ARM architecture
- Asking if the promo stuff was free.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FPB060143-300x225.jpg&hash=9d3fbbcde8730d84b108b490571b2bc3ac933f19) (https://plus.google.com/photos/114050975028455021748/albums/5807999003949295585/5808000893952588258)Ralf Flaxa, SUSE’s VP of engineering talks at LinuxCon Second day As we spent the full first day at the booth, it was the right moment to attend more presentations: this time we took turns staffing the booth. The day begun as the previous one by attending the keynotes, like Open Source Cloud Platforms (http://linuxconeurope2012.sched.org/event/6c0dce60673147a70e8759a551c1e00c?iframe=no&w=900&sidebar=yes&bg=no#.UJvgcXlg6co) by Marten Mickos [CEO,Eucalyptus Systems] and Importance of Linux at Intel by Imad Sousou [OTC,Intel]. As the openSUSE Release Party (https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/event_calendar/view/41830) was about to take place we informed people about it.
After the day at the conference was over, we went to the party organized by Zoumpis and a Spanish friend, Fran L. Murcia. Many people from the local KDE community attended at the party but people from the Conference as well (Alan Clark, SUSE Employees, HP employees, Director of Spanish-spoken Linux Magazine). Furthermore some other people who read the party announcement were there. In total we had about 15 people talking about the openSUSE 12.2 release and its features, openSUSE in general and of course we had fun.
he first day we (me and Diomidis) were at the openSUSE booth , but we attended the Keynotes as well. The other days we did take turns. We assisted the openSUSE booth and attendedpresentations as well. The SUSE booth was asisted only by Alan Clark and SUSE employees. The stuff we had was, openSUSE Promo DVD’s, the new openSUSE leaflets, SUSE hats, usb sticks, openSUSE flashlights.
This time, we went to way more presentations, of course.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FPB070182-300x225.jpg&hash=f5fd6f8371e6a34ce50dadde8057de8510ff5e23) (https://plus.google.com/photos/114050975028455021748/albums/5807999003949295585/5809296830237975874)Meeting famous people (yes, that is Linus) Day Three The day started with Linus Torvarlds interview, no need for introduction! Many questions were made, many of them were about on how Linus sees the future of Linux, what features the next kernel will have and of course there was a discussion about embedded arm devices. Again, we attended presentations as well and talked to many people at the booth.
At the end of the second day of the conference it was time to deconstruct the booth and do the raffle for the SUSE bags. Four laptop bags were given away.
Fourth day As there was no booth we were free to attend any of the presentations that were taking place. So we chose to attend the Gluster Workshop and Yocto Project Developer Day (http://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon-europe/co-located-events).
Conclusion Now we have so many things to share, many good memories and so much enthusiasm to pass to you openSUSE community people. But let’s keep it short: LinuxCon is one of the best experiences that a Linux fan/developer/user etc can get. Motivational speeches, enthusiastic people talking about open software and hardware, workshops from top-tier developers around the world, literally EVERYTHING about Linux and it’s derivatives. Embedded devices and yocto were probably most visible. All we can say its that going to LinuxCon was a dream that became true for us!!
Here you can find photos of the conference (https://plus.google.com/photos/114050975028455021748/albums/5807999003949295585?authkey=CIfb5uLC0rWhZQ) and here are some more (http://www.flickr.com/photos/13825348@N03/sets/72157632014371035/).
Report by
Athanasios-Ilias Rousinopoulos (aka zoumpis)
Diomidis Anadiotis
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
24 November 2012, 6:16 pm
Update: all services are back – please report issues via mail to admin @ opensuse.org
On Saturday, December 1st 2012, at approximately 05:00 UTC our data center team will do a backend storage upgrade. The planned window is 8-10 hours for the maintenance, and specific applications will probably be not available until 24:00 UTC as listed below.
- openSUSE Forums (http://forums.opensuse.org)
- openSUSE Lizards (http://lizards.opensuse.org/)
- openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org/)
- openSUSE (landing page (http://www.opensuse.org) and wikis (http://news.opensuse.org/wiki.opensuse.org))
- Novell Open ID (http://www.novell.com/communities/node/8951/novell-accessmanager-authentication-class-openid-authentication) for SUSE Studio (http://susestudio.com/)
To avoid confusion – the services listed below are not scheduled for any downtime and accordingly up for the whole time:
- openSUSE download page (http://download.opensuse.org)
- Documentation (http://doc.opensuse.org)
- Video recordings (http://tube.opensuse.org)
- Mailing lists (http://lists.opensuse.org)
- IRC channels (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://irc.opensuse.org/opensuse-project)
- Planet openSUSE (http://planet.opensuse.org)
- openSUSE Connect (http://connect.opensuse.org)
- openSUSE Shop (http://shop.opensuse.org)
- Features openSUSE (http://features.opensuse.org)
- Build Service (http://build.opensuse.org)
- Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.novell.com)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
28 November 2012, 2:14 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FopenSUSE-2012-Elections_banner_695.png&hash=9d10abd0062493d1ec22534d3a3024f8f881dc58)
The period for standing up for election to the 2013 openSUSE Board is now closed and the openSUSE Election Officials committee is proud to announce this year’s candidates. Please welcome the following candidates in alphabetical order:
- Matt Barringer (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00102.html)
- Richard Brown (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00042.html)
- Carl Fletcher (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00093.html)
- Manu Gupta (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00106.html)
- Chuck Payne (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00103.html)
- Robert Schweikert (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00100.html)
- Stefan Seyfried (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00101.html)
- Raymond Woonick (announcement) (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-11/msg00047.html)
So What’s Next? As defined in the previous announcement by the Election Officials, the remaining steps in this year’s election timeline are that the candidates shall begin officially campaigning henceforth. Balloting will begin on 5 December, 2012.
All eligible members of the openSUSE Project will be notified with the process for submitting their ballot to choose their two favorite candidates for the Board. Members will have up to 16 December, 2012 to vote.
Then, if all goes well, and we don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t, we’ll be announcing the winners of this year’s election on 17 December, 2012.
You can read the full set of timeline and procedures here (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABoard_election).
The Election Officials committee would like to extend good luck wishes to each and every candidate and look forward to the conclusion of this exciting campaign.
With special thanks to victorhck (http://victorhckinthefreeworld.wordpress.com/) for the creation of the art graphic on this page.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
3 December 2012, 7:07 pm
Summarizing the Travel Support Program
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2F3654543066_2c8823cb03_o-300x168.jpg&hash=51234634a548db32d21a45572de82312229118a6) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=14680)
The openSUSE Travel Support Program aims to support contributors representing openSUSE at events, conferences and hack-fests with their travel and hotel costs. The program pays up to 80% of the travel and/or hotel costs for contributors who could not afford going to these events otherwise. In turn the contributors make a worthy contribution at the event and report back to the openSUSE community about what they did.
The Travel Committee also decides on travel support for openSUSE events like the openSUSE Conference and the openSUSE Summit.
Current Committee includes
- Kostas Koudaras (ambassador event planning)
- Izabel Valverde (finance & planning)
- Agustin Benito Bethencourt (openSUSE Team Lead at SUSE)
The Travel Support Team has till now sponsored various conferences including FOSDEM, Cerea Fair, Solutions Linux, COSCUP, Indiana Linux Fest, Linux Tag, SELF, Libre Office Graphic Meeting and loads of others. Along with this, the Travel Committee also handles sponsorship handling for openSUSE Summit and openSUSE Conference which in itself are very tedious tasks.
Numbers
- TSP : 15
- Summit : 11
- openSUSE Conference : 21
What we need you to do?
If you think you need a sponsorship, then APPLY For it. However there are a few rules, which you have to keep in mind. So if you are thinking of applying, have a look at here (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
5 December 2012, 2:07 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2Fnext-candidates.png&hash=0cf55385e64070df718e4e51a14d10bf1a8b49d2)
The excitement has been building for weeks and now the most important phase of the openSUSE Board elections begins today — Election Time!
Two seats are open for election by members of the openSUSE Project. The first seat is vacated by Henne Vogelsang who has completed his two-term limit. The second seat is currently held by Manu Gupta, appointed to fill in for Peter Linnel who stepped down in August of 2012. Both seats are for a two-year term that begins in January 2013 and ends in January 2015.
How to Vote If you are a current member of the openSUSE Project, you will receive an email with instructions on how to vote via openSUSE Connect polling system. You must be a member in good standing on or before 27 November 2012. If you have not yet received an email within the next 24 hours, please contact the Election Officials committee at election-officials@opensuse.org.
Each eligible voter will be given two votes to cast, one for each seat to be elected in this cycle.
Voting begins today and concludes at 23:00 UTC on 16 December 2012.
But I can’t decide! With 8 excellent candidates running for two seats, we feel your pain. Luckily, there’s two ways to learn more about the candidates.
Option 1: Platforms and Blogs Read the candidates platforms and blogs here (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABoard_election#Candidates).
Option 2: Live Q&A Debate Tomorrow, Thursday at 15:00 UTC (what’s my timezone? (http://www.worldtimeserver.com/convert_time_in_UTC.aspx)), candidates will gather in the #opensuse-project channel on Freenode IRC network. A two hour session, moderated by the Election Officials, this will be an opportunity for you to ask questions live .
Can’t make it, no problem. We will post transcript of the debate here and on the mailing lists. Got a question you want to ask but can’t make it? Post your question in the comment section below and we’ll make sure the question gets asked during the debate.
Thank you,
openSUSE Election Officials
With special thanks to Marcus Moeller (http://www.marcusmoeller.ch/) for creation of artwork banner.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
7 December 2012, 6:26 pm
On 6 December, 2012, the 8 candidates standing for election of the 2013 openSUSE Board joined members of the community in an open Q&A Debate session on IRC. The complete log of that event can be found here (http://community.opensuse.org/meetings/opensuse-project/2012/opensuse-project.2012-12-06-15.01.log.html).
Candidates participating included: Matt Barringer, Richard Brown, Carl Fletcher, Manu Gupta, chuck Payne, Robert Schweikert, Stefan Seyfried, and Raymond Wooninck. The event was moderated by the openSUSE Election
Below is a summarization of the questions asked and answers given by various candidates. Each answer represents an aggregate of the candidate’s total answers during a specific quesstion session. To read in full flow context, we urge you to read the full log here (http://community.opensuse.org/meetings/opensuse-project/2012/opensuse-project.2012-12-06-15.01.log.html).
How do you propose to improve communication within the community? Barringer: Work reports from the board sent out regularly to the appropriate lists would be a first start IMO. After all, if people don’t want to talk to each other, they won’t talk to each other :-) I don’t think the board can force anyone (or any team) to do anything. Encourage co-operation between teams, sure, but at a certain point it’s all volunteers.
Gupta: The second thing I believe is encourage the community to ask questions to the Board.. between different teams or the same… if it is different teams, the teams should move forward and seek help when necessary.. like the news team will need the marketing team and the gnome team needs artwork for their wallpapers and themes.. somebody will have to step up.
Fletcher: from my point of view if the candidate is well involved in the community already and has a good understanding of user needs, this will help. In my dealings with the board as a forum admin, I have found them to be quite in touch with the community and they certainly worked well with us in the forum team to establish some good ground rules in the forum. all of us here are well involved but a huge number of users that are new to the LinuxLand, not necessarilly opensuse members, just don’t really know about the communication we have (irc, ML), I meet many who don’t even know what irc is and couldn’t even set it up. Maybe we need a better news front, that could include a news letter from the board and it’s doings..
Payne: I think we should should social media as a means to get the message out. With google translate, there should not be any excuse to translate any reports, messages so that everyone gets what the board is doing. I also believe board should have an open door when it comes to the community so that the community feel we are here for them. We aren’t using a lot tools that could get our messages out to all the members, I like to see openSUSE News come back like when Mann ran it with PDF a coloum from the boards one what we are working on. I have seen in the past the board seem to be a bit distant from the community that a lot stuff was only community in the irc channel. We need to be able to take what is spoke here and it out to the community.
Brown: We have some teams in the project who are doing a great job at communicating, both among themselves and between each other – the growing amount of chatter between the GNOME and KDE teams in particular. I’d like to see more of that kind of open, collaborative communication, and that also means from the board – I like suggestions like Matt’s, people need to know what the board is upto, just as other contributors need to know what is going on in their parts of the project. I think it should be within the capabilities of the board to encourage and hopefully foster better communication within teams. We’ve got good examples like the desktop teams, it might be the place of the board to nudge teams to follow similar practices if teams are struggling to have the same degree of communication
Seyfried: I don’t have that proposal on my list :-) but as an opensuse-factory reader/writer, I’m participating in communication with a vital part of the community: the developers.
Schweikert: This has many aspects, thus we need to have multiple solutions. There is no general answer. – The board needs to communicate better, we need to figure out how to improve cross linking of teams, i.e. developers/packagers with marketing/art-work with forums….. The communication issue probably needs to be an explicit topic for board/project meetings for a while and then we need to divide and conquer the various aspects. This is a very braod topic. I think the board can suggest a path of communication, i.e. one spokesperson for each of the various teams, this spokes person send announcements/progress/work reports to the announce list for example
Wooninck: I believe that it is not only the communication to and from the board itself. It is also the communication within the community and with SUSE itself. One improvement could be Newsletters from the Board about topics discussed, I believe that the board can facilitate communication on team level. Most of the things that disrupts communication is that one team doesn’t know what the other team is doing. By providing a communication platform (Maybe even Social Media, openSUSE News, etc), this could be improved. I have seen this between Gnome and KDE teams. Once you identify common goals, communication will follow.
How can the community evaluate if the board objectives are met Barringer: My objectives, like probably everyone elses, would be to a) Push forward a mentorship program and b) Open better communication channels. The metrics would be: a) Did the mentorship program get off the ground? [Y/N] b) Are people happier with the communication from the board? [Y/N]
Seyfried: obviously: someone has to define the objectives, and the board needs to report on the fulfillment. The question is, if being a board member is something that’s attractive in such an environment. The answer to the question is: the board needs to report on the fulfillment of the objectives. The judgement if they are met or not is onto the reader of that report.
Gupta: My Objectives : Report quarterly, that should become a norm ; and transparency in cash dealings or a set up where we can work on cashes with SUSE / other sponsors so
Schweikert: One objective is to establish objectives ;) From my point of view there are none today. Even in a volunteer “organization” I believe in accountability, from everyone not just the board. The board needs to agree on what is needed, then make it a priority, publicize it and work on it to conclusion. May this be a mentor program financial transparency or other topic. The board needs to be more than a “reportor/monitor”. It is important to keep the hands on the pulse of the community, no question. But some things just need to be initiated by the board and then set free. Board needs to actively call for volunteers for certain intiatives.
Fletcher: it’s a community, the objectives are driven by the community, the board needs to be listening and have good coms to best understand and interpret such
Payne: I want to see the Foundation get set up finial it been talked about 4 years. I think once we do that then we can work setting up education programs for new users. Setting up better ambassador project. Listening to the community on what works, that that feed back improve on it and share it. we have SUSE Studio, OSB, and Google Summer of Code. All of which we have worked hard one. I like to see getting more things out.
Brown: one thing I’d like to bring to the community is the idea of defining a ‘Goal’ for the Project, possibly defining a target audience/use case for the distribution. the metrics for that would be, does the community agree with the need for a goal, and if so, does it select one?
Wooninck: As the other candidates already indicate it that the main objectives are driven by the community. However the board elections provides already some objectives where the community can indicate whether or not they are important. Each candidate has it’s own goals/objectives of what he wants to establish when he would be elected. Based on the voting we should have quite a good picture of which goals/objectives are important for the community itself. The board should confirm them and report on them
Any proposal to improve the ambassadors program? Schweikert: There was a talk at osc12 concerning the revamped program, is this not sufficient? The ambassador program is very important, I think everyone will agree with that and will certainly get the support from the board and any newly elected member. However, suggesting improvements to a new program (2.0) that has not really seen much light of day yet is a bit pre-mature.
Barringer: I don’t know enough about the program to answer
Brown: Certainly, warlordfff and others (including myself) have already been working on the Ambassador programme 2.0 – there was a good presentation about it at the openSUSE conference. I’m not sure I understand the question then. There’s already a community effort to improve the ambassador program, it’s underway, I don’t see why it would need the involvement of the board at this stage, unless theres some problems I’m not aware of? if there are any problems that crop up implementing ambassadors 2.0, heck yeah I plan to help out and get that programme running, but I’ll be doing that whether or not I’m elected to the board ;-)
Seyfried: I’ll be honest: I don’t know much about the ambassador program, so I don’t have an opinion on it.
Gupta: I believe Richard, Kostas, and Izabel to give their best. Also, recently Agustin seriously indicated a revamped ambassador program, So yes there will be improvements :) I believe is this programme should start off as soon as possible.. We can always shape the imperfections.
Payne: I have a very special place for the ambassador program. I love us to give the tools they need. Right, I am sad to see we haven’t announce any new ambassador as we have in the past. I like to see the ambassador 2.0 place out so that everyone can read it and give feed back on it. I like to see us create more pdf like how to install openSUSE, that the ambassador can print out and give to people a long with the DVD that they pass out. I like to see the ambassador become or like teachers so that when they go out they can educate everyone on all the products we have to offer, how to get more people to get into community. I think if we have our own pdf magazine that would be a big plus for everyone. The ambassadors our salemen for the community and the more tools and support we give them, the better we look
Plans about creating a foundation Barringer: It would be really great to have a foundation, but I didn’t mention it in my platform because I don’t know enough about the problems that have been encountered so far in setting one up. for finances, i can see it being useful. Not having to rely on a company to handle the bookkeeping and legal aspect would be a huge positive
Brown: a lot has changed in the last few years, SUSE’s status as a company, SUSE’s relationship with the project. A few years ago there were a lot of frictions which led me to believing we needed a Foundation to exert the independance I felt we were lacking at the time but time has moved on, things have changed, I think SUSE do a much better job of being a sponsor while giving us the room to be our own, independent, Project. If the community still wants one, I’ll support it, but I personally would prefer tackling just any ‘pain points’ which remain such as the concerns about money, receiving donations, etc – all of which I believe could have solutions that do not require a full foundation. I’m not convinced we couldn’t do that anyway. I would rather investigate options like the Software Freedom Conservancy, rather than push for a full foundation which would have significantly higher administrative burden
Seyfried: is there a consensus that a foundation is wanted / needed? I have skimmed some of the discussions over the last years, but I don’t seem to remember that there was an outcome?
Payne: One, I haven’t seen or heard were we stand on Foundation. So I like to work with SUSE and see if can push to get started. I really think if we have the foundation it would help community over all. I think that now SUSE is back as it own. That we will have the support and can move forward, but we need to see what work as been done. Pick up and move forward. Ilmehtar, if we had the foundation we could help the project by getting funds to help the many different teams. That was talk that the foundation would be great for that. maybe I am wrong, but if we had a foundation we could get money from the sell of things to help fund us. without it, the money would go to SUSE like the money from Google Summer of Code, but I could be wrong. anyway foundation would be a plus for transparency in my opinion.
Wooninck: I agree with seife that the bigger question is if a foundation is still wanted / needed.
Fletcher: *too many balls in the air?… whatever the community drives for must have a solid objective and reason, don’t just do it for doing it sake *or just do it because we like the sound of it..
Schweikert: The idea of a foundation was born at a completely different time of the openSUSE project. Since the idea was born many changes have occurred at SUSE. I think the idea of a foundation is stuck in peoples head and while it was needed at the time the idea was born I am not certain this is still the case today. Further I am not certain that anyone, or collectively, we have taken stock an re-evaluated whether or not the foundation. I also think many in the community are a bit naive about what it means to be a foundation. We are not going to get sponsors beating down our doors just because we are a foundation, to name just one example. Fund raising is hard work and requires dedicated people. There are areas where things need to be improved, I do not see a Foundation as a silver bullet.
Gupta: To really answer these questions I feel we need to ask ourselves a few questions.. What are the tasks related to it? Like Finances, More transparency, More paper work, More independence, More sponsors.. The second question is are we ready to have a foundation? I believe no, If you ask why +1
Dec 06 09:46:43
Will board participation impact your participation in other openSUSE activities, time-wise?
Seyfried: yes, it will, obviously: time spent on board matters will not be spent on packaging / bugfixing. everything else would be just ignoring the fact that a day has only 24 hours and that there is a life beyond openSUSE :-).
Fletcher: likely yes, but I have a pretty flexible day, everyday and my admin and mod team all give great support in the forum. We are all volunteers (mostly) and it’s amazing the support we all give if you ask me
Brown: I think it’s going to have some impact, but as I’m re-arranging stuff in my life to improve the amount of time I have to contribute, I hoping the teams I’m most involved in will probably still see a net increase in my activity. even if I wasn’t shuffling stuff about – yes, there are people already ‘backing me up’ with my contributions in artwork, and of course the great group of gallant gnomers
Gupta: So far.. Last year my only contribution was GSoC organizing and due to my sudden movement to Korea, I was not able to help a lot in GCI ; But I believe that was a transition period for me and I will continue to do this.. Furthermore, I am already talikng to last year’s GSoC admins regarding this so that if I am busy / unavailable, there is someone to take care of it. I would limit myself to doing 2 or 3 things successfully rather than try everywhere
Schweikert: Yes, I suspect there will be an impact on my other openSUSE contributions. However, when I see this impact occur I plan to ask for help. At this point there is no “backup” person.
Wooninck: The board will indeed be taking a lot of time and this will reduce the time that I can spend on package maintenance. However I believe that the KDE team is able to compensate and I was only allowed to be a candidate if I promised to still spend some of the time on packaging
Payne: I am only doing Ambassador work there are may of us. Plus, my work on the SELF board. I wasn’t active last year because the birth of my daugter and change jobs, but I am getting more time to work again. I been do a bit of writing and I am will have time.
Relationship to open-slx Brown: I’d argue whether or not we’ve lost a ‘lot of members’ to open-slx – all of their websites community links point back to openSUSE community pages. I think it’s nice that we make such a good distribution that they chose to make a derivative of it, and I’m pretty sure most of their contributors are still, directly and indirectly, contributing to ‘our’ project. we’re an open source project – as long as they’re not breaching GPL or other licenses, isn’t that ‘take our stuff and make it better’ actually something we quite like? Heck, SUSE have Studio which makes thousands upon thousands of openSUSE derivatives. the open-slx forums have 58 registered users, I’m sure one or two of them is bound to have contributed something back to openSUSE at some point, and if that hunch is correct that’s actually a pretty good rate of return.
Schweikert: Loosing contributors/members is not a good thing, but also inevitable, people move on to other things for whatever reason. I was not aware that there was a particular problem with open-slx. Taking openSUSE and building a product on top of it is a great compliment to our work, we should be happy about that. There will always be people that leave the project and move on. Stephan used to work for SUSE, so have others. Some choose to stay involved in openSUSE, other choose not to. I am not certain there is much we can do as a board. Now if there is a “mass exodus” we have to look at the situation but having a handful of people leave is not what I would consider a “mass exodus”.
Barringer: anyway, people should choose the distro that best fits them, and if open-slx is better for someone, more power to them. The first distro I worked for recompiled RedHat packages. SUSE started out similarly. I can’t complain at all about open-slx.
Wooninck: The KDE area didn’t loose any members to open-slx, but the loss was more due to the reorganization of the boosters team. However we should have a look how this impacts the divers teams within the openSUSE project. It could be that if all of them were working in a particular area, that could create issues in that area. But in general you can not prevent people from switching distro nor community.
Payne: well from what I heard, open-slx is taking the work of openSUSE and selling their box edition base on it.. we lost S. Mann to them, our new editor for years. We have lost a few others. I know at one point Novell was were that they were trying to set up a new SUSE.. I been wiry about open-slx, I hate us to lose good people. I hate to see the work being taking with out them giving something back to us. I haven’t seen open-slx give anything back, maybe I am wrong. I know people are going to copy left, but it would be great to see them give back. Even it is just a little here and there. I know the board can’t control it. I remember how before there was a SUSE that the guys were helping out Slackware, because of the work they did, knew they could do a better job and created SUSE. BUt for a while you can see them giving back to Slackware.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:05:53
10 December 2012, 4:02 pm
We are very happy to inform you that next year’s openSUSE Conference (oSC13), the yearly get together of our community, will happen in July in the beautiful city of Thessaloniki, Greece. oSC13 will bring together a wide variety of Free and Open Source (FOSS) contributors to collaborate on one of the major Linux distribution projects. In exciting talks, workshops and social events our community will bring alive our motto “Have a lot of fun”.
We are entering the organization phase right now and have not yet settled on an exact date and location but we will let you know, right here on news.opensuse.org (https://news.opensuse.org/category/project/events/osc/), once we have that info. In the meantime how about you help us organize oSC13?
We need you at the kick off meeting! To make this the most awesome conference ever, we are looking for people who are willing to help out. We need you! There is a lot of organizing to be done, logos to be drawn, websites to be designed, schedules to be made, hotels to be booked, sponsors to be found and a million of other things you can help with. So to kick off the organization team and to get everyone on the same page we are going to meet this Thursday, December 13th on IRC to discuss what we need to do and how we are going to do it. If you’re looking for a chance to give back to the openSUSE community this is it!
When: 2012-12-13 at 15:00 UTC (http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?msg=oSC13+Kick+Off+Meeting&iso=20121213T15)
Where: #opensuse-project (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://irc.freenode.net/opensuse-project) on the freenode network
Who: Everybody who want’s to make oSC13 great
If you, for whatever reason, can’t participate but still want to help you should subscribe to our conference mailinglist:
opensuse-conference@opensuse.org (opensuse-conference+subscribe@opensuse.org)
we are going to post meeting minutes there and will use this list to further organize oSC13.
Let’s get going and make oSC13 in Thessaloniki the best conference ever!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.12.2012 - klo:19:00
17 December 2012, 3:56 pm
As of 23:00 UTC on 16 December, 2012, the openSUSE Project’s members completed the Fifth election of the openSUSE Board. At stake were two seats of the five electable seats. With 8 candidates, the community definitely had a broad choice of qualified candidates to choose from.
In the end, the two top vote-getters were Raymond Wooninck (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABoard_election_2012_platform_rwooninck) (tittiacoke) and Robert (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABoard_election_2012_platform_robertschweikert)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2Frschweikert.jpg&hash=88e3d016257bce4e9a30856efb69089ec0ef6f3c)Robert Schweikert Schweikert, (robjo) respectively. They will join the openSUSE Board on January 9th during the transitional meeting of the regularly scheduled Project meeting heldon the Freenode IRC Channel at 17:00 UTC.
The Election Officials would like to congratulate all of thecandidates for a great campaign season. These candidates included Matt Barringer, Richard Brown, Carl Fletcher, Manu Gupta, Chuck Payne and Stefan Seyfried. All of these candidates demonstrated a commitment to the Project and exemplified the Guiding Principles which the Project, as a whole, is founded upon.
We join the rest of the community in looking forward to an exciting year to come as
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2Frwooninck.jpeg&hash=ef459d973eff163efe0029606ca9ceddf41c249f)Raymond Wooninck the new Board embarks on new initiatives and directions. And we thank the community for giving us the opportunity to serve as members of the election committee.
Sincerely, The openSUSE Election Committee
- Izabel Valverde
- Thomas Schmidt
- Bryen M Yunashko
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 18.12.2012 - klo:19:00
18 December 2012, 6:39 pm
A month’s work since Milestone 1 (https://news.opensuse.org/2012/11/08/opensuse-12-3-milestone-1-is-ready-for-you/) shows that the new Release Team are hitting their stride, as they have reviewed and checked in more than 470 updated packages, far more than early milestones in previous releases.
Desktops and apps The biggest update is in LibreOffice, which jumps from 3.5.4 to 3.6.3. This new version of the office suite fixes a lot of annoying bugs and improves DOCX compatibility. Also this release includes a lot of new functionality, like adding the Lanczos image algorithm for resizing, which reduces aliasing in resized images. In Calc, there are several new functions, like support for color scales and data bars in XLSX and ODS document formats. Please check the release notes (http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/3.6) for a full description of the main fixes and new features.
In a change to policy, KDE 4.10 Beta 2 has been added to Factory already. Usually only finished KDE releases are added, but since more KDE team developers are working on Factory, it made sense to perform early integration and testing in Factory now. So, if everything goes as planned (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap), the final version of openSUSE will arrive in March including KDE 4.10.0 or 4.10.1 (expected in the first week of March). This new version of KDE increases the Qt Quick usage in Plasma Workspaces. In 4.10, additional desktop components are implemented using this declarative technology instead of C++ for greater stability and easier theming. Okular now uses less memory when zooming in on big PDFs, and a new indexer replaces the last Strigi components, allows faster and more reliable indexing of documents. You can expect much more functionality and bug fixing (http://techbase.kde.org/Schedules/KDE4/4.10_Feature_Plan) in the final release of KDE 4.10.
Other KDE changes include kwebkitpart 1.3, which adds Access Key support, automatic scrolling and manual spell checking support for forms, as well as on demand plugin loading; and appmenu-qt joins the standard installation, allowing application menus to be shown at the top of the screen or in a menu button on the window border.
After a period of stabilization work, GNOME 3.6.3 found its way into this milestone. The GNOME interface for PackageKit is at version 3.6.1, which fixes a segfault error when a distribution upgrade is available. This GNOME version is better integrated with systemd, and has a new “Airplane Mode”, that switches off all radios, including Bluetooth.
Claws Mail has been updated to 3.9. This little GTK email client and news reader is known for being fast, extensible and easy to configure. It adds IMAP server side search, has several speed-ups and optimizations, a better GnuPG integration and more than thirty bug fixes.
Platform The GNU C library was updated. glibc 2.17 improves ARM and multi-arch subsystems, and adds fixes for crypto bugs. DBUS 1.6.8 includes new service ownership rule possibilities, and many security, bugs, and performance fixes.
Another updated package is QEMU, which goes from 1.2.0 to 1.3.0. With QEMU we can easily create and run virtual machines. This new version improves live migrations of virtual machines. That means that we can now stop a virtual machine and continue the execution in another place without noticeable problems. QEMU 1.3.0 adds many newly virtualized devices and chipsets.
LLVM is one of those cool projects that everyone knows, but few can exactly say what it is. Fascinate Xmas parties with the knowledge that LLVM is a set of libraries that allow aggressive optimizations of a intermediate ad-hoc language (known as LLVM IR) and the compilation of this language to a specific architecture and processor. Clang is a C / C++ / Objective-C compiler that translate the high level language to this IR language, and is a really fast compiler. If this description interests you, then you’ll be pleased to know that M2 updates LLVM/Clang to 3.2rc2. This version of LLVM improves the Clang diagnostics, this means that we will have better error messages that explain more clearly what mistakes we are making. LLDB is the new command line debugger for LLVM/Clang. It uses the Clang parser for the C++ debugger. And there is a lot of new functionality in the optimizer, like a new high-level loop optimizer and the automatic parallelizer.
Mono 3 now has a complete C# 5.0 compiler, with all the async functionality enabled, and adds interesting optimizations in the garbage collector (mainly for SMP systems) and in the runtime library. This is a big version change, so may cause breakage with Mono 2.10 code.
This milestone comes with a 3.6 kernel, but don’t despair, packages for 3.7 are already cooking.
Distribution libzypp 12.5 includes new package management transaction logging features.
As part of the SuSEconfig removal work, permissions now applies changes following installation or upgrade, to ensure new permissions are effective regardless of package installation order.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
8 January 2013, 10:33 pm
buff.ly/11ahUlK (http://t.co/jQeuELQE)#Linux (https://twitter.com/search/%23Linux)#Chrome (https://twitter.com/search/%23Chrome)
- Amazon’s top selling laptop doesn’t run Windows or Mac OS, it runs Linux
sjvn (https://twitter.com/sjvn)— sjvn (@sjvn) January 8, 2013 (https://twitter.com/sjvn/status/288729421416898560)
- by @
According to ZDnet, “Amazon’s top selling laptop doesn’t run Windows or Mac OS, it runs Linux” (http://www.zdnet.com/amazons-top-selling-laptop-doesnt-run-windows-or-mac-os-it-runs-linux-7000009433/). And that top selling device is the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook. Billed as an ideal second computer just aiming to make it simple to access online services, without the hassle and risk of running another full Windows machine. These devices drop all of the cruft that has accompanied regular laptops on their journey from the swamps, and have just enough local storage to boot a Linux kernel and a stripped down OS based around Google’s Chrome browser, making them thin, light and affordable. And now, we’ve done something cool with it…
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FSamsung_Chromebook_backview_webres-300x234.jpg&hash=84fae68a005dc6574a5eb540ed0bb26912611a1f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Samsung_Chromebook_backview_webres.jpg)
The Samsung Series 3 Chromebook… Several different Chromebooks are currently available, a few based on the Intel architecture, and the Samsung 3-series Chromebook, which is an ARM machine based around a Samsung Exynos 5 SoC. This relatively powerful dual core ARM A15 processor is clocked at 1.7 GHz and integrates the ARM Mali T604 graphics core and 2GB of RAM. Only 16GB of local storage is provided by an internal SD card for the operating system, indicating that these machines are intended to be natives of the Cloud. If you think of a Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, PandaBoard, ShivaPlug or other small hardware hacker board when someone says Linux on ARM, prepare to be amazed when you see what the ARM Chromebook can do. Phoronix, Anandtech and other sites have posted impressive initial benchmarks (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6422/samsung-chromebook-xe303-review-testing-arms-cortex-a15) showing the performance advantage the Exynos 5 enjoys over most hacker boards. This processor offers around 40-60% better performance compared to previous Intel Atom based Chromebooks (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6422/samsung-chromebook-xe303-review-testing-arms-cortex-a15/6) in the CPU area and easily 10-20x the graphics power.
Aside from the nice SoC, the laptop features two USB ports (a 2.0 and a 3.0 port, although the latter didn’t perform well in tests (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6422/samsung-chromebook-xe303-review-testing-arms-cortex-a15/2)), a HDMI output, a SD card reader and 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11n wifi. It comes with a 11.6 inch big 1366×768 pixels screen (http://www.anandtech.com/show/6422/samsung-chromebook-xe303-review-testing-arms-cortex-a15/4), a quite good keyboard and a no-button click-trackpad offering two-finger scrolling support. Last but not least, it should offer around 6 hours of battery life on the build in 30Wh battery.
… and openSUSE! Not content to let all the Cloud glory go to server-side products like SUSE Cloud, a small team of SUSE engineers and openSUSE community members have been working on supporting the ARM Chromebook with openSUSE, and can now report their first success: a ‘mostly working’ openSUSE 12.2 image that you can boot from (using a USB stick so the stock image is left untouched). This image already includes a usable XFCE desktop. There is also a Chromebook version of openSUSE 12.3 Milestone 2 available here (http://download.opensuse.org/ports/armv7hl/distribution/12.3-Milestone2/images/) for the more adventurous. Since getting the main distribution to build for generic ARM architectures in November, the work has focused on adaptations to get openSUSE to run properly on this specific hardware. This includes creating a boot loader to boot the openSUSE kernel. ChromeOS uses a two-stage bootloader, but this cannot be configured to boot another operating system. Instead, the stock ROM-based first stage bootloader can be made to start a custom bootloader when the Chromebook is in developer mode. This is contained in our disk image.
What works The basics you need for using this device are working quite well. In developer mode, you can dual-boot from USB or an external SD card and then you’ve got:
- The XFCE desktop
- Wireless!
- SD card reader
- Accelerated graphics are not yet possible.
- The image cannot yet be installed to the Chromebook’s internal storage, as parted can’t yet handle the partition table on the factory disk image
- The ChromeOS security model might make dual-booting from the internal SD card a challenge.
- Create a bugzilla category for this project so you can tell us what breaks
- Develop openSUSE 12.3 native support
- Test and improve power management and battery lifecycle
- package OpenGL ES and configure UIs to use it, giving accelerated graphics
If you’re lucky and have gotten your hands on a Series 3 Chromebook, visit this Wiki page (https://en.opensuse.org/HCL%3AARMChromebook) and get some Green for your Chrome!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
17 January 2013, 4:45 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FBeta_pizza_party_istanbul-300x156.png&hash=ef9c4a3ff157c5fbf08831042b9ba27bbdd2856c) (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3ABeta_pizza_party_istanbul.jpg)
According to plan (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap), today openSUSE 12.3 Beta sees the light (http://software.opensuse.org/developer). The beta comes with mostly smallish changes as we’re in serious testing waters now – we hope you’re out there to help us clear the way to the final release! The first RC is already coming on February 7 so this Beta needs a good workout. As is tradition in openSUSE, the Beta will be celebrated with a BetaPizzaParty (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABetaPizzaParty) at the Nuremberg headquarters on Wed 30th of Jan starting 16:00 CET! Read on to find out a bit more about the Parties and Pizzas and what’s new and about the awesome 12.3 Polish Hackaton (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3A12.3_polish_hackathon) which is being organized this weekend at the SUSE headquarters!
Hackaton Coolest things first: to make the release even better, we’ve organized a hackathon in Nuremberg! The goal of the meeting is to squash bugs, polish up some features, close the seams to make it all look and work well. We have a list of about 240 bugs to work on and hope to significantly reduce that number. Of course, there will be snacks, food and fun in between the hacking and anyone is welcome to join also remotely.
We will have a G+ Hangout, starting at 10:00 CET until about 12:00 CET, pause for lunch and continuing around 14:00 CET until an undetermined time.
If you’d like to be in the hangout, find the event here! (https://plus.google.com/117513339231148517979/posts/8nQ6sd1wLyN)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F248%2F459381964_4d7141d15f_m.jpg&hash=ac0a2d1144db6b2ecc7202aa363412dd17ded1ae) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/giovannijl-s_photohut/459381964/)
BetaPizzaPartyTime! Secondly, it’s time to organize a BetaPizzaParty in the coming weeks! In Nürnberg we have the usual event (this time planned for Wednesday the 30th at 16:00) flooded with Pizza at the SUSE offices and we’re hoping other SUSE offices will join our fun. Be sure to check the wiki page! (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABetaPizzaParty) for locations. History tells us it would be extremely surprising if there would be nothing organized in Greece – anyone up for organizing one in Brazil? Taiwan? India? But if there’s no party around, you can organize your own. Get the Pizza (and a place to eat it with room for testing laptops)! It’s not a big deal – do it in a local pizza place, at your home or in a room in your office… Just invite friends & colleagues and who knows, if you put your party on the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABetaPizzaParty), a new friend will show up!
If you are unsure on how to do it, read this (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALaunch_party_HOWTO) and this (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2011/08/10-steps-to-building-local-community.html) for some tips. In short, you don’t have to be too ambitious. It’s just about the fun.
Don’t forget the party part of a BetaPizzaParty! Make sure you’ll have some fun at some point. One way of doing that is of course to not just order pizzas but make your own following this awesome Geeko Pizza Party Recipe (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=11150).
Testing and even helping out! Of course the focus of the BetaPizza Party is on openSUSE 12.3 Beta. This means installing it and submitting bug reports (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports) when you bump into trouble. You can download the openSUSE 12.3 Beta (http://software.opensuse.org/developer) from the openSUSE download site. It might make sense to download it and put it on an USB stick or a DVD so people can get to work right away!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm2.static.flickr.com%2F1227%2F597174047_3eb1429c8b_m.jpg&hash=9847009972f1b4d037778291ab11605fb8594ccb) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/57231735@N00/597174047/)
Bugs should be reported and can be tracked via Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.novell.com/). Find a how-to on reporting bugs on the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports).
Discussions about openSUSE development takes place on the factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory). openSUSE Factory (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AFactory) is the development release of openSUSE. If you want to help out, please see the wiki page on contributing to Factory (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AHow_to_contribute_to_Factory). Contributing is easy and very welcome! We happen to have this awesome tool called the Open Build Service (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ABuild_Service). Think of it as a Github for packagers: Branch, Update and create a submit Request for a Package. In openSUSE terms you’ve just BURPed and we’ll be proud of you ;-)
OBS has a commandline but also a easy browser interface – you can even fix and build packages from a mobile phone or a Windows desktop!
There is plenty of help available on the Development page (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ADevelopment) on the openSUSE wiki and you are more than welcome to ask for help on the openSUSE factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory) or on the openSUSE IRC channels (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ACommunication_channels#Instant_chat_.28IRC.29)!
Features And now for an overview of what this new Beta brings.
Desktops and apps (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Fpresentation-300x206.jpg&hash=8dce794d221507d28d066685baccfc9400da4616)
The Beta comes with 4.10 RC2 of KDE’s workspaces and applications. KDE has announced a third RC due to some late changes and this version is part of a testing sprint (http://www.sharpley.org.uk/blog/kde-testing) organized by the KDE Quality team. openSUSE KDE packagers have build a special live Image (http://news.opensuse.org/%3Cbr%20/%3E%0Ahttp%3A//www.dennogumi.org/2013/01/test-the-upcoming-opensuse-12-3-and-kde-workspace-applications-and-platform-4-10-rc2) to test this release (http://community.kde.org/Getinvolved/Quality/Beta/4.10/AreasToTest) but we urge you to get the Beta packages from software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/developer/en) as they are of course newer.
File manager Thunar (well known to XFCE users as it is the default file manager there) introduces tab support, improved bookmark handling (including easily adding remote bookmarks), improved UI and a check for free space before copying starts. There have also been extensive performance improvements.
Another filemanager part of this release is PCMan, part of the LXDE lightweight desktop. The 1.1 release brings some UI improvements like disabling items which cannot act (like ‘copy’ on selected items) in the menu and toolbar, the option to ‘treat backup files as hidden’, the ability to change the colums in the Detailed List View and search engine support. Underlying improvements were made to stability and performance, as well as bringing new support for unmounting removable media without ejecting them and some other small changes.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F08%2Fhackweek10-300x155.png&hash=01ed9a14e3d609e460c9f64aa2a51a1ac65e0f7e)
In the browser area, the latest Firefox 18 is part of this release as well, bringing better performance and scaling of web content to openSUSE 12.3.
Platform This version brings us up to kernel 3.7.1, bringing a bunch of fixes and new features over the 3.4 release in openSUSE 12.2. New and improved features include:
- support for metadata checksums and improved quota support in Ext4
- I/O failure statistics, subvolume quotas, quota groups, snapshot diffs, faster fsync and the ability to disable copy-on-write on a per-file base in btrfs
- userspace probes for performance profiling with tools like Systemtap or perf and a new “perf trace” tool modeled after strace.
- Many improvements to networking. The TCP protocol performance work with support for the TCP “Fast Open” mode for both clients and servers and TCP Early Retransmit (RFC 5827) as well as inclusion of the a “TCP small queues” feature and a new network queue management algorithm designed to fight bufferbloat. Other low-level protocol enhancements include support for checkpointing and restoring TCP connections and a new tunneling protocol that allows to transfer Layer 2 Ethernet packets over UDP. New is experimental SMBv2 protocol support as well as stable NFS 4.1 and parallel NFS support and the ability to have safe swapping over NFS/NBD.
- The kernel now allows for Android-style opportunistic suspend and has support for suspending to disk and memory at the same time which prevents these “yup, ran out of battery so now you lost data” annoyances with suspend-to-ram.
- In the security area we see added support for signed kernel modules, the Intel “supervisor mode access prevention” (SMAP) security feature, VFIO, which allows safe access from guest drivers to bare-metal host devices and a sandboxing mechanism that allows to filters syscalls.
- Other improvements include the ability to do SCSI over Firewire and USB, support for the PCIe D3cold power state; and the usual huge number of new and improved drivers.
Other larger changes in this version unclude an update of gdb to 7.5 and postgresql got updated to version 9.2.
LibreOffice 3.6.x will be what ships with openSUSE 12.3 as we’d like to ensure availability of a dependable and a stable set of office tools for everyone, but 4.0 packages will be available and openSUSE 12.3 contains all the required dependencies for users to build 4.0 themselves if they like.
Distribution libzypp 12.6 got further improvements and bugfixes, while some more work in the package management area is coming for RC1 including an update to PackageKit and a solution to the PackageKit-blocking-zypper issues.
Note: as part of the SuSEconfig removal work, permissions now applies changes following installation or upgrade, to ensure new permissions are effective regardless of package installation order.
Have a lot of fun You can get the goodies at this page (http://software.opensuse.org/developer). Have fun – we think it’s already a pretty decent release and we’re working as hard as we can to make it even better. Whatever bugs you find, remember: even a Beta testing (with or without Pizza Party) is about having fun! It doesn’t matter what technical knowledge you have – as long as you are having fun. And don’t eat too much pizza, overeating tends to be unhealty.
Enjoy!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
21 January 2013, 11:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2FHome-700x400.png&hash=16da726a91920098f2033aec6521d2a1c06948cb) (http://conference.opensuse.org)
This article attempts to give a bit of an overview of what happened at oSC 12. And that is lots and lots, as you can see in the Google Plus event page for oSC12 (https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/cnmkbdc37mebetjk8e3t9dl92e0) and LinuxDays (https://plus.google.com/u/0/events/chukb8fi8htbdbedi8e11n07hv8). You can find a lot of CC licensed pictures here (https://plus.google.com/photos/116069031455285939884/albums/5802296919987167073) and of course in this article. Read on to get some idea of the feedback we’ve got, the number of visitors and results from the BoF’s!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay0-Friday-17_DSC_7135-300x198.jpg&hash=49bea1d2235cb7adac074199600131188f67f242) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day0-Friday-17_DSC_7135.jpg)Friday registration time!
Feedback As many people noted, the first two days were clearly a ‘FOSDEM like event’ as Klaas Freitag (http://dragotin.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/opensuse-conference-2012/) and Richard Brown (http://www.sysrich.co.uk/?p=117) both noted in their blogs. Over 90% of our participants liked the co-location with LinuxDays, Gentoo and SUSE Labs according to our survey and this is what many people said on the spot as well. The University as venue was greatly appreciated: it was big, so big you sometimes would look at a seemingly empty booth area, despite the over 550 visitors! That was of course also partially due to the many concurrent sessions we had. Of course, we’re a bunch that likes to sit and get work done. That’s something which could be improved, as Wolfgang Rosenauer (http://www.rosenauer.org/blog/2012/10/28/opensuse-conference-2012/) noted – especially the second location lacked a dedicated hackspace.
Blogs and such There has been a number of blogs about the conference, a few of which have been falling off quickly as the videos were also posted to the planet.opensuse.org (http://planet.opensuse.org) timeline. For your convenience we’ve listed them here, if any are missing, let us know:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-053_DSC_7602-300x198.jpg&hash=2e1fbddffb9f5180780188d0893255ba2fc7491b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-053_DSC_7602.jpg)Tech Talk
- Marcel Külhorn: #oSC12: Bootstrapping Awesome! (http://tux93.org/openSUSE/oSC12.html)
- Richard Sysrich: Looking back on oSC 12, and onwards to oSC 13 (http://www.sysrich.co.uk/?p=117)
- Peter Czanik: OSC – openSUSE and syslog-ng (https://czanik.blogs.balabit.com/2012/10/osc-opensuse-and-syslog-ng/)
- Wolfgang Rosenauer: openSUSE Conference 2012 (http://www.rosenauer.org/blog/2012/10/28/opensuse-conference-2012/)
- Petr Baudiš: Short minutes from “Text Mail Clients” BOF @ LinuxDays Prague 2012 (http://log.or.cz/?p=295)
- Dominique Leuenberger: openSUSE Conference oSC12 day 1 (http://dominique.leuenberger.net/blog/2012/10/opensuse-conference-osc12-day-1/)
- Klaas Freitag: openSUSE Conference 2012 (http://dragotin.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/opensuse-conference-2012/)
- Coly Li: openSUSE Conference 2012 in Prague (http://blog.coly.li/?p=195)
- Christian Boltz openSUSE Conference (http://blog.cboltz.de/archives/65-openSUSE-conference.html)
- Saurabh Sood: wrote about the openSUSE travel support program (https://iamsaurabh.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/the-opensuse-travel-support-program/)
- Baltasar Ortega writes in Spanish – but with a full 10 blogs, I can’t fail to mention him. He announced his attendance (http://news.opensuse.org/www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-el-programa-del-sabado.html), then reports: The day before (http://www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-2012-praga-dia-0-la-llegada.html), day 1a (http://www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-2012-praga-dia-1-la-manana-i.html), day 1b (http://www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-2012-praga-dia-1-la-manana-i.html), Day 2a (http://www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-2012-praga-dia-2-la-manana.html), day 2b (http://www.kdeblog.com/opensuse-conference-2012-praga-dia-2-la-tarde-2.html) and then conclusions: I (http://www.kdeblog.com/conclusiones-opensuse-conference-2012-de-praga-mi-charla.html), II (http://www.kdeblog.com/conclusiones-opensuse-conference-2012-de-praga-ii-las-nuevas-y-viejas-amistades.html), IV (http://www.kdeblog.com/conclusiones-opensuse-conference-2012-de-praga-iv-arduino-y-las-impresoras-3d.html) and finally V (http://www.kdeblog.com/conclusiones-opensuse-conference-2012-de-praga-v-raspberry-pi-ejecutando-kubuntu.html). I could not find III but my Spanish begins and ends at olé. Yes, if you can read Spanish, his blog is a MUST FOLLOW for sure.
- Jos Poortvliet: pre and post conference blues (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2012/11/pre-and-post-conference-blues.html)
- Athanasios-Ilias Rousinpoulos: oSC2012 (https://zoumpis.wordpress.com/2012/11/02/zoumpis-osc2012/)
- Stathis Iosifidis (http://eiosifidis.blogspot.com/2012/10/opensuse-conference-2012-report.html): openSUSE conference 2012 report (http://eiosifidis.blogspot.com/2012/10/opensuse-conference-2012-report.html)
- Michal Čihař: oSC12 wrap up (http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/10/24/osc12-wrap/)
- Friedrich Kossebau: Sculpting Marble in Prague (http://frinring.wordpress.com/2012/10/22/sculpting-marble-in-prague/)
- Leon Anavi: Linux Days 2012 Travel Notes (http://www.anavi.org/article/151/)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay1-Saturday-044_DSC_7395-300x198.jpg&hash=a1ecb5eeaeb54e1a9f9fc1c54d5ce657e892993f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day1-Saturday-044_DSC_7395.jpg)Part of the Booth area (Saturday) The press A number of magazines and websites reported on our event – including the Czech sites Linux Expres (http://www.linuxexpres.cz/aktuality/linuxdays-2012-zrodila-se-konference)root.cz 1 (http://www.root.cz/clanky/linuxdays-prvni-den-nove-konference/), root.cz 2 (http://www.root.cz/clanky/linuxdays-nedele-o-sitich-bezpecnosti-a-bitcoinech/) and electrotrends (https://electrotrends.europalab.com/content/opensuse-conference-praha/). There’s a blog about Gentoo bing there (http://www.gentoo-el.org/gentoo-gentoo-miniconf) too. Then there was a number of international sites covering the event, like the Var guy (http://www.thevarguy.com/2012/05/30/susecon-and-opensuse-conference-2012-a-one-two-punch/) and more.
And of course our very own news.opensuse.org had articles about Day One (https://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/21/linux-days-2012-day-one/), Day Two (https://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/23/day-2-ending-linuxdays/) and Monday, the first ‘real’ openSUSE Conference day (https://news.opensuse.org/2012/10/24/opensuse-conference-2012-monday/).
The program We had an amazing and stuffed program. Overstuffed, as some said – with 6 or 7 concurrent tracks (and shouldn’t we count the hallway and the booth areas?) it was quite crazy. openSUSE allows you the freedom to choose – that much is certain. The awesomely good news is that the main tracks were recorded by our awesome video team (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_video) and most of the productive BoF sessions in the two ‘openSUSE only’ days have notes posted on the relevant mailing lists.
Videos You can watch video’s of the talks on the openSUSE TV channel (http://youtube.com/user/opensusetv/videos) (oSC 2012 playlist (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_AMhvchzBae69AZQRAWKfzb8MurMtA72)) and our blip.tv channel (http://blip.tv/opensuse). During the event we usually had about 40-80 viewers per stream on our bambuser channel (http://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) and as they also joined the chatter in IRC, this was very cool to have. Afterwards, the videos got hundreds to thousands of more viewers so it was very much worth recording the talks. Big thanks to our video crew, whose names you can find below reverse-ordered on length of their email address.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-086_DSC_7685-300x198.jpg&hash=1b6c48e9803d3373db91d97ebaf22b07e16ae8e3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-086_DSC_7685.jpg)Training session
- Marco Fleckinger
- Jan Tomanek
- Wolfgang Rosenauer
- Theodoros Chatzimichos
- Matthias Griessmeier
- Dimitris Papapoulios
- Petr Pulc (+ his team)
- Christian Boltz
- Gerhard Schlotter
- Bernhard Wiedemann
- Thomas Schmidt
- Vit Pelcak
- Robert Wawrig
- Kilian Petsch
- Harald Müller-Ney
- Martin Caj
- Christopher Hoffmann
- Jürgen Weigert
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-064_DSC_7631-300x198.jpg&hash=507d339894fd19bfbcf7c9b48b0e302ebfd43ac0) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-064_DSC_7631.jpg)Hallway Hacking Work done Events like these are useful in many ways and on many levels. Of course, it’s nice from a marketing point of view. We got news articles out, lots of video’s which got thousands of viewers, press visits us and interviews get done.
Then there is the social side: meeting your fellow hackers, sometimes after only having seen them online for a year or even ever. That’s awesome, fun, interesting, cool and what not. It’s why we had the opening party and other parties, but also the food in the evening, the ‘hallway track’ and group photo.
Last but not least, there is work being done. Problems get discussed, code and packages get hacked together and decisions get made, informally but also during BoF sessions. And most of these BoF sessions have a log send to our mailing lists, which allows us to recap the results of a few of them below.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-015_IMGP4463-300x200.jpg&hash=7d1731fc6005b08b60ba75500ad443b6e784bcd5) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-015_IMGP4463.jpg)Fancy Devices
Project Meeting Our bi-weekly Project Meeting was organized as BoF at the conference. Not only the conference itself was discussed but also the progress on Summer of Code and the Google Code In, the openSUSE Summit and the future of Free Software in South America (and how we can help). You can find more details in the mail to the Project mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2012-10/msg00089.html).
Landing Page BoF A handful of people had a BoF about the opensuse.org landing page and how to improve it. Notes were put into actions on a Trello board (https://trello.com/board/landing-page/50850ac9fe4ddd101b003b04) and since then, some progress has been made. See here (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-web/2012-10/msg00026.html) for the report mail.
Future of the OBS BoF A well attended BoF was held on the future of the Open Build Service. There’s an overview of OBS at the event, talk about the future (mobile client for package reviews, native build hosts for ARM, user experience improvements for the webUI, adapting OBS for other personas than just ‘casual packagers’ and more), ideas for new features and much more in the overview of OBS at oSC here (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-buildservice/2012-10/msg00162.html).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay3-Monday-014_DSC_7793-300x198.jpg&hash=fd2cbe84e04c0d8e7012a2c85da3c531b919155f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day3-Monday-014_DSC_7793.jpg)Project Meeting
A particularly cool idea is to add some Gamification elements to the webUI. Like badges for the Nth built package or the Nth submitrequest; top packager lists and stuff like that. This was partially inspired by this talk about Gamification (http://blip.tv/opensuse/osc12-gamefiction-6410559) in the Future Media track.
Admin BoF The admin@ BoF was more or less skipped (because we extended the www.o.o BoF). Instead Christian Boltz annoyed some people in the hallway track. Some notes from him:
- the biggest problem is (surprise, surprise) time (to be exact: no/not enough time or a too big TODO list). This blocks several admin tasks that are considered “not too important” – at least in comparison with other items on the TODO list
- one of the “not too important” things is the mailinglist merge/shutdown, but I’m sure there are more
- someone stepping up as admin for a part of the infrastructure is always welcome, but there might be practical problems like “allowing external people access to $server is difficult”. Nevertheless – if you want to help, ask on admin@opensuse.org
- some parts of the infrastructure don’t have a maintainer, but it seems we don’t have a list of the affected parts (and I’m not even sure if we have a complete list of the *.o.o infrastructure somewhere)
- nobody knew something about the wiki update status (except the parts I already knew) – I’ll have to ask Scott on the -web ML about the status
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay3-Monday-041_DSC_7862-300x198.jpg&hash=f69360ddc6951e21a25b6db7ae14d739c61fa677) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day3-Monday-041_DSC_7862.jpg)Live video steaming = hard work!
Robert Schweikert brought forward the Maintainer Model cleanup (see his report here (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2012-10/msg00282.html). His basic proposal, which got support at the conference, is to move forward changing the model as follows:
- In the web UI one will no longer see inherited project maintainers on the package page, only the “true” package maintainers. (Inherited “maintainers” will be hidden in an expandable tree)
- We will collect information about all packages in all devel projects that feed factory. We will generate a list of packages that have no maintainer, and a list of packages that need help, i.e. a package that has fewer than 5 maintainers. In addition we will list packages that have more than 5 maintainers and try to encourage maintainers from those packages (to get the number to 5) to take on packages that need help.
- We want to clean up the devel project maintainer list to a ratio of 10/500 packages with a max of 25.
- We would like to see a notification on the package page if the package fails to build in factory
- Would like to see package build status information on the factory status page about the status of the package in it’s devel project.
- Having the monitor page and the status page presented in the current form is confusing, we need to somehow merge the information.
- It would be really nice if there were some kind of policy engine that could enforce the “no more than 5 per package” and the “no more than 25 project maintainers” policies.
- We would like to have some kind of rating system on the devel projects
- We will produce guidelines for package and product maintainers outlining what is expected.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay3-Monday-036_DSC_7850-300x198.jpg&hash=c5e19843880c67566b8a5bce98fb7501f3ca7f95) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day3-Monday-036_DSC_7850.jpg)Cafe allowed a sneak-peek into a talk room
If you care about these things, agree or disagree – it is highly recommended to read Roberts’ full report (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2012-10/msg00282.html) and chime in.
Christian Morales Vega shared his ‘point of view’ on the Release Schedule discussion in this mail (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2012-10/msg00231.html). To improve the development process and keep Factory in a more stable state, he proposes to make the openSUSE Factory status page (https://build.opensuse.org/project/status?project=openSUSE:Factory) more accessible so people more often start fixing issues from there. It’s currently slow to load (30+ seconds is not rare) and not easy to find.
Another change he proposed is that people need to be made to want to work on problems. Right now, the list shows problems which surely someone is working on (but no way to see if that is the case) and lots of issues a particular developer might not be interested in at all. It should be visible if someone is working on a problem and it is important that packages get dumped easier/faster if nobody cares about them, to keep the list short. In that regard, he also proposes to ping a developer by mail if his build breaks other packages – not everyone might care so much but some do.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-068_DSC_7651-1024x331.jpg&hash=ce48dc6547a972b8030675ab9accdf798220695e) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-068_DSC_7651.jpg)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDay2-Sunday-070_DSC_7662-300x198.jpg&hash=a1637a245d6c4a05128c10a2b485e5e454d6d985) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Day2-Sunday-070_DSC_7662.jpg)The Awesome Greeko’s Organizing oSC’13
Concluding In general, the survey we ran showed that almost half our participants noted that the conference exceeded their expectations and only a few were dis-satisfied, surely due to the high expectations! While there is always room to improve, this event turned out to be impressive and – and unique, as always. The ‘Bootstrapping Awesome’ theme, in which we tried to say that we like to start cool things, came to life: the FIRST Gentoo MiniSummit, the FIRST LinuxDays – and the first time we had Ubuntu, Fedora and other booths at our event… We’re proud of being not only the most Green but also the most Open Linux distro around! And as many of you might already know, the next openSUSE Conference will be in Greece (https://news.opensuse.org/2012/12/10/osc13/), organized by our faithful Greek team in Thessaloniki.
At the end, we’d like to thank everyone who made this event possible. That includes the local team, especially Michal (http://michal.hrusecky.net/) and Theo (http://blog.tampakrap.gr/). Of course the Video Team, the people manning the registration, those taking care of the booth, Martin Stehno’s pictures (https://plus.google.com/photos/116069031455285939884/albums/5802296919987167073), the openSUSE Team (former boosters) and everyone who was there or who we forgot for just being awesome.
See You Next Year under the Greek Sun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
23 January 2013, 12:15 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FDSC_5537-300x198.jpg&hash=33cbe56c4fa5683ba3a0b9b0b0568e9a929dd9b3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/DSC_5537.jpg)Over the weekend of Friday 19 to Sunday 21 January 2013, a group of openSUSE contributors braved heavy snowfalls all over Europe to come to the Nuremberg SUSE office. Following a proposal made to the Board, the openSUSE Team organized this openSUSE 12.3 Bug Squad Hackathon (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3A12.3_polish_hackaton) to squash as many bugs as possible during the hot phase of development on the project’s next release. A Google+ Hangout allowed remote community members to participate.
看板! (Kanban) It was decided to work using a Kanban board (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_board) with tasks on sticky notes identifying what had to be done, what was in progress and what was finished. In addition, A bugzilla query (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?resolution=---&resolution=DUPLICATE&classification=openSUSE&query_format=advanced&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=RESOLVED&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory) of all 12.3 and Factory bugs was used to find tasks to work on, besides the things the team members had already decided in advance to work on.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2F13-1-300x225.jpg&hash=bad211596967db5c8e558f51457c411f42a63506) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/13-1.jpg)
ARM progress We saw a surge of interest in openSUSE on ARM, as Michal Hrusecky and Tomas Chvatal worked on getting further software built for ARM: the recently released Enlightenment 17, and LibreOffice. Dirk Müller and Alexander Graf worked on getting the openSUSE kernel built for ARM (including the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook), setting up a native ARM build host in OBS as a backup for the default cross-builds used. Dirk also submitted a llvm-enabled Mesa, enabling basic 3D/compositing support on the ARM Chromebook and other devices. The options for GPU acceleration are not sorted yet but there might be news in the coming weeks on that. The ARM team also worked on preparing for the Linux 3.8 kernel as this offers further benefits for ARM hardware. The image build for ARM appliances got fixed and a new product tree will be available here (http://download.opensuse.org/distribution/armv7hl/factory/repo/oss/) in preparation of a milestone release. Good news is that KDE Applications and the Desktop workspace are built for ARM and should be usable by installing it on top of the JeOS image which is already build.
Several times during the Hackathon, Michal demoed the Samsung Chromebook, showing the OS booting and what was supported (and what wasn’t).
Here is a short video showing how to use openSUSE on the ARM Chromebook:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FP1270670-225x300.jpg&hash=431dd54b978c9cda660cf8897b6091f8621c4424) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/P1270670.jpg)
Fixing openSUSE 12.3 issues: PackageKit, KDE and GNOME A lot of effort was expended on integrating PackageKit 0.8 (http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/packagekit/2013-January/026025.html) with openSUSE 12.3. Unhappy voices about PackageKit and its user interfaces have been heard in openSUSE for a long time. Investigation showed that many of these resulted from the PackageKit backend which connects it to openSUSE’s native zypp package and repository management system (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ALibzypp). This had been written several years ago for the SUSE Meego (https://www.suse.com/promo/lp/meego.html) project and since then had seen only minimal maintenance. Since PackageKit 0.8 changes the API substantially, the rewrite this demands provided the ideal opportunity for Stephan Kulow to address these bugs with a complete rewrite of the backend for openSUSE’s needs.
The KDE team members had a lot of work to do on this topic, in testing and adapting Apper 0.8 to openSUSE’s requirements. Alin Elena and Ismail Dönmez tested Apper, while Will Stephenson cleaned up the user interface and changed some of the language it uses to match terminology elsewhere in YaST. Alin also worked on extending KInfoCenter to be a full replacement for kio_sysinfo, which is being dropped from openSUSE 12.3 due to lack of maintenance, and on bug triage. Will worked on updating the KDE Start Menu structure to match upstream Freedesktop.org adaptations, and made some graphical tweaks to KRunner. Besides the PackageKit heavy lifting, Raymond Wooninck worked on a Plymouth bootsplash and did a sweeping triage of KDE bugs reported vs. 12.3.
On the GNOME team front, Richard Brown worked on general Plymouth screen ratio issues, fixing fingerprint scanner configuration in YaST, fixing Mesa OpenGL dependencies for wine and for GNOME, adding the alternate status menu, fixing the default keyring failure, and GRUB on the GNOME Live image. Dominique Leuenberger fixed a number of GNOME integration bugs, including a GDM failure when hostname changes (bnc#538064 (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=538064)), reviewed PackageKit-gtk for factory, and improved systemd support in chkconfig
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FP1270659-225x300.jpg&hash=3ecb4d9720aa16e290c12439bf7990115dbd8ce3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/P1270659.jpg)
Online collaboration Online participants via the Hangout worked on testing the openSUSE Live images, quickly finding out that the md5sums used to verify the downloads were incorrect. After finding solutions for that, the GNOME and KDE Live images got tested in a variety of scenarios and some bugs were found and reported like a not working Synaptiks (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=799925). Also discovered by the remote testers was a mysterious GRUB screen bug which shows up irregularly: a big, strangely animated geeko appears on top of the Grub screen, making it harder to pick a boot option. It lead to a frantic debugging and testing session by Richard Brown, who claimed he probably introduced it but had no idea why or how.
There was also collaboration by the KDE team with Jos Poortvliet (who joined over the Hangout) on creating updated “about openSUSE” messaging, to be used in the Greeter users see on first startup and possibly in other places on the openSUSE wiki for example.
Translations, MySQL and testing tools Tomas Chvatal worked on setting up weblate online translation for openSUSE, and adopting the summit technique for efficient translation (http://techbase.kde.org/Localization/Workflows/PO_Summit#Translating_in_Summit) used by KDE. The results will be that all branches of a particular package can be translated in one place, and that contributors can translate more easily, using a web interface. Unfortunately, work was slowed down due to bugs in the upstream pology package responsible for creating the ‘summit’. He also fixed Festival, the text-to-speech system used by KDE 3, enabled tapping in Synaptics, fixed dependencies in the Calibre e-book tool, and put Datovka, a Czech eGov system into review for 12.3. Michal worked on fixing the Compiz build and announced the move to MariaDB as the standard MySQL implementation. He also fixed camsource, by adding a v4l1 wrapper (bnc#714439 (https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=714439)).
Bernard Wiedemann gave a short presentation on how to write test modules for the OpenQA system. The Hackathon attendees were surprised by how easy it actually is to test-drive a program automatically on every build of openSUSE images. Ludwig Nussel researched Secure Boot technologies. Ismail Dönmez provided an expedited Open Build Service request processing service to the other sprint members.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FP1270681-300x225.jpg&hash=4c46653f9ced15604d4ab734ed6d22ca855e6653) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/P1270681.jpg)
More than coding On Friday afternoon, we had a VIP visit when Ralf Flaxa, SUSE VP Engineering, dropped by the Hackathon to thank the community for their effort and solicit their input as to how SUSE can make life easier for the openSUSE community. Among other things, the openSUSE conference, the upcoming version of SUSE Linux Enterprise and what it meant for openSUSE, infrastructure like Bugzilla and openFATE (https://features.opensuse.org/), package maintenance and SUSE involvement in openSUSE were discussed.
Aside from the hacking, the group took time to visit the watering holes of the Nuremberg old town and make friends over well-known Franconian beers. You can find images from the event, on the Google+ hangout page (https://plus.google.com/events/ck9u9j47nrtbkgnur5okmfagf88). It was a fun and productive event with lots of late-night hacking, weird issues being found and fixed and interesting discussions about all kinds of geeky topics. The openSUSE team is looking forward to the upcoming Marketing and Artwork Hackathon (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3A12.3_marketing_hackaton)!
Edit: 23/1/2013 13:27CET: Fix broken URL
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
23 January 2013, 9:30 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fsocial-media.png&hash=4500a53bbc1bd628a0e55583ce1daf566e13bc2e)
In September, the openSUSE community released openSUSE 12.2 (http://news.opensuse.org/2012/09/05/opensuse-12-2-green-means-go/) all around the world. So what have the responses been since that Wednesday a little over three months ago, and what can we learn for openSUSE 12.3, which is just three months away?
Community feedback Everyone was very enthusiastic about the release. On the social networks we had hundreds of +1′s, likes and shares for the release announcement from the over 12000 Google+ users with openSUSE in their circle. With almost as many followers on Twitter (https://twitter.com/openSUSE) and about 7K on Facebook, these networks were also full of discussions about the release and the sharing of the good news. The general vibe was a good one and there was lots of excitement.
On the various social media and in the article comments section, discussions about the release took place. Quickly after it was out, Will Stephenson first treated us on a picture of Geeko finishing an important download (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151396155044488/) after which Rabauke told us openSUSE would soon see KDE SC 4.9.1 packages (http://kdeatopensuse.wordpress.com/2012/09/06/kde-sc-4-9-1-packages-for-opensuse/). This spread (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151397874229488/) quickly (https://twitter.com/jospoortvliet/status/243667783026622464) to the other social media and as soon as packages were available, discussions about the merits of this release ensued (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151400042679488/). We also heard that GNOME 3.6 would have packages (https://twitter.com/openSUSE/status/243350220312817664) as soon as it is released, and GNOME 2 fork Mate (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151402016554488/) and the GNOME Shell alternative Cinnamon (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151404596804488/) were both packaged and built for openSUSE 12.2 as well!
Aside from these Open Build Service projects, the awesome Tumbleweed (http://opensuse.org/tumbleweed) was update rebased on openSUSE 12.2 (https://twitter.com/jospoortvliet/status/244043530891296768) and the the Studio team (http://susestudio.com) let us know that openSUSE 12.2 was available for your customization (http://blog.susestudio.com/2012/09/enjoy-opensuse-122-in-suse-studio.html).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2F281902_4516725077068_1135037592_n-300x111.jpg&hash=6329babfd8220227cb901650d3d8895c3ce5fd18)
Our channels also discussed the release itself. We informed our community about the features of openSUSE and availability of top technologies like LibreOffice (https://twitter.com/openSUSE/status/243394929190113280) and Firefox (https://twitter.com/openSUSE/status/243382931702312960). People wrote about (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151402016779488/) their first impressions (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151404504374488/) and what they liked (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151396567879488/). On Facebook, many people posted screenshots of their new desktop like this (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151405866919488/), this (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151405170174488/), this (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151405027934488/) and this (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151399810464488/). It was noted that the french hosting provider OVH (http://kimsufi.com/) already has a cheap hosting option (down to 15 euros a month for a dedicated server) with openSUSE 12.2 as beta available in the release week!
Troubleshooting and advice People of course asked each other for advice – is it time for btrfs on 12.2 (http://rainbowtux.blogspot.de/2012/09/to-btrfs-or-not-to-btrfs.html) or not yet (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151398696674488/)? Is it any faster (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151398964374488/)? And what is the hardware support of 12.2 (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151403219649488/)?
There was trouble shooting with wifi (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151401076674488/), vlc (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151400364894488/), java (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151400811359488/) and more. A geeko as flexible as ours can never be absolutely perfect. Gertjan Lettink, one of the Facebook group administrators, pointed out (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151403049644488/) that Facebook is not the right venue for support, we’ve got forums (http://forums.opensuse.org) for that – but still, lots of help was asked and given.
To promote the release, the release team did a well visited google hangout (picture (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151396072049488/)) and our artwork team provided you all with a twitter background (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151401755669488/) and a facebook cover (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuseproject/permalink/10151396165364488/)!
There was also a video made to show openSUSE install and boot to a KDE desktop compressed to 1 minute and 30 seconds – which got over 15.000 views until today!
Reception of the press We’ve seen a lot of positive feedback regarding openSUSE 12.2 via the press (http://en.opensuse.org/In_the_press) with over 60 articles and reviews recorded by us. It had the VAR guy saying (http://www.thevarguy.com/2012/09/05/opensuse-debuts-new-features-apps-with-12-2-release/) he believes openSUSE is “an important force in the larger open source ecosystem” and serverwatch headlining (http://www.serverwatch.com/server-news/opensuse-12.2-stabilizes-linux.html) “openSUSE 12.2 Stabilizes Linux”. While those of us in the know recognize journalistic hyperbole when we see it, it’s great to have a pat on the back.
The most thorough review to date is the look at the Great Lizard from the Linux Action Show team. Not only did they love our release – they also encountered a few issues.
On the positive side, the guys absolutely loved the release in terms of stability. They greatly appreciate our focus on a longer release cycle and slightly more conservative package selections to provide something that does its job well. The attention to detail in the installer, offering a separate /home partition, detecting mount points (including Windows!) and the ability to do a headless install over a VNC connection raised eyebrows: impressive!
They also recognized openSUSE as having an absolutely awesome desktop experience, especially running KDE’s Plasma Desktop. openSUSE 12.2 boots fast, starts applications fast and in general brings a completely smooth desktop experience. It’s smart – too. They noticed openSUSE offering to create a separate /home folder upon installation (and even detecting your existing one) and responded with “finally, someone gets it!”. They also saw that openSUSE detects the windows D:\ drive and mounts it under /windows_d – which makes for a “seamless experience” according to the reviewers.
Lack of focus in openSUSE? Criticism came on the focus of openSUSE: is it a desktop or a server? The enterprise functionality on the server side is there – in openSUSE, you can click a domain controller ready in a few clicks. But it just can’t compete with CentOS which offers binary compatibility with its enterprise cousin – you can drop-in RHEL once you’ve tested on CentOS. Same in Ubuntu – support is always close to what you are running. From openSUSE to SLE is still a hurdle. The gentlemen felt that with the default KDE desktop “the most attractive I’ve seen”, openSUSE has by far the best Enterprise-ready desktop in hands, beating the Ubuntu and Red Hat competition. It is attractive, fast, responsive and easy, maybe openSUSE should focus on their desktop more?
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fpackagekit-issues-300x169.png&hash=2a2d034de57940560709de4d7d701bdb97af1e8f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/packagekit-issues.png)PackageKit issues at LAC
But there were also some problems. Prime among those were issues with package management – the discrepancy between the native zypper tool & YaST for administration by root on one hand and the PackageKit side of things with Apper and gpk-tools on the other hand has a lack of consistency which creates some confusion. Patterns are cool but have dependency issues and are hard to discover. Also, YaST can be a tad verbose in listing and resolving package conflict and letting you handle it – sometimes this could be made a bit easier. They also felt that our handling of proprietary drivers (or rather, lack of handling that) was a bit surprising and last but not least, one of them bumped into a bug in our brand new boot loader GRUB2.
The openSUSE team worked with community members to fix the issues the gentlemen encountered (as well as many others) and we can now confidently say that the problems they LAS reviewers bumped into have been decisively fixed or will be, soon. Right now, for example, Release Manager Coolo is working hard on making sure PackageKit 0.8 is in shape and will not be blocking any zypper activity or the other way around. So, that, leaves us with their summary:
“openSUSE is a cohesive distro and it feels like it is being done by an extremely talented group of people.”.
What more can we say?
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FKTorrent-logo.png&hash=2d11ff2b630a2fc9674b58de3a9ad6d74c8101f5) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/KTorrent-logo.png)
Download numbers We again collected some statistics on the downloads of openSUSE. There’s quite a drop in downloads – our release manager attributed this to the delay. Many people were already running the latest RC, which was very stable, and just did a zypper dup on the release day. True or not, combined with a more and more popular Tumbleweed rolling release (http://en.opensuse.org/Tumbleweed), it probably explains at least some of the difference. But at the same time – there’s surely work we can do to improve, both in terms of marketing as well as development.
The number of downloaded openSUSE installation DVD’s and Netinstall images within the first 24 hours totals over 42.000 with almost half (46%) of that 64 bit. On bittorrent, another 8.000 ISO images were downloaded. GNOME and KDE LiveCD’s did great too, with around 12K KDE and 8.5K GNOME downloads from bittorrent and download.opensuse.org combined. A complete breakdown for the first day on download.opensuse.org (http://download.opensuse.org):
- NonOss Addon CD BiArch: 2151
- 32-bit x86: 48075 (total)
- Net: 1481
- DVD: 21352
- GNOME-LiveCD: 3417
- KDE-LiveCD: 4542
- Addon-Lang: 2987
- 64-bit x86-64: 44234 (total)
- Net: 1809
- DVD: 17483
- GNOME-LiveCD: 3234
- KDE-LiveCD: 4523
- Addon-Lang: 1570
While these are a lot of downloads, as said, these numbers don’t show upgrades to 12.2 by our existing user base via the online upgrade method (http://opensuse.org/Upgrade) and those running Tumbleweed (http://opensuse.org/Tumbleweed) have also moved to openSUSE 12.2 now without any additional efforts.
Thank to all involved, especially to translators, social media and forum promoters, the artwork team, and many others who worked to make openSUSE 12.2 a success.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fkbruch.png&hash=2a94c9a4358f2f0973a73d9193225fdbdf26af2b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/kbruch.png)
Lessons for openSUSE 12.3 Of course this release did teach us a few things. While openSUSE 12.2 turned out to be a great release, there is room for improvement! Some of these thoughts you find below.
- We should be testing Live CDs during the development lifecycle so brokenness doesn’t build up. Help welcome! We have already done so during the hackaton (http://news.opensuse.org) last weekend and we urge you to help during the RC’s!
- We need better coordination between packagers on the UsrMerge and similar projects and bug reports.
- The openSUSE [Boosters] Team was mostly occupied doing marketing and promotion tasks during the final release phase of the distribution, so some fixable bugs slipped through and were seen by reviewers as negatives. We need to step up our marketing efforts, and it’s why we planned the openSUSE 12.3 marketing/artwork hackaton (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3A12.3_marketing_hackaton) end of this month!
- Since core members of the Marketing Team (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMarketing_team) are moving on to other responsibilities, it’s important that the project builds this team up again now so that can promote the next release effectively, especially completing and distributing press kits and release announcements further ahead of the actual release. Again, the hackaton will help with this.
- An openSUSE Build Service reboot in release week brought the completion of the Gold Master image down to the wire – the project needs better coordination with teams inside SUSE.
- Since openSUSE follows a development strategy best described as “undirected hacking”, making an exciting story out of the release is harder. We need to plan features and themes for upcoming releases more in advance – this will make development more attractive as well as the marketing team’s job easier.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.02.2013 - klo:00:33
24 January 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fconf_logo-300x250.png&hash=e419793af2ef04c5b6d4e72e44f465ff99cffe64) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/conf_logo.png)Today, the openSUSE community is happy and proud to announce the openSUSE Conference 2013, oSC13. On July 18, the openSUSE Community will flock to the land where 2500 years ago, Philosophers started the Age of Reason. Humbly standing on the shoulders of these giants, we’ll work, enjoy the great climate and each other, developing the technology for the future of humankind. The Greek Philosophers were part of a revolution which changed the world. So are we, and thus, under the motto of “Power to the Geeko”, we will gather and work on our very own Free Software revolution!
About the conference From July 18 until July 22, 2013, Thessaloniki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki), the second largest city in Greece and home to no less than 15 UNESCO World Heritage Sites (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO_World_Heritage_Site), will be host to the fifth openSUSE Conference. Once again, we’ll discuss topics related to our distribution, Free and Open Source technology and ‘open world stuff’ in general, inviting participation from people within as well as outside of our openSUSE Community.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FThessaloniki_White_Tower_and_promanade-300x270.png&hash=ad72d957f49320d4a7b977b912a7c09431e1d53f) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thessaloniki)The slogan of the conference this year is ‘Power to the Geeko’, as we would like to emphasize the bottom-up nature of our Free Software movement (an excellent fit with the country where early democracies developed). Thessaloniki provides many opportunities to Have a lot of Fun! The city features beautiful beaches and a lively night life as well as good food and drinks. We expect plenty of socializing between the technical sessions and code.
About Thessaloniki and the Greek community Greece, or Hellas, is a southern European country, south of the Balkan Peninsula. It is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia and Africa and it is surrounded by sea – Ionean Sea, Aegean Sea, Mediterranean Sea – with a plethora of islands, ideal destination for summer vacations.
Thessaloniki Thessaloniki is the second largest city in Greece and the capital of the Central Macedonia region. Air traffic to and from the city is served by the Macedonia International Airport for international and domestic flights. The city is renowned for its festivals, events and vibrant cultural life in general, and is considered to be Greece’s cultural capital. Events such as the Thessaloniki International Trade Fair and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival are held annually, while the city also hosts the largest bi-annual meeting of the Greek diaspora. In 2014 Thessaloniki will be the European Youth Capital. For 2013 National Geographic Magazine included Thessaloniki in its top tourist destinations worldwide. Thessaloniki is well known for the night life and the delicious food.
Community The Greek community, affectionately known as Greekos within the openSUSE community, coalesced in a semi formal way approximately 3 years ago. This group of dedicated local supporters meets on a regular basis and promotes the use of openSUSE and FOSS within and outside of Greece. With the repeated experience of organizing the openSUSE Collaboration Summer camps (http://www.os-el.gr/summercamp/en/) and the Greekos involvement in the orchestration of previous openSUSE conferences it was an easy decision for the openSUSE board to support Thessaloniki as the first openSUSE conference that will be organized solely by the community.
The local team of volunteers is working with great dedication to provide an awesome experience for everybody at oSC13.
Travel support The openSUSE Travel Support Program (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program) will once again offer help to those those openSUSE contributors that would like to attend the openSUSE conference but have financial limitations. Following the procedure at the Travel Support wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program) you can send your support requests to the TSP team from April 23rd to May 3rd. Earlier requests are possible but note that the travel team will allocate travel funding according to the guidelines and inform all applicants by May 13th. This should allow a sufficient amount of time to make your reservations.
Sponsoring and supportive attendee registration The openSUSE conference is a very big event for the community to organize and orchestrate. While the countless volunteer hours make the event great, financial support by sponsors is invaluable and necessary. Sponsorship money is used to fund the event location, costs for keynote speakers, marketing material and other conference expenses. The openSUSE community is very inclusive and this shows at our events in the participation of many that are not directly involved in openSUSE. Thefeore, the openSUSE conference provides a unique opportunity for sponsors to not only reach the openSUSE community but also reach members of other FOSS communities.
Sponsorship opportunities for the openSUSE conference are available. For details please contact our openSUSE Conference sponsorship Manager with inquiries:
Izabel Valverde (izabelvalverde@opensuse.org)
Sponsorship manager
openSUSE Conference Organization
A sponsorship brochure with predefined options will be available in the near future. However, we encourage you to work with us to meet your sponsorship needs.
Registration and tickets As in previous years registration and attendance of the openSUSE conference is free of charge. Tickets to support the event may be purchased at the cost of $50 for supporter tickets and $250 for professional tickets. Buy your tickets from the SUSE Shop:
- North America, Latin America and Asian Pacific: Supporter ticket (https://buy.suse.com/store/suse/en_US/buy/productID.264835100), Professional ticket (https://buy.suse.com/store/suse/en_US/buy/productID.264935300).
- Europe, Middle East and Africa:Supporter ticket (http://shop.novell.com/DRHM/store?Action=AddItemToRequisition&siteId=novelleu&Env=BASE&productId=265352500) and Professional ticket (http://shop.novell.com/DRHM/store?Action=AddItemToRequisition&siteId=novelleu&Env=BASE&productId=265352400).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FChameleonBust_white-212x300.png&hash=6faa96c8122010ce12d97957ba153e515850e144) (http://conference.opensuse.org)
Website and call for help The conference web site can be found at conference.opensuse.org (http://conference.opensuse.org) and it will be updated regularly with new information. The organization of oSC13 requires the close collaboration of many people who are distributed across the globe. This is an exciting environment and if you would like to participate in the organization of the event you are more than welcome. Please subscribe to to our mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-conference/) and introduce yourself during one of our IRC meetings (announced on the mailing list).
The Greek Philosophers were part of a revolution which changed the world. So are we, and thus, under the motto of “Power to the Geeko”, we will gather and work on our revolution. Look for the Cfp and registration announcement in the near future!
Power to the Geeko!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 08.02.2013 - klo:01:00
7 February 2013, 11:13 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcounter.opensuse.org%2Fmedium.png&hash=e438f0783f6b0fa0e7e3f12c7e40cdea54311913)As winter refuses to relax its icy grasp on the northern hemisphere, the openSUSE project would like to announce the first release candidate of version 12.3 of its popular Linux distribution. Major updates include the desktop environment KDE to version 4.10, GNOME 3.6 and kernel 3.7.6. Help to iron out the last few bugs before the final release by downloading RC1 from software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/developer).
What’s in there? This preview includes the large number of fixes made to Factory since the beta, as well as the last major set of version updates. RC1 needs a real workout to ensure we fix any remaining issues in time, so don’t wait for RC2, put it on your spare disk and give it a try now. Major changes include:
- PackageKit 0.8.7
- Major release allows transactions to be parallelized for better performance. The libzypp backend used by openSUSE was completely rewritten around the new API, allowing a lot of old ugly bugs to be shown the door.
- Apper 0.8
- Rewritten around new PackageKit, and the software update notifier has been rewritten as a plasmoid. The language used in the UI has been changed to match usage in YaST and zypper better.
- fcitx 4.2.7
- The input method has several UI improvements for more efficient international text entry, and better Qt integration
- Linux kernel 3.7.6
- Has a bunch of driver fixes, including one bug that gives Intel machines hot flushes by disabling i915 RC6 power saving after suspend (https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=52411), fixes to hda and usb-audio, EFI firmware, NFS and the kernel radeon driver.
- MariaDB replaces MySQL, as widely reported (http://www.zdnet.com/oracle-who-fedora-and-opensuse-will-replace-mysql-with-mariadb-7000010640/?s_cid=rSINGLE).
- postfix 2.9.5 fixes bugs in rule pattern matching and in IPv6 support
- WebYaST finally works on 12.3, but needs more testing
- Samba 3.6.12 (Samba 4 missed the feature deadline)
Get openSUSE 12.3 RC1 from the usual place (http://software.opensuse.org/developer/).
How you can contribute to 12.3 Although the final release is only a month away, there are lots of ways you can make a difference.
Testers can find information on how to work effectively in the openSUSE Testing wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATesting).
You can find the current list of the most annoying 12.3 bugs here (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMost_annoying_bugs_12.3_dev).
Help us shorten that list by re-testing the problematic areas or by fixing bugs, and we love it when you help us find new important issues!
The openSUSE 12.3 Portal (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A12.3) has been set up but still needs lots of work. There are screenshots to take, release notes to write, and documentation to update. We also welcome help with translating it all. Right now, the openSUSE Marketing and Artwork teams are meeting in the Nuremberg SUSE office on finishing artwork and release notes in time for the final release.
Find the information portal for openSUSE 12.3 here (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A12.3).
Screenshots of 12.3 are here (http://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots_12.3), Documentation and the Localization Guide (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALocalization_guide).
You can help promote our release by adding a release counter to your website. Pick a size, then link to the image with the usual tags:
http://counter.opensuse.org/small.png
http://counter.opensuse.org/medium.png
http://counter.opensuse.org/large.png
Example tags:
You can also find social media backgrounds for g+, twitter and facebook here (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials), website banners here (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Web%20Banners/12.3%20Web%20Banners), a cool release poster here (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Posters/12.3) and we’ve already got slide templates (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/openSUSE%20Introduction%20Slides) so you can present openSUSE at user groups, universities or workplaces.
Thanks! openSUSE would like to shout out to OortLinux (http://www.youtube.com/user/OortLinux) for letting us use their video for the KDE first login greeter. Thanks!
We’d of course also would like to extend our gratitude to our regular contributor base who contributed to making openSUSE: the packagers, translators, document authors and everyone else.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
2 July 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F%2C+via+Wikimedia+Commons+width%3D289+height%3D300%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F11%2Fgeekoandco21-289x300.png%5B%2Furl%5D%3Cbr+%2F%3E%3Cbr+%2F%3EMore+than+twenty+years+have+passed+since+GNU%2FLinux+was+born%2C+and+more+than+twenty+five+since+the+GNU+manifesto+by+Richard+Stallman.+Free+Software+has+become+widely+used+in+the+industry+and+has+been+successfully+introduced+in+many+Computer+Science+Department+syllabi%26%238217%3Bs+all+over+the+globe.+But+the+Bachelor+degree+achieved+by+studying+Computer+Science+not+the+one+of+Linux+Administrator+or+Free+Software+Programmer.+While+Free+Software+specific+MSc+programmes+exist%2C+scientific+research+with+its+focus+on+publication%2C+study+and+review+is+rather+different+than+the+required+skills+of+application+of+technical+knowledge+in+the+business+world.%3Cbr+%2F%3E%3Cbr+%2F%3EMeanwhile%2C+Free+Software+communities%2C+born+from+the+ashes+of+late+80s+hacker+communities%2C+had+the+character+of+social+movement.+They+attracted+people+from+various+social%2C+economic%2C+science+sectors.+Many+of+them%2C+realizing+the+potential+of+Linux+and+its+momentum%2C+created+a+new+generation+of+university+dropouts.+But+their+skills%2C+even+if+they+had+tremendous+knowledge+of+computer+systems+and+networks%2C+were+undocumented+and+hard+to+prove+in+a+%26%238216%3B%5Bi%5DHR+department-compattible%5B%2Fi%5D%26%238216%3B+way.%3Cbr+%2F%3E%3Cbr+%2F%3E%5Burl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.lpi.org%2F%5D%5Bimg+alt%3DLPI+logo+width%3D100+height%3D164%5Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F09%2FLpi-lpi-logo2.png&hash=ebc38e2e71007f20adf30be716cd1310baa62bd7) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/geekoandco21.png)
Introducing the Linux Professional Institute These were the reasons creating the need of certification in GNU/Linux. In 1999, in the midst of dot com bubble and just eight years after the first Linux Kernel came out, the Linux Professional Institute was founded to fill this gap in Free Software and networking professionalism. The great adoption of the LAMP stack by web servers during the dot com run led to high demand for Linux technicians, no matter if they were graduated or not. But employers are always happy having someone with proven knowledge of her skills, if not for them, than to prove to their customers that they employ skilled workers.
Having the LPI as vendor-neutral GNU/Linux certification helped make this proof of knowledge widely available. No matter what distribution the corporate server room runs or what is available in on the desktops in the cubicles, the LPI Certified professional is always capable of offering a solution fitting to the requirements.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F04%2Fm5-300x190.png&hash=ab10a7a7a964c100ce537135d4c7bab8ad7e9742)
LPI collaboration with SUSE Regardless of how fanatic we in the Free and Open Source world can be, calling-writing-arguing on terms like Free Software, Open Source, Linux or GNU/Linux, the painful truth is that there are not many widely used distributions which sport an enterprise solution besides the ‘community version‘, a place in computer history and the resulting reputation – bringing a certification to the table.
Actually, there are only two, one of them being SUSE. With roots in Slackware, SUSE has a dominant place in Linux distribution market but also a large piece of Linux Desktop & Server pies. For this reasons, LPI and then-Novell committed in 2010 on a still on-going partnership for granting SUSE Certified Linux Administrator (CLA) certification at no additional cost or exams to holders of LPIC-1. To further support this initiative SUSE Training Services has formally agreed to include the required LPIC-1 learning objectives in its CLA course training material, making this process work the other way around as well.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F06%2FLPIC-1-SUSE-CLA.png&hash=e577542ebc2c5776232ab44ffff1bc0cf50205e1) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/LPIC-1-SUSE-CLA.png)
Many people, after using SUSE and openSUSE, became dedicated users and later determined to continue this path professionally. In this context the LPIC 1 – SUSE CLA partnership is very important because is the first step of the certification path at SUSE. Having a full certification from LPI and one of the main Linux vendors, be it SUSE or Red Hat, is an important mark in the market place as professional specialization is what market needs today.
LPI at oSC If you are a dedicated SUSE or openSUSE user – power user – admin – magician, you should consider getting LPIC 1 certified. It might be the first step to a more successful career in Free Software. The upcoming openSUSE Conference (http://conference.opensuse.org) in Greece will feature a LPI Exam room, where you can take your test and get going with these professional certifications. See the oSC LPI page (http://conference.opensuse.org/#LPI) for more details. There will also be a session by Konstantinos Boukouvalas on the subject of Linux certification. Be there, it’s a great place to start your Linux career!
Article contributed by Konstantinos Boukouvalas, Operations Manager LPI MA Greece
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
3 July 2013, 3:10 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FChameleonBust_white-212x300.png&hash=6faa96c8122010ce12d97957ba153e515850e144)We’ve got great news for you: the openSUSE Conference Paper Committee has finalized the conference program! We’ve got inspiring keynotes, interesting talks, in-depth workshops and intensive parties all lined up! Read on to find out what we’ve got in store.
Tracks We gave you a preview (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/06/10/schedule-of-opensuse-conference/) of the three main subjects of our event, the Community and Project; Geeko Tech and OpenWorld. The conference website also has a taste of the program (https://conference.opensuse.org/#program). And starting today you can check out the details of these and other talks (https://conference.opensuse.org/#program). And plan what sessions you’d like to attend!
Recording Like last year, we plan on recording the main sessions at the conference and streaming them live for those who couldn’t make it to the event. We’ll edit them afterward and publish them as soon as possible.
(https://conference.opensuse.org/images/speakers/georg.jpg) The live streaming will be offered through the openSUSE Bambuser channel (http://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv). Although the broadcast is live you may need to register with bambuser.com (http://news.opensuse.org/www.bambuser.com) so that you can comment in the chat. The local team will try to make sure that the room chairs share questions from people joining remotely with the presenters.
Offering live streaming services for the conference is not easy and those attending are expected to participate in keeping the streams and post processing moving along. There is also a tentative idea of offering live translation from English to other languages. If you are one who can translate, don’t hesitate to contact the conference’s organizers and help with translation.
After the conference is over, the recording of the sessions will be posted in our openSUSE youtube channel (http://youtube.com/opensusetv). The video recording as well as editing cost a lot of time and we very much welcome help with this: our ambitious goal of publishing the video’s of the sessions within 24 hours of recording won’t be met without some help! If you’re interested in the tech behind these recordings, we use dvswitch, code here (https://github.com/openSUSE/dvswitch).
Please note that if you’re going to oSC you’re expected to be OK with us making and sharing these recordings with our remote audience.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FSponsor_Party_Poster_07-212x300.jpg&hash=650e8d984607dc3af44f24c741807927f738b347) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Sponsor_Party_Poster_07.jpg)Geeko Parties Coming! Keynotes We already shared with you that Georg Greve (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/06/19/announcing-the-first-keynote-for-osc-georg-greve-on-freeing-our-data/), Founder of the Free Software Foundation Europe (http://fsfe.org) and CEO of Kolabsys (http://kolabsys.com/), will open our conference on Friday with a keynote about the value of freeing our data from the sticky hands of governments and companies. As the schedule shows, Saturday the event will be introduced by Ralf Flaxa, head of Engineering at SUSE (http://suse.com), who will talk about building openSUSE. The third day, Sunday, will open with community manager Jos Poortvliet (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com), talking about hugs community values, governance and the awesomeness of Geekos.
Key Signing Party There will of course be the traditional keysigning party (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_signing_party), taking place on the 21st at 18:00 in room Zeus (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc2013/proposal/53) and preceded by a talk about keysigning and security in the same room (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc2013/proposal/78). There is no central key registry for this keysigning. Instead it will simply be a keyslip exchange.
What to bring:
- Yourself
- Paper slips with your key id, fingerprint, name & emails.
- Something to identify yourself. Usually government-issued
- identification, such as a passport. Multiple pieces of identification are preferred.
At this time, there are 50+ attendees expected at the keysigning event, so you should bring at least that number of slips. Doubling that may be advisable if the event ends up being very large.
Be there! We’ll also have a few social events, including of course the registration party on Thursday night. But for now, you can plan the sessions you’d like to attend by checking out the program (https://conference.opensuse.org/#program)!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
4 July 2013, 3:00 pm
We opened registration back in February (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/02/20/osc13-cfp/) and now we’ve just passed the mark of two weeks from the conference! If you have not yet registered, please hurry up: we need these numbers to plan for the event. You have until end of day tomorrow (Friday the 5th of July) to finish your registration! If you did plan on going but had to cancel, we’d appreciate it if you would make sure this is reflected in your registration status.
Be nice, help us out by registering! Attending the openSUSE Conference is entirely free of charge, thanks to our generous sponsors (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/01/thanking-the-opensuse-conference-sponsors-2/) but please respect our work and put in the little effort to register. It helps make our work easy – and that work is plenty. We won’t say no to anybody – registration is greatly appreciated but penalty for not doing so doesn’t include anything like torture. However, you might not be able to secure yourself a place at one of the social events and even the conference lunch could become problematic.
Please note that registering for an account and actually registering for the openSUSE Conference 2013 event are two distinct steps!
We’d also like to remind you that it is possible to support our event by purchasing supporter tickets ($50) or professional tickets ($250) during registration. Funds from these ticket sales are a very important part of the budget for the overall conference. The money is used to fund the event and help with the openSUSE Travel Support Program to allow as many contributors as possible to attend the event. You can also get them in the SUSE Shop:
- North America, Latin America and Asian Pacific: Supporter ticket (https://buy.suse.com/store/suse/en_US/buy/productID.264835100), Professional ticket (https://buy.suse.com/store/suse/en_US/buy/productID.264935300).
- Europe, Middle East and Africa: Supporter ticket (http://shop.novell.com/DRHM/store?Action=AddItemToRequisition&siteId=novelleu&Env=BASE&productId=265352500) and Professional ticket (http://shop.novell.com/DRHM/store?Action=AddItemToRequisition&siteId=novelleu&Env=BASE&productId=265352400).
Last minute! We’ve got a few things for you to keep an eye on when joining us.
-
- As you might have seen in the announcement of the schedule (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=16204) yesterday, we’re recording the main tracks of the event and there will also be plenty of people with camera’s. This is a open and public event and while we try to respect your privacy as much as reasonable, we can not in any way guarantee that you won’t get digitized and end up on the web. This does indeed mean that Obama can see you (http://obamaischeckingyouremail.tumblr.com/). Sorry.
- Being in a public place does also mean you’ll have to behave at your best. We’d like to remind you of our Code of Conduct (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_code_of_conduct). In short: “We, as a community, value and respect people of all stripes – genders, orientations, races, abilities, shapes and sizes – and will not tolerate vilification, abuse or harassment in any form.” Note that this often requires you to be a tad more polite than you might be among friends at home: we’re an international community and with that come additional opportunities for misunderstandings. Bonus is that being smiling (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=smile-it-could-make-you-happier) and being nice (http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/kindness_makes_you_happy_and_happiness_makes_you_kind) makes you happy, so it is no wasted effort!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
10 July 2013, 4:55 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fconf_logo-300x250.png&hash=e419793af2ef04c5b6d4e72e44f465ff99cffe64) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/conf_logo.png)
Within two weeks, in thessaloniki, the openSUSE Conference will start off again. Like last year, we have not only an awesome program but also reserved time for small sessions to get work done. We’ve got a wiki page where you can schedule such sessions before the event (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_BoF) and on the event itself we’ll allow scheduling more sessions Unconference style. Read on to learn more about the BoF (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_a_Feather_(computing)) session, based on an article from our famous RW conference in 2011!
Definition Wikipedia defines (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birds_of_a_Feather_(computing)) a BoF as ‘an informal discussion group’, ‘often formed in an ad-hoc manner’. It also describes a BoF as ‘an informal meet-up at conferences, where the attendees group together based on a shared interest and carry out discussions without any pre-planned agenda’.
The central concepts are informal, shared interests and ad-hoc. What is not mentioned are goals, the why of such a session. But based on the concepts, you can get an idea. The informal factor means everyone is equal and can and should voice their opinions. The shared interests mean you get together people who care about a particular subject. The ad-hoc factor merely re-inforces the other two. A BoF is very much like meeting for dinner: you talk as friends about whatever interests you! That is not to say a BoF can’t have goals. Often, BoFs have a number of things the participants want to discuss. The person organizing the BoF is usually the person who puts one or more topics forward, but everyone is free to bring up other issues. This is central to the concept of a BoF – discuss things.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2363%2F2311306708_5a29c44a0b_m.jpg&hash=48bec8ab3abd1ca462243ac2dfb3408265d5e700) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/fourkitchens/2311306708/) Why? Free Software communities work online in a collaborative fashion. That’s marketing speak for: we work together, alone. While each of us sits behind his computer, either alone or with others in an office, we form one team. We communicate over mail, IRC and other online channels.
For asking questions, basic decision making or just getting work done, this is excellent. For socializing, it is less optimal, but you’ll still find plenty of social interactions especially in IRC channels. It gets much harder however, when complicated issues surface. If decisions have to be made about processes or fundamental technical directions, the online aspect gets in the way. You quickly run into misunderstandings and while our hacker culture compels us to fairly direct (‘rude’) communication, still emotions can run wild.
This is where face to face meetings help. Getting to know each other over dinner or during a party is a powerful enabler for future online communication. But it is also the perfect moment to make those hard decisions! And that is where the BoF comes in.
How? Discussions about future directions or day to day business like improving a review process or working together more efficiently – all things done better in person. In a BoF, a team working together on-line meets and discusses these things, face to face, in an open manner. Not completely unstructured, mind you, but still very open. The organizer of the BoF is there merely to start up the discussion and possibly facilitate it. Facilitate by making sure some decisions are actually taken. And recorded!
A typical BoF starts with a short ‘hi all, thanks for coming’, and if needed an introduction of the participants. Then, it is time to find the subjects of the discussion at hand. The organizer can coin a few things he or she things need to be discussed and others can chime in. From there on, it’s a matter of actually going over the subjects one by one.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm1.static.flickr.com%2F49%2F171249238_1421d15dca_m.jpg&hash=923c594cd37e015058966282384a2d84c6c761e1) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/shrued/171249238/) The challenge now is to keep the discussion from going in all directions – something which is fine at a dinner but not productive at a BoF. Gently reminding the team of what the goal of the current topic is is usually sufficient. You all share the same goals, after all. The second challenge is to make sure decisions are taken and recorded. Creating the typical action list of who does what is the best way to go. It might make sense, with a large BoF team, to have one person lead the discussion while someone else takes notes.
Know that the person organizing the BoF does not have to be a ‘team leader’, nor a ‘great communicator’! Every attendee is equally responsible for the quality and results of the discussion. Organizing the BoF is merely a technical detail – not a huge deal at all, and anyone can do it.
Responsibilities and tools Organizing a BoF is surprisingly simple if the right people turn up. For that, a clear description is usually enough. A title like “Factory review process discussion” will most likely attract those involved with review of packages in Factory and interested in improving the process. If the review process has had hickups in the last few months it is highly unlikely that the discussion won’t be attended or not attract the right people. Nor is it likely to not have ‘enough to talk about’. The problem is usually more one of getting sidetracked and not actually finishing discussing the topic with a proper todo list!
What do you need to organize a BoF? Almost nothing. Pen and paper (for the todo!) will usually suffice. A whiteboard might be nice for more complicated problems like mapping out a new API, creating a flow diagram of a process or simply noting down the agreed-upon topics for the BoF. Otherwise, just talk! Introduce the topic quickly and ask for opinions will fire it off easily.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2797%2F4537737867_3ebfc19183_m.jpg&hash=2c384b903aaa0bf8104639b4404bd204d7b470bb) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tfdavis/4537737867/) Scheduling BoF’s Usually, BoF’s are scheduled ‘on the spot’ using a big whiteboard in the main hall of the conference or on an open wiki page. That can lead to two similar BoF’s or two BoF’s targeting the same team at the same time, however. It also means you might not have a spot at a decent time. Which might result in being forced to plan a BoF in the time slot of a talk about the same subject . This is why the openSUSE CfP team asks you to plan BoF’s in advance! We’ll also offer room to schedule BoF sessions at the event itself, of course.
The biggest perceived problem with planning a BoF is the inherent contradiction in ‘planning’ and ‘BoF’. Yes, you might not know now what will be an issue 3 months from now. However, you don’t have to nail the agenda down today, that would indeed run counter to the whole concept of a BoF. If you think your team will benefit from having a good, open discussion about what you do and how you (want to) do it, simply send in a quick proposal to the openSUSE Conference Paper Committee. It is no problem if something more urgent pops up and you discuss that instead of following the initial description. The main reason for ‘planning’ (part of) the BoF’s beforehand is to allow the CfP team to try and schedule things in such a way there is little overlap with talks and other BoF’s and to allow teams to reserve a room.
So go to the BoF wiki page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_BoF) and add a BoF! You’ve got until the day before the conference to do this – after that, we’ll schedule at the event itself using whiteboards.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
15 July 2013, 11:09 pm
While everyone is certainly looking forward to the upcoming openSUSE Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece (only a few days away) it is not too early to cast our view just a bit into the future and also get excited about our second openSUSE Summit. Especially for those on the west side of the big pond, a.k.a. The Atlantic, that may not be able to trek to Greece to join fellow Geekos the openSUSE Summit offers a great opportunity to meet fellow Geekos, hang out, chat, hack and Have a lot of Fun…. As in the previous year the openSUSE Summit will immediately follow SUSECon (http://www.susecon.com).
The openSUSE Summit will take place at the Disney Corronado Springs Resort (https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/coronado-springs-resort/) in Buena Vista, Florida (just outside Orlando) from November 15 to November 17, 2013. Those registering prior to November 1st will get free access to the remaining session of SUSECon that take place on Friday November 15.
Registration and CfP Registration and CfP are now open, so head on over to OSEM (http://conference.opensuse.org) and register and/or submit your Session/BoF/Workshop proposal. Yes, we are finally managing to use the same tool for two events, hurray. For those that did not register for oSC13, first you need to create an OSEM account and then register for the openSUSE Summit.
Sponsors Our primary sponsor is SUSE (http://www.suse.com) but to organize an event it takes more than just one helping hand. Thus, additional sponsors are needed and more than welcome. In the tradition of previous openSUSE events the openSUSE SUmmit is a free (as in beer) event and thus the financial support for the event and the openSUSE Travel Support Program soley depend on the sponsors of the openSUSE Summit. For sponsorship information please contact Izabel Valverde (izabelvalverde@opensuse.org)
Travel Support Program The openSUSE Travel Support program will once again have financial assistance available for attendees that are openSUSE contributors or are interested in contributing to the openSUSE Summit and need financial support to attend. An announcement will be made on the openSUSE Summit (http://summit.opensuse.org/) web site and the Summit mailing list (opensuse-summit+subscribe@opensuse.org) when applications for travel support are accepted.
Article contributed by Robert Schweikert
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
16 July 2013, 8:53 pm
Milestone 2 was released just a month ago and it is now time to get the newest milestone release of openSUSE. Please remember that there is only one more milestone before openSUSE starts beta testing. There is still time for you to submit your bugs and requests for the distribution to include. As it is generally with milestones the changes are not dramatic, but there are some highlights you can see next.(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FM3-300x133.png&hash=841070d7434e79bfd50140662dd23b7c917494fb) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/M3.png)
GNOME 3.9.3 (3.10 Beta)
KDE 4.10.90 (4.11 Beta)
gcc 4.7->4.8 Kernel changed to the final stable version 3.10.0.
Subversion also changed to the latest stable release accompanied by a few important changes that you can review here (http://subversion.apache.org/docs/release-notes/1.8.html). Also, Mozilla Firefox is now updated to the latest version 22. Some improvements include WebRTC is now enabled by default (http://blog.mozilla.org/futurereleases/2013/05/16/firefox-beta-now-includes-webrtc-on-by-default)! Meaning that anyone looking to have Firefox do more live communication through the browser, can now do so by default. We have not seen much of this in action other than the Facebook chat integration with Firefox but there should some new applications coming in the future. HTML5 audio/video playback rate can now be changed for all those looking to ditch flash. Asm.js optimizations (OdinMonkey (http://blog.mozilla.org/luke/2013/03/21/asm-js-in-firefox-nightly/)) is now enabled for performance improvements that have been benchmarked recently here (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/chrome-27-firefox-21-opera-next,3534.html).
openSUSE recommends that you download the DVD for testing purposes only. It is important to remember that the changes made in this version are not meant to be in your everyday computer, but rather that you used this version for testing purposes giving the community feedback on what bugs and problems you find. You can file your bugs in our forums, or bug tracking system bugzilla (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports).
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
17 July 2013, 11:15 am
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/9/9c/Networking_dister.png/400px-Networking_dister.png) (http://tinyurl.com/qgqrc8t)We at openSUSE team have been faced with one slight difficulty. We need to track people interested in the workshops so we can assure you can fit in beforehand, tell you some info from the workshop authors where they tell you what you should have with you or what is the workshop plan, and lastly even collect your suggestions.
For this purpose we created
ad-hoc-hacky google docs file (http://tinyurl.com/qgqrc8t).
Where you are interested in the parts “Attendees list” which is obviously list of interested people (green is done by Tomáš Chvátal to the amount of expected people to be there, it is NOT a hard limit, on the registration later on there will be printed sheet with the workshops which have the hardlimit, so you can write in even if you are not sure right now). Other list is “Atendees suggestions” which is just field where you can express your ideas what you expect from the event or what you wish from the author to do.
We would also like to apologise that we didn’t do this up-front during your registration, which we simply forgot (mea culpa) but for the next conference it is on the list and will be implemented in the OSEM tool which handles our sweet conference management.
See you all on the conference!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
20 July 2013, 12:10 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0434-300x200.jpg&hash=4e7426a836bfbf13be018d610cfaaaa90fdf78f2) The openSUSE Conference 2013 is being held in Thessaloniki, Greece at the Olympic Museum. Everything is set and the first day of the conference is now over! Last night, we kicked off with a party attended by about 100 visitors and at the end of today we counted almost 170 visitors, not bad for a Friday night. Everyone is happy and impressed about all the work that the community and the G(r)eekos have done for this conference so far. This is the first community-organized openSUSE conference. Read on for more about this spectacular conference!
#oSC13 Begins! The G(r)eeko conference team has been working all week to get the event ready. Networking, video recording, booth space and the ‘beach bar’ all had to be set up. Thursday night everything was ready and it was time for the pre-conference party! Starting around 18:00 arrived and registered themselves, exchanging cash for the awesome Geeko money (1000 geekos for 50ct), to be later exchanged for beer and refreshments at the venue. The party area was equipped with tables and chairs but there was enough room for dancing. When the DJ asked one of our Brazilian visitors (Carlos) for his favorite Brazilian music, we got Sepultura, kicking off a Metal and head banging trend which lasted for quite a while. The party continued until late but of course at some point our visitors had to find their beds in preparation of the first conference day. Many visitors actually arrived on time at the venue and started checking-in at the registration table if they hadn’t gotten their badges the day before. Every visitor receives a bag with a cool Green conference t-shirt so we can color our event.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0187-300x200.jpg&hash=b73162893a2668beb173d1f3f505afb6d70117f9) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0187.jpg)Booths of openSUSE, ORACLE, Mozilla, KDE, Gnome, FSFE and LPI were set up. Keynote by Georg Greve Presentations started on time with Kostas welcoming the community to the event and the local team surprised us by shooting 20 or 30 big beach balls into the audience. The first keynote was from Georg Greve about Software Freedom. He spoke about how the disclosures around the PRISM surveillance project by the US and the many similar projects around the world gives us a huge opportunity to spread Free Software. People now realize that their privacy isn’t just easy to compromise in theory, but it happens in reality and on a massive scale. Companies can be forced to allow the US spying agency NSA access through backdoors (or access to found security issues before they become public) and of course especially Cloud providers in the US are forced, by law, to collaborate and give full access to their users’ data. It goes so far that the information gathered is used for political and economical gain. Georg pointed out that if you are negotiating with the US government about a trade deal between your countries or try to get a deal to buy airplanes from either Boeing or Airbus, the ability of the US representative to read every email you send and every call you make will probably not be beneficial to you. Using US cloud services, sending unencrypted mails, using social media – there are issues with these technologies. Open Source is a great way of staying away from this and keeping the eyes of governments and companies out of our private lives. The big issue we have is that it requires more than code. The code we have is great but we need to work on the supporting infrastructure. We need not just developers but artists, documenters, marketeers and many more. And here, the ecosystem of companies building businesses around supporting and helping customers implement Open Source is crucial. We need to move forward with this as much as possible. Questions brought up the importance of being collaborative instead of suing our governments or companies for their deceptive behavior. Confrontation should be used as a last resort, according to Georg. Another important point he made was about the demand for non-US run data centers. He hopes somebody with an entrepreneurial attitude will step up and provide this. He pointed out how independence is an important value and countries are getting this message. For example, Brazil paid back their debt to the World Bank so they can’t be told what to do anymore; India has its own space program; China invests in the production of CPUs locally. If the market doesn’t take care of our independence (perhaps, in part, manipulated by outside governments?), maybe our own governments have to protect the strategic interests of our people. In the end, he finished with the statement that “open source is not the perfect answer, but it is clearly the best and we owe it to our society to move it forward”. The day continued with awesome presentations about technology, community and open source. Workshops were interesting too! Puppet, Autotools and Icinga rocked!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0544-300x200.jpg&hash=1fb20ff615e1140829c98a7e8ef8ddfa47449465) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0544.jpg)The day here in Greece doesn’t end without a party! A bar is set outside the venue with some pools to cool the feet and music to entertain the mind. Always time to relax and have good conversation Between talks there is plenty of space to relax and mingle. Inside, a booth area surrounds the registration, showing organizations like Mozilla, GNOME and Oracle to the audience. There is plenty of space to sit outside, where the local team has set up small pools to cool our feet (and play with the water). During lunch, the team organized the option of ordering some food (pizza, mostly) which was delivered. Some had not figured out the process and more food continued to be delivered until almost the end of the day. In the evening it was time for relaxation again and a Latin party took place with some professional fellow dancers who came here to dance for the people at conference. Lots of beers and fun and the creativity of the local team was greatly appreciated!
#oSC13 Info You can find lots of pictures from #oSC13 on openSUSE Greek Fans (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuse.gr/photos/) on facebook or on G+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113385548251515365143/photos/113385548251515365143/albums). Also on twitter you can follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) or search for the hashtag #oSC13 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC13&src=typd).
If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (http://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue. Also if you have any questions for the presentation you attend online there is an IRC Channel (http://webchat.freenode.net?nick=lizard-attendee&channels=opensuse-conference) set up in order to make your questions. Last but not least we have our local newspaper! (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FNews_Paper_oSC13_021-300x212.png&hash=458382528a2204d8217c5c5471d6291a9efbf881) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/News_Paper_oSC13_021.png)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
21 July 2013, 4:48 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0009-300x200.jpg&hash=9cfcbd0c2024d7cbb25ef99fe9ab2fbeff1c4e5e) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0009.jpg)
After the first awesome day at #oSC13 and a more exciting night, we’re over 200 participants. Many more interesting presentations and workshops took place and everyone had fun! The schedule was printed and handed to our visitors letting them know about their options from the big variety of presentations, from technical to social.
#oSC13 Day 2 begins! Day two kicked off with a keynote (see below) and continued as Friday: people went to the talks,various workshop sessions and hang out and discuss technology in the premises. Throughout the day our conference theme music ‘geeko-greeko’ played, often resulting in a sing-along. Lunch break at 1 PM was welcomed by everyone. There was a queue for first ordering, later retrieving food and then there was a bit of relative quiet as everyone had food. The conference organization also provided snacks for in between session cravings. A wide selection of very sweet but tasty cookies and cookie-like snacks were always around.
A bit of great news is that video’s are beginning to appear on YouTube – check them out here! (http://www.youtube.com/openSUSEtv)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0605-300x200.jpg&hash=78f285faafd731184b868f0b86c9c99049ce3a96) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0605.jpg)Cheers from #osc13 Keynote about SUSE and openSUSE The second day opened with the technical keynote by Ralf Flaxa, VP of Engineering at SUSE. He noted that he would talk from both a company and a community perspective about the evolution of the Geeko. He began with a short history lesson, showing how openSUSE went from tgz’s on floppy disks via CD and DVD to cloud computing.
“History we come from a single SUSE Professional box that everybody worked on to the model of an enterprise and a community edition. This change was prompted purely by money. If it was possible, SUSE would still be doing just ONE box. It was fun to do, but change came and the Geeko had to go with it. Today, SUSE does not make any money on the community product – and that is by design. The openSUSE contributions are paid for by a percentage of SUSE profit and that is how SUSE likes it. These changes of course resulted in more than openSUSE: the opening of processes and release of tools like OBS are outcomes as well. A major goal of SUSE was to give the community influence on the development and encourage a variety of derivatives and flavors of openSUSE.”
Results
Did it work out? From the SUSE point of view yes! SUSE is a profitable business and can and will continue to support openSUSE; and as we grow, SUSE promises to also grow their contributions. Our businesses’ need for SLE12 is, of course, driving contribution at the moment. In general, SUSE wants to see openSUSE successful.
And how did it work from the openSUSE side? Good too. Building on the infrastructure of OBS, openQA, Studio, Hermes and our other tools, the community grew with more contributors and maintaining more packages. A big proof of this success is the community-organized conference that we are reporting on. SUSE has also expanded the role of the openSUSE Board, started the TSP and other open projects and promises to continue to give the community more control, in a quest for a lasting “win-win” relationship.
However, just like in any organization there are also challenges to be faced, things to improve. Let’s review some of them.
Challenges
We have SUSE and openSUSE whose code bases have diverged. This has become a problem. Ralf wants his engineers to contribute to openSUSE and this is hard with vastly different code bases; it results in spending time on back porting or simply doing double work. The need for customers/users are different for each distribution but there are things which are the same. Both home users and enterprise users need stable and moving components. We need to think about how to bring things together. Then there is the upgrade path between openSUSE and SLE. There is none! We have customers using openSUSE who might want to move to SLE who cannot do so since the distributions are so different at this time.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2F9327114012_3647d878e2_b-300x200.jpg&hash=c72b894381df67738d32aab151469fcf9025d5d8) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/9327114012_3647d878e2_b.jpg)Keynote by Ralf But there is more. We received feedback from the openSUSE community. Looking at Factory where you can get an openSUSE-of-the-day distribution image. It is a flexible tool, up to date and easy to hack on. However, it can be terribly unstable. It takes a lot of complicated work to maintain and has no lifecycle.
The openSUSE release, the product we send out, is stable with a nice, 8 month cycle and 18 months of maintenance and offers a lot of choice. But for some, 18 months is not enough and all the choice can be confusing and create problems in itself.
Suggestions
Based on SUSE’s own experiences and the feedback from the community there are a few suggestions Ralf shared. About Factory, Ralf suggested increasing the amount of automated testing and be “more picky” about what goes into the distribution. He also pledged further investment from SUSE and suggested that we should talk about improving our integration process itself as well. About our release we should work at the balance we have between the scope, quality and life cycle of our distribution. Perhaps by focusing on a more restricted set of packages we could increase our life cycle to improve quality. Last but not least, he stressed the importance of transparent governance and an open ecosystem. He made very clear that SUSE does not commercialize openSUSE but he is perfectly happy if other partners, be it commercial or not, come in and try to generate a revenue stream, building on openSUSE and contributing to it. The presentation video is online here (http://youtu.be/fdroo2JZano).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0331-300x200.jpg&hash=75b6af35a9977cb6aeac84ec36b41353f3f8c1bf) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0331.jpg)
Many More Talks After the keynote many community based presentations took place with presenters showing how the openSUSE distribution is released, openSUSE in numbers and how to share the Linux Desktop, the new local coordinator program. There were also presentations about the MATE project, Enlightenment and LibreOffice, MySQL and Linux I/O. Moreover, there were interesting workshops giving attendees an opportunity to get their hands dirty on OBS coding with Henne Vogelsang and on Rasberrt Pi with Bernhard Wiedemann.
Board meeting: oSC14 location!
At the end of the conference day the openSUSE Board chair Vincent Untz opened a session on project-wide issues. On Friday this session was used to have the various teams in openSUSE present on their work and progress.
On saturday a big announcement was made the: the next openSUSE Conference will take place in Croatia, in the city of Dubrovnik. You might not recognize the name Dubrovnik but you should. The popular HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ is actually being filmed in and around many locations in this city! You can imagine that Dubrovnik is a beautiful, medieval-looking city. But it is not all old buildings there, there is change coming in the IT world. While the community is currently spread all over Croatia, the government is picking up on the Free and Open Source trend. The government has started supporting FOSS and the Croatia’s President recently opened the 20th local Linux/Open Source Conference. There is now a Linux Workgroup sponsored by the Croatian government in order to push for more open technologies!
The team pushing this local conference has now offered to take care of us “Geekos” next year! The conference will take place at the University of Dubrovnik, during the month April. An exact date will be announced later but the local Croatian team is already busy negotiating, pinning down the date, location, rooms and other details. On stage, Kostas (Greek conference organizer) gave Svebor Prstacic (Croatian community member) the official Conference Geeko and a bottle of Ouzo.
Board meeting
There was a big thanks to conf team and sponsors for their contributions and hard work. The board then gave a report on the work done in the last year. They made progress in increased visibility; worked on setting up new/improved ambassador program; and discussed the foundation and money handling. A report on that last point will come. Of course there is always more room for improvement, and the board welcomes feedback. During the Q&A there were questions about the strategic direction of openSUSE as a project, technical developments and discussions that are happening since Ralf’s keynote this morning; oSC organization work and involvement of the board.
Find the talks online here (http://www.youtube.com/openSUSEtv)!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0479-300x200.jpg&hash=c5d4e872003652dbbe12244b524e2c2dafbbde83) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0479.jpg)
Party party party party! After a hard day of work a Greeko party was well-deserved rest. The conference atmosphere was excellent and everyone was delighted about the results of the conference so far. But it’s true that after the first day’s party outside the venue with lots of drinks and beers everyone was waiting for the main party and what ideas Greeks had about entertainment. Expectations were high and the Greeks met them!
After the conference everyone went for barbeque at a bar next to the venue! Steaks, souvlaki, sausages, Greek salad, beers, cocktails, shots and lots of drinks were available! Everyone ate, drinking danced and had fun! It was a night to remember!
#oSC13 Info You can find lots of pictures from #oSC13 on openSUSE Greek Fans (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuse.gr/photos/) on facebook or on G+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113385548251515365143/photos/113385548251515365143/albums). Also on twitter you can follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) or search for the hashtag #oSC13 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC13&src=typd).
If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (http://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue. Also if you have any questions for the presentation you attend online there is an IRC Channel (http://webchat.freenode.net?nick=lizard-attendee&channels=opensuse-conference) set up in order to make your questions.
Last but not least we have our local newspaper!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FNews_Paper_oSC13_03-300x212.png&hash=a89dd8da14645b7c3bd2dc13f674be1da376a01e) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/News_Paper_oSC13_03.png)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.07.2013 - klo:06:52
22 July 2013, 7:43 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FMG_4865-300x200.jpg&hash=5349883b6f31729991bd6751b0ea2d39cde2b48b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MG_4865.jpg)Just as we started the conference with great energy and enthusiasm there is always a time to part ways until the next reunion. Some tears drop and hugs are given as we separate physically until next year. The openSUSE Conference’s final day and reporting is now detailed below. Please read on and maybe you will find some great news for next year. In the mean time, we encourage you to participate of our team. We welcome everyone interested in contributing to an awesome project. Perhaps the best work can be done through your help in between conferences and once the meeting is on again, you can share all the progress you will have made in our community.
Day three! As usual with every openSUSE party, the candles are blown really late and the result was the everyone was late for sessions on sunday. More than one member suggested having the sessions start an hour later for next conference.
Keynote The day was opened by Jos Poortvliet talking about how an open community works. He shared the changes that we have to do as a community to adapt to the changes in the world and influences that come from people who desire to contribute. For example, he shared the new thinking of big companies about open communities where the work is done in a “horizontal” manner. Meaning that all members of this community advance and work together without leaders or a boss to tell them what to do or where to steer. Instead, the challenge of new companies is to make all their employees contribute at the same level of their boss. This principle is learned from open communities.
Visible and invisible rules
The way communities work is by visible and invisible rules. The visible rules are our documented processes and guidelines like the code of conduct used in conferences, community interactions and our strategy. Our culture is our way of thinking and acting in the community and as new members watch others and see how things are done they repeat the behavior forming a culture within the group.
When you write these invisible rules down, 5 things happen: they become hard to change and mandatory-to-follow, but you do create clarity for newcomers and people can trust that their work will have certain results. Unfortunately, bureaucracy has a tendency to keep growing – probably one of the biggest downsides of rules. Therefore, the community needs to find a balance between the challenge of setting regulations for the community yet not becoming a bureaucracy hard enough that innovation and participation stagnate.
Change
Changing invisible rules is extremely hard in a community with such diversity like the openSUSE community. Therefore, to change rules you need to make the imperceptible come out. Jos Poortvliet suggested setting rules that are written down or , in other words, to be made known publicly to the rest of the community. Meaning that all members of the community are to understand general procedure for submitting work and participating in the community’s governance. Now, following the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ principle, you need to find out what people are strong community members and convince them that change is needed. They have to be agents of change, once they are, make this visible and slowly but surely, things will move.
Other talks Izabel Valverde on the Travel Support Program
Izabel, our current Travel Team Coordinator took the stage to share her views on the new application of the Travel Support Program. The program helps our openSUSE members to attend conferences and events around the world. The program is currently sponsored by SUSE.(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0193-300x200.jpg&hash=ccad97d2f5b1c36992f93b51acaeff90306c66b3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0193.jpg)
The program works through a reimbursement method after submitting a general funds request form crafted by the Travel Team. The changes made this year include a new form and a new control system for taking in requests from community members. The Travel Team keeps a list of events that our members attend. 11 requests were approved so far this year.
For oSC 2013 26 people were approved for travel support. A big increase since last year when the program started. However, the team will require people to follow the new rules to make sure that all requests are taken care of properly.
openSUSE Connect will feature a form for those interested in travel support. Meaning that you will have to create a profile at openSUSE Connect (https://connect.opensuse.org/) and then request for travel support.
Kostas and Stella on Conference Community Organization
Kostas and Stella shared the many things they had to do in order to launch the first community-organized conference. There was a lot of help needed and eventually the conference team, although initially the conference team received a lot of help this help decayed over time.
There were a lot of lessons learned and the Kostas and Stella are sure happy to share their experience with the conference in Croatia next year. They made a request to include the board to help organize the conference and also members of the team at the locations where the conference would be held.
openSUSE Conference 2014
As announced during this years’ conference, a new openSUSE Conference will be held in Dubrovnik, Croatia next April. There are currently 6 volunteers looking to boost the organization of the conference next year. This team’s experience is vast in organizing events for Open Source communities. A strong support for next year’s conference, the very president of Croatia has created a group to focus on Open Source technologies and their spread in the country.(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0238-300x200.jpg&hash=7ac803569c68480b8d231f3bf72580ade0421e39) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0238.jpg)
The venue will be the University of Dubrovnik. Established in 2003 and having ties to the 17th century, the venue is expected to also help and support the organization of the conference. Although the university buildings are located in various areas of Dubrovnik they are relatively close to each other.
The city features museums, city walls to explore, and forts to see. Something that our Geekos will enjoy knowing is that the hit series Game of Thrones is currently being filmed in various areas of this city. Food, hikes and other activities will amuse those in attendance. This conference sure promises to entertain everyone!
Other subjects included during the conference include freelancing, coding for openSUSE, managing press releases for a project, even Legos made it to our conference. LPI Certification, Open Source hardware, Firefox OS, and openQA.
While the conference for this year has come to an end, we take to ourselves all the good that came from it. Now it is probably the new norm that our community will be in charge of organizing these conferences.
Last but not least, this conference has its moment! After the group photo there was a special moment for Carlos Ribeiro. We signed for him a large geeko money in order to thank him for his incredible job with the Artwork.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FMG_4873-300x200.jpg&hash=1e4052055b257aa8bb39a3438111b8e61a5c0ff3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MG_4873.jpg)
Thank you Carlos!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FIMG_2230-300x225.jpg&hash=1f50fd7ead425c2a9ac72e511b0fd04d7e04c27d)
Last Party of the conference!
Last party of the conference was perfect. After a hardsday work everyone waited for a party to relax and have fun. We all gathered at a Cocktail Bar with loud lounge music. Cocktails were served and everyone was laughing and having fun till late at night.
#oSC13 Info You can find lots of pictures from #oSC13 on openSUSE Greek Fans (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuse.gr/photos/) on facebook or on G+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113385548251515365143/photos/113385548251515365143/albums). Also on twitter you can follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) or search for the hashtag #oSC13 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC13&src=typd).
If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (http://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue. Also if you have any questions for the presentation you attend online there is an IRC Channel (http://webchat.freenode.net?nick=lizard-attendee&channels=opensuse-conference) set up in order to make your questions.
Last but not least we have our local newspaper!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FNews_Paper_oSC13_04-Color-300x211.png&hash=ec16b0ff14a0bc84def2fff06a8098067c99eb72) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/News_Paper_oSC13_04-Color.png)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.07.2013 - klo:19:03
29 July 2013, 6:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0009-300x200.jpg&hash=9cfcbd0c2024d7cbb25ef99fe9ab2fbeff1c4e5e) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/DSC_0009.jpg)
Volunteers oSC13
One of the most exciting openSUSE Conferences is over. The community proved that everything can be done if people are anxiously engaged. Everyone had fun and was excited about these four days of conference. G(r)eekos had everything set up, from interesting presentations and workshops to night parties, lunch and dinner.#oSC13 from the inside All visitors who came to the conference were delighted with the presentations. Keynotes, workshops and presentations about new technologies both software and hardware, community BoFs everything was there. Anyone could attend any session without any special knowledge from a presentation about openSUSE on ARM, an introduction to MySQL, openSUSE’s Release cycle, hacking RaspberryPi, learning about OBS packages and messing around with Puppet.
#oSC13 and Thessaloniki’s experience (https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-rzg-4RoFZJI/UezvgZJ0PAI/AAAAAAAAEWk/XPkrQdWekBw/w1253-h835-no/DSC_0662.JPG)
Geekos having Fun!
All visitors enjoyed the Greek hospitality and the Greek sun! The venue of the conference was set up with many beach accessories by the volunteers in order to give the impression to visitors that summer is here! A mini beach bar was set up outside venue and 4 small pools for visitors to relax with a beer or a refreshment after the presentations. Visitors also had the opportunity to make a tour around the city of Thessaloniki and sightseeing. Everyone experienced the nightlife of Thessaloniki!Everyone experienced how Greeks have fun with beers, retsina, drinks, cocktails, shots, BBQ and music. Last but not least, the walks inside the city were something to remember.
#oSC13 in total Two hundred sixty seven (267) out of three hundred ninety (390) people subscribed attended the event. It’s a community win for the conference and it shows how a small community can achieve a conference this big. All the work that is done for this successful conference is online on Trello (where we all communicated) and it is our legacy to the next openSUSE Conference organizers to have a place to start and also improve in order to have more successful conferences in the future.
Everyone is happy about organizing openSUSE Conference in Greek. No one anticipated to that kind of conference believing perhaps, that a community-organized event would not live up to the standards of prior conferences. It was an experience that only the G(r)eekos could give to everyone in attendance.
#oSC13 Info You can find lots of pictures from #oSC13 on openSUSE Greek Fans (https://www.facebook.com/groups/opensuse.gr/photos/) on facebook or on G+ (https://plus.google.com/u/0/b/113385548251515365143/photos/113385548251515365143/albums).
“I Love the Geeko, Greeko” is the song that Carlos and his brother dedicated to the Greek openSUSE Community. We hope that you all loved us, had fun and appreciated our work done.
Looking forward to see you next year in Croatia to a more successfull conference than this year’s conference!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FMG_4873-300x200.jpg&hash=1e4052055b257aa8bb39a3438111b8e61a5c0ff3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/MG_4873.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 31.07.2013 - klo:19:00
31 July 2013, 3:00 pm
The sound of clapping hands was nothing unusual for us organizers and volunteers at the openSUSE Conference 2013. Everyone was eager to let us know what a great job we did, how wholeheartedly welcomed Geekos felt, and how absurd the amount of fun everyone had in Thessaloniki. We were, and still are, blown away by this! But what we haven’t done very well during the conference was distributing the praise we received, and that is what this article is about.
We, Stella Rouzi, Kostas Koudaras and Henne Vogelsang, the main organizers of oSC13 would like to thank a couple of people who have done a little more than just help. We want to thank people who shaped the event, who pushed it in the direction it took in the end, who poured a lot of heart and soul into oSC13. We thank:
Andres Silva for the logo
Andy came up with the design of the oSC13 logo, which was the most influential piece of artwork for this conference. We have discussed a lot about how we can combine openSUSE’s values, the meaning of this event for our community and Thessaloniki’s and Greece’s heritage into a theme and motto. He hit this nail on the head with his logo and we’re extremely thankful for your iconic design Andy!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2Fconf_logo-150x150.png&hash=2f6689058a006848bd0cd4959ea7c7b5fe64f462) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/01/24/opensuse-conference-2013-geeko-gets-geared-up/conf_logo/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FPoster-oSC13-150x150.png&hash=cde52da0c352957e09f9776679b9481ffb2dedf4) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/poster-osc13/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FBadge-oSC13_09_Blue-PRESSCMYK-150x150.png&hash=3ea6ecdf3de220ec4fbb4fd8efb92c3a7da77531) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/badge-osc13_09_blue-presscmyk/)
Carlos Ribeiro for all the artwork There is a huge demand for visual things if you organize a conference. Posters, flyers, banners, t-shirts, badges, stickers and so on and so on. Somehow Carlos managed to get most of this done by himself. Everyone is still amazed by the sheer amount of artwork and layout he generated. He relentlessly pushed to the repository. Not only the day to day artwork, but also very creative things, like the Geeko Money. A lot of his work has set the mood for oSC13. Carlos you’re an artwork machine and we thank you for that!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FGeekoMoneyVerso-1024x421.png&hash=fdab35ce9be0ead01c05068cf791299c391cf607) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/GeekoMoneyVerso.png)
Pavlos Ratis for the promo videos Another influential artist for oSC13 was Pavlos Ratis. Through the awesome videos he shot, cut and produced, Geekos all over the world were able to plunge right into the great city of Thessaloniki, get a feeling for our venue the Olympic Museum and get to know the people behind the Greek openSUSE community. Thank you Pavlos for your videos which provided a window into the future of oSC13!
Alexandros Vennos for the photography
In the age of cellphone cameras you get a lot of snapshots of your conference, what you usually do not get that easily is quality photography of your event. Luckily we had Alexandros at oSC13 who produced a lot of awesome pictures of the people, the location and the mood of oSC13. These pictures are nice memorabilia for people who participated and a strong reminder why one should come to oSC. Quality pictures are also invaluable as marketing material for future events. We are grateful for your awesome pictures Alexandros!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0497-150x150.jpg&hash=29ebade9767bb5e4d79f6f697c36d28a45d82895) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/dsc_0497/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2F9325840079_564c210ae0_o-150x150.jpg&hash=bbe63c22343ac2f2ea31e06c47e45368baf1cd14) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/9325840079_564c210ae0_o/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0134-150x150.jpg&hash=08da52d7bb2b78d571ba4a53ba8d0f267a23433f) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/dsc_0134/)
DJ Tolis for the soundtrack
One of the most important things for us organizers was that Geekos have a place where they can hang out, chat and have a cold one. We believe that social interaction is what makes and brakes a conference. The oSC13 Beach Bar was exactly the location we had in mind for this and Tolis made this happen. He ran the bar, made sure we always had refreshments, arranged the lunch orders, and DJ’ed the bar all day and all night. Your bar was the social hub of oSC13 and we’re extremely grateful for this Tolis!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2F9320554720_93df0a751f_b-150x150.jpg&hash=4b5fbf87493c0ec714de67a49c097806d46b275c) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/9320554720_93df0a751f_b/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FDSC_0349-150x150.jpg&hash=74d6d38e3e836bde02b46ba71a2ae511af482c0d) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/dsc_0349/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2F9317761281_0ec2cf6422_b-150x150.jpg&hash=f9b3dbf41114d958dd81f45e1963b796f52bd4fc) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/9317761281_0ec2cf6422_b/)
Iliana Dagli and Anastasia Trikaliti for running the registration
You only get one chance to make a first impression. That’s why you need people on your conference registration desk who are make visitors feel welcome, cherished and at home. Iliana and Anastasia where doing just that, they coordinated the check in, the geeko money donations and always had an ear for our visitors wishes and needs. During the 4 days of oSC13 a lot of Geekos helped out at the registration desk but you Iliana and Anastasia where running the show and we thank you for that!
Matt Barringer for OSEM
There is a tool at the heart of oSC13: OSEM, the Open Source Event Manager. And there is a man at the heart of this tool which is Matt. Without his heroic commitment to shake up the world of conference organization tools. Without him scratching our itch of a tool which is not only suitable, but made for free and open source conferences. Without his 34622 lines of code, this conference wouldn’t have been what is has been. Matt has truly shown us all the power of “Just do it” and we are and will continue to be grateful for that Matt!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FScreenshot-from-2013-07-24-145534-150x150.png&hash=65b4d99832045266c6b3d9890adae5844391e2f6) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/screenshot-from-2013-07-24-145534/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FScreenshot-from-2013-07-24-145453-150x150.png&hash=320ff5d275d0ed187d5187821bb54f22a578f0c5) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/screenshot-from-2013-07-24-145453/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FScreenshot-from-2013-07-24-145557-150x150.png&hash=7a2b07f6d1f7730e90a0c466eeaa1f3de21dbbb2) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/07/31/heroes-of-osc13/screenshot-from-2013-07-24-145557/)
Jürgen Weigert for broadcasting
The openSUSE community is a world wide community of countless Geekos. It’s not feasible for everyone to swing by Greece so it’s extremely important that it’s possible for the people who are no at the venue to participate of the event. Live video and recordings are a huge part of this effort and Jürgen is the Geeko who came up with the plan, the software and the setup to make this possible. Many people helped recording the event but you Jürgen organized it all and we thank you for that!
Lars Vogdt for the infrastructure
They say a free and open source conference is only as good as it’s wireless LAN. So here is another reason why oSC13 was this great: Lars Vodgt and his admin Kung-Fu. It is important to have a capable, creative and reliable admin in the background and Lars was just that. You are always helpful, reachable and fun to work with and you have provided and amazing infrastructure for the event, thank you for that Lars!
Agustin Benito Bethencourt for handling the money There is a dimension to any conference that is most important and most nasty to handle: money. It’s not all about the “Benjamins” but they certainly play an important role. You can be extremely grateful if you find someone who is willing and able to handle them. We have Agustin. This part is especially important if the group of people that is organizing the conference has no legal body to represent it, like it is the case with openSUSE. The tireless efforts of Agustin (and our main sponsor SUSE) have provided us with financial services that where fast and reliable. We are very grateful for you taking this out of our hair Agustin!
and so many more… Of course there where so many more people who made a difference: Thanasis “Zoumpis” Rousinopoulos and Efstathios Iosifidis who kept the social media going. Jos Poortvliet authored a lot of awesome content about oSC13. Nikos Chatzidakis and again Zoumpis prepared the OSEM android application. George Bratsos for managing the room volunteers. Stathis Agrapidis for handling all the printing and re-stocking of supplies. The nameless lady from the cafeteria, all the awesome visitors and and and and and….
Thank you all for being the awesome people you are and for letting that rub off onto our conference! (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2FMG_4865-1024x6822.jpg&hash=c440137e68ef0294084837ef68e2a76a951fab73)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.08.2013 - klo:19:00
12 August 2013, 2:47 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2F128px-Icon-yast.png&hash=21ed1b962331bc504429bf2cb1e13ae39895467d) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/128px-Icon-yast.png)
openSUSE Milestone 4, and final Milestone before starting the Beta process, is out for everyone to test. The process has worked out normally and although this Milestone came a few hours after it was planned, the process remains steady. openSUSE 13.1 is expected to be released in November of 2013 just in time for our second annual openSUSE Summit (http://summit.opensuse.org). The summit will provide an excellent opportunity for you to meet the people who took your contributions and made them part of the final openSUSE product. There will be plenty to talk about and it is also a good opportunity for you to present on what your worked on for 13.1. Do not miss the fun!
openSUSE 13.1 M4 This January a team of develpers started moving YaST codebase to Ruby. YaST utilized an old proprietary code that made it harder for developers interested in improving YaST to submit changes to it. With the Ruby translation, it makes it easier for anyone acquainted with YaST to contribute code to it. YaST is one of the software pillars for openSUSE. It is one of the oldest and most versatile system configuration tools out there and it is exclusive to openSUSE and SUSE. Is you want to find out more about YaST, go here. (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AYaST) As you follow the link, you will notice that there is a good community involved into improving YaST. You can participate too if now Ruby makes it all easier for you to contribute. This milestone is the first to integrate the Ruby version of YaST, so when you test, give installation and configuration a good workout!
Other changes Aside from the freshened-up version of YaST, there’s the list of major changes:
update-ca-certificates now uses p11-kit as backend. With p11-kit it’s now possible to have firefox and thunderbird use the system ca certificates instead of their own ones. You need to replace mozilla-nss-certs with p11-kit-nss-trust to make use of that feature.
motif is readded – we have openmotif 2.4 under LGPL now
we have yast2 3.0 (which would be yast3 then :) converted to Ruby now
- KDE Workspaces, libs and apps 4.11 RC2
- GNOME desktop 3.9.4
- GTK3 3.9.8
- GeoIP 1.5.1
- hyper-v 4->5
- qemu 1.6.0rc1
- libreoffice 4.1.0.4
- mc 4.8.9
- ModemManager 1.0.0
- scons 2.3.0
- wine 1.6
- xscreensaver 5.20->5.22 (yes, 2 screensavers for the price of one)
Go, test! openSUSE only features one beta version for testing (see the roadmap (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap)). Toolchain and Base system have already been frozen for bugfixes-only. Little by little and faster than you think, openSUSE will be ready to deliver the goods for those looking to test the most polished and stable Linux distribution to date. The beta features will enter our freeze time and only major critical bug fixes will be allowed and the same freeze will be applied to translations. This means that now is the time for you to make your contributions. Hurry, because the beta process will not allow new features to be included.
We’re a community! As part of a global community effort, our distribution depends on the generous work of contributors who donate their time to code cool projects and include these into the distribution. It is important to note that for openSUSE there are essentially no requirements on the part of the contributors. openSUSE is one of the most welcoming distribution when it comes to contributions. This provides a strong basis and incentive for those looking to be part of our distribution effort. There are countless ways that as an individual you can contribute to the project. Allow us to show you just a few ideas.
Organize a “hackathon” meeting in your local community. Provide refreshments and a good environment in which you and your friends can get together to work on bugs, features and changes to the distribution. Once this process is done and you are ready to submit your changes, or the changes that your friends helped you create, follow the guidelines for this article (http://https:0//news.opensuse.org/2011/09/27/get-your-package-in-factory-for-12-1/) in order to have our team review your changes and include them. Please note that the article referenced before is geared towards openSUSE 12.1. However, this process remains the same for all our releases, therefore you can be sure that the information about submitting your changes is accurate and valuable.
Even if you cannot program but would like to contribute in any way possible to make openSUSE great, you can participate too. There are still many opportunities that can involve you and make you part of a global Linux community. Our “How to Contribute (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AHow_to_participate#Develop_it)” page has a few ideas that can guide into taking your first steps into participating with us. Surely, the more Linux enthusiasts willing to participate, the better and openSUSE welcomes them.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.08.2013 - klo:19:00
19 August 2013, 3:30 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2FGSoc-2013-logo-image00-300x159.jpg&hash=a1493969185077159fee8b396e16bef0a40b16e7) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/GSoc-2013-logo-image00.jpg)
We have reached the half way stage of the Google Summer of Code 2013, and it has been an exciting journey so far. A lot of good work has been done this summer on a variety of projects. This year, we have co-participated with ownCloud, Balabit (syslog-ng) and Hedgewars under the openSUSE umbrella. Here follows a summary of the work that has been done so far, along with the experiences of the students.
AppArmor Profile Tool Kshitij Gupta is developing profile tools for AppArmor, which involves writing the perl tools and core modules in python. He is being mentored by Christian Boltz. The tools are expected to be completed on time, since they are built on the core modules. Kshitij labels working on the GSoC project as a ‘phenomenal’ time.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2Fcomments-1-300x115.png&hash=70c3516ee4bd0cafac79e2e47de8175b16a17bf5) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/comments-1.png)
OBS Discussion System Shayon Mukherjee is building a discussion system for the Open Build Service, under the guidance of Henne and Adrian. The results have been pretty good so far. According to Shayon, they have built the functionality for the users to be able to post comments on projects, packages and requests in the Open Build Service. They are really excited and believe its a great functionality, and that users of the OBS will benefit greatly from it. Before GSoC ends, they plan to make it possible for users to edit/delete comments via Hermes, the openSUSE notification system. He adds that he has learned a lot in the last month about a complicated, full stack web app.
The initial result of the application can be found in action here (https://build.opensuse.org/project/comments/openSUSE%3AFactory).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2FOSEM-300x130.png&hash=f46b526d7b8f5dbd598e5371d285d0fe614bd185) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/OSEM.png)
OSEM Stella (differentreality) is working on Open Source Event Management Tool(OSEM), mentored by Theo Chatzimichos, and Matt Barringer. We saw her work in action at the openSUSE Conference and we’re all wondering how she managed to combine working on OSEM with organizing the event… On the other hand, the practical needs were driving OSEM development and this of course leads to a very good application and more fun.
User Management Application on ownCloud Raghu Nayyar is writing the User Management Application for ownCloud. He has written the front end on AngularJS and is currently working on syncing it with the backend. He will also be working on the front end of the files application, which forms a major part of ownCloud. He is being mentored by Jan Christoph Bochardt and Posselt Bernhard.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2Fowncloud-300x132.png&hash=fcc37d539ee1977f4f1f58843d1bae5618165a78) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/owncloud.png)
Music App for ownCloud Morris Jobke is working on the Music App for ownCloud, based on a RESTful API. Morris plans to add support for playlist management and the music filtering. He is being mentored by Jorn Friedrich Dreyer and Posselt Bernhard.
Syslog-ng MySQL destination: Gyula Petrovics is writing the MySQL Destination driver for syslog-ng. The idea is to insert syslog messages into a MySQL database. Gyula is being mentored by Victor Tusa.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2Fhedgewars-300x225.png&hash=e61ce76905677a4e95f13416df825a9cd4af2b00) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/hedgewars.png)
Hedgewars Campaign Mission Periklis Ntanasis is creating a new Hedgewars Mission campaign. He is about halfway from the end, and is quite satisfied with the end result so far. He is being mentored by kyber (nemo) from Hedgewars
Other Projects: The other projects in action for Google Summer of Code are:
- Github Code Review for CLI, by Xystushi, under bamboo
- Automatic Resizing of LVM Volumes by Akif Khan, under Dinar Valeev
- IaaS Cloud Framework for software packaging and documentation by intijk, under Robert Schweikert
- syslog-ng redis destination by tichy, under Gergely Nagy
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 26.08.2013 - klo:13:01
26 August 2013, 12:45 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F08%2Flogo-evergreen1-300x144.png&hash=7ea775f5aa3713275e93004a3c23b20d7dd997cc) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/logo-evergreen1.png)
The openSUSE Evergreen has just announced (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-announce/2013-08/msg00000.html) that the upcoming openSUSE 13.1 will be the next Evergreen release. This means that the Evergreen team will continue to provide openSUSE 13.1 with with security updates and important bugfixes after the usual 18 month maintenance cycle until it has had a total life time of at least three years.
What is Evergreen The openSUSE Evergreen team was started to keep openSUSE releases alive by issuing security- and stability fixes after the normal 18 month lifespan of openSUSE releases. The team has kept selected releases maintained for an additional 18 to 30 months. The first Evergreen release was openSUSE 11.1. Current releases in the Evergreen maintenance program are openSUSE 11.2 to be maintained until November 2013 (a total of 4 years) and 11.4 to be maintained until July 2014 (reaching almost three-and-a-half).
You can find more information about Evergreen and how to keep your openSUSE release alive on the Evergreen wiki page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AEvergreen).
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2013 - klo:15:42
28 August 2013, 12:59 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F0%2F00%2FReview.png&hash=677f6f16d8f99f5185277614fba907b0070cbeab) (http://commons.wikimedia.org)
The openSUSE Review Team is interested in adding 1 to 2 new members to the team. This person will review submissions to opnSUSE Factory that will improve the quality of the product and add great new functionality to the already awesome openSUSE distribution. Details of the tasks performed by the members of the Review Team can be seen on the openSUSE Review Team wiki page (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AOpenSUSE_review_team) and the associated openSUSE Factory Submissions portal (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AFactory_submissions).
Ideally we want to add a non-SUSE employee from the community, but all qualified candidates will be considered. (Dominique “Dimstar” Leuenberger would really appreciate some more non-SUSE folks on the team. Who can blame him?!)
A qualified candidate would display the following characteristics:
a) works well with the Review Team and the openSUSE (and greater Linux) community
b) considerable expertise with RPM packaging
c) considerable expertise with openSUSE packaging methods and standards
d) reasonable awareness of Linux security concerns
e) an appreciation for quality controls and the value of solid, quality software
f) an availability to routinely perform these tasks for the community. Typically a few hours per week divided over several days during the week.
g) willing to apply the rules to everybody; primary goal is to safeguard quality, not friendship :) You’re even allowed to decline coolo’s request!
Applications will be considered until 9 September 2013.
If you’re interested, please send email to the Review Team via review@opensuse.org (review@opensuse.org?Subject=Membership%20request). In your email, tell a little about yourself, particularly about the “a” through “g” qualifications listed above.
Oh, and don’t forget to have fun.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2013 - klo:15:42
5 September 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FWinterIsComingFinal-300x225.jpg&hash=065eabe0517eaf367c3117f63f28fdad69dca309) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/WinterIsComingFinal.jpg)
- It is already September! Haven’t you noticed? Bad weather is coming, it will be freezing soon!
But already, the Toolchain and Base System are deeply frozen and only leaf packages have time left to scurry in. Two weeks, to be exact, 14 days and it will be Winter in Factory. Time to get your package updates in before they freeze in the cold! Read on to learn how to make it happen.
About Factory Factory is a repository (https://build.opensuse.org/project/show?project=openSUSE:Factory) on openSUSE’s Open Build Service (http://build.opensuse.org). The almost 6K packages (https://build.opensuse.org/project/packages?project=openSUSE:Factory) make it the largest OBS project and core to what we do. Factory is maintained by the openSUSE Release team (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARelease_team). Packages flow into Factory from developers via the Devel Projects.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2F600px-Factory_workflow.png&hash=df8468e4b5e6888830c2a7b9ca69b086a738b19d) (http://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/27/get-your-package-in-factory-for-12-1/600px-factory_workflow/)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2Fgnome-project-page-300x194.png&hash=849aca02849e0e932b43f7c260eb51d76c8bf323) (http://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/27/get-your-package-in-factory-for-12-1/gnome-project-page/)
Devel projects The Factory Development Model (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AFactory_development_model) describes package development happening in the devel projects. A devel project, as the name suggests, is a project where development happens for a specific group of packages, like multimedia, GNOME, KDE or Kernel.
Each devel project has its own set of processes, rules and communication channels that fits them best. Usually you can find information about that on the project home page. Otherwise, asking on IRC or the Factory mailinglist will do fine. The current devel projects feeding into factory can be found in the drop-down menu on top of this page (https://build.opensuse.org/stage/project/status?project=openSUSE:Factory). A list of all public projects in the Open Build Service can be found here (https://build.opensuse.org/project/list_public).
The openSUSE team has recently finished documenting the entire development process in more detail, if you’re interested you can start on this page (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ADevelopment_Process) but keep in mind: the rabbit hole goes deep!
BURPing! Say a package in a devel project feeding into Factory is outdated or broken. You might need this package and want to fix it. Now you easily can branch them in OBS and get yourself a fixed package. But why not contribute the fix back to Factory? That way – you don’t have to maintain it. Merging changes is very easy thanks to the collaborative feature of OBS. Once you branched and fixed the package, create a submit request and you’re done. The maintainer from the devel project will pick it up and merge the change. This process is called Branching, Updating and Requesting a Package (BURPing). See the image below or read more on this page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AHow_to_contribute_to_Factory#How_to_submit_a_fix_to_a_package) for command line steps.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F09%2FBURP-655x1024.png&hash=b8dded7bb419fceee260c7171645353ffdfae5f9) (http://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/27/get-your-package-in-factory-for-12-1/burp/)
Getting new packages in What do you need? Not much. You don’t need to be ‘approved’ or have any special skills, other than of course the ability to build a package. And that’s not too hard, especially with so many developers around who are happy to help you! A tip: copy an existing package and rework it into what you need.
As said, packages for Factory have to go through Devel projects. The reasons for that are quite simple: together, a team of maintainers can do a better job than alone. A devel project provides you with some feedback on your work and helping hands where needed. And of course it gets your software in the hands of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of users! You can try to find the appropriate devel project in the drop-down on this page (https://build.opensuse.org/stage/project/status?project=openSUSE:Factory) or, if that doesn’t enlighten much, ask on the factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/).
So once you have found the appropriate devel project (see the drop-down on this page (https://build.opensuse.org/stage/project/status?project=openSUSE:Factory)) it’s time to contact the team and tell them you want to have a package in. The easiest way of doing that is simply submitting it! Create a submit request, enter the devel project details (see the BURP picture above for an example) and send it in. If you can’t find a decent devel project, you can either use the catchall project devel:openSUSE:Factory or even start a new devel project. Starting a new devel project means asking on the factory mailing list, you’ll get some input on your package(s) and the need for a separate devel project there.
After you have found a devel project you can submit-request your package to openSUSE:Factory. The submit-request must contain a note with information about the package. Preferably you introduce the package to the opensuse-factory list and point to that introduction in your Submit Request. A good introduction contains information on the state of the upstream project and how maintainable it is and what the purpose of having it in the distribution will be.
All the above can be done either from the nice web interface of OBS or following the command line instructions on this page (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AHow_to_contribute_to_Factory#How_to_add_a_new_package_to_Factory).
Conclusion So getting updates or completely new packages in openSUSE 13.1 is not hard. Being a Factory maintainer (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ADuties_and_rights_of_a_Factory_maintainer) might sound like a heavy responsibility and to some extent it is. But it’s more than likely being a maintainer in a Devel project actually doesn’t involve more work than what you currently do to keep your own packages building in your own home project. You will even get some help now and then. And you’ll get the satisfaction of making a difference and being part of an awesome team!
Have fun hacking!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2013 - klo:15:42
5 September 2013, 8:13 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fen.opensuse.org%2Fimages%2F4%2F43%2FFailgeeko.png&hash=68a13d5bf55235cac148ae7ed59909e5e54ec0b3) (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ADowntime) We’ve got some bad news: OBS has decided to stop building images. Our Geekos are hard at work to fix it but they don’t expect to have it all back up and running until tomorrow morning.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fobs-in-action.jpg&hash=2e37df30403b1c817943e1ca06120e3ecd79586f)
The lights are (mostly) out…
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 09.09.2013 - klo:13:00
9 September 2013, 12:10 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FIMG_20130907_133512-300x225.jpg&hash=8117dedc214611ad30ac4f3b9c27b761504cc602) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/IMG_20130907_133512.jpg)Sadly, the sticker doesn’t fit… Over the weekend, Bernhard Wiedemann has been working on new armv6 based images for the Raspberry Pi. It is built using a set of alternative build scripts aiming to make the building of the image easier. He’s put the scripts as well as an image online, you can get it from oSC or here (image) (http://www.zq1.de/~bernhard/linux/opensuse/raspberrypi-opensuse-20130907.img.xz) and here (scripts) (https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/devel%3AARM%3AFactory%3AContrib%3ARaspberryPi/altimagebuild). If you’re playing around with Raspberry Pi and want to create images for your device(s), this is for you!
The Image and Building It As Bernhard explains on his blog (https://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/09/07/new-raspberry-pi-image/), the image he created is only 82mb compressed, so it is pretty minimalistic. The image also contains the scripts he created for building under /home/abuild/rpmbuild/SOURCES/.
If you’re interested in playing with the building itself, creating custom images, the following commands will get you going:
osc co devel:ARM:Factory:Contrib:RaspberryPi altimagebuild
cd devel:ARM:Factory:Contrib:RaspberryPi/altimagebuild
bash -x main.sh
He notes: If you have 6GB RAM, you can speed things up with export OSC_BUILD_ROOT=/dev/shm/arm before you do.
This package doesn’t build in OBS or with just the osc command as it requires root permissions for some steps. That is why you have to run it by hand and let it do its magic. The under-250-lines of script will go through the following steps:
- First, osc build is used to pull in required packages and setup the armv6 rootfs.
- Second, mkrootfs.sh modifies a copy of the rootfs under .root to contain all required configs
- And finally, mkimage.sh takes the .root dir and creates a .img from it that can be booted
Bernhard claims that: “this can build an image from scatch in three minutes. And my Raspberry Pi booted successfully with it within 55 seconds.”
Todo and Open Issues He also points out some remaining open issues:
- the repo key is initially untrusted
- still uses old 3.1 kernel
- build scripts have no error handling
- It is easier to resize as the root partition is the last one
- Compressed image is much smaller
- Reproducible image build, so easy to customize
- It is armv6 with floating point support, so could be faster
- We have 5200 successfully built packages from openSUSE:Factory:ARM (http://download.opensuse.org/ports/armv6hl/factory/repo/oss/)
Have a lot of fun
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
16 September 2013, 5:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FWinterIsComingFinal-300x225.jpg&hash=065eabe0517eaf367c3117f63f28fdad69dca309) (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/09/05/winter-is-coming-get-your-code-inside/)
Almost time for the release of openSUSE 13.1 Beta.
Many openSUSE contributors, upon hearing that, will feel their bellies rumbling: Pizza! The tradition of Beta, Pizza and Party stands solid in openSUSE. And like last year, the openSUSE team is planning to have a bugfixing hackathon, a hacking sprint to bring some serious stability to openSUSE Factory. This time, however, other SUSE offices and lots of people will join and the openSUSE team has prepared a list of bugs to be fixed. Also, there will be prizes to win!
Read on to find out about Piza Testing and Bugfixing Hackatons.
The BetaPizza Party Concept Turned Hackaton Usually, the BetaPizza is as much about testing as about party. This time, we don’t skimp on the pizza but add in the fixing of bugs as well! The SUSE engineers will be joining us for a day to get rid of these nasty animals. The BetaPizza hackaton will take place on Friday the 27th of September, from office time in Taipei to Provo!
The plan is for the various offices to have a BetaPizza Master taking care of both the food and the bug fixing frenzy that precedes it. Ludwig Nussel from the openSUSE Team will be Global BetaPizza Master, keeping an eye on all this. And all offices will be open for openSUSE community members to join the fun!
An article will be published shorty before the start of the hackaton (kicking off on the 27th) with more details but some things we’ve already planned.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FToad-Final.png&hash=bd352f1c6c785b1b87d058a301e4bfab308b2e9b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Toad-Final.png)An old toad
Communication and collaboration To do a decent job at this we have to communicate together and make sure we’re not duplicating work. To facilitate this, we have:
- a bug list prepared, ready to be picked off one by one.
- a Google hangout set up (https://plus.google.com/+openSUSE/posts/NLLHxjxsUaK)
- a cool IRC channel for everybody to join: #openSUSE-pizza-hackaton on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://freenode.net/#openSUSE-pizza-hackaton)
Depending on the gold/silver/bronze tags, points are awarded for bugs. You earn the points by triaging (checking and verifying) and fixing the bugs, and for the top bugfixers we have some prizes prepared! Based on the points and an investigation into the work done, a committee of Old, Wise Toads will decide the winners.
Joining the Bugfixing Hackathon in SUSE Offices In most locations, times and rooms are being picked still and we’ll update you on details. But in general, think about 9:00 to 19:00 opening time for most local offices, with pizza around 18:00 and perhaps more party after 19:00. See the info on the beta pizza party/hackaton wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABeta_pizza_parties#Hackaton_locations).
Beta Testing To give Beta a good work-out and prepare some bugs for the hackers to fix, we also hope you all will find time to organize some pizza-loaded testing events before the 27th! This means installing it and submitting bug reports (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports) when you bump into trouble. You can download the openSUSE 13.1 Beta (http://software.opensuse.org/developer) (available soon) from the openSUSE website. It might make sense to download it and put it on an USB stick or a DVD so people can get to work right away!
Bugs should be reported and can be tracked via Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.novell.com/). Find a how-to on reporting bugs on the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports).
Discussions about openSUSE development takes place on the factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory). openSUSE Factory (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AFactory) is the development release of openSUSE. If you want to help out, please see the wiki page on contributing to Factory (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AHow_to_contribute_to_Factory). Contributing is easy and very welcome! We happen to have this awesome tool called the Open Build Service (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ABuild_Service). Think of it as a Github for packagers: Branch, Update and create a submit Request for a Package. In openSUSE terms you’ve just BURPed and we’ll be proud of you ;-)
OBS has a command line but also a easy browser interface – you can even fix and build packages from a mobile phone or a Windows desktop!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fpizza-David-Standout-geekoified-300x225.png&hash=790bd80de45792a45a9439f2e406c99c9704ba93) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/standout/)
There is plenty of help available on the Development page (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ADevelopment) on the openSUSE wiki and you are more than welcome to ask for help on the openSUSE factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory) or on the openSUSE IRC channels (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ACommunication_channels#Instant_chat_.28IRC.29)!
btrfs Of some special interest for this release is btrfs. A discussion has been going on about making this future-oriented file system the default on the next openSUSE. That is (most likely) not going to happen but btrfs is still a prominent option during installation so any relevant testing and bugfixing will benefit many openSUSE 13.1 users. And, more importantly, chances are big that it will be the default in the release following 13.1!
To enable this testing, the release team has decided to include (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2013-09/msg00349.html) a “want to test btrfs?” pop-up during installation of Beta 1. Of course, this won’t be in the final releases (nor the RC’s) but it will hopefully help remind people that btrfs can use some testing.
btrfs in openSUSE By default, only the ‘safe’ features of btrfs are enabled in openSUSE, including the snapshot and metadata and data integrity feature. These both offer protection against data loss. The snapshots do this by making it easy to revert files to earlier states, even bringing back removed files where needed! The (meta)data integrity feature uses error checking codes on your data to ensure your spinning rust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive) or deep fried sand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive) gives you back the data you stored on it the way you intended.
However, who installs btrfs now will be able to instantly benefit from the many features under development as soon as they are marked stable. Some of these include transparent compression of data, de-duplication of files and data, multi-volume drives and hot add/remove of drives part of it and various performance improvements.
The coolest thing is that you can already test those features by adding the ‘allow_unsupported=1′ option to the btrfs module either on the kernel command line or in /etc/modprobe.d!
(https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/L6oo27p7XoeR1KgaFET7h16TznP2DTGRvRge2AykzCIi43V5lqZpXxJQVZbfQi0ApWN_hehfj0bIEJ8lkgrAkCpkFR7gFlQMdfDDv2QwtOcJZPWFM0M)
Beta Pizza Party As said before, the Beta Pizza Party is a great openSUSE tradition. Parties are simple: you only need people, the rest will follow. Geeko’s are fun at heart although many of them require some beer and food to really loosen up. If you have your event at a pizza place, it doesn’t get easier! Of course you can do it at home, in an office, a pub, or wherever else you want. Most important thing: Just Do it! Don’t worry that only 5 people show up. 5 Geeko’s already make a huge party and there’s lots of testing you can do with a handful of geeko’s!
So, how to do it? Just three steps:
- Get out there and find a nice Geeko pizza place!
- Let your Geeko friends know about it and make sure they tell their friends about it. Tell them to bring laptops or desktops for testing!
- Make sure there is pizza and some USB sticks with openSUSE Beta 1
- how to do a betapizza party (http://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/06/opensuse-celebrates-beta-1-with-pizzabeta-parties/)
- read the launch party HOWTO (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALaunch_party_HOWTO)
- add yourself to the Beta Pizza party list (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABeta_pizza_parties)
Ready for Pizza? As a reminder, until Beta is out, you can still get features in (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/09/05/winter-is-coming-get-your-code-inside/). Once it is out, there will be Beta Pizza Parties and some serious hacking during the Beta Pizza Hackaton. Hungry? Ready for it? We are in for a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
19 September 2013, 12:40 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FWinterIsComingFinal-300x225.jpg&hash=065eabe0517eaf367c3117f63f28fdad69dca309) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/WinterIsComingFinal.jpg)
“Still … in this world only winter is certain.”
― George R.R. Martin
“And thus, Factory is now Frozen.”
― Stephan “coolo” Kulow
Starting today, you can scurry over to software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/developer), grab that beta by its tail and give it a spin. And report your findings, because we want to squash those smelly little bugs out of it during our hackaton. So, shove a pizza in that oven, settle with your laptop next to a roaring fire and a big glas of mead and start testing!
Read on to find out what’s new in this beta, what we’d like you to test and of course what is up with that Party and that Hackaton.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fborisvanhoytema-factory-frozen-1-282x300.jpg&hash=a59727294dd1150e712ca6ebf3c88644095e9632) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/borisvanhoytema/)
Latest features that made it in With Factory feature frozen now, you might wonder what did make the cut! These are the latest new features that made it in before the freeze:
- kernel 3.11.1
- llvm/clang 3.3
- Mesa 9.2.0
- systemd 207
- php5 5.4.19
- tcl 8.6
- bluez 5
- wine 1.7
- samba 4.1
- KDE SC 4.11.1 and GNOME 3.9.91
- apache2 2.4.6
- texlive 2013
- vim 7.4
- Amarok 2.8
Testing, Beta Pizza Party and Hackaton As you have read just two days ago, we plan a hackaton (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16758) to fix bugs in this beta. And the more bugs you find, the more we can fix during that hackaton! A good reason to organize a decent Beta Pizza Party (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16758)…
Some testing hints Testing means installing the beta, playing around with it and submitting bug reports (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports) when you bump into trouble. For a party it might make sense to download the beta and put it on an USB stick or a DVD so people can get to work right away.
Bugs should be reported and can be tracked via Bugzilla (http://bugzilla.novell.com/). Find a how-to on reporting bugs on the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports). There’s a quick overview of the most annoying bugs in 13.1 Beta (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMost_annoying_bugs_13.1_dev#openSUSE_13.1_Beta), check it out before you submit duplicate bug reports.
Discussions about openSUSE development takes place on the factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory). openSUSE Factory (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AFactory) is the development release of openSUSE.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fpizza-David-Standout-geekoified-300x225.png&hash=790bd80de45792a45a9439f2e406c99c9704ba93) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/standout/)
There is plenty of help available on the Development page (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3ADevelopment) on the openSUSE wiki and you are more than welcome to ask for help on the openSUSE factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory) or on the openSUSE IRC channels (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ACommunication_channels#Instant_chat_.28IRC.29)!
btrfs Of some special interest for this release is btrfs. A discussion has been going on about making this future-oriented file system the default on the next openSUSE. That won’t be but btrfs is still a prominent option during installation so any relevant testing and bugfixing will benefit many openSUSE 13.1 users. And, more importantly, we aim for having it default in the future.
To enable this testing, the release team has decided to include (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2013-09/msg00349.html) a “want to test btrfs?” pop-up during installation of Beta 1. Of course, this won’t be in the final releases (nor the RC’s) but it will hopefully help remind people that btrfs can use some testing.
btrfs in openSUSE By default, only the ‘safe’ features of btrfs are enabled in openSUSE, including the snapshot and metadata and data integrity feature. These both offer protection against data loss. The snapshots do this by making it easy to revert files to earlier states, even bringing back removed files where needed! The (meta)data integrity feature uses error checking codes on your data to ensure your spinning rust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive) or deep fried sand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive) gives you back the data you stored on it the way you intended.
However, who installs btrfs now will be able to instantly benefit from the many features under development as soon as they are marked stable. Some of these include transparent compression of data, de-duplication of files and data, multi-volume drives and hot add/remove of drives part of it and various performance improvements. Currently, these features are there but can not be used. However, you can already test them by adding the ‘allow_unsupported=1′ option to the btrfs module either on the kernel command line or in /etc/modprobe.d.
Get testing! …. and have a lot of fun…
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
25 September 2013, 2:04 am
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FLogoSunIdeaPeach.png&hash=676786d398ccc09ab13e4f114974205fd8648c70) (http://summit.opensuse.org)
It has already been a year since the first iteration of the openSUSE Summit held in Orlando Florida. Our guests and organizers agreed that tying this community event at the end of SUSEcon is a very good idea and it was set to be repeated in 2013 as well. If you live in the Northern part of the U.S.A. then you know that November can be very cold, therefore, our organizers decided to go back to Florida this year and have everyone warm up to the never-ending summer in the peach state. Our event website is up and running and registrations are open!
Website up, Registration Open, Sessions Requests Started The openSUSE Summit 2013 conference website is up on summit.opensuse.org (http://summit.opensuse.org) and we’re looking forward almost as much to your visit there as a real life appearance at the event. Registration is open and so is our call for papers: you can shoot in your sessions proposals! Once you are part of the summit roaster your talks and presentation will be added to our tracking system in order to generate a schedule.
Please be aware that the schedule is set by our organizers and if your presentation is scheduled for a time when it is not convenient to you, email the organization and we will be sure to rearrange the time. Registration for sessions and sessions will end October 4th, 2013.
Access and Summit Sessions Getting access to the conference and sessions costs $50.00 for Professional and $200.00 for Company Supporters. Tickets will be available soon. There are SUSE-branded backpacks as gifts for those in attendance.
Our sessions can be split into three main categories. First we have long talks or presentations lasting about 50 minutes, short talks running for about 30 minutes and then workshops lasting between 2-4 hours, depending on how lengthy the subject covered is.
Finding an appropriate subject for a session at the summit can be difficult. However, there are a few things that can get you thinking in what is important to share. For example, you may have recently participated in the organization of a Linux conference and would like to share what you learned from that experience. You could also be more technical and share the latest changes in coding for Ruby’s new version, etc. There are many subjects you can share on and it can very from very technical to something as simple as showing how to reach out and form a community around openSUSE. See our conference speaker guidelines (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_speaker_guidelines) for some more tips and information.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2Fossum13.png&hash=3fcc7a39e8bbbcda86d715ccc700a1e88ebc6b25) (http://summit.opensuse.org/)
A great base to build upon Last year’s conference was a huge success. Our organization team worked hard and produced more than a few hits with the rest of our community. There was Hawaiian dancing, pool dives, food and lots of sessions discussing the world of openSUSE. Sessions varied from musical software to workshops explaining how to contribute code to the openSUSE distribution. Most presenters were already active in our community, but we’re an open bunch (hence the name!) and if you are not formally part of the Geekos you can still contribute to the project. If you want to get involved check out this page (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AHow_to_participate)!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F06%2Fcfpbutton.jpg&hash=ed2096f55bf6b6342f15d3405b3c639f97a9dace) (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/summit13/proposal/new)
openSUSE Summit in 2013 The openSUSE community has already started working with the organization of SUSECon to make the openSUSE Summit happen. The Summit team recently held a meeting in which assignments and many other important considerations were discussed. One of them is getting people involved with the summit. Our team would like to invite those interested in showing what they know and like about openSUSE and Linux in general to participate in our sessions.
The openSUSE summit is flexible and, at the same time, focused on the important subjects that surround our community. Our themes for sessions can easily expand from openSUSE-centric subjects to others that include the rest of the Linux world. We are looking for sessions covering openSUSE technology, the openSUSE community, as well as sessions covering FOSS projects that may not immediately be related to openSUSE.
Travel Support Program Our travel support program is also ready to take in requests from our team members. It is important to note that although there are resources to help our members travel to the summit, these are not unlimited. They require that travel support program users keep receipts for later reimbursements. Additionally, the Travel Support Team will have 2 calls for support requests. Keep them in your calendar. The dates are
First call, from September 27 through October 3. Results will be available on October 8.
Second call, From October 11 through October 17. Results will be available on October 22.
There will also be a waiting list in case your request did not make it to one of the 2 calls.
Participation Welcome! Remember that those who collaborate with sessions for our summit are considered awesomely cool. Your badge will thus say that you are a presenter and your entry into the summit will be waived. You will additionally be hugged by more than one member of our community and might become green! Moreover, joining the organization team for the summit is also very much appreciated. Please check out our website (http://summit.opensuse.org) and find out the many ways to participate. You could even sponsor our conference since there are various opportunities available. All that does not mean we don’t love and hug our visitors: every single one of you is risking having an incredibly good time!
See you in Florida!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
25 September 2013, 8:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fpizza-David-Standout-geekoified-300x225.png&hash=790bd80de45792a45a9439f2e406c99c9704ba93) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/standout/)
Friday is the day: the Beta Pizza Hackaton is here.
Have you already been testing the Beta? Reported bugs? Great! This Friday we’ll begin to triage and fix them! There will be a concerted bugfixing frenzy, coordinated over IRC and Google hangouts, with (open)SUSE developers all over the world going through the bugs and fixing them. There are points awarded both for fixing and for triaging bugs and the top contributors can count on a prize!
Read on for details.
The BetaPizza Party Concept Turned Hackaton Usually, the BetaPizza is as much about testing as about party. This time, we don’t skimp on the pizza but add in the fixing of bugs as well! The SUSE engineers will be joining us for a day to get rid of these nasty animals. The BetaPizza hackaton will take place on Friday the 27th of September, from office time in Taipei to Provo!
The plan is for the various offices to have a BetaPizza Master taking care of both the food and the bug fixing frenzy that precedes it. Ludwig Nussel from the openSUSE Team will be Global BetaPizza Master, keeping an eye on all this. And all offices will be open for openSUSE community members to join the fun!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FToad-Final.png&hash=bd352f1c6c785b1b87d058a301e4bfab308b2e9b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Toad-Final.png)An old toad Communication and collaboration To do a decent job at this we have to communicate together and make sure we’re not duplicating work. To facilitate this, we have:
- a bug list prepared (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=VERIFIED&resolution=---&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory), ready to be picked off one by one, in bugzilla (if you don’t know were to start, some relevant bugs will be labeled as GOLD (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=GOLD), SILVER (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=SILVER) and BRONZE (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=BRONZE))
- a Google hangout set up (https://plus.google.com/events/csnu5vk431s6b2292dbi911vumc)
- a cool IRC channel for everybody to join: #openSUSE-pizza-hackaton on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://freenode.net/#openSUSE-pizza-hackaton)
Keep in mind that the tagging of the bugs is a work in progress and will change over the time, so don’t hesitase to go through the whole list of bugs (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=VERIFIED&resolution=---&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory) and pick any one you think is important.
What the prizes are will be is still a surprise ;-)
Joining the Bugfixing Hackathon in SUSE Offices For more information about locations, times and rooms, check the info in the beta pizza party/hackaton wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABeta_pizza_parties#Hackaton_locations). The main idea is the same everywhere: a whole day squashig, starting early in the morning and with pizza at lunch time. Since openSUSE folks are spread all over the world, that means a timeframe from Sept. 26th 22:00 UTC to Sept. 27th 22:00 UTC. Just contact your nearest BetaPizza Master and join!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F08%2Fbugs_green.png&hash=c78397de7bf4f360779518254bae5e597c581e98)
About testing and fixing bugs The process of finding and fixing bugs is rather simple:
- Pick a bug from the list (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=VERIFIED&resolution=---&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory).
- Fix the bug.
- Close the bug.
We’ll find out who closed what bug and award points accordingly. Note that closing a bug as duplicate or otherwise not by actually fixing something is called triaging and has a different number of points associated with it!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F08%2Fbugs.png&hash=6d285bdf4a8d6f8bb5aa9f1321027eb5f2329e4f)
On the subject of triaging, this goes as follows:
- Pick a bug from the list (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=VERIFIED&resolution=---&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory).
- Check the bug report: is it complete enough?
- Try to reproduce the bug and add information about the encounter, if you can.
- Give a priority and set the status to ASSIGNED. Try to assign it, if you can.
Get ready… For Pizza, Hacking and Fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
27 September 2013, 3:00 am
We are happy to announce the Travel Team is ready to receive applications for sponsorships to attend to openSUSE Summit (http://summit.opensuse.org/)2013.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FLogoSunIdeaPeach-214x300.png&hash=8c0d68700f7ca16b5d9962aa3f48419090c8105b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/LogoSunIdeaPeach.png)
This year openSUSE Summit will be held in the beautiful Florida, November 15 to 17 and the Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (http://summit.opensuse.org/#location) will welcome all Geekos to this year’s event.
The openSUSE Travel Support Program (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program) provides travel sponsorships to individuals that want to attend openSUSE Summit and need financial assistance.
For Summit this year the TSP will work a bit differently. The TSP will make 2 calls, for the first call the deadline is October 3, 2013 and you can start sending your applications now! The results will be given before October 8, 2013.
The second call will start on October 11, 2013 ending on October 17, 2013. The results before October 22, 2013. Important to say that the second call is for those who had applied on CfP (http://summit.opensuse.org/#cfp) and didn’t have answer before the first call ends. Of course, even applied and no answer yet you can send your application on the first call.
About the TSP you can see at https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Travel_Support_Program (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program) The instructions are detailed at https://connect.opensuse.org/travel-support/
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fsuitcase-300x227.jpg&hash=a26c41d94385078b427137f81f7ea4afdb4b1bbb) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/suitcase.jpg)
Important
* A good application with good information will be processed faster.
* Always choose the most economical option whenever possible. People who need travel sponsorship, should look for the best price. If the Travel Committee finds a cheaper price, that will be the price in consideration.
In case of doubts just drop us an email travel-support@opensuse.org
Do not forget… The Call for Participation (http://summit.opensuse.org/#cfp) still opened so hurry up!
Your TSP Team
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.10.2013 - klo:19:55
1 October 2013, 2:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2F1254383-arm-aarch-64-300x250.jpg&hash=1d20beb231ab7b18583cdcdd4462e7db3699980a) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/1254383-arm-aarch-64.jpg)
Following the announcement of much improved Raspberry Pi support (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/09/09/opensuse-arm-gets-new-raspberry-pi-images/), there is more news coming from the openSUSE ARM team! The SUSE team has been developing an AArch64 port of QEMU which is much faster building 64 bit ARM code in emulation and this code is aimed for upstream inclusion. Read on to find out what this is all about.
AArch64 Port Written and Released SUSE engineers have taken up QEMU and developed an AArch64 port. This allows building AArch64 software in emulation with a 10-20x speedup over Foundation model provided by ARM. The speed improvement is a result of the QEMU using user mode, also known as application mode, emulation and not full system mode emulation which is what the Foundation model uses. The code has been employed to advance the AArch64 porting work done in openSUSE, enabling AArch64 as build target in the openSUSE Build Service. SUSE has been able to open source the code and is working on inclusion in upstream QEMU. For those interested, the code is also publicly available on Github (https://github.com/openSUSE/qemu/commits/aarch64-work).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F04%2Farndalecluster-300x225.jpg&hash=4fd37b965b967621af75222a57ef37e03881f9e6) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/arndalecluster.jpg)
Bringing openSUSE to AArch64 The Open Build Service in action at openSUSE has recently received a pretty serious upgrade (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/04/15/about-armv7-progress-and-arming-for-aarch64-and/) with an impressive Arndale ARM cluster. But before we received this fantastic hardware our x86 based systems (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/04/08/a-gust-of-fresh-build-power-suse-sponsors-new-hardware-for-the-open-build-service/) were running QEMU Virtual Machines to build the ARMv7 packages under construction. Our engineers had spent effort on the ARMv7 support in QEMU and getting it all well integrated in OBS which improved reliability and support significantly.
Having all this set up in OBS was of course a big help when the team got started on AArch64 and did play a major role in openSUSE being the first generally available, fully built, general purpose Linux distribution for AArch64. We already delivered the experimental AArch64 images with the openSUSE 12.3 release in March 2013 (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/13/opensuse-12-3-free-open-and-awesome/)!
Build Performance Improvements with AArch64 for QEMU ARM’s Foundation Model (http://www.arm.com/products/tools/models/fast-models/foundation-model.php), which is the reference emulation platform, was used to build the packages. It has been an invaluable tool to bring up the distribution but building took long and when there were problems, waiting two days for a rebuild to complete just because somebody made a typo was very frustrating. SUSE engineers thus proceeded to develop AArch64 emulation in QEMU. The AArch64 port for QEMU provides significantly shorter build times both on developer workstations as well as on the Open Build Service and allows development to proceed even more rapidly.
Compared to the already available state of openSUSE:Factory built for AArch64 in the Foundation Model, work has been put into rebuilding all of it with the newly published QEMU emulator, which allows us to follow changes in Factory much quicker than before. The build results are available same like before under openSUSE:Factory:ARM page (https://build.opensuse.org/project/show?project=openSUSE:Factory:ARM) just like before, however the results are now referring to a QEMU based build.
Have a lot of fun building AArch64 packages!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
7 October 2013, 7:50 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm5.static.flickr.com%2F4044%2F4316533311_84a562b59c_m.jpg&hash=b114b1f9d4226f187a4c40d971ddb16233adbd7f) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/iboy/4316533311/)
We’re not at the release, but the beta is out (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16747), according to the roadmap (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap) RC1 is coming Thursday and our artists have been hard at work preparing artwork. We’ve got badges, backgrounds, counters and banners for you to put on your social media or blog pages, on your desktop or even on your wall! Let’s make sure everybody knows what’s coming.
For you blog and social media accounts If you want to decorate your blog or website with a nice 13.1 banner, grab one of these four:
| (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2F468x60-300x38.jpg&hash=d8a914890a47b41598c8bfa81cb2c184605e5b17) (http://en.opensuse.org/File%3A468x60.jpg) | 468×60 (http://en.opensuse.org/File%3A468x60.jpg) |
| (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2F728x90-300x37.png&hash=f18aee057608c7313dad35de18f53847671dad11) (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3A728x90.jpg) | 728×90 (http://en.opensuse.org/File%3A728x90.jpg) |
| (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2F120x90.jpg&hash=7b1a14567a6354844b7415488e78e070947daa6f) (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3A120x90.jpg) | 120×90 (http://en.opensuse.org/File%3A120x90.jpg) |
| (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2F125x125.jpg&hash=568d9894220bcae4f65db1a6f4dcc9f893aa0231) (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3A125x125.jpg) | 125×125 (http://en.opensuse.org/File%3A125x125.jpg) |
As we geekos like to share, we have all this in nice svg files that you can modify to your liking on github (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Web%20Banners/13.1%20Web%20Banners). The above are made by Anditosan (http://anditosan.blogspot.com/), kudos to him!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FTwitterBackground-Coming-Soon-300x168.jpg&hash=10d0f167b4a3c79222984f4d181847bb70f76897) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/TwitterBackground-Coming-Soon.jpg)
Twitter, facebook, G+… For twitter, facebook and such, VictorHCK (http://victorhckinthefreeworld.wordpress.com/) has been hacking away! Download the image of your choice here (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Twitter%20Release%20Background/13.1) (images available for ‘release is out’ and ‘is coming soon’ as well as a nice plain background) and go through the following steps:
- Login in your account of Twitter
- Select Settings in the top panel
- In Design tab, select Change background image
- Select the image
- Click on Save changes
Release Counter (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcounter.opensuse.org%2Fsmall.png&hash=5f71faa2b7ccc23da2ceab464cebaa7f4638f976) (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1)
The release counter currently still shows 12.3 but it will be updated to 13.1 soon! The URL won’t change so you can just follow the tips below and get it as soon as it is done!
You can add the openSUSE 13.1 release counter to your website in various sizes by including the following html code in your blog:
“medium” is the size of the counter; it can also be “small” or “large” and we also have “wide” for a banner.
See the Countdown page on the openSUSE Wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ACountdown) for more countdown information, code and tips!
Going to print CD’s? And if you’re planning on printing CD’s, there’s some awesome artwork done by Andi for that in this github folder (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/CD-sleeve/13.1). Lookin’ real Green!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fcd-sleeve.jpg&hash=5c3ca1092f1c9fd217abfb50e88d6f53dddc7988) (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/CD-sleeve/13.1)
Release is coming… Some of you have asked about the ‘release is coming’ images… Yeah, we have them in higher quality and even some SVG goodness! Just click the image for the github repo (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/Releases/13.1%20release%20is%20coming)…
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FWinterIsComingFinal-1024x768.jpg&hash=2349e57e283c83f4891a1d1d6721dcbd9c6fcb1a) (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/Releases/13.1%20release%20is%20coming)
If you have any trouble with the github links, there is a nice static mirror provided by Tigerfoot (http://geeko.ioda.net/git/artwork/). And yes, organization of so much artwork is difficult and yes, github might not be the BEST tool for downloading, but we value collaboration. And we still have to find a tool which would do a better job at that…
Help spreading the fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
8 October 2013, 2:24 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fgsocpic3.jpg&hash=b8506ed0e1cb177d4f70fe562e03a131e354643b)We reached the conclusion of yet another Google Summer of Code. Our students and mentors put in a lot of effort, writing and reviewing code, documenting it and in the process and sharing and learning a lot. We’d like to share with you some of the experiences of our students, mentors and of course the state of the projects!
Nine out of twelve Like previous years, we have our share of ups and downs, but in the end we completed nine of the twelve projects successfully. Following is a short summary of the work done over the summer, along with the experiences of the students and the mentors.
Project Git Review Xystushi created a Git review system. A lot of code has been refactored from ground up, important bugs fixed and new features have been added. In his words, GSoC was an amazing experience. The code is hosted on github (https://github.com/b4mboo/git-review).
Project AppArmor Profiling Kshitij worked on creating tools for AppArmor Profiling. The command line versions have been created for all the tools. There were some setbacks on the YaST based GUI front-end, but the overall project was successful. Kshitij plans to complete the GUI based tools in the coming weeks. The code is hosted at launchpad (https://launchpad.net/apparmor-profile-tools).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fgsocpic2.png&hash=befcdca4c7644f5fa16e081ed738a46fa9b54232)
Project “Automatic Resize of LVM Volumes” Akif Khan wrote a standalone application that can perform automatic resizing of File System and Logical Volumes. This tool can be called by the package manager during installation on encountering low space exception. This tool can also perform automatic resizing if the free space required by a user for a particular volume decreases below a certain level. According to Akif, it was an incredible learning experience for him, and he got to know a lot about the openSUSE Community as a whole.
The code can be found on github (https://github.com/akifkhan/SizeDog).
Project “Music App for ownCloud” The music app for owCloud lets you scan, browse and listen to your music. The final release is scheduled for the next ownCloud release. The student Morris Jobke noted that the project was very exciting and that he learned a lot in developing for a large project like ownCloud community.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fgsocpic4.png&hash=c943e96d64083a9a0f2e36ba502157bfff897de4)
Project Hedgewars Campaign Mission Periklis Natansis wrote a new campaign mission for Hedgewars, which is about a hedgehogs’ journey in the stars to save his home planet. The camaign is said to be great fun and will be included in the next Hedgewars release for all to enjoy!
Project Syslog-ng MySQL Destination Gyula Petrovics wrote a MySQL destination driver for syslog-ng. Victor Tusa, the mentor of the project writes that though the start of the project was slow, everything worked out well in the end, thanks to face to face meetings with the student. Gyula has successfully finished the project!
Project Syslog-ng Redis Destination Tihamér Petrovics created a Redis Destination for syslog-ng. The project can be found at github (https://github.com/ptichy/syslog-ng-3.4).
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
9 October 2013, 9:34 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FBanner-300x33.jpg&hash=da022711ff61b176b2860e7a019586c3502a4ab8) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Banner.jpg)
We as a community are still abuzz from the success of the first community organized openSUSE conference in Thessaloniki this past July and many are already looking forward to the openSUSE Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia next year (oSC14.) As we all know the wheels of time never stop turning and time flies when you’re having fun. Therefore, before we know it it will be time to announce the location for oSC15. However, before a new location can be announced it has to be found.
The openSUSE board invites you to consider organizing and hosting the openSUSE conference in 2015. The openSUSE Conference (oSC) is the primary yearly gathering of Geekos from around the world. The conference venue requirements can be found on the openSUSE wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_venue_requirements). This is your chance to show the world of Geekos the hospitality and culture of your country. One member of the organizing team will be invited to attend oSC14 at the end of April, 2014 in Dubrovnik and present the location of oSC15.
Please submit your proposals to either opensuse-project@opensuse.org or board@opensuse.org. We are happy to consider proposals from teams that would like to organize the event but are currently not actively involved with the openSUSE community. Proposals are accepted starting now until the end of the year (2013). The board will make a decision about the 2015 location early in 2014 with an announcement to be made at oSC14.
oSC15 should take place in the March-May time frame in 2015, roughly 1 year after oSC14. Your proposal should include a description of the location (city/town and venue) and provide information about your organization team and any experience you may have had organizing other events. Items to consider are cost of lodging around the venue, access to public transportation to and from the airport/train station and hotels to venue, and proximity to a venue for a party.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
10 October 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fyast-installer-as-it-always-was-300x225.png&hash=b965a9f25ae6d179717a05e9398c587bc94222fc) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/yast-installer-as-it-always-was.png)YaST during installation On July 31st the YaST team announced that the final Ruby conversion of YaST YCP code is over (http://lists.opensuse.org/yast-devel/2013-07/msg00247.html) and YaST is now at version 3.0. It took about a week for the new YaST to enter Factory, which makes it a part of the upcoming openSUSE 13.1 release. In the following article we’ll answer the questions of why this change took place, what exactly happened, and where YaST is going. We spoke to two SUSE developers who had been involved with the port, Josef Reidinger and David Majda.
Why did you want to port YaST to Ruby?
YaST was developed in YCP — a custom, simple, inflexible language. For a long time, many YaST developers felt that it slowed them down. It didn’t support many useful concepts like OOP or exception handling, code written in it was hard to test, there were some annoying features (like a tendency to be “robust”, which really means hiding errors). However, original YCP developers moved on to other projects and there wasn’t anyone willing to step in and improve the language.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FHacking-on-YaST.jpeg&hash=8f43053082d4669d8709dababbe0b0e10a58d0bc) (https://twitter.com/dmajda/status/385344620252921856/photo/1)Josef and David hacking together
It was obvious that the only way out of this situation is to change the implementation to some other widely used language (most people were thinking about scripting languages, like Ruby or Python, which offer great flexibility and shorter code compared to e.g. C++ or Java). Such a change would mean we wouldn’t need to maintain our own custom language. It would also allow us to use many third-party libraries and make contributing to the project much easier for outsiders. People wouldn’t have to learn a whole new language just because of YaST.
Changing the implementation language of such a big codebase as YaST is a huge effort, so it’s no wonder that developers mostly only talked about it — for years. It required someone external to the team (David) to decide that’s talking isn’t enough and we should just do it :-)
You mentioned in the announcement that the port was done automatically. How did that work?
It was obvious that a manual rewrite is a no-go because of the sheer size of the code base. So we started to hack on a transpiler called Y2R (https://github.com/yast/y2r), which would take the YCP code and translate it into Ruby. We worked on it for a week during an internal SUSE workshop. During that time we got into a state where we could translate a code that displayed a simple dialog from YCP to Ruby and run it.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fyast-GNOME-300x225.png&hash=0067c5d4d578af62f70300936d92ce27ef26a4d3) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/yast-GNOME.png)YaST in GNOME
This early success prompted us to work on the project more. We were soon able to translate and run a complete YaST module. Then came the SUSE Hackweek (http://hackweek.suse.com) 9, where we involved more people and translated many more modules. After that, the project really gained momentum and several people worked on it full-time for about 3 months, until it was finished.
Why did you pick Ruby?
We chose Ruby because most YaST developers know it well (e.g. from work on WebYaST) and SUSE uses it on several other projects such as SUSE Studio or SLMS. Technically it was on par with other languages we considered (mainly Python and JavaScript/CoffeeScript), so the internal knowledge and standardization was the decisive factor.
How were the results?
Good :-) We translated 96 YaST modules in total and currently there is no YCP code used in YaST except few obscure places like examples in the documentation (which need to be manually rewritten to reflect current best practices). YCP is also still used as a serialization format for some data files and for communicating between YaST components, but this does not affect development and we will probably get rid of that too over time.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FYaST-team1.png&hash=669f688d68af694b06945f2f6603f12de87dfb23) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bzgs1lmSKCw)
I have to say that the final translation went pretty smoothly, mostly because we automated the whole process and did testing builds months in advance. That meant we had opportunity to catch many bugs in the conversion tools and other components early. We even did our custom builds of openSUSE 13. 1 Milestones 2 and 3 with pre-release versions of YaST in Ruby and announced them publically. As a result, openSUSE community had a preview of what would come and participated in testing and tracking down bugs.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fyast-KDE-300x225.png&hash=9a5bf80283e7ba0d9a184a49be5909aafcda9c9d) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/yast-KDE.png)YaST in KDE
The amount of converted code is quite impressive:
- 4.204 files
- 594.680 lines of YCP deleted
- 724.687 lines of Ruby added
So far, we did not focus on any optimizations. Even without them, the memory requirements during installation are only very slightly higher (still you can install in graphical mode on 512M of RAM), the performance is very comparable, depending on the test (sometimes faster, sometimes slower). Even taking the worst results, the difference is hardly noticeable to users. And other than the usual adaptations to things like systemd, there have been no big visible changes in YaST.
What are your future plans?
While we don’t plan any further major changes based on the translation for openSUSE 13.1, we believe that this lowers the bar for getting contribution from the openSUSE community and that it in the future helps the YaST development. Hopefully it will speed up further improvements of individual YaST modules. For beyond 13.1, we plan to do further changes of the YaST architecture.
Tell us all about it!
For example, we have just settled on a new testing framework, RSpec. That will make YaST tests much more maintainable and approachable for Ruby developers. We have also decided to use YARD (a popular tool in the Ruby world) for code documentation. In the coming months we intend to gradually make YaST modules to look more like regular Ruby applications. Right now, while the code is in Ruby, there is still some YaST-specific tooling and code involved, and because of this diving into YaST is not that easy as it could (and should!) be. It also makes things harder maintenance-wise.
We are also in the process of improving YaST development documentation and opening up the whole development. For example, we discarded our internal YaST IRC channel and all discussions happen in public. We now also use a public CI server (http://ci.opensuse.org/) to run YaST tests.
The overall goal is to lower barries to entry for external contributors and put them to the same level as members of the internal SUSE YaST team.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fyast-commandline-300x225.png&hash=907d6704d43872da2a86e34ad6340a7805da1d9b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/yast-commandline.png)YaST on the console Where to start to hack on YaST?
The entry point to YaST documentation for developers is the YaST portal on the openSUSE wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AYaST) with the developer info here (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AYaST_development). We are currently in the process of updating it to match the changes in code (as a part of hackweek (https://hackweek.suse.com/projects/132)). YaST developers can also be found on yast-devel@opensuse.org (http://lists.opensuse.org/yast-devel/), where the port was discussed. And there is the #yast channel on freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://freenode.net/#yast).
What are you looking for in new YaST hackers?
Technicall skills, passion for openSUSE and a desire to configure every bit of it ;-)
Even with the port to Ruby, YaST is big. Luckily the individual modules are not and we’d love to see somebody interested in hacking either on an existing one or create new ones. We would be very happy to answer any questions that will inevitably come as we know the code is under-documented – it would of course help us find out what to document first. Some of us have been hacking on YaST for 11 years, it gets hard to see what is wrong with it after that much time!
Thanks for the interview!
Our pleasure.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
11 October 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FRC1-is-here_black.png&hash=9cd36d1daf5657a84db032be077b70bce8e519ca)
It was a dark night, wind howling through the forest… Somewhere far away, a fire was burning and the smell …The openSUSE 13.1 (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1) release is planned for November (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap). In preparation, we today announce the availability of the first Release Candidate on software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/developer). Grab one of the images and help us test!
…
Ok, forget that. RC1 is here, so stop watching (http://www.hbo.com/game-of-thrones) and start testing!
Hackathon As you probably saw last month, we organized a Beta Hackathon (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/09/25/beta-pizza-hackaton-starting-friday/) to fix as many bugs as we could. The event was quite a success and while the report isn’t out yet (soon!) we can already tell you that over 120 people fixed about 140 bugs and screened another 440! With such numbers, you can imagine we have great expectations for our upcoming release. But the work is not done yet: there’s testing to do as not every bug has been found; and there are still some bugs left standing.
btrfs As you might remember, we called for additional testing of btrfs specifically. It won’t be the default in this release but the next generation filesystem has been making steady progress and in the last month, over 25 bugs have been found and fixed. There is still more work to be done, but btrfs should be a safe choice for openSUSE 13.1 users and a good candidate for default filesystem for the next release.
A big thank you to the volunteers who tested BtrFS and reported bugs. We have seen an increase of 5000 users using BtrFS since Beta was released, 1000 of them during last week (30-Sep to 06-Oct)!
What’s new As we’ve been in Freeze since shortly after Beta, most of the changes are bugfixes. A quick list of the major changes:
- KDE-4.11.2
- Gnome-3.10
- Kernel-3.11.3 + load of btrfs fixes thanks to feedback from beta
- snapper-0.1.7 (btrfs!)
- nginx – finaly built properly
- bluez5 – pulseaudio/gnome/kde integration to provide bluez5 is finally in place
- plasma-nm – alternative gui for networkmanager in KDE was adjusted and now provides some sane usability
- Tons of bugs fixed and closed
- zypper dup from 12.3 should now not render the system unable to log in…
- Fix calibre
- Get the 4.1.2 release of libreoffice in
- Include SDL2_ttf in distribution so 13.1 has a complete SDL2
- And of course more bugfixing!
Testers can find information on how to work effectively in the openSUSE Testing wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATesting). You can find the current list of the most annoying 13.1 bugs here (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMost_annoying_bugs_13.1_dev). Please help us shorten that list by re-testing the problematic areas or by fixing bugs, and we love it when you help us find new important issues!
The openSUSE 13.1 Portal (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A12.3) has been set up but still needs lots of work. There are screenshots to take, release notes to write, and documentation to update. We also welcome help with translating it all! If you want to help describe the features coming, add to and review the Major Features page (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMajor_features).
Screenshots of 13.1 will have to go here (http://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots_13.1). There is a bit of info on taking proper screenshots (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AProduct_highlights_writing#The_Final_Polish).
Help promote! Promotion matters a lot, too. You can help promote our release by adding a release counter to your website. Pick a size, then link to the image with the usual tags:
http://counter.opensuse.org/small.png
http://counter.opensuse.org/medium.png
http://counter.opensuse.org/large.png
Example tags:
You can also find social media backgrounds for g+, twitter and facebook – see for more info the article about promoting openSUSE 13.1 (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/07/help-promote-opensuse-13-1/)!
Thanks We’d like to thank all the hardworking Geekos for their contributions to this release. It’s hard work, creating so much awesome and green! Usually the openSUSE team at SUSE blogs Factory stats (https://lizards.opensuse.org/author/calumma/) but this week we’ll include our top-10 heroes here:
Spot | Name |
1 | Raymond Wooninck |
2 | Stephan Kulow |
3 | Hrvoje Senjan |
4 | Dominique Leuenberger |
5 | Sascha Peilicke |
6 | Dirk Mueller |
7 | Michal Vyskocil |
8 | Matthias Mailänder |
9 | Denisart Benjamin |
10 | Richard Brown |
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
15 October 2013, 5:10 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F01%2FP1270681-300x225.jpg&hash=4c46653f9ced15604d4ab734ed6d22ca855e6653)
Friday a week ago a Beta Pizza Hackaton (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/09/25/beta-pizza-hackaton-starting-friday/) took place at the SUSE offices and online. 121 people went over more than 580 bugs, screening 440 and fixing 140 of them. The contest was won by Stephan ‘coolo’ Kulow and Dominique ‘DimStar‘ Leuenberger, with top gold fixers Josef Reidinger and Michael Chang and a honorable mention for Antoine Saroufim.
The BetaPizza Party Concept Turned Hackaton Usually, the BetaPizza is as much about testing as about party. This time we added in the fixing of bugs as well! The SUSE engineers joined on Friday the 27th to catch and kill as many of these pesky little creatures as possible.
We set up some facilities:
- a bug list prepared (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=NEW&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=NEEDINFO&bug_status=REOPENED&bug_status=VERIFIED&resolution=---&product=openSUSE%2012.3&product=openSUSE%20Factory) in bugzilla, labeled as GOLD (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=GOLD), SILVER (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=SILVER) and BRONZE (https://bugzilla.novell.com/buglist.cgi?field0-0-0=status_whiteboard&type0-0-0=substring&value0-0-0=BRONZE) as part of a contest)
- a Google hangout (https://plus.google.com/events/csnu5vk431s6b2292dbi911vumc)
- a #openSUSE-pizza-hackaton IRC channel on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://freenode.net/#openSUSE-pizza-hackaton)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2Fpizza-David-Standout-geekoified-300x225.png&hash=790bd80de45792a45a9439f2e406c99c9704ba93)
Results and winners of the bug fixing contest Let’s start our results section with some great statistics:
- 140 fixed (19 GOLD, 4 SILVER, 0 BRONZE, 117 OTHER)
- 440 screened (46 GOLD, 19 SILVER, 0 BRONZE, 375 OTHER)
- 121 participants (76 employees, 45 volunteer)
It was a tough decision, but in the end, the committee selected two hackers, well known to Factory contributors, as overall winners: Stephan ‘coolo’ Kulow and Dominique ‘DimStar’ Leuenberger. The committee furthermore awarded the top contributors working on the preselected golden bugs: Josef Reidinger and Michael Chang. The committee finally decided on a Honorable mention. This one goes to Antoine Saroufim, who was helping the GNOME team a lot with testing and providing feedback regarding various bugs and crashes over IRC.
So in the end, we have three awards with following winners:
- Winners: Stephan ‘coolo’ Kulow and Dominique ‘DimStar’ Leuenberger
- Top gold fixers: Josef Reidinger and Michael Chang
- Honorable mention: Antoine Saroufim
Local experiences at the SUSE Offices Taipei kicked off the long day, opening the hangout and working from a single room. Beijing had the biggest showing with 40 participants and 18 pizza’s eliminated though part of the Pizza eaters were kicking off hackweek (http://hackweek.suse.com) and didn’t participate in the hackaton. The Pizza Master David Liang reports that the team enjoyed the IRC bot which reported the results of their work and other teams echo-ed this.
The Provo team noted that being in the last timezone meant being pretty lonely. Pizza Master Scott suggested we need to set up a teleportation unit and get everybody physically in one place next time. The openSUSE team is evaluating this option and suggestions for reasonably priced teleportation devices are welcome.
More testing? All in all, we fixed lots of bugs, rid the world of some pizza (don’t worry, the world isn’t running out, and it’s easy to make (https://news.opensuse.org/2011/09/30/opensuse-pizza-parties-the-geeko-way/)) and had fun. But there’s more work to do – openSUSE 13.1 RC1 is out (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/11/opensuse-13-1-rc-1-available-time-to-test/) and we’re looking forward to more bug reports and fixes!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.10.2013 - klo:13:39
17 October 2013, 6:20 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fopenstack-cloud-software-vertical-small.png&hash=6fdf6138c4a0d78a28e0b3ced8ad50f4d3b9229d) (http://www.openstack.org/)
Congratulations to the OpenStack (http://www.openstack.org) community for today’s release of OpenStack Havana! This is the eighth OpenStack release and the community delivered on-time, yet again.
Packages have already made it to openSUSE Factory for those interested in testing. This OpenStack release further expands the capabilities of the industry-leading cloud software by providing improved scalability and performance, monitoring support, automated VM management and improved configuration. openSUSE 13.1 packages are available and so are packages for older openSUSE releases and for SUSE Linux Enterprise.
OpenStack Havana OpenStack Havana (http://www.openstack.org/software/havana/) is the eighth OpenStack release and the second this year. It brings almost 400 new features (https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes/Havana) to its users. Some highlights include:
- Global clusters support, expand on the ‘region’ concept to deliver separate replication networks and configurable read- and write affinity. This makes it possible to now have a single Swift cluster spanning a wide geographic area
- OpenStack Orchestration and OpenStack Metering have been moved from incubation projects into core OpenStack., Open Stack Orchestration brings automated, policy-based VM Management, while OpenStack Metering provides monitoring and statistics gathering (enabling billing) support to OpenStack.
- Better disk performance through the use of threadpools for smoothing out latencies and other optimizations
- Pooling memcache connection support
- conf.d support allows splitting up the configuration over several files in a folder(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FRC1-is-here_black.png&hash=9cd36d1daf5657a84db032be077b70bce8e519ca) (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16780)
For a quick and automated installation of OpenStack, you can use Quickstart (https://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3ACloud_OpenStack_Quickstart) or devstack (http://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3ADevStack). To get more information about OpenStack Havana, head over to the OpenStack web page (http://www.openstack.org) and also read the release notes (https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/ReleaseNotes/Havana).
Documentation and help OpenStack Havana comes with new manuals (http://docs.openstack.org/trunk) that cover openSUSE as well. There’s a brand new “Installation Guide for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (http://docs.openstack.org/trunk/install-guide/install/zypper/content/)” that you can use. If you notice any problems with this new guide, please report bugs using the “Log a bug against this page” link.
Contributing If you’re interested to improve OpenStack packages in openSUSE, please join (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-cloud/) the opensuse-cloud@opensuse.org mailing list and discuss on #opensuse-cloud IRC on Freenode. Like OpenStack, we use continous integration with Jenkins (see ci.opensuse.org (http://ci.opensuse.org/)) for development (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AOpenStack_and_Crowbar_development_process).
If you want commercial support for OpenStack, SUSE recently released version 2.0 of its enterprise OpenStack distribution SUSE Cloud (https://www.suse.com/products/suse-cloud/).
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 21.10.2013 - klo:19:01
21 October 2013, 4:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FLogoSunIdeaPeach-214x300.png&hash=8c0d68700f7ca16b5d9962aa3f48419090c8105b) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/LogoSunIdeaPeach.png)
As you may well know, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort (http://summit.opensuse.org/#location) in beautiful Florida will welcome all Geekos to this year’s openSUSE Summit from November 15 to 17. This will be a great event, if the brand new schedule is any indication! It has just been made public, together with information about our keynote speakers.
The keynotes We are very excited to announce our keynote speaker for the keynote on Saturday. Mykel Alvis (https://plus.google.com/117207740852943355900/posts) will speak to us about fostering better communication, a topic that is very important within openSUSE and any open source project. Mykel’s current interest lie in IT automation and he has a plethora of experience in the enterprise and open source realms as developer and consultant. Mykel has spoken at many events, including this year’s South East Linux Fest and Puppet Camp.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2Fossum13.png&hash=3fcc7a39e8bbbcda86d715ccc700a1e88ebc6b25) (http://summit.opensuse.org/)
The schedule Thanks to those interested in sharing their knowledge we were able to compile a great schedule with presentations and workshops. The presentation and workshop schedule is now posted on the openSUSE Summit web site (http://summit.opensuse.org/#program). There will be systemd and image building workshops, talks about technical subjects like virtualization or building scalable web apps to more social subjects like marketing and advocacy.
We will also have a fun game or two going on during the summit, and don’t forget if you purchase a ticket (https://buy.suse.com/store/suse/en_US/buy/productID.264835100) in support of the event (registration (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/summit13/register) and attendance is free, of course) you will receive a very nice backpack as welcome gift.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FFlyerBig.png&hash=9526beb394231948dd4638d7d575b10b5351f8e0) (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/openSUSE%20Summit/Summit%202013/Flyers)
Help promote the Summit! We’ve been working on some promotional materials for the openSUSE summit. The flyer on the right you can click – and then get the source in a format you can print and hand out!!! We also have some pics you might want to put on your site, linking to the event, like the logo on the top of this article. Find it all in github (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/openSUSE%20Summit/Summit%202013).
Be there and have fun! We’re looking forward to the Summit. Getting to know one another, learning new technologies, getting hands-on in workshops – it’s fun and useful. Be there!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 22.10.2013 - klo:19:04
22 October 2013, 3:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FRC1-is-here_black.png&hash=9cd36d1daf5657a84db032be077b70bce8e519ca)
openSUSE made its first release candidate for 13.1 (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16780) available less than two weeks ago. And with it, we issued a call for testing. If you’re interested in helping out but would appreciate a few pointers on how to do so, read on!
What do we need openSUSE uses automated testing (http://openqa.opensuse.org) which ensures the basic suitability and stability of our distribution images. We also have a large number of users using Factory (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AFactory), our development version, finding issues when they arise. But with about 6000 packages available, not every combination and usecase can be tested. What needs some extra help? We’ve laid out a few areas where your testing would be very valuable.
Real hardware installations The automated testing has limitations: it only works in a virtualized environment, precluding testing of hardware and technologies like UEFI/Secure boot. And our Factory users have a limited amount of hardware available and they’re usually only updating, not doing new installations.
So it is extremely valuable if you grab an old (or new!) laptop or desktop and do a full installation on it instead of using a virtual machine.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F10%2Fturing_test-243x300.png&hash=ae85478c1bb7af4668a6b72a6a3c2ddedc340cb8) (http://news.opensuse.org/2011/10/25/testing-at-opensuse/turing_test/)
Upgrading and installation We’re also looking for help testing updates from 12.3 to 13.1 with both zypper dup and from the GUI in YaST; and for new installations extra testing would be worthwhile to be done with dual boot.
YaST Anything YaST related is in need of testing as we did port it to ruby (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/10/coming-soon-opensuse-13-1-with-yast-in-ruby/)! There have also been related changes like in the area of networking. For example, systemd now takes care of labeling ethernet devices instead of udev. So we would love to see you test the network, firewall, NAT and other networking functionality in YaST.
btrfs We’ve been giving extra attention to btrfs and this next generation filesystem is still a target for testing, even though it is not the default in openSUSE 13.1.
By default, only the ‘safe’ features of btrfs are enabled, including the snapshot and metadata and data integrity feature. These both offer protection against data loss. The snapshots do this by making it easy to revert files to earlier states, even bringing back removed files where needed! The (meta)data integrity feature uses error checking codes on your data to ensure your spinning rust (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive) or deep fried sand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive) gives you back the data you stored on it the way you intended.
However, who installs btrfs now will be able to instantly benefit from the many features under development as soon as they are marked stable. Some of these include transparent compression of data, de-duplication of files and data, multi-volume drives and hot add/remove of drives part of it and various performance improvements. These features are there, but are disabled by default. However, you can already test them by adding the ‘allow_unsupported=1′ option to the btrfs module either on the kernel command line or in /etc/modprobe.d.
Other specific technologies to test On the page we’re gathering what’s new in openSUSE 13.1 (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMajor_features) you can see the major changes – which of course can use some testing. For example, we would love to see some extra attention given to the following:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F08%2Fbugs.png&hash=6d285bdf4a8d6f8bb5aa9f1321027eb5f2329e4f)
- Network connectivity: WiFi and bluetooth on the desktops (note that due to an update to Bluez 5, bluetooth doesn’t work very well in Plasma Desktop, an update is coming)
- Libreoffice
- printing
- performance regression tests
- btrfs of course
You then file the bug in bugzilla (https://bugzilla.novell.com/). If you have strong doubts about it being a bug or if you think it is extremely serious, you can report it on the openSUSE-factory mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/). Even if you contact the list you should file a bug first, issues tend to get lost on the mailing list. Also, be sure to make good use of the openSUSE Testing documentation at the Testing portal (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATesting), the Bug report how-to (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ASubmitting_bug_reports) and read the Bug Reporting F.A.Q (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABug_reporting_FAQ)!
Triaging Bugs Another useful contribution is triaging bugs, which has the following goal:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2007%2F08%2Fbugs_green.png&hash=c78397de7bf4f360779518254bae5e597c581e98)
-
- a) find if it is really a bug (can be reproduced)
-
- b) find in which component is the bug and
- c) assign or cc the maintainer of that component
Bernhard, the author of openQA, has developed (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2013-09/msg00308.html) a nice web interface (http://bugzilla.zq1.de/) for easy bug browsing. The web interface provides a list of some random bugs. If you are interested in a specific component, then you can use the search bar and look for them. For triaging, it makes most sense to use this query (http://bugzilla.zq1.de/?since=31&closed=-1&topic=screening), which shows bugs added in the last month, still open, and filtered on the ‘screening’ term. Once you have a random list of bugs that may interest you, go in and try to test and add information to the bug. While the real fixing is still left for the developers to do, the triaging makes it easier for them to do so and saves them time.
Thanks a lot! Finding time for testing makes a big difference. It helps ensure openSUSE 13.1 will be a great, stable, usable release ready for installation on almost half a million machines (https://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/08/23/more-on-statistics/)!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2013 - klo:22:07
29 October 2013, 7:30 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FGNOME_Shell_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=d67781082705dd8fc72ac7a76d34f8e78c7530ab) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/GNOME_Shell_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Clean GNOME Shell Welcome to our third Sneak Peek of what is coming in openSUSE 13.1! You’ve already learned about the new Cloud features (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/17/openstack-havana-and-opensuse/) and YaST having been ported to Ruby (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/10/coming-soon-opensuse-13-1-with-yast-in-ruby/) and it’s time to talk about… our desktops! We kick this off with GNOME 3.10.
Sticking with our philosophy for shipping the latest and the greatest, openSUSE 13.1 will offer GNOME 3.10 at installation. A great deal has changed since 3.6, and many new features have been added. The GNOME experience is now more coherent and complete with the addition of new apps and the polishing of Gnome-Shell. GNOME has become a solid desktop environment, beautiful to work in and suitable for every kind of daily operation.
GNOME Shell Changes in the shell may not be immediately apparent but they can be noticed after a short amount of use. The changes committed to gnome-shell are subtle and various but they are consistent, adhesive, and more user-friendly. Following GNOME’s philosophy of simplicity and elegance, the shell boasts several redesigned features such as a pressure-sensitive system tray, a unified system menu, and a paging app picker. That’s not all! GNOME has taken into consideration the concerns over privacy and as such , several components have been redesigned with privacy in mind.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FShell_systemtray_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=9b58164f7f687ae14aeafcd556a441efe192b128) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Shell_systemtray_GNOME_13.1.jpg)GNOME Shell system menu Unified System Menu One of the things you might notice after logging in to a GNOME session, is that the separate volume, network, and status menus are gone, and instead, a single unified menu is present. The user name is no longer displayed by default for privacy reasons. You will also notice that you can no longer change your online status from the system menu. Fret not, this feature has been moved to the notification area instead. Components of the system menu will appear when they’re relevant and needed. For instance, the network icon will appear if there is a problem with your connectivity. The new system menu deals with WiFi, airplane mode, Bluetooth, and screen brightness in a more consistent manner.
Header Bar GNOME 3.10 makes use of GTK+ 3.10 which in turn offers a new feature called the Header Bar (Client-Side Decoration, CSD). The Header Bar allows application developers to merge the title bar and the toolbars into a single component, offering the user more screen space with less clutter. Presently, you no longer need to resort to the Overview or use ALT+F4 in order to close a window. The Header Bar features a close button by default and provides a more consistent look regardless of whether the window is maximized or not.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FShell_Notifications_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=86282674b1b8efc299bc985d411041ecbd0d25c9) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Shell_Notifications_GNOME_13.1.jpg)System tray and notifications Responsive System Tray The System tray which efficiently handles the desktop’s dbus notifications has received a few refinements that would make the entire desktop seem less obtrusive and more available when needed. Previously, the system tray was triggered by docking the pointer for a few seconds at the bottom of the screen. However, this feature has been dropped in favor of pressure sensitivity. In 3.10, you’ll notice that once you apply pressure with your mouse to the bottom of the screen, the system tray would be immediately summoned. A cog icon has been added to the leftmost edge of the tray that allows the user to dismiss all notifications simultaneously. But that’s not all that icon does. The icon will change from a cog into a chat icon to indicate that the user is online once the latter launches Empathy or Polari.
Smarter Activities Overview The Activities Overview has received two new updates. The first being a more size-aware placement of the spread windows, and the second being an improved search functionality. Several search providers have been added to the shell to bring data from the core GNOME apps into the shell. For instance, it is possible to find your notes, files, contacts, documents, etc., directly from within the shell’s search window. A new search settings module in the GNOME setting dialog allows the user to control precisely what is searched, allowing the user to adjust just how much is visible in their search results.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FShell_Applications_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=888ed4ca055186178465f8a023276fad37728546) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Shell_Applications_GNOME_13.1.jpg)GNOME Shell Application launcher Easier Application Launching The application launching view has been slightly modified to add a “Frequent” tab. The Frequent tab provides quick access to your most commonly used applications which could save you the time to look for them. The “All” tab shows all your currently installed and enabled applications. The application categories have been dropped in order to make space for more application icons on smaller screens. New also is how the application icons are presented. Instead of a scrollable list, they’re in a paginated view, allowing the user to scan through all the installed apps quicker and easier. Also, a new form of groups has been introduced using application “folders”. Several applications can be grouped within a folder in the “All” tab. Currently, users have to resort to the dconf-editor in order to add or remove application folders.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FWeb_appmenu_GNOME_13.1-300x168.jpg&hash=abaf2d1c28217b4584281f88d672e27622ee832f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Web_appmenu_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Web & app menu in Shell Better Menus More of GNOME’s core applications have received AppMenu (Application Menu) support. What is the AppMenu? It’s a drop down menu that is triggered by clicking on the application’s icon in the top bar. Previously, the AppMenu featured a single option which was the “quit” command. Presently, the AppMenu hosts all the less used options related to the core applications. In example, the preferences and the “about” options are hosted in the AppMenu. Paired with the new cog menu present in certain applications, GNOME boasts more cohesive and less obtrusive menus, giving the user a more elegant design while not sacrificing screen space to achieve it.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FClassic_Applications_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=9fb6c7dc5001b2725de694ab51d4f96e6172d575) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Classic_Applications_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Classic desktop in GNOME 3.10 Reinvented Classic Mode Fallback mode has been dropped in favor of using LLVM on machines without graphics acceleration. But the fans of GNOME 2 have not been abandoned. A new classic mode consisting of several extensions has been added to GNOME. The difference between the new Classic and old Fallback modes is, the former uses GNOME 3 as a basis with all it’s graphics abilities by modifying the user interface via several extensions, giving GNOME 3 the look and feel of GNOME 2. Classic Mode, although not installed by default, is available to be grabbed from the official repositories (http://software.opensuse.org/package/gnome-shell-classic).
Improved Online Accounts Online accounts have been present in GNOME for a while but they have recently received several improvements. Several new online sources have been added including Flickr support for gnome-photos, and ownCloud support. The latter brings ownCloud integration with various GNOME components including files and calendar. Of the existing online sources, several have been improved. Most notably, 2-step verification is now supported. Chat rooms have been integrated with the Online Accounts as well.
Enhanced System Settings Various changes have been applied to the GNOME system settings. In accordance with the emphasis on privacy, privacy settings have been added to allow the user to delete usage history and to hide recently used files. It’s also possible to turn off shell search providers and hide notifications generated by certain apps. Sharing settings have been added for easier control over sharing data, and the Date & Time as well as the Display settings have received visual improvements. It is also now possible to select a custom background for the Lock Screen.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Fclocks_stopwatch_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=587340c2b773b6668bbd3f23ec6889ee5ea4335a) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/clocks_stopwatch_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Stopwatch in Clocks New Core Apps Several core apps have been added to GNOME expanding its functionality. These apps are: Clocks, Notes, Weather, and Photos.
Clocks Clocks is a simple app that handles basic time-related tasks. It features an alarm, a stopwatch, and a timer, along with the ability to show the time in different cities around the world. Users can simply add or remove cities that they wish to keep track of the time in. Very handy if you have family, friends or co-workers in different parts of the world.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Ftodo_collections2_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=cf2b2256d58441acd0e2304ac5e56056a7a82bec) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/todo_collections2_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Notes Notes Also known as Bijiben (Notebook), Notes is a simple note-taking app designed to be minimalistic and efficient. It’s possible to export and import notes to Bijiben from gnotes and tomboy as it is also possible to email your notes to your contacts. Notes makes it easy to group your notes in collections in order to make things ordered and tidy.
It has basic note-linking abilities, where you can link notes together using a chosen word or phrase. Notes also has the advantage that any text in a note is searchable from the Shell.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Fweather_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=a61faebfa57242741b1fcacc8181070f3852f073) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/weather_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Weather
Weather Weather, as the name implies, is an application designed to show weather forecasts for cities chosen by the user. It predicts the weather over three days and displays temperatures in Celsius or Fahrenheit, depending on the user’s choice. Meteorological data used by weather is provided by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute. In it’s default view it shows the atmospheric conditions in the cities you have chosen, by clicking on one you’re presented with a more detailed view of that city’s current weather, including the forecast.
To install Weather type “sudo zypper in gnome-weather” in your favorite terminal
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Fphotos_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=ea408214ca7a4402e3bc95ffa34de49a3b00dda1) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/photos_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Photos Photos Photos is an application that is designed to collect and manage the user’s photos. It can import and export images from Flickr, can create albums, and can delete images. Photos, although fully functional, has many more features planned for it including Facebook integration.
To install Photos type “sudo zypper in gnome-photos” in your favorite terminal
Technical Previews Several other apps have been introduced in 3.10. However, these apps have not met their design goals yet and as such they are released as previews. These applications include Polari, Software, Maps, Break-timer, and Music.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Fsoftware_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=f9add8a07d6580fb075c56adbeb165b63366427f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/software_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Software Software Software centers are a necessity in modern computing and Software is GNOME’s answer to that trend. Software is a simple and elegant packagekit frontend that lists installed software, helps the user discover new software easily, installs software, and updates installed packages. By default, Software does not show duplicates, sorts applications by category, and displays a brief description and an image for every listed application. It’s main purpose is to make managing and discovering software easier for the average user. Software is not fully functional and has some pending issues, hence why it’s not a fully released application.
To install Software, type “sudo zypper in gnome-software gnome-software-appdata” in your favorite terminal. Note that the latter package will cause a few changes in the behavior of packagekit.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FMusic_album_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=2735f67950fc30867d67faa79c3d740fa513ac0a) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Music_album_GNOME_13.1.jpg)The new Music Music Unlike Software which might not be ready for daily use, Music is a stable application that does one thing and does it well; play music. It employs the tracker backend to find your music collection and then displays it under one of three views: Albums, Artists, and Songs. Music also supports search and has shell notifications.
However, despite being a stable and functional app, Music is missing a few core features such as creating playlists and employing online sources but these can be expected to come in future versions.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2Fmaps_vector_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=ec776b28bbd37ce0170daf9cb4d20e341453ccf7) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/maps_vector_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Maps in action
Maps Maps is an OpenStreetMap frontend for GNOME. It has a very minimalistic interface and supports map and satellite views, getting directions, and zooming. It uses GNOME’s geoclue backend to point the location of the user; however, it’s currently incapable of accurately pinpointing that location. Planned features to look forward to including cycling and public transport views, as well as more accurate location pinpointing abilities.
Other Changes Include:
- Rhythmbox ported to Python 3
- Initial Hi-DPI Support
- Tree View for Nautilus
- Fine scrolling support
- Updates to the Cantarell font
-
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FRhythmbox_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=7374e24ca9fb051fdfb6a5e8d9ce4bad368b3894) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Rhythmbox_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Rhythmbox - Smart Card Support
- Magnifier Focus
- Caret Tracking
- Better transitions and animations
- Greatly improved animation rendering
- Integrated input methods
- New default background
- Web switched to the WebKit2 rendering engine
- DuckDuckGo is now the default search engine with Web
- Contacts can link contacts better than before
- Light brown folder icons instead of grey ones
- More settings ported to dconf from gsettings
- various improvements to the tracker backend
- And many more!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FTweak_Tool2_GNOME_13.1-300x225.jpg&hash=39edfabc629e2479f01ef72557ccb6dd1561d189) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Tweak_Tool2_GNOME_13.1.jpg)Tweak Tool Tweaking GNOME With 3.10, tweaking GNOME just got a whole lot easier. The GNOME Tweak Tool has received a major UI redesign which makes it simpler to use. In addition to providing simple methods for installing and managing extensions, shell and gtk themes, fonts, desktop icons, and the desktop background among other things, the Tweak Tool can now manage startup applications! For those who aren’t aware, extensions can radically change GNOME’s default look and functions. They can be found at extensions.gnome.org. Simply toggle an extension “on” to install it. Extensions can transform the dash to a dock, disable the activities overview, add a bottom panel, add a media or weather indicator, automate certain shell functions, and do much more! GNOME is what you make of it so stop reading, grab 13.1 and start being creative! The desktop is yours to command!
Conclusion The GNOME desktop offers a plethora of applications, a rich environment, and an unobtrusive desktop that keeps out of your way yet is available when needed. It’s easy to use right from the start and it has a unique look and feel. It’s one of the best desktops to get more done and be distracted less!
This article was contributed to by Antoine Saroufim (https://plus.google.com/u/0/117809697001196527813/posts) and Robert Boudreau with help from the entire GNOME team.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2013 - klo:22:07
30 October 2013, 7:24 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F11%2FGeekoVote.png&hash=657be312c0cf64ff4e855ec11885a75e132a059d) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/GeekoVote.png)
The end of the year is approaching. And besides Santa and fireworks, Geekos know: the openSUSE board gets a refresh! The openSUSE Election Committee has announced the time line for this year’s elections and asked candidates to step forward for the job!
Elections This year, 4 seats are to be elected, two for a two year term and two for a 1 year term. As always, all openSUSE members (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMembers) are eligible to vote. Anybody contributing to openSUSE over a longer period of time can become a member – if you’re not a member yet, you should apply and get your vote in (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMembership_officials#Processhttp://)!
Anybody can step up to be on the board, as long as they are openSUSE Members (and not a member of the Election Committee). You can announce your candidacy by emailing the openSUSE Project mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/) AND the Election Committee (election-officials@opensuse.org), best with a short introduction about yourself and information on why people should vote for you.
Role of the board As board member, you’re a central point of contact for openSUSE. SUSE talks to you about what they’re up to but also people in the project itself will come to the board with issues, conflicts or wishes. The board handles the regular project meetings on IRC (and once a year at the openSUSE conference) as well as trademark issues. The board works with teams like the Travel Support Team and the Marketing team, where travel- and material budgets are involved as well. Find some information about current and past board members on the wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ABoard).
Time line for the elections For these elections, this is the time line:
- 28.10. Start of standing up for candidacy, nominating candidates, apply for membership
- 18.11. Start of candidates campaign
- 2.12. Ballots open
- 15.12. End of voting
- 16.12. Announcement of the results
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2013 - klo:22:07
31 October 2013, 1:48 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FRC2-is-coming-300x241.jpg&hash=2dcdb63ce29a5d10b556da2bc0047d61ef73815d) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/RC2-is-coming.jpg)
The openSUSE 13.1 (http://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1) release is getting very close – just a little over two weeks, according to the Roadmap (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ARoadmap). Today, Release Candidate 2 is available on software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/developer). Grab one of the images and help us test!
What’s new The changes in this update are not very big or ground shaking. This is a sign of openSUSE 13.1 maturing quickly: we focused on bug fixing. Obviously, the bugfixing hackathon (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16862) helped a lot. Below is a limited list of changes (omitting most bug fixes):
- systemd was updated to version 208
- Shim should now work which means the secure boot is possible
- Plasma-nm no longer replaces the knetworkmanager
- Calibre is now fully operational
- kernel was updated with more fixes and one speedy improvement everyone could read about on phoronix (the radeon/nouveau timer improvements)
- In the area of virtualization the xen and libvirt packages were updated
- A lot of migration issues were fixed so zypper dup from older release will go smoother
- Apper should no longer choke on multiple license agreements
- YaST parts were updated fixing bunch of installer bugs
- XFCE can now properly suspend
- e17 artwork was openSUSEfied (yay!)
- Akonadi should better handle PostgreSQL as backend
- Our vlc version was updated to 2.1 which is the latest and coolest provided
- Translations updates
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2011%2F07%2FTesting-Group-Logo-300x275.png&hash=bcddb96b70bf69df219c3e106931b7fc2e36b51f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Testing-Group-Logo.png)
Testing openSUSE 13.1 will have to stand up right in a proud tradition of great stability so it will need a final serious workout before we release it upon the world! We wrote about testing (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16783) a while ago, and we urge you to check out that article and help out!
We ask you to give some extra attention to:
- btrfs!
- livecd’s and usb live sticks – these did not work in RC1, which was in part because this is hard to test automatically. We have some tests set up but manual testing is really needed to ensure the live images work well.
- Secure Boot/UEFI. If you have a machine with Secure Boot and UEFI and 12.3 didn’t work for you, please, test this 13.1 RC2. With this RC2 we added a fix related with the alignment of certificates that can cause fails on some UEFI firmware.
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2013 - klo:22:07
4 November 2013, 2:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FRelease-Geeko-Biting-KDE-300x259.png&hash=c21aa4da1e6897533121e6c64dc2b3087c460617) (https://www.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1)A few days ago we featured a GNOME Sneak Peek (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=16793) and today it is time for the Blue camp! Whereas GNOME is still going through radical changes, KDE has been in incremental mode for quite a while, polishing their Plasma Desktop, Netbook interfaces and developing the new Plasma Active interface for touch devices. In this article we’ll introduce Plasma, providing a background to the choices behind Plasma and then review some of the major changes for this release.
KDE, Plasma and you For the 4.0 release of the KDE software, the desktop team concluded that they could not take what they had any further. Ugly hacks were needed to give features like ‘transparent’ panels; it was not possible to properly size some components and something like desktop widgets was done in a horrible way. Let alone that “touch-friendliness” could be added; and performance was getting problematic. Most of the hacks would not scale to high-resolution screens, multiple widgets, multi-monitor and touch solutions in the future.
Introducing Plasma The idea behind Plasma was about looking forward. In the future, devices with touch and a variety of resolutions and form factors would appear. Phones, media centers, tablets. It was clear to the developers that no single solution could work well on each of these devices. A mouse-driven interface for a desktop has vastly different interaction patterns than a touch optimized design on a phone, which is again very different from a tablet. And none compare to a ’10 feet’ interface on a television, to be controlled by a remote. UIs needed to be more than scalable; they should be able to adapt based on the form factor they are running on.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fwidgets-flexibility-300x248.png&hash=75a92609c97139570fb54c12e25f714bbc54e93e) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/widgets-flexibility.png)flexible widgets Note that much of the competition, both Free and Proprietary, still has not fully realized this scalability–to the frustration of their users.
Building a framework for User Interfaces Instead of building a single interface, it was decided to build a framework for building user interfaces: Plasma. On top of this framework, the team would develop a traditional desktop workspace: Plasma Desktop. As an experiment, a phone workspace was written as well (Plasma Mobile) and later, Plasma Netbook was put together.
While each of these offered vastly different interfaces to the user, they shared over 90% of the underlying functionality and a totally new user experience could be developed in a matter of weeks! In a recent comment (http://vizzzion.org/blog/2013/10/reconstructing-plasma/comment-page-1/#comment-22312) on his own blog, Sebastian Kügler calls it:
“Specification, instead of dumbing down onto the lowest common denominator“
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fkwinscript-slower.gif&hash=cc2b4eedf6483fa216fd0fc8ca66b86ac0d4a052) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/kwinscript-slower.gif)Sticky window snapping (click for big version) In Plasma, everything can be replaced. The pieces can transform, adapting to new interface paradigms. What is a thumb-sized button on a taskbar can turn into a full-fledged interactive widget when given a desktop to occupy. In the screenshot to the right you can see three distinct widgets: a menu, both on the panel and on the desktop; a weather widget twice on a panel, once on a small panel and a second time on a large panel; and finally a temperature widget on a panel and twice on the desktop, once big and once small.
Scripting is a part of this as well. Window manager KWin offers interesting scripts which, for example, the Sticky Window Snapping (http://opendesktop.org/content/show.php?content=157382). This will move windows which have snapped together, see the animation on the right. Another script (http://opendesktop.org/content/show.php?content=154037) will make sure that whenever you click any of the GIMP windows, they all will come up to the front of the desktop–no more looking for that tools dialog.
Design Unlike its most prominent competitors on Linux, KDE has a focus on users who spend large amounts of time computing. As it was said by Ton (http://code.blender.org/index.php/2013/10/redefining-blender/), chairman of the Blender Foundation:
“If you choose to develop 3D tools to be easy to learn, you will make decisions to sacrifice speed and ease of use for frequent users. You will have to narrow down to a UI that’s optimal for generic (beginner) use cases more than for users who want to handle complexity and who have time for quality.”This is not only true for advanced 3D modeling applications but many more. Once you sit behind a desktop for 6 or 8 hours a day you care about having an efficient workflow so you can get your work done as quickly as possible. This requires a level of flexibility and configurability Plasma Desktop can uniquely offer. Adapting and providing more options to how the user works instead of forcing him/her in a fixed workflow is where KDE software excels at. Of course, ease of use and the flexibility required for efficient working are not always at odds and the KDE team is continuing to look for ways of making things BOTH easier and faster.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Fpastebin.gif&hash=43cb8c3a64748a6d8c141da60b9f48b2386f76ff) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/pastebin.gif)Pastebin in action (click for animation) For example, I, being a KDE user, use a workflow where I frequently share images or pieces of text over various chat channels. Having added the ‘pastebin widget’ to my main panel, sharing something is a matter of a simple drag’n'drop on this widget, and ctrl-V in the appropriate channel to share the link.
So, Plasma was designed to allow for a wide range of user interaction patterns (implemented in ‘workspaces‘), from the traditional desktop to more exotic patterns like what the GNOME team is doing with GNOME Shell. Components can be written in a variety of languages, QML currently becoming a prominent choice.
Today: long term support The Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, as released a few months ago by the KDE team, is a long term support version. This because while the KDE community is slowly changing its focus on the next generation toolkit (http://dot.kde.org/2013/09/25/frameworks-5) for open source development, Qt 5, they are also dedicated to keeping users of their current platform supplied with a steady stream of bug fixes.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2FKscreen-300x261.png&hash=6fa480140d67dc3e684c200e1b3ed44117b9b40f) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Kscreen.png)Kscreen Polishing details Being an incremental release, the Plasma workspaces bring mostly polish and stability. Plasma’s basic widgets have seen several improvements. The power management applet can now handle backlit keyboards and multiple batteries, the menu shows recently installed applications and notifications can now easily be disabled by type. The mixer application introduces a new interface and MPRIS2 support to control media players. Finally, window management has improved edge detection and quick tiling, better performance and added new animations.
This focus on stability does not mean there are no new features coming: openSUSE 13.1 comes with the new ‘kscreen’ tool for handling multi-monitor setups. It has far better defaults than the previous ‘krandr’ and remembers settings for the next time you attach an external monitor or beamer. It also has a visually-oriented, drag-and-drop interface.
There are also some more experimental features, including preliminary Wayland support and the new plasma-nm network management plasmoid, which has not been deemed fully stable but is sure worth checking out.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F10%2Flining-up-transparency-slow.gif&hash=dbaefaf26f310b378d5fdb646c44452912750cfa) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/lining-up-transparency-slow.gif)Using transparency (https://plus.google.com/117563705675081959469/posts/MChuup4GqYZ) to line up windows The Applications KDE develops not only the Plasma workspaces but also a wide range of applications to help you Get Stuff Done. While there, too, some efforts are going in the direction of Frameworks 5 and friends, most application developers still continue to improve the 4 series and expect to keep doing that.
In KDE PIM, the new Send Later feature in KDE’s email client allows scheduling the sending of emails on a specific date and time, also allowing repeated sending according to a specified interval. New is also scam detection and the Blogilo blogging tool has a new HTML editor.
KTouch now comes with Right-to-left support, Okular has undo/redo in forms and annotations, KStars shows interesting events coming up in your area and the math tools and games have gotten new graphics, levels and calculations.
For developers, advanced text editor Kate introduces extended language support for Python (2 and 3), JavaScript and JQuery, Django and XML with static and dynamic autocompletion, indenting, code snippets and more. kdev-python is a plugin adding Python support to the KDevelop IDE, offering code completion, on-the-fly syntax checking, interactive debugging and custom documentation of Python code.
Experiments openSUSE 13.1 is more than ‘just‘ a reliable workhorse: there’s exciting technology included. The Wayland support and the plasma-nm network management applet were already mentioned, but there is more cutting-edge technology in this release. openSUSE ships the latest Qt 5.1.1, bringing the latest stable version of this premier open source toolkit to the openSUSE users and developers. The latest QtWebkit 2.3.3 is available as well and the openSUSE KDE team also included the Lightdm KDE Greater. The Light Display Manager (LightDM) is an alternative display manager and openSUSE 13.1 adds the relevant KDE support, allowing its use in place of KDM.
With the inclusion of the Video Lan multimedia Client (VLC) in the standard openSUSE distribution, we were able to build also the phonon backend for it. This as a very strong alternative for the gstreamer backend. With openSUSE 13.2 this could become the new standard backend for Phonon. Finally, libkfbapi is a library which allows access to Facebook resources and is integrated into the KDE PIM stack.
When, where and how? Much of this awesomeness is available for openSUSE users today. For earlier versions, openSUSE 12.3 and 12.2 you can find it in the KDE repositories on OBS (https://en.opensuse.org/KDE_repositories) while it will, of course, be part of openSUSE 13.1 – coming in just a few weeks! The recent release candidate is the last chance to test these things before the are made available on November 19.
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2013 - klo:22:07
11 November 2013, 2:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Frelease-is-coming-header-300x160.png&hash=f4be4d306b15bcbe174c137e68351047e478a0ff) (http://www.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1)In just a little over a week, openSUSE 13.1 will be released! As we’ve all put in serious work to make this happen, it is certainly a good cause for celebration. Time to organize Launch Parties!
Launch Parties A launch parties are to celebrate an openSUSE release. To start with the celebration part, as we all enjoy hanging out with fellow geekos, just having a space where you can talk and perhaps drink a beverage of choice should do the trick just fine. Of course, conversation starts easier if there is a subject to discuss – and that is where the release comes in! By the time the release is out, there is plenty of information on the openSUSE 13.1 Portal page (https://www.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1) that can be discussed.
Release parties are part of openSUSE. That means: they should be open, cool and featuring lots of fun! That doesn’t mean just following a ‘code of conduct‘, no, it means going out to people and being inviting! We’re all geekos, we’re all the same and we’re in this together, so we’re all responsible for each others fun.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F07%2F9317761281_0ec2cf6422_b-300x200.jpg&hash=7eac541dc980b7d1a536c721fd348611d22ed016)
Organizing Organizing a release party requires the following three simple steps:
-
- 1. Find a space. Simple is good: perhaps a room in your university, office or a cafe or restaurant.
- 2. Register your launchparty on this wiki page (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALaunch_parties)
- 3. Invite people: create a facebook and G+ event page, and send a mail to relevant mailing lists (http://lists.opensuse.org/)
-
- - like your local translation list or the project list… A blog can be helpful, too.
See this how-to (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALaunch_party_HOWTO) for more info and tips!
If you want to party on the release date, consider joining our G+ release day hangout (https://plus.google.com/events/c41ppnm1vm0l29d9mdt27kqtdj4)!
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 13.11.2013 - klo:19:00
13 November 2013, 2:00 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F09%2FWinterIsComingFinal-300x225.jpg&hash=065eabe0517eaf367c3117f63f28fdad69dca309) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/WinterIsComingFinal.jpg)Welcome to our fourth Sneak Peek for openSUSE 13.1! The release is getting very close and you’ve already learned about all the awesome new Cloud features (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16789), the new YaST (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16681) and what our new GNOME (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16793) and KDE fans (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=17213) will get. Today, we feature a much requested article: some in-depth Geeko Tips!
Tips? Last release, we featured a set of geeko tips (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/22/opensuse-for-new-geekos/) for new users. If you come from Fedora (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/22/opensuse-for-new-geekos/#fedora), Gentoo (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/22/opensuse-for-new-geekos/#gentoo) or Ubuntu (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/22/opensuse-for-new-geekos/#ubuntu), that’s the article to read. It not only explains what all that green is about but also gives openSUSE equivalents of your familiar terminal commands and introduces you to YaST, getting software on openSUSE (http://software.opensuse.org/packages) and more. Talking about software, we featured some interesting tips in that area with in this article (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/11/sneak-preview-iii-there-and-back-again-a-distros-tale/) about getting the latest fresh software from the Open Build Service. Finally, find some more tips and information on using the repositories on OBS and One-Click-Install in this blog post (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/08/using-softwareopensuseorg.html).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F12%2FOWN-oxygen-Tips-and-Tricks.png&hash=2b918ba7a5e5575f72fb729901398b20217d459a) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/12/OWN-oxygen-Tips-and-Tricks.png)
Going advanced In this article, we’re going a step deeper, bringing you some more tips and tricks we got from the openSUSE community.
zypper We got many zypper tips. Lots is already in the article for new geekos (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/22/opensuse-for-new-geekos/) but we have some ‘deeper’ tips here.
Some useful commands:
- rpmqpack – lists currently installed packages (without version)
- rpm -qa –qf ‘%{name}-%{version}-%{release}.%{arch}\n’ – lists currently installed packages (with full version and architecture)
- rpm -q –qf “%{DISTURL}\n” PACKAGE – gives you an OBS URL to the exact sources for the package PACKAGE. You can, for instance, check them out with osc co DISTURL
- awk -F\| ‘$6 && $2 == “install” {print $3}’ /var/log/zypp/history – list all packages explicitly installed
- zypper sh – runs zypper shell, no need to type zypper for each command
- zypper -v dup -D – simulate(Dry run) an upgrade on all active repositories
- zypper moo – makes debian users feel at home
- journalctl – the old “cat /var/log/messages”
- journalctl -f – the old “tail -f /var/log/messages”
etc-update New in this release is a Gentoo tool ported to openSUSE: etc-update. This tool goes through your configuration in /etc and merges new configuration files with your own modifications automatically or presents you the differences and lets you merge the changes.
etc-update is used to merge config files in non-intrusive cli way. It goes file by file in etc, where you can show unified diff and merge the changes as whole or interactively. It can merge trivial changes by itself “-p” preen option, or you can also set the default action to take on all files “automerge, discard, …”.
[11:05] basically you just run “etc-update” and then press numbers on what action you want to take :)
Easy OBS A major technology in openSUSE is the Open Build Service (http://openbuildservice.org) or OBS. We’ve got it running on build.opensuse.org (http://build.opensuse.org) where it servers tens of thousands of packagers building hundreds of thousands of packages for one or more of the 15+ different distributions on 8+ architectures. And this can be massively useful – to you! Information on using the repositories on OBS and One-Click-Install in this blog post (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/08/using-softwareopensuseorg.html), but here we’ll focus on how to use OBS to BUILD packages. A simple and graphical tutorial for re-building a package for a different openSUSE version can be found here (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/05/building-for-your-version-of-opensuse.html).
For you command line aficionados interested in more deep changes, here’s the nitty gritty way of customizing/updating or rebuilding packages (we call this process BURPing). If you haven’t set the OBS tool up yet, find a how-to of your first steps with osc here (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AOSC).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F12%2F3654543066_2c8823cb03_o-e1363960517132-300x280.jpg&hash=894ba38e5a1534816c5f3b35d74b23b727d15980) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3654543066_2c8823cb03_o-e1363960517132.jpg)Branch
osc bco /
Update
cd home::branches:/
Change it, fix it, break it
Test your changes with
osc build
Commit your changes to OBS with
osc ci
Request a submit of your changes
osc sr
to the Package
Fixing a package in a released openSUSE distribution and releasing it as maintenance update is as easy as that.
Branch
osc branch -M -c openSUSE:12.3
Update
cd home::branches:openSUSE:12.3:Update/
Change it, fix it, break it
Test your changes with
osc build
Commit your changes to OBS with
osc ci
Request a submit of your changes
osc mr
to the Package
And done! Yes, it really is that easy to contribute to openSUSE and make the distro better for yourself and everybody else.
That’s it for now We’re out of tips for now, but if you’ve got any – please share them below! We can use them in the next article with Geeko Tips…
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 18.11.2013 - klo:07:00
18 November 2013, 6:50 am
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FDSC_0019-300x199.jpg&hash=6e7377723cd46cad16af026b5cedb145adf9ba78) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DSC_0019.jpg)
Our openSUSE Summit 2013 has just finished here in Orlando. We were hosted in a Mexican themed hotel in the area of Disney World, with our own special area setup nicely for our presentations and workshops. The location was a nice new touch for the geeko friends to reconnect and collaborate, if only because there was a large number of lizards all around here!
Weather wasn’t very loving down here in Florida, USA but being in such a family-like get together, it didn’t really matter.
Location, location location… The location of this year’s conference, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort, has been an interesting change of scenery. The hotel features Mexican style buildings and is built around a big lake. Surroundings include several swimming pools around the room-blocks where you can spend some relaxing time after the conference is over, since the pools here are open 24/7! Unfortunately many geekos have been so busy they didn’t swim as much as would have been good for their white skin…
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FDSC_0134-300x199.jpg&hash=07f1f65170c07d6e70ea6e8e99d697ce102b27e8) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DSC_0134.jpg)
Geeko Hunt Part of our this year’s Summit was the Geeko Hunt game. Here’s how it goes:
Geeko photos were hidden around the venue and you had to go around and look for them.
Interesting and challenging idea to keep us on our feet during breaks and enhance socializing through collaboration in order to achieve the goal of finding the 20 hidden geeko heads that were around the venue. Admittedly the geeko photos were hidden in some challenging places – people really had to make an extra efforts to find some of them.
Winner of our game, who find all the hidden geekos, was Steve! Well done, Steve :)
Social events When we, little cute geekos, want to socialize more comfortably, we lay back and relax in the Geeko Lounge.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FDSC_0173-300x199.jpg&hash=f2dbda03cff9f0d36d3598005d82c1ba9e6b3b27) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DSC_0173.jpg)
That is until the party gets started, of course! Then we are on our feet and straight into our party place – yay!
After a half-day of conference our first social event at last arrived – the pizza party on Friday night, which was where the fun started. It involved music, free drinks against geeko dollars and of course different flavors of pizza!! Pizza party has been the regular thing to do when new release occur – well, this time pizza came a little early, nobody complained though!
A Mexican evening was the second awesome party of openSUSE Summit, on Saturday night. Great opportunity to try out some mexican cuisine, wear fancy hats, drink and dance. Photos kind of speak for themselves…
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FDSC_0476-300x199.jpg&hash=cdc25863b4a10d6b988616d6eba83ed349f20caa) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/DSC_0476.jpg)
Sessions Now, let’s turn to the content. Plenty of good talks took place, here some notes!
Lars presented our awesome geeko infrastructure and familiarizes us with Education Li-f-e, and if you don’t know what that is, go look it up now! Jos tells us all about community building, promo and “booth’ing,” the do’s and don’ts. More advanced hands-on workshops also take place in Genie Lab, taking us down the road of systemd and image building with KIWI.
The town hall meeting couldn’t possibly be missing from this event of course! It is basically an “everybody-in-one-room-talk-about-what-matters” hour. During our town hall meeting issues like the wiki maze and the extensive communication channels we feature for the project were brought up. A few ideas were presented, such as integrating more openQA testing in the openSUSE Factory development process, adding social and game-like features to OBS to motivate our contributors and get a little more game-addiction going. Stay tuned for more info in our mailing list and share your viewpoints!
Do you know what to do to download your new favorite distro? Lars Vogdt explains all (well, almost all) about the mirrors of openSUSE in his lightning talk about MirrorBrain, a framework that makes mirroring easy. Try it out for your project!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FForum-team-300x169.jpg&hash=60e6fa589876421ed6200ec0979f27a5801e9f45) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Forum-team.jpg)
Have you ever used KIWI? Would you like to?
Robert Schweikert went into all the details about image building with KIWI in his 4-hour workshop that took place on Saturday 16 November. Everybody had their own laptop with the latest openSUSE version (13.1) installed. With Roberts instructions participants had the opportunity to explore the possibilities of KIWI and learn how to create their own images. For some this took a bit longer than expected, others just kept chatting it up even after the workshop was over!
If you missed the event, make sure you go through the extensive wiki about KIWI and don’t hesitate to send your question to our geeko project mailing list (opensuse-project@opensuse.org), where fellow geekos can guide you in the right direction for fast and easy image building with our cool community tool, KIWI.
Andrian Schröter took us for a dive into the world of OBS or Open Build Service, a useful tool developed within the openSUSE project, that can be used by anyone to package for any Linux distro.
If you would like to find out more, make sure you stay tuned for OBS workshops and presentations in future openSUSE events – we hold them regularly if you need extra help in getting started with packaging yourself.
And that’s only some of the interesting stuff going on here… There is nothing cooler than talking in person to the developers of your favorite tool!
More awesomeness? If you would like to find out more, check out the cool photos by Alex in our openSUSE Summit G+ page (https://plus.google.com/photos/118353940642581070613/albums/5947256413483833873) and stay tuned through our social media.
Big thanks goes to the organizers and volunteers of that event whose role is always substantial in making events, like the Summit happen! THANK YOU :)
Article contributed by Stella Rouzi – yes – from oSC13 fame, straight from the US of A!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 18.11.2013 - klo:19:00
18 November 2013, 2:04 pm
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FRelease-Geeko-300x267.png&hash=edb34b42e1967e3a3f229c6fea5153c0f3b4472a) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Release-Geeko.png)
Dear Geekos!
We’re sure you are all anxiously awaiting the release of openSUSE 13.1, coming in 24 hours. Yes, just around the corner! So we want to remind you that you can help us promote the release, plan release parties and of course read the many articles we’ve written! So much to do both before and after the release…
Before the release There is still preparation to do: a lot to read about the release -so you can tell your friends about it- and some work in order to promote the release. You are very welcome in helping us to spread the word in your blog and other places!
Learn about the release As a preparation for the release we wrote bunch of sneak peaks so you can learn about what is so cool in new openSUSE. Let’s start from the most visible parts – as always we have new versions of desktops environments. We write articles about both major ones – GNOME (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=16793) and KDE (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=17213). Changes in these two are probably the most visible to the end user. We hope exactly the opposite happening with YaST. There were really big changes under the hood of YaST this release as we wrote (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=16681). The interface and functionality are both the same, so users will barely notice, but we hope an horde of new developers attracted by the new code.
We also wrote about more hardcore/geeky stuff. "Cloud" is still a magical and cool word and we have everything you need to create your own cloud in openSUSE. Check out (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/17/openstack-havana-and-opensuse/) what is new in this area! And as this is more sysadmins cup of tea, let’s mention yet another article that we prepared. This one is full of useful tips and tricks (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16829). Even if you are skilled sysadmin, you might learn a thing or two there that will make your everyday life easier.
And last but not least, don’t forget about all the love and attention that have been put into Btrfs. Even whether is not the default option for new installations, openSUSE 13.1 looks like the best choice for everybody wanting to try this next generation filesystem.
Promote the release You might have seen that we created some cool materials to promote the release. There are banners, backgrounds for social media accounts and more in this article (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16835) and we have this cool “Release Geeko” background for you:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FReleaseIsComingBackground-300x225.jpg&hash=247b8dd93027797be46874fd6af84849f195dbe8) (http://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/ReleaseIsComingBackground.jpg)Release Geeko background Find more related artwork in our github repository (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/Releases/13.1%20release%20is%20coming).
During the release day For the release itself, we created both Facebook event (https://www.facebook.com/events/1420472541503092/) and G+ event (https://plus.google.com/events/c41ppnm1vm0l29d9mdt27kqtdj4) to be sure that no one forgets (like if it is possible to forget the release date of your favorite Linux distribution). But more important, there will be public hangout on G+ as part of the G+ event, so you can join and share your excitement about the new release. Apart from that, we will be updating all our social channels all day long, so don’t worry, you will not miss anything… and you are also welcome to help in these tasks.
After the release In the party department, there have been people planning launch parties (https://news.opensuse.org/?p=16826) already. At the moment of writing, we are already aware of parties in:
- Orlando FL, just a couple of days ago
- Nuremberg, punctually at the release day
- Copenhagen, the day after
- SUSE offices in Prague, next week
- Zacatecas, during Free Software Lab-COZCyT
- Taipei, in the near future (stay tuned, more information coming)
We hope you are now a little more prepared for the release. And, of course, not forget to…
have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 19.11.2013 - klo:19:05
19 November 2013, 2:00 pm
Dear contributors, friends and fans: The release is here! Eight months of planning, packaging, adding features, fixing issues, testing and fixing more issues has brought you the best that Free and Open Source has to offer, with our Green touch: Stable and Awesome.(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FopenSUSE_moonlight.png&hash=74c019082acff31e26b24715f71028e6badfd78f) (http://software.opensuse.org)
(In other languages: cs (http://cs.opensuse.org/Ozn%C3%A1men%C3%AD_nov%C3%A9ho_vyd%C3%A1n%C3%AD) de (http://de.opensuse.org/Release-Ank%C3%BCndigung) es (http://es.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AAnuncio_de_la_publicaci%C3%B3n_de_la_versi%C3%B3n_13.1) fr (http://fr.opensuse.org/Annonce_de_version) it (http://it.opensuse.org/Release_announcement) ja (http://ja.opensuse.org/%E3%83%AA%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B9%E3%82%A2%E3%83%8A%E3%82%A6%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B9) nl (http://nl.opensuse.org/Release_announcement) ru (http://ru.opensuse.org/%D0%9E%D0%B1%D1%8A%D1%8F%D0%B2%D0%BB%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B5_%D0%BE_%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%BF%D1%83%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B5) zh (http://zh.opensuse.org/%E5%8F%91%E8%A1%8C%E8%AF%B4%E6%98%8E) zh-tw (https://zh-tw.opensuse.org/Release_announcement))
This release did benefit from the improvements to our testing infrastructure and much attention for bug fixing. While a combination of over 6000 packages supporting 5 architectures can never be perfect, we’re proud to say this really does represent the best Free Software has to offer! The latest desktops (five of them!), server and cloud technologies, software development tools and everything in between are included as well as a number of exciting, new technologies for you to play with. Enjoy!
openSUSE 13.1 is:
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/3/30/Icon-wiki.png/48px-Icon-wiki.png) Stabilized
Much effort was put in testing openSUSE 13.1, with improvements to our automated openQA testing tool (https://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/06/06/openqa-in-opensuse/), a global bug fixing hackathon (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/10/15/betapizza-hackaton-results/) and more. The btrfs file system has received a serious workout and while not default, is considered stable for everyday usage. This release has been selected for Evergreen maintenance (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/08/26/upcoming-opensuse-13-1-will-be-kept-evergreen/) extending its life cycle to 3 years.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/7/7e/Icon-network.png/48px-Icon-network.png) Networked
This release introduces the latest OpenStack Havana with almost 400 new features. Web server admins will appreciate the latest Apache, MySQL and MariaDB updates. Web developers benefit from an updated Ruby 2.0 on Rails 4 with improvements from core classes to better caching in the Rails framework and the latest php 5.4.2 comes with a build-in testing server. End users can now mount Amazon s3 buckets as local file system and use much improved Samba 4.1 with better windows domains support.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/d/d0/Icon-distribution.png/48px-Icon-distribution.png) Evolved
openSUSE moves forward with AArch64, making openSUSE ready for development on the upcoming generation of 64bit ARM devices. 32bit ARM support has been heavily improved and a special Raspberry Pi build for openSUSE is available. This release also delivers GCC 4.8 with new error reporting abilities, the latest glibc supporting AArch64, C11 and Intel TSX Lock Elision, the new SDL2 and Qt 5.1, bringing QML and C++11 features to developers..
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/6/6a/Icon-cleanup.png/48px-Icon-cleanup.png) Polished
openSUSE 13.1 comes with much improved font hinting thanks to the new font engine in Freetype 2.5. YaST has been ported to Ruby, opening contribution up to a large number of skilled developers. In this release, ActiveDoc replaces doc.opensuse.org and the majority of packaged documents in openSUSE, lowering the barrier to contribution.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/d/da/Preferences-system-performance.png) Faster
New is accelerated video with VDPAU support in MESA and an optimized version of glibc for 32bit systems. Linux 3.11 includes work on ‘page reclaim’ (http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=75485363ce8552698bfb9970d901f755d5713cca), maintaining performance during disk operations.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/8/84/Icon-feature.png/48px-Icon-feature.png) Feature-full
Desktop users will appreciate the Android devices integration in the KDE file manager, in the shell and in music player Amarok. Artists have to try out the new Krita improvements with textured painting, greyscale masks & selections and more. GNOME Shell introduces a redesign of the system status bar and Header Bars in many applications, making better use of screen space. Enlightenment now also has an openSUSE theme.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/6/66/Icon-new.png/48px-Icon-new.png) Innovative
This release comes with a number of experimental technologies to try out. This includes preliminary Wayland support with Weston compositor in GNOME Shell and KDE Plasma Desktop as well as improved support for Ultra high-resolution in applications and shells. New is also the LightDM KDE greeter and a plasma NetworkManagement applet for testing.
“We’re proud of this release and of all those who worked on it. With a steady increase in contributors there was a lot of hard work put in by so many people from around the globe. Without all these contributors, initiatives like support for ARM would not be possible and we’re very thankful for their input.”– said openSUSE Board member Andrew Wafaa.
The Details For Users (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FWidgets_KDE_13.1-150x150.png&hash=9de43ae16ac875fc82faa152b9810c1e3022c50c) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17358) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FApplication-Launching-GNOME-13.1-150x150.png&hash=83a095b9bd5aee6c286ee21f569e44db8e90afcb) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17360) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FOpenSUSE_13.1_E17_settings_theme-150x150.jpg&hash=094e454290b20932efe41434a43a4bc578fa0ea5) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17361) (https://en.opensuse.org/images/7/73/Kde-logo.jpg) KDE
KDE Plasma Desktop is the default in openSUSE, and the 4.11 version of this Free Desktop is a long term maintained release. This release brings speed improvements in Desktop Search, file and window management, improved multi-monitor handling, brand new delayed mail sending feature and scam detection for KDE PIM and much more. Also new is deeper Android integration in the desktop and in the Amarok music player. See this great introduction (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=17213) to Plasma Desktop on openSUSE 13.1.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/1/1e/Logo-gnome.png) GNOME
This release is very significant for the GNOME community, bringing a unified system status area, geolocation features, high-resolution display support and a collection of new and improved applications including Maps, Notes, Music and Photos. See the great overview of what’s new (http://news.opensuse.org/?p=16793) in GNOME 3.10 on openSUSE 13.1.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/d/d3/Icon-desktop.png) Desktop Applications
openSUSE 13.1 always offers the latest Free Desktop software including browsers, office applications and more. LibreOffice 4.1 introduces improved hyphenation and style handling, RTL support and better performance. Calligra 2.7 brings improved LATEX support and better toolboxes. Digital painting application Krita introduces a rewritten transform tool, greyscale masks and selections, new fileformat and color management support and more.
For Admins (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Fscreenshot-studio-12.3-kde-150x150.png&hash=becef3be357613384f2d7fdfee9ff8aa780e7be5) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/13/opensuse-12-3-free-open-and-awesome/screenshot-studio-12-3-kde/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F03%2Fpostgres-12.3-150x150.png&hash=2c20d03a9eb2e8e1c22c0bc34365ed5af71037df) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/03/13/opensuse-12-3-free-open-and-awesome/postgres-12-3/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FGNOME_Boxes_13.1-150x150.png&hash=b45ed753013b9a544f938ec2399566d9503cbf2f) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17367) (https://en.opensuse.org/images/7/7e/Icon-network.png) Virtualization
As of this release the kvm 1.6 package is mainly just a wrapper of the binaries provided by the qemu package, a change that reflects the complete support that QEMU now provides for KVM. Xen 4.1 introduces the xl/libxl toolstack as the default. The libvirt package has been split into several subpackages, allowing users to create a libvirtd specific to their needs.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/3/30/Icon-wiki.png) Databases and networking
13.1 ships an updated version of MySQL Community Server with stronger encryption support, innoDB improvements for better performance, new query functions and more. The default configuration of both MySQL and MariaDB has been improved. The new 2.4 release of Apache’s httpd delivers many improvements to the Multiple Processing Modules including the ability to build them as loadable modules, asynchronous read/write support and more.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/b/b2/Logo-openstack.png) Cloud
This release comes with various cloud technologies including the latest Havana release from OpenStack, bringing almost 400 new features. It also marks the debut of s3fs, a FUSE filesystem that allows you to mount an Amazon S3 bucket as a local filesystem. It stores files natively and transparently in S3 (i.e., you can use other programs to access the same files).
For Developers (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FAnjuta_GNOME_13.1-150x150.png&hash=bed6a7c1e4ace83fb737b69662b29f2c156ce7ff) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17363) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FQtcreator_KDE_13.1-150x150.png&hash=e5065f035699bfb59a22877e329ef9c0ea32f54b) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17365) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FKdevelop4_KDE_13.1-150x150.png&hash=dde783b7c2b8c69dc43acb9ffd9934021fa608bd) (http://news.opensuse.org/?attachment_id=17364) (https://en.opensuse.org/images/0/0d/Icon-usage.png) IDEs and tooling
GCC 4.8 brings new error reporting capabilities: each diagnostic emitted now includes the original source line text and a caret ‘^’ indicating the column. Together with glibc and LLVM it introduces AArch64 support.
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/c/ca/Icon-security.png) Languages and Libraries
This marks the first openSUSE release to ship the next incarnation of Linux’ most popular tookit, Qt 5.1. While most applications are build against Qt 4.8, developers can start to experiment with innovations like QML2. Web developers will appreciate the latest Rails 4 and Ruby 2.0 releases as well as PHP 5.4.20 which includes a build in testing server. Game developers should start to play with SDL 2, bringing Linux games into a new decade.
Under the hood (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FLibreoffice_writer_calc_KDE_13.1-150x150.png&hash=8ebba7fbf2df284509e6d4fb5e7dcd74e5b82679) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/11/19/opensuse-13-1-ready-for-action/libreoffice_writer_calc_kde_13-1/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FOpenStack-openSUSE-dashboard-project-tab-150x150.png&hash=84681af3e4b2fc347d29ed1b23ec48d03b40f55e) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/11/19/opensuse-13-1-ready-for-action/openstack-opensuse-dashboard-project-tab/) (https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.opensuse.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F11%2FYast_KDE_13.1-150x150.jpg&hash=a9bbd6d1e5669cace63d9ac8127ae074016d016b) (http://news.opensuse.org/2013/11/19/opensuse-13-1-ready-for-action/yast_kde_13-1/) (https://en.opensuse.org/images/d/d7/Icon-kernel.png) Kernel
openSUSE 13.1 ships with the latest patch in the 3.11 kernel series. The brisk development pace of the world’s largest software engineering project has continued, with no less than four releases since the previous openSUSE version, bringing countless features to our users. We give you an overview of the most noticeable of those.
- Improved page reclaim to increase responsivity under heavy IO
- improved tracking of resources with accounting of kernel memory in the memory resource controller and detailed tracking of which pages a program writes
- scalability improvements with NUMA policy redesign, timer-less multitasking, rwlock, mutex and SYSV IPC message queue changes
- Introduction of Zswap, a compressed swap cache, improving performance when enabled on low-memory systems
- Btrfs introduced stability and performance improvements, Ext4 embeds small files in inodes, XFS gained support for metadata and journal checksums. F2FS is a new flash-optimized FS
- Preliminary support for NFS 4.2, the new TCP Tail loss probe algorithm to improve short transfer performance and a low latency network polling mechanism for servers.
- O_TMPFILE open(2) flag for the easy creation of secure temporary files, expanded namespaces support and the “labeled NFS” ability which brings full support for SELinux on NFS
- a new suspend power state for devices, experimental dynamic power management for all Radeon GPUs since r600 (disabled by default due to stability concerns)
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/7/70/Icon-console.png) System Tools
- Thanks to integration of udev in the latest systemd the labeling of ethernet devices has become persistent across reboots.
- In the power management area, there is a new suspend power state for devices which can deal with extremely low power states (or have issues with the other suspend states) and, perhaps more relevant for laptop users, experimental dynamic power management for all Radeon GPUs since r600.
- Both UEFI support for x86_64 hardware and support for Secure Boot enabled hardware have been improved with compatibility with more devices. Find out how to deal with UEFI and Secure Boot in the wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AUEFI).
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/3/30/Icon-wiki.png/48px-Icon-wiki.png) Documentation
In this release, ActiveDoc replaces doc.opensuse.org and most of the packaged documents in openSUSE. ActiveDoc is a new web app which lowers the barrier to contribution to openSUSE documentation while maintaining the high quality standards and multiple formats in which documentation is available. Check it out here (http://activedoc.opensuse.org/).
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/2/2e/Dister-mechanic.png) SUSE Studio
SUSE Studio users (http://susestudio.com) can expect availability of openSUSE 13.1 right from the release date, and support for upgrading existing appliances shortly after. This means it will be possible to easily create your own operating system for the cloud, desktop or portable devices based on openSUSE 13.1 with a custom package selections, artwork, scripts and any other properties. You can share your appliance or also browse other’s shared appliances on SUSE Gallery (http://susegallery.com).
“The openSUSE community has again done an amazing job. There was an incredible final testing- and bug fixing push over community channels the weeks before the release. we at SUSE are proud of being part of such an innovative team of technology enthusiasts.”– said Ralf Flaxa, VP of engineering at SUSE
Maintenance and life cycle As usual, this release will continue to receive bugfixes and security updates for at least 2 release cycles + 2 months. However, the openSUSE Evergreen team has already announced extended security and bugfix work (https://news.opensuse.org/2013/08/26/upcoming-opensuse-13-1-will-be-kept-evergreen/) for an additional 18 months, extending the openSUSE 13.1 maintenance life cycle to three years.
For an even more detailed feature guide visit opensuse.org/13.1 (http://opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1).
Go, get it! Downloads of openSUSE 13.1 can be found at software.opensuse.org/131 (http://software.opensuse.org/131).
We recommend checking out the Release Notes (http://doc.opensuse.org/release-notes/x86_64/openSUSE/13.1/) before upgrade or installation.
Users currently running openSUSE 12.3 can upgrade to openSUSE 13.1 via the instructions at this link (http://en.opensuse.org/Upgrade). Users who have a properly set-up Tumbleweed setup (http://opensuse.org/Tumbleweed) will automatically migrate to the new release without any additional effort!
Check out ARM images at the ARM wiki (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AARM). Stable 13.1 based images for ARMv7 are there and will receive full maintenance alongside 13.1. ARMv6 and ARMv8 (AArch64) ports are experimental and offer no guarantee.
(the openSUSE community joined SUSECon video creativity)
Thanks! 13.1 represents the combined effort of thousands of developers who participate in our distributions and projects shipped with it. The contributors, inside and outside the openSUSE Project, should be proud of this release, and they deserve a major “thank you” for all of the hard work and care that have gone into it. We believe that 13.1 is the best openSUSE release yet, and that it will help to encourage the use of Linux everywhere! We hope that you all have a lot of fun while you’re using it, and we look forward to working with you on the next release!
About the openSUSE Project The openSUSE Project is a worldwide community that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. It creates one of the world’s best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community. The project is controlled by its community and relies on the contributions of individuals, working as testers, writers, translators, usability experts, artists and ambassadors or developers. The project embraces a wide variety of technology, people with different levels of expertise, speaking different languages and having different cultural backgrounds. Learn more about it on opensuse.org (http://www.opensuse.org)
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.11.2013 - klo:19:02
24 November 2013, 3:56 am
In the Service Team (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AServices_team)’s Cave, where the infrastructure of openSUSE servers and services is kept running, the openSUSE Service Team was facing an issue: requests to admin@opensuse.org were managed by mail, making it hard to keep track of all the open issues and leading to coordination problems. As some requests to this list also contain log in credentials, the list itself could not have a public archive. So it is always complicated to tell people what is going on there, and even more complicated to allow interested people to subscribe. (Please note: including credentials in plain Emails is never ever a good idea – it is even not the intention of the Service Team to get such credentials. But sometimes people don’t care of just realize too late that their log files are containing stuff that should not be visible)
But openSUSE – and especially the administration of all openSUSE services – is all about collaboration and communication. So hiding in a small cave might not be a good idea if you want to get some helping hands or reach out for collaboration.
Today we made one big step forward by integrating admin@opensuse.org into the ticket system available at http://progress.opensuse.org/ ! In the first shot, this does not sound very interesting, but please remember that this service is already integrated into our authentication infrastructure, so everyone with an openSUSE account is now able to step in an check the state of public tickets (warning: tickets are private per default), create new ones a have a look at other public modules of this “openSUSE admin”-project – or become part of the team.
Just to avoid confusion: sending an Email to admin@opensuse.org is not only still possible but also the preferred way to reach us.
For coordination and to be “reachable” for all those guys hanging around at some IRC channel, we now also have a public channel on irc.freenode.net: #opensuse-admin (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://irc.freenode.net/opensuse-admin)Feel free to say hello, thank you, or ask us questions.
Source: openSUSE News (http://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: harmie - 08.01.2014 - klo:13:29
http://news.opensuse.org/2014/01/07/opensuse-forums-defaced/
Kirjoitti: Owdy - 08.01.2014 - klo:15:06
Kirjoitti: guest141 - 08.01.2014 - klo:19:51
Kirjoitti: harmie - 08.01.2014 - klo:20:13
Eli kannattaako nyt miten toimia ja huolestua?No pahimmassa tapauksessa rupea tulemaan spämmiä siihen maili osoitteseen jolla tonne opensuse.org on rekisteröitynyt. Eli ei tuo nyt kauhean vakavaa ole varsinkin jos käytössä sellainen maili osoite jossa hyvät spämmisuodatukset.
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
26 February 2014, 12:08 am
The openSUSE Board has pleasure to announce the minutes from Face to Face Board meeting that happened in February 7th to 9th, 2014 in Nuremberg.
Please read carefully and see how it was productive.
http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Board_meeting#Face_to_Face_Meeting_2014-02-07.2C08.2C09
Thanks to SUSE for hosting the meeting and thanks to those meeting with the board over the weekend for taking the time.
There are plenty of opportunities to help the project. The booth boxes are right around the corner and with this a reboot of the advocate and local coordinator effort.
We have also reach agreement to re-instate the reimbursement of locally produced materials. We’ll create some guidelines and a new team needs to be formed. We hope that with some modification to the TSP app both reimbursement streams can be handled in a similar way.
We all feel we got a lot of stuff sorted out and ready to roll. As always if you have questions or concerns please feel free to send a message to board at o.o
Another good reference can be find here http://andrew.wafaa.eu/2014/02/19/opensuse-board-in-the-flesh.html (http://andrew.wafaa.eu/2014/02/19/opensuse-board-in-the-flesh.html)
Have a great week!
The openSUSE Board
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
4 March 2014, 9:01 pm
GSoC 2014: First Steps openSUSE is part of yet another Google Summer of Code. After a rocking ride in last year’s edition, our Geeko’s are gearing up for another awesome program. This year promises to be more special, as Google is celebrating its 10th anniversary of the program.
About the Program: Google Summer of Code (commonly called as GSoC) is an annual program conducted by Google which pays students code to write code for open source organizations. It is one of the most best ways for organizations such as openSUSE to get some quality work done, and gain long term contributors. In the last edition, we had 10 students complete their projects and gain recognition within the community.
openSUSE and GSoC: Last year, we collaborated with ownCloud, Balabit(makers of syslog-ng) and Hedgewars under a common umbrella. It worked very well for all of us. This year, we are collaborating with ownCloud, Zorp(a Gateway technology by Balabit) and the MATE desktop along with the bucket load of awesome projects from openSUSE itself. Our mentors are quite enthusiastic, and recognize the role played by GSoC in moving the community forward.
For Students: If you are a student who wants to participate under openSUSE, and ‘have a lot of fun’, do check out our ideas page and guidelines. As always, the key is to start early and to interact with mentors and the community at large. Fixing bugs and working on Proof of Concepts is a good way to start.
Student application period opens on 10th March, and continues till March 21.
Contact: You can find out all about our GSoC programme on the wiki or contact the GSoC team for further questions
Manu Gupta
Saurabh Sood
You can reach the community at our Mailing List and on #opensuse-project on IRC (Freenode).
This article has been contributed by Saurabh Sood
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
5 March 2014, 7:10 pm
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Logo_Final-255x300.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Logo_Final.png)We are very pleased to announce Michael Meeks (https://people.gnome.org/~michael/) as our keynote speaker for the Saturday opening session at oSC14, held in Dubrovnik April 25th – 28th, 2014. Besides Michael Meeks, the openSUSE board will talk, opening the event on Friday and over 20 of the 60 currently submitted talks have already been accepted. Last but not least, we’d like to tell you that the deadline for the Call for Papers has been extended until the end of this month.
Deadline extended! While Program Committee is putting the puzzle pieces together to create another great content packed conference we are happy to announce that the deadline for talk proposals has been extended to the end of March (March 31st). This will give those with great ideas that have not yet submitted their proposal the chance to do so over the next 3 weeks (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/proposal). We expect to have the final schedule available shortly after the March 31st close of the submission period.
If you have not yet submitted your talk proposal we encourage you to do so. The program committee will continue to accept proposals through out the extended submission deadline and if you wait until the end you may be out of luck as the schedule may be full.
What kind of proposals? (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/submit_paper.png) (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/proposal)
You’re wondering what kind of sessions we are looking for, and from whom? This year’s theme is “The Strength to Change“, as with all that’s going on in Free Software, change is a constant for us. Session proposals that connect in a meaningful way with change and strength would be appreciated!
As explained in the CfP announcement (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/01/29/osc14-cfp-and-registration-open/), we have four main themes this year:
- End user track (Geeko Enthusiast)
- Business track (Geeko for suits)
- Community and Project (Geekos around the world)
- Technology & Development (Geeko tech)
You can submit proposals on this page (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/proposal).
Michael Meeks Keynoting (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/400px-Michael_Meeks-200x300.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/400px-Michael_Meeks.jpg)Michael Meeks has been contributing to open source software for a long time, primarily focusing on GNOME, OpenOffice and now LibreOffice. Michael was one of the leaders in the formation of the Document Foundation and serves on the Engineering Steering Committee of the foundation. The Document Foundation’s primary purpose is to further the development of LibreOffice, the premiere open source office suite.
Since the fork of LibreOffice from the OpenOffice code base and the formation of the Document Foundation the LibreOffice code base has made great strides with the addition of many features and many bugs being fixed. This is in no small part attributable to Michael’s dedication and leadership. The countless improvements in LibreOffice have benefited Linux distributions by allowing us to offer a first grade office suite that is second to none as part of our effort.
In a recent transition Michael moved from SUSE to Collabora where Michael has the opportunity to continue to focus his attention on the development of LibreOffice and the exploration of new ideas for LibreOffice, such as a mobile version or a Cloud based version. Michael will gives us an overview on how the Document Foundation and LibreOffice were able to emerge from the corporate control of OpenOffice to become the great and vibrant community that has formed around the code base today. We will also here some anecdotes about dealing with such a large code base from a technical perspective.
We are very excited to have Michael speak at oSC14.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Jan-300x225.jpg)
First talks accepted and scheduled! The oSC14 Program Committee has already accepted over 20 of the 60 session proposals submitted to date. The event will be kicked off on Friday by the board, discussing the state of the openSUSE community in their opening keynote. Saturday, Michael Meeks will open the day.
In addition to the traditional Live Project Meeting, led by the openSUSE Board, we have a number of technically focused talks such as a presentation focused on Bcache that allows the combination of SSDs with spinning hard drives that provide higher capacities at a lower cost and a workshop for Ruby on Rails beginners. There are a number of confirmed talks about the technical infrastructure of openSUSE, from tools that help with packaging, to post build checks in OBS, and introduction to openSUSE initiated projects such as openQA.
The influence of the Cloud architecture on software development has not passed us either and thus we have a number of talks focusing on the Cloud topic. For those more interested in community activities that are less technical there will be the presentation of the new openSUSE Booth Box kit. The material included in a box is available for everyone to touch and see. There will also be a presentation about the location for oSC15 and a number of other talks relating to openSUSE marketing and promoting our project.
Come and join the fun! written by Robert Schweikert, CfP committee
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
11 March 2014, 11:00 am
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Logo_Final-255x300.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Logo_Final.png)At the openSUSE Conference 2014 in Dubrovnik hundreds of Geekos are expected to meet, discuss and attend the talks and workshops. The openSUSE Conference Paper Committee is hard at work selecting the best proposals from the submissions. There must be something for everybody: beginners and professionals, technical or more socially oriented. The three simultaneous sessions during three days give over 80 slots. What kind of content can you expect? This article gives you a sneak preview by going over a number of proposals which have already been accepted.
Themes We shared with you last week that Michael Meeks (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/03/05/osc14-keynote-confirmed-more-awesome-coming/) would be keynote speaker, today we go into the presentations and workshops. The sessions are organized around this year’s theme, which is “The Strength to Change“. With all that’s going on in Free Software, change is a constant for us.
As explained in the CfP announcement (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/01/29/osc14-cfp-and-registration-open/), we have four main tracks this year:
- End user track (Geeko Enthusiast)
- Business track (Geeko for suits)
- Community and Project (Geekos around the world)
- Technology & Development (Geeko tech)
Business track The business track has only one talk confirmed: OpenStack, by Vincent Untz (http://www.vuntz.net/). We’re looking for more sessions interesting for businesses! If you have an interesting subject, send in a proposal (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/proposal).
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/conference-room-300x162.jpg)Will you sit here? Community and Project In the community sessions you will find talks about the openSUSE community, like a scientific analysis of our collaboration patterns in OBS and bugzilla by Ilias R. (http://zoumpis.wordpress.com/), information about the openSUSE Travel Support Program from Izabel Valverde (http://en.opensuse.org/User%3AIzabelvalverde) and the presentation of our conference location for 2015 by the board. A second subject are sessions around communities in general, with talks about giving presentations and running booths at events by Jos (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com).
Technology & Development openSUSE development is a central subject for oSC14. Release manager Stephan Kulow (https://plus.google.com/+StephanKulow/) will talk about the introduction of staging projects, rings and openQA following the new workflow proposal (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2013-11/msg00920.html) from last year. Alberto Planas (https://twitter.com/a_planas) will be giving a long talk on the subject of writing plugins for osc, the Open Build Service command line client.
openQA, the automated operating system testing tool of openSUSE, is poised to be given a greater role in development. At the openSUSE conference you will find a workshop for creating openQA tests as well as a short talk on becoming a contributor to openQA development, both done by Alberto (https://twitter.com/a_planas). In other testing news and improvements news, the tools rpmlint and speccleaner will get their share of attention by respectively Ludwig Nussel (http://users.suse.com/~lnussel/) and Michal Hrušecký (http://michal.hrusecky.net/).
Not only openSUSE development tools are build – we do more than package. Several talks on openSUSE infrastructure, including our Travel Support Program tool and login infrastructure (Ancor Gonzales Sosa (https://github.com/ancorgs), are in the plan.
Several openSUSE tools for end users will be presented as well. The development of YaST modules will be subject of a workshop and a lightning talk by Josef Reidinger (https://github.com/jreidinger) and from Arvin Schnell (http://arvin.schnell-web.net/) you can learn how LVM, next-gen filesystem btrfs and file-system snapshot tool snapper fit together.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/submit_paper.png) (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/proposal)
Kernel hacker Oliver Neukum (http://www.kernelhub.org/?p=7&dev=932&mbox_type=1) will give a less openSUSE-specific talk about Bcache, a kernel feature to create a transparent SSD based cache for spinning rust. For developers a workshop Ruby for Beginners by Camila Ayres (http://camilasan.com/)is confirmed and several other programming related sessions are being discussed.
More and more Above are the sessions currently confirmed – more are submitted and the CfP committee is going over them and making decisions. There is still time to get your session in. But you will have to be quick: sessions come in and are confirmed every day and we’ll run out of slots soon!
If you’re not sure about the subject, how to bring it or your own skills, consider reading our speaker guidelines (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AConference_speaker_guidelines) article as it has plenty of tips on giving presentations and workshops. Also, community manager Jos Poortvliet (http://blog.jospoortvliet.com) will give a session about presenting at the first day of the conference.
Last but not least – if you plan on visiting oSC, go and register yourself (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/register)! If travel costs are an issue, consider applying for travel support (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/02/24/osc14-the-opensuse-travel-support-is-open/).
We want you there!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
14 March 2014, 6:56 pm
As you can see on the website, affordable accommodation deals have been prepared for all the Geekos visiting the openSUSE conference 2014 (https://conference.opensuse.org/). To get those low prices, bookings should be done through the supporting company Dalmatia Aeterna (http://dalmatiaaeterna.hr/). You can contact Dalmatia Aeterna through email (info@dalmatiaaeterna.hr) or through their website contact form (http://dalmatiaaeterna.hr/contact/). Be sure to specify type of accommodation you want to book, arrival and departure date, for how many guests you are making a reservation. And of course, don’t forget to mention the code: “openSUSE”!
The deadline to book rooms with discounted rate is tomorrow March 15th, 2014. After that date bookings are available “on request” basis only. That means that after the deadline we can’t guarantee the rates listed on the site!
The options Take a look at the offerings, and choose something that suites you. Note that there is an additional tourist tax 1 EUR per person daily and a 20€ booking fee per person that will be charged. Prices are per person.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/accommodation.png) (https://conference.opensuse.org/#accommodation)
There are also private accommodations available, they are all over town. See the website for details (https://conference.opensuse.org/#accommodation).
Register Whether you want to give a talk at oSC14, or just visit, don’t forget to register for the conference as soon as you make your bookings so we can prepare the welcome packages and organize other activities accordingly. Registration is available through the conference website (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/register).
Support the conference Going to oSC14 is free, but if you choose to support our event and the Travel Support Program (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program), you can do so by purchasing supporter or professional tickets! See here (https://conference.opensuse.org/#tickets).
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
17 March 2014, 6:22 pm
After the outage 1 month ago (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/02/18/hardware-problem-rsync-opensuse-org-down/), it seems rsync.opensuse.org has similar hardware problems again.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/DSC_2977-150x150.jpg)
Again we did not see any output on the serial console any more and even a power cycle did not reanimate the system.
As the hardware is located in the data center of our sponsor IP Exchange (http://www.ip-exchange.de/), we apologize for the delay it will take to fix the problem: we just need a field worker at the location who has the appropriate permissions and skills.
During the downtime (and maybe also a good tip afterward), please check on http://mirrors.opensuse.org (http://mirrors.opensuse.org/)/ for the closest mirror nearby your location that also offers rsync for you.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
19 March 2014, 3:33 pm
openSUSE Factory development is going steady and our venerable release manager has made a first milestone available. No development schedule has yet been determined, although it has been decided that we will aim for a release in November of this year. Major changes include X, Y and Z.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/720x300-300x125.jpg) (http://conference.opensuse.org)
Release Plans Our normal 8-month release cycle would warrant a release in July, but the openSUSE team has proposed to change the schedule due to the work they are doing on our tooling and infrastructure. In the discussions on our mailing list (http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-factory/2014-01/msg00350.html) it became clear a November release has much support. This is now the tentative plan (http://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/02/03/trying-to-add-some-light/) and we will decide the specific schedule as well as who’s gonna do what and where at the upcoming openSUSE Conference in Dubrovnik (http://conference.opensuse.org).
Meanwhile, the openSUSE team is asking for feedback, bug hunting and fixing (http://lizards.opensuse.org/2014/03/13/help-yourselves-to-our-low-hanging-fruit/) of the new-and-improved openQA and Staging tools for the Open Build Service.
Changes in the first milestone Although we’re just at the start of our release cycle, this milestone already introduces a number of significant changes. Plans on what exactly will be included will be created at oSC14 next month.
- The btrfs filesystem is default (and comes with btrfsprogs 3.12), as is the wicked network management tool (replacing ifup) and the dracut initrd replacement
- YaST sports a new look and its Qt front-end is ported to Qt5
- Zypper is at the 1.10.x branch for the next release, introducing a number of bug fixes and minor improvements
- KDE Frameworks 5 packages are included, as well as the latest Application and Platform releases in the 4.x series
- Our infrastructure is updated: rpm 4.11.2 introduces weak dependencies, PackageKit 0.8.16 comes with a new appdata format and there are binutils .24, Bluez 5.15, systemd 210, pulseaudio at 5.0 and the latest 3.14RC kernel
- In the graphics area we now have packages for wayland 1.4, freetype 2.5.2 (changing font weights) and Mesa 10.1
- Cloud and databases bring xen 4.4, virtualbox 4.3.8 and postgresql 9.3.
- For developers we’ve included GCC 4.9 (default still 4.8.2), make 4.0, llvm 3.4, cmake 3.0(rc), gdb 7.7, git 1.9.0 and subversion 1.8.8
- In the language area, we’ve now got ruby 2.1, php5 5.5.9 and python 2.7.6 and 3.4.0(rc)
Have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
21 March 2014, 1:22 pm
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/720x300-300x125.jpg) (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/openSUSE%20Conference/2014-oS-Conference/Banners)click to download banners! Every year we hear from people who did not know when or where the openSUSE Conference took place. This is a problem in urgent need of fixing. We need you to help us tell them! Everybody can help promote our conference. There are great banners and other graphics you can put on blogs, twitter, facebook and many other places. Be a part of oSC14, help us tell everybody about oSC14!
Logo and stuff We’ve got some great promotional images for the openSUSE conference. On the right is a website banner, and you can find plenty of different shapes and sizes by clicking on it. Below we have a folding tux – very cool. The PDF you get by clicking on it (has a white background) can be printed, ideally on A3 and a bit stronger-than-normal paper. You then cut it out following the lines, fold it – and you have your own tuxy promoting oSC14!
(https://conference.opensuse.org/assets/img/banners/thumb/tux.png) (https://conference.opensuse.org/assets/img/banners/FoldingTux_oSC14.pdf)
Of course we have our awesome logo (http://is.gd/dIEkWy), I’m sure you have seen it before. We also have a really nice poster, great for hanging up at events you are going to.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Poster-oSC14-FinalVersion.png) (https://github.com/openSUSE/artwork/tree/master/Marketing%20Materials/Events/openSUSE%20Conference/2014-oS-Conference/Posters/Final)Click to download posters Sponsors We would also appreciate it if you could help us find sponsors! If you know somebody who might want to support oSC14, consider giving them the sponsorship brochure (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/29347181/oSC14%20Sponsorship%20Brochure.pdf).
Help us We do what we can to make the openSUSE conference 2014 awesome. And we will succeed at that. But you can help us do even better!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
24 March 2014, 11:57 am
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Building-300x199.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Building.jpg)
Less than two months from the awesome openSUSE Conference will kick off. The location of oSC14 is the beautiful and historic city of Dubrovnik, located on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. A warm and sunny weather at the beautiful Adritic sea and sandy beaches should welcome geekos from 24th to 28th of April.
About Dubrovnik Dubrovnik is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the Mediterranean. It is also known as „Pearl of the Adriatic“, and since a few years as „King’s Landing“ from the popular TV show (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_of_Thrones) that is filmed in Dubrovnik. Since 1979 the city of Dubrovnik is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The Old Town of Dubrovnik is surrounded by city walls, medieval fortresses, Rector’s Palace and churches from different periods. It is beautiful and is Dubrovnik’s main tourist attraction, one that you don’t want to miss if you visit the city.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/LectureHall-300x199.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/LectureHall.jpg)
The venue The conference venue, also known as the Campus of the University of Dubrovnik, is located just a 5 minutes walk from the Old Town of Dubrovnik. The University of Dubrovnik is the youngest university in Croatia established in 2003, but it has very long tradition in higher education that goes back to the 17th century. The venue was first built as a hospital, but in 2012 it was renewed and re-purposed for the requirements of the University of Dubrovnik. The stone walls of the Campus on the outside are following Dubrovnik’s historical architecture, but inside you will encounter very modern technology.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BoFRoom-300x199.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/BoFRoom.jpg)
There will be a main area with booths from various Free Software projects and some place for people to hang and hack, while the main and secondary lecture hall will host the main talks. Then there are smaller rooms, the largest of which will be mostly used for workshops while other is available for BoF sessions.
Near the venue you can find all kinds of food for during lunch and dinner. The Sesame Tavern (which is where the welcoming party will be hosted) is very close and the 5 minute walk to the Old Town gets you to the large variety of restaurants and pizzerias Dubrovnik offers. You will have plenty of opportunity to enjoy the many fresh fish and other seafood specialties as well as the famous Dubrovnik orange cake!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/WorkshopRoom-300x199.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/WorkshopRoom.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.03.2014 - klo:16:51
27 March 2014, 6:54 pm
Next week, from Monday the 31st of March to the 4th of April, developers from the major Linux Desktops (GNOME, KDE, Unity and RazorQt) will meet again in Nuremberg for the second FreeDesktop Summit.
The summit is a joint technical meeting from developers working on ‘desktop infrastructure’ on the major Free Desktop projects and the event aims to improve collaboration between the projects by discussing specifications and the sharing of platform-level components.
Like last year, the event is supported by SUSE (http://suse.com), which is offering the venue, the hotels and some help with organization.
Check the report from last year (http://dot.kde.org/2013/04/17/report-freedesktop-summit) to get an idea of what this event is about.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 03.04.2014 - klo:19:00
3 April 2014, 4:00 pm
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Welcome-300x235.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Welcome.png)
Welcome to the Bodega store! Bodega is a project making use of the Open Build Service. Aside from that, there are many other connections between the Bodega team and openSUSE – time to find out more! We spoke with Aaron Seigo, and discussed Bodega, Appstream, zypper, ymp and the beauty of Free Software.
What is Bodega? First off, let’s find out what Bodega is all about. Aaron explains:
Bodega is a store for digital stuff. In fancy words: it creates a catalog of metadata which represents digital assets.The most important thing is of course the ‘digital asset’ term. That can be anything. For example, applications. Applications can be self contained – think how android does its APK files. Of course, things on Linux are often more complicated. Apache isn’t exactly a self-contained thing. And look further – perl, php, ruby, they all have their own addons like gems that need managing. Generalizing further, there are manuals. And books in general. Music, movies, pictures, you can go on.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Account-300x235.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Account.png)
Setting up a Bodega account Of course, the competition has these too – look at Apple or Google.
And how about Linux… Linux does not have a store where you can get such a wide variety of things. For a game, you can use Appstream, get it from Apper or GNOME’s software center. They all give a view on applications. Unfortunately, that is only useful for desktops and can handle things barely above the level of Angry Birds. If you want a python module as developers – these fancy tools won’t help you. Nor are they useful on servers. For those you have to rely on command line tools or even do things completely by hand. And it is all different between distributions.
Going further, where do you get documentation? For openSUSE, that’s activedoc (http://activedoc.opensuse.org) or the forums or our support database on the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/SDB). Not from zypper. Music – you can get that from Magnatune (http://magnatune.com) and so on.
What if you can have one place where you can get a book, game, applications, isn’t that nice? That is what Bodega is.(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_MainScreen-300x235.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_MainScreen.png)
The main screen of the store How is Bodega different? So, Bodega offers a digital store which can handle a wider variety of things than our current solutions. But what sets it apart from proprietary technologies like the Playstore and of course Canonical’s store solution? Aaron:
Most Linux solutions like Appstream assume their audience are users who play Angry Birds and use spreadsheets. Fair enough. Bodega takes a different approach and is far more ambitious.Bodega has all the meta data in one place and offers ‘stores’ which are views on that data. That means you can have a software developer store, for example listing all languages and their addons separate; and a server section etc. And a separate UI for the angry-bird-and-spreadsheet crowd. All from the same bodega system, filtered by tags (not static categories!).
Talking about Appstream, Bodega can of course benefit from the metadata gathered for Appstream. And GNOME’s Software Center could be reworked to be a front-end to Bodega, adding books, music and lots of other digital data to its store. This is not meant to be a rewrite of what is there, or an isolated effort!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_ownCloud-300x235.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_ownCloud.png)
An application in the store And why would you build on Bodega? Bodega is open: everybody can quite easily add their own stores; or their own data sources; and add content and even sell it through their channels. It is not a closed system, on the contrary.
Open is a must, especially for Linux:
Take the 440.000 users of openSUSE. That would be a minimal amount of sales… The top-10 of paid apps in ubuntu makes less than a $100 per month of sales. Not really worth the effort. But if we could aggregate the sales between distributions, it would become relevant for third-party developers. Bodega as a cross-distribution is important!And Bodega is useful for people outside of Linux. You can have your store on your own website so it is realistically possible for a independent author to sell their books in a bodega instance on their own website and never even SEE Linux. Yet the openSUSE users can get the books and benefit from the larger ecosystem…
The beauty of it is that it is all Free and Open Source Software, front and back. You can self-host all you want.How do Bodega and OBS relate? (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Preview-300x230.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Preview.png)
Preview of a wallpaper Bodega and openSUSE have something in common: the Open Build Service. Not only is OBS used by the Bodega developers and do they run openSUSE on their servers, Bodega supports ymp files!
Bodega is well integrated with the Open Build Service. If you create an app from OBS in Bodega, you just have to take the yaml file and fill in the missing details, adding screen shots for example. Bodega will not pull the package from OBS and store it somewhere. Instead it simply uses the one-click-install and when a user clicks on the install button, it sends the one-click-install file through. It thus does not interfere with updates, but it can show users that a new version is available and let them update from Bodega if they want.
Packagers still have to add their apps to the store but we could kickstart Bodega with the apps already shipped in openSUSE, using the Appstream metadata. Non-official repos can then be added and so on. It would be quite easy to import all of the openSUSE packages. Same with the and documentation and drivers (it can show “developer: nvidia” so users know to trust it). And if there is a new revision of the documentation, Bodega can take care of that, just like it handles software updates (through zypper of course).
This is where you can come in: the team is looking for help in this area and if you are interested in making this happen, come talk to the Bodega folks! You can find them on the active mailing list (https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/active) or the #plasma active channel on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc:#active@freenode.net).
Done (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Famous-300x230.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Bodega_Famous.png)
Famous books included! You might be eager to find out what is there, today. Well, if you’ve seen the screenshots to the side, you know there is an app to access the store. It is build for touch screens but works just fine and you can get it in openSUSE through software.opensuse.org (http://software.opensuse.org/package/bodega-client). Once installed, you can fire it up typing “active-addons” in a run command dialog.
Shawn Dunn (of cloverleaf fame) is putting together a more traditional desktop UI, while maintaining these packages as well. You will be able to have a conversation with him as he’s going to be at the openSUSE Conference in Dubrovnik (http://conference.opensuse.org) this month where he will present a session about Bodega! He is known as SFaulken online and pretty much always hangs in the #opensuse-kde channel on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc:#opensuse-kde@freenode.net) where you can ask how to get things running or how to help him break stuff anytime. He’s also yelling at the world on google plus (https://plus.google.com/+ShawnWDunn/posts).
Bodega now contains the entire book set of Project Gutenberg (thousands of awesome, free books) as well as a number of wallpapers and applications. Aaron:
There is work to be done to include all openSUSE Software in Bodega. The store can use a little work too, but is based on QML which makes it very easy to improve. If you’re interested in helping out, let us know!You can contact Aaron on IRC as aseigo in the #plasma active channel on Freenode (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc:#active@freenode.net), ping him on Google+ (https://plus.google.com/+AaronSeigo/posts) or shoot him a mail on aseigo on the KDE.org servers.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 04.04.2014 - klo:19:01
4 April 2014, 4:30 pm
Bad news for the bugs: the new version of openQA is ready for prime time. Everybody following the blog of the openSUSE Team @ SUSE (http://lizards.opensuse.org/author/calumma/) or the Factory mailing list during the last months, should be aware of the ongoing work to improve openQA and to promote it into a key component of the openSUSE integration process. Finally the new openQA is ready for public production environments, so thanks to the collaboration between the openSUSE Team and the original developers of openQA -Bernhard M. Wiedemann (http://lizards.opensuse.org/author/bmwiedemann/) and Dominik Heidler (http://www.heidler.eu/)- it’s finally deployed and accessible at openqa.opensuse.org (https://openqa.opensuse.org/)
This new version brings a lot of changes at many levels, but probably the most relevant difference is the approach for tests execution: instead of running every step sequentially and comparing the needles at the end, the new version evaluates the status several times per test, deciding what to do next based on that status or aborting the whole tests as soon as a critical error is found. This approach enables both a better usage of the resources and more precise results.
This enhanced control of the execution and the results, alongside other improvements, makes possible to extend the scope of openQA. Tests of Factory isos are still there and running. But apart from them, you can see test results for the so called "staging projects", used to merge potentially dangerous packages. Generally speaking, you can just browse the test results and see what state is Factory in and how dramatic changes are about to happen.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/openqa-fuzzy-floppy-300x224.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/openqa-fuzzy-floppy.png)
Another main new feature is the use of fuzzy area matching for interpreting test results. That means much less false positives. Tests do not break that often and that easily. There is also a nice interface to figure out what failed. Try going to some failed test, selecting a needle and dragging the vertical yellow line. Pretty neat, isn’t it? You can also check how the test is written and what is it looking for. Feel free to play with it, enhance the current tests (https://github.com/os-autoinst/os-autoinst-distri-opensuse) and needles (https://github.com/os-autoinst/os-autoinst-needles-opensuse) and submit them via GitHub ;-)
There are even more changes, not directed towards users, but improvements in the interface that service operators use to set things up, including users management, job control or a new REST-like API. These will not affect most of you directly, just indirectly by making operators job easier.
So go ahead, play with it and if you want to help, sources are on github and we even have some easy hacks in progress.o.o (https://progress.opensuse.org/projects/openqav3/issues?utf8=%E2%9C%93&set_filter=1&f%5B%5D=status_id&op%5Bstatus_id%5D=o&f%5B%5D=fixed_version_id&op%5Bfixed_version_id%5D==&v%5Bfixed_version_id%5D%5B%5D=73) to ease you into the development ;-)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 04.04.2014 - klo:19:01
4 April 2014, 4:36 pm
Dear KDE Users,
Maybe you have heard already about it from another openSUSE mailing list, a blog post or through our openSUSE community page on Google+, but the KDE repositories have been changed since last Tuesday. Below you will find the changes that were done based on the release of KDE 4.12.4.
Why was this changes needed
Based on a small discussion in the opensuse-kde mailinglist and feedback on our survey, we concluded that the majority is in favor of creating a single repository where we track the current KDE release.
Where are my old KDE repositories
The name for this repository will be KDE:Current and will initially be build for oS 12.3 and oS 13.1.
After the release of the KDE:Current repo, the repositories KDE:Release:XY have been cleaned and removed. Initially KDE:Current will be delivered with 4.12.4 as that the KDE 4.13 release is scheduled for mid April.
Also the repository KDE:Extra and KDE:Unstable:Extra will change as that some of the building targets (KDE:Release:XY) are disappearing and be replaced with KDE:Current.
Where should I find the new KDE repositories
The KDE Repository page KDE repositories (https://en.opensuse.org/SDB%3AKDE_repositories) has been updated to reflect the changes. We would like to ask those that have been working on the localization of this page in other languages, to
update their pages as well.
Regards,
Raymond
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.04.2014 - klo:20:51
12 April 2014, 6:49 pm
Heartbleed and openSUSE infrastructure(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/heartbleed-128x150.png) (http://heartbleed.com/) As people started to ask, we checked all openSUSE servers and can confirm that none of them is affected by the heartbleed bug (http://heartbleed.com/).
For those users running openSUSE 12.2 and 13.1, we can just repeat what we always pray: please install the latest official updates provided by our glorious maintenance team (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMaintenance_team).
RSYNC and rsync.opensuse.org The server behind rsync.opensuse.org (http://rsync.opensuse.org) is re-installed now and already providing packages via HTTP again.
But we faced an issue with the automation that creates the content of the “hotstuff” rsync modules: normally a script analyzes the log files of download.opensuse.org (http://download.opensuse.org/) and arranges the content of these special rsync modules to provide always the most requested files, so our users have a good chance to find a very close mirror for their packages. But currently the script is not producing what we expect: it empties all those hotstuff modules. As the core developer behind this script comes back from vacation on Monday, we hope he can quickly fix the problem. For now we disabled the “hotstuff” modules (means on rsync.opensuse.org: we disabled rsync completely for now) to avoid problems.
If you want to sync packages to your local machine(s) via rsync: please pick a mirror from our page at mirrors.opensuse.org (http://mirrors.opensuse.org) providing public rsync.
New hardware
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/obs_server-150x150.jpg)All the racks of the OBS reference server You may have noticed already that the openSUSE team installed a new version of openQA (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/04/the-new-generation-of-openqa-hits-the-production-server/) on the production server. An additional news item might be that this new version has seen also new hardware to run faster than ever.
But not only openQA, also the database cluster behind download.opensuse.org has seen a hardware upgrade. The new servers allow to run the database servers as virtual machines, able to have the whole database structure stored in RAM (you hopefully benefit from the faster response times on download.opensuse.org already). And the servers still have enough capacity left, so we can now also visualize the web servers providing the download.opensuse.org interface. We are currently thinking about the detailed setup of the new download.opensuse.org system (maybe using ha-proxy here again? maybe running mirrorbrain in the “no local storage” mode? …) – so this migration might take some more time, but we want to provide the best possible solution to you.
Admins on openSUSE Conference These year, three of our main European openSUSE administrators (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AServices_team) are able to attend to the openSUSE Conference in Dubrovnik:(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Geekocamp-150x146.jpg)
- Markus Rückert
- Martin Caj
- Robert Wawrig
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.04.2014 - klo:20:51
18 April 2014, 7:48 pm
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/720x300-300x125.jpg) (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/register)We are happy to announce that at long last the schedule for oSC14 has landed and you can find the details of the once again jam packed conference here (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/schedule). We already published a extended sneak peek (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/03/11/sneak-preview-of-osc14-sessions/) as well as information on the keynote by Michael Meeks (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/03/05/osc14-keynote-confirmed-more-awesome-coming/).
Kicking off In a week from today, on Thursday the 24th of April the conference kicks offwith a welcome get together at the Sesame Tavern (http://www.sesame.hr/tovjerna.html) which is just 200 meters away from the venue. Standing with your back to the venue you will turn to your right walking slightly down hill toward the old town of Dubrovnik. Approximately 200 meters down the street you will see the Sesame sign on your right. The tavern is located at Branitelja Dubrovnika 23, 20000 Dubrovnik (http://goo.gl/maps/XTdiL). We will start at 6:00 P.M. and hope to see you there!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Untitled-300x171.png)
The sessions We are very excited about the excellent talks and workshops that have been submitted and that we were able to select to make up this year’s conference program. Registration opens on Friday the 25th of April at 8:30 in the morning and registration will open each day thereafter at 9:00 A.M. The program kicks off with the Opening Keynote by the openSUSE board on Friday moring at 10 and should keep you busy until we end the conference around lunch time on Monday the 28th. Between the start of the schedule on Friday and the close on Monday the speakers will deliver close to 70 hours worth of content in various formats in 60 sessions. There is also room for on the spot hack sessions and BoF meetings for those that need a bit more than just standing in the hallway.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/9317761281_0ec2cf6422_b-300x200.jpg)
Relaxation With all the material being presented we will not loose sight that a bit of relaxation is needed as well. The conference party on Sunday evening starts at 7:00 P.M. (19:00) at the EastWest Pub (http://ew-dubrovnik.com/), which is located right at the beach at Frana Supila 4. The pub is just south of the old town and it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to walk there from the venue. On the way (http://goo.gl/maps/yUoGN) you will pass Sesame where everything starts on Thursday evening.
Beginnings and endings On Monday around noon we will start to pack up and say goodbye for another year at oSC15 in …… for this you will need to wait until the keynote on Friday.
Check out the schedule here (https://conference.opensuse.org/osem/conference/osc14/schedule), find more details on the conference website (http://conference.opensuse.org) and plan your participation. We will see you in Dubrovnic next week!
The Program Team
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.04.2014 - klo:20:51
24 April 2014, 4:33 pm
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/4/43/Failgeeko.png)A morning you love as admin: starting with one single disk in your storage array failing, ending up in a whole array crashing.
The storage array running behind the backend servers of build.opensuse.org detected the broken disk and started reconstruction of the affected virtual disk named vd02. During the reconstruction, the used target disk (a previous spare) started throwing errors in a high rate leading to the storage controllers crashing. The originally failed disk was 2.0 (disk number 0 in enclosure 2).
Starting at 12:32 PM local time OBS backends were not able to access their storage anymore.
The array has actually two controllers running as failover. The controller owning the virtual disk would try reconstruction, crash, then the other controller would take over, start reconstruction as well and crash in the same way.
Time for another storage and the backup (which btw. does not cover the home:* repositories, so be warned and do not trust us to backup your built binaries of your project), which needs some time for restore…
But after consulting our vendor and L3 Support of the manufacturer, we removed disk 2.1 (disk number 1 in enclosure 2). As result of this, virtual disk vd02 is currently offline. The good side is that vd02 actually contains no data – sometimes you need some luck.
The drives containing the data for openSUSE (backend-opensuse and back-home-opensuse) in virtual disk 01 are not affected and the downtime were a result of the crashed storage controllers.
With vd02 offline, the array is now solid again. The support of the manufacturer is currently examining all details of our logfiles and have requested the disk 2.1 for a closer look. Further the firmware levels of all disk drives are examined. Development has already added code to their firmware source repository to avoid these crashes and these fixes will be part of a future binary firmware release.
Storage was accessible again at 18:16 local time and after verifying with L3 that the broken virtual disk would be left unchanged in the current state for now, we started to get the filesystems back online.
Due to the numerous reboots of the disk array we have lost some cache data, so the xfs filesystems on the two OBS backend machines had suffered a little, but a xfs_repair job on both machines was run twice and the parts moved to lost+found have been checked and cleaned up.
The usual resulting 0-byte files have been searched and removed (this is complete on backend-opensuse and in progress on back-home-opensuse).
All backend processes are up and running again, on backend-opensuse the cold-start is already complete and on back-home-opensuse the scheduler cold-start should soon be complete.
The webserver for the OBS api was started again, which made OBS alive again, and for software.opensuse.org the webserver and memcached were restarted (the latter was needed to cure a 120minute negative cache for the list of distributions).
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.04.2014 - klo:20:51
25 April 2014, 12:01 pm
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Board-300x225.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Board.jpg)The Board in Action
The openSUSE Conference 2014 in Dubrovnik was kicked off just an hour ago by the board, sharing some practical information with us, a call for help as well as a number of announcements. There is streaming of the talks available during the event, make sure you check it out!
The board brought up the state of openSUSE, including the release cycle (what comes after 13.1 is not clear yet), the changes to our processes (staging projects, openQA testing integration) and so on. This conference is a great time and place to discuss these things.
Announcements
- The openSUSE Conference 2015 will take place in The Hague, Netherlands!
-
- Under leadership of Hans de Raadt a local team will take care of us in the international city of peace and justice. More details on Sunday!
- Reimbursement of production of local materials is back!
-
- A process is being set up, led by a committee under Jim Henderson. More info will follow soon!
Streaming The sessions at the conference are streamed live. You can find the feeds on bambuser (https://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv).
Practical For those at the event: don’t forget to return the food card and pay so you get something to eat today, tomorrow and on Sunday!
And a reminder: the conference party on Sunday evening starts at 7:00 P.M. (19:00) at the EastWest Pub (http://ew-dubrovnik.com/), which is located right at the beach at Frana Supila 4. The pub is just south of the old town and it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to walk there from the venue. On the way (http://goo.gl/maps/yUoGN) you will pass Sesame where everything starts on Thursday evening.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 26.04.2014 - klo:13:00
25 April 2014, 8:43 pm
The openSUSE Conference 2014 is being held in Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. The conference venue, also known as the Campus of the University of Dubrovnik is set and ready to accommodate all the Geekos that will visit the conference from around the world. Everyone is happy and delighted about this conference.
Read more about this awesome first day!
#oSC14 begins! (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0099-200x300.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0099.jpg)
All volunteers arrived on time at the venue and prepared everything and did some last time checks. People start coming and in a glance of the eye registration desk was crowded and Geekos had overwhelmed the place. Every visitor receives an openSUSE branded usb stick and a beautiful name-tag.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0094-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0094.jpg)Presentations started on time with the board welcoming the community to the event. They also shared some practical information with us, a call for help as well as a number of announcements. You can read in details here (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/25/osc-has-started-follow-us-remotely/). People got excited and presentations of all kinds from community based to highly technical started.
Last but not least, Gnome, KDE and Oracle booths are there too! Geekos can ask and talk about anything they want to know about, not to mention take some flyers, stickers and t-shirts!
#oSC14 Info! Follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) on twitter, or search for the hashtag #oSC14 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC14&src=tyah). If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (https://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0028-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0028.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 27.04.2014 - klo:01:01
25 April 2014, 8:43 pm
The openSUSE Conference 2014 is being held in Dubrovnik, on the Dalmatian coast in Croatia. The conference venue, also known as the Campus of the University of Dubrovnik is set and ready to accommodate all the Geekos that will visit the conference from around the world. Everyone is happy and delighted about this conference.
Read more about this awesome first day!
#oSC14 begins! (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0099-200x300.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0099.jpg)
Volunteers arrived on time at the venue, prepared everything, and did some last time checks. People started coming and in just a moment, our registration desk was crowded with Geekos who filled the place. Every visitor receives an openSUSE branded USB stick and a beautiful name-tag.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0094-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0094.jpg)Presentations started on time with the board welcoming the community to the event. They also shared some practical information with us, a call for help as well as a number of announcements. You can read in details here (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/25/osc-has-started-follow-us-remotely/). People got excited and presentations of all kinds from community based to highly technical started.
Last but not least, Gnome, KDE and Oracle booths are there too! Geekos can ask and talk about anything they want to know about, not to mention take some flyers, stickers and t-shirts!
#oSC14 Info! Follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) on twitter, or search for the hashtag #oSC14 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC14&src=tyah). If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (https://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0028-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0028.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 27.04.2014 - klo:13:00
27 April 2014, 3:21 am
This year’s openSUSE Conference is being help in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. This year’s conference organization team has taken care of its attendees with a special pass in order to have the chance to go sightseeing at the beautiful old city of Dubrovnik, to see the port and walk on the walls. But what happened at the venue today…
Day two(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0034-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0034.jpg) Everyone arrived just in time for the awesome keynote presentation of Michael Meeks about “The Document Foundation and LibreOffice”. He talked about all the work that has been done improving LibreOffice in all aspects.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_20140426_112645-300x168.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_20140426_112645.jpg)
After that Jos Poortvliet took the lead of the main hall and he presented “Where KDE is and where it is going”. He talked about the improvements that are done in KDE 4 and presented to everyone the workflow and some of the changes in KDE 5. He also presented for the first time Plasma 2 changes, Frameworks 5 and how a Qt developer can get involved with KDE.
Other presentations (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0039-300x119.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0039.jpg)An awesome presentation about an awesome tool called “Bcache” took place from Oliver Neukum. He explained how this tool works on openSUSE and how openSUSE users can benefit from using it on their SSD drives and boost their computer’s performance.
Of course we cannot miss the interesting “Ruby on Rails” for beginners workshop from Camilla Ayres. Lots of geekos joined and hacked on Ruby on Rails for almost 2 hours. Camilla presented how awesome of a programming language it is and did a hands on of some easy to-do things for everyone.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_20140426_154151-300x168.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMG_20140426_154151.jpg)Stephan Kulow with “A ring of Fire live on Stagings” shared with all the geekos who attended his presentation how his team worked on to improve the development process of openSUSE:Factory to get higher quality for openSUSE. He explained all the difficulties that he faces on his everyday workflow and how this can be changed and all the process that is done before we have a testing live cd in our hands.
In general the whole second day of the openSUSE Conference here in Dubrovnik was excellent. Everyone that attended the presentations were delighted. Booths were crowded too with people asking about KDE, Gnome, MySQL and Jolla!
#oSC14 Info! Follow @openSUSEConf (https://twitter.com/openSUSEConf) on twitter, or search for the hashtag #oSC14 (https://twitter.com/search?q=%23oSC14&src=tyah). If you missed the chance to be here with us and have fun you can attend the conference and all the fun online from the live streaming (https://bambuser.com/channel/opensusetv) that is set up in the venue.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0027-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0027.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.04.2014 - klo:07:01
29 April 2014, 1:13 am
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CSC_0177-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/CSC_0177.jpg)Geekos gathered at beautiful Dubrovnik in Croatia for their annual meetup. They drunk the spoke and they shared knowledge and progrees of the project. They had fun! The openSUSE Conference’s final day and reporting is now detailed below. “The strength to change” was the moto of this conference and it served well it’s purpose. Many people found their strength and enthusiasm and start contributing to the project. We encourage you to participate. We welcome everyone interested in contributing to an awesome project.
Day 3 Perhaps one of the most interesting days. ARM, OpenStack, GNOME based presentations took place with most interest. Interesting workshops like “Developing for SailfishOS”, “How to write openQA tests” were most crowded with people learning useful and interesting things.
Other Talks Izabel Valverde and TSP team on the Travel Support Program
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0149-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0149.jpg)Izabel Valverde, Marcel Kühlhorn and Efstathios Iosifidis who are responsible about TSP program shared their views on the new application of the Travel Support Program and explained how the program works and how successful was on it’s two years of being online. The program helps our openSUSE members to attend conferences and events around the world and is currently sponsored by SUSE.
Geekos were really interested in TSP program and started asking lots of questions about how this works and how is decided how much money the team reimburse to everyone. Izabel answered all the questions with some help from Kostas Koudaras who was there too, so Geekos were fully informed about one of the most popular community projects.
There were also many technical questions about TSP application and how it works! Hopefully there was a presentation afterward from Ancor the man behind TSP’s web application.
Ancor González Sosa on Travel Support Program Howto
We all kn(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0182-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0182.jpg)ow Ancor. If you do not know him from FOSDEM 2014 or another conference he was on this openSUSE Conference 2014 in Dubrovnik! Ancor was recruited by the openSUSE Team at SUSE Linux as a web developer! As an openSUSE lover he was there when the project needed him! He is the man behind the development of Travel Support Program!
He presented the technology used behind this application and explained how you can use your existing Connect account (https://connect.opensuse.org/) to submit new events, to ask for travel support for a given event and to get your money reimbursed once your travel is over. You can also add your own event and if the TSP team accept it this will be added to the TSP supported events!
Visit and explore the official Travel Support Program application. (https://connect.opensuse.org/travel-support) You can find and contribute to TSP’s web application here (https://github.com/openSUSE/travel-support-program). You are all welcome!
Day 4 (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0001-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0001.jpg)Last day of conference was dedicated to workshops. Three workshops took place “Packaging Workshop” by Darix, “Building images with KIWI” by Robert and “High Availability Clustering on openSUSE” by Richard Brown. All three were very interesting and those who attended learnt lots of interesting things about those powerful tools of openSUSE.
As the last day of the conference, after the workshops were over, everyone helped in the volunteers to pack everything in their boxes.
Party (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0267-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0267.jpg)Dubrovnik is one of the most beautiful cities in Balkans. Mountains combined with a wonderful view at the sea, old city and great walls for city visitors to walk are some of the sights you can’t miss. This year’s organization decided to combine sea, beach and the history of Dubrovnik in order to make an unforgettable party. This conference party was held at a hotel’s beach bar near the walls of the old city of Dubrovnik. Geekos enjoyed the sand and sea combined with beers and food there. Everyone went at this party and started socializing. Some geekos even jumped in the sea and swam.
A group photo was taken at the beach and was dedicated to Hans who has some medical issues and couldn’t attend this year’s conference. We love you Hans!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0227-300x200.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/DSC_0227.jpg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 02.05.2014 - klo:13:02
2 May 2014, 12:59 pm
oSC14 took place in Dubrovnik, Croatia, attracting a large number of Geekos to give and attend talks, organize and attend workshops and have fun at the parties. Compared to previous conferences the attendance at oSC14 was unfortunately on the lighter side of things but never the less we all had a great time. Since oSC13 we certainly had our trials and tribulations which we have left behind us and the mood was extremely positive with everyone being ready to move forward. The many hallway discussions had people discussing the new booth boxes, the progress on openQA and the staging model for Factory development. We shared articles on the event already, had 13K viewers on Bambuser and here we try to provide a bit of a closing overview!
We made new friends in an area of the world where open source and openSUSE may not be as prevalent as it is in other parts of the world. The event organization was outstanding and the venue location close to the old town of Dubrovnik welcomed all Geekos with open arms.
The sessions The sessions were divided in a number of tracks, including:
-
- End user, where sessions about the Jolla phone, ownCloud and the Bodega appstore brought the user in each of us up to the latest state of affairs.
- Business, mostly about implementation of openSUSE and related technologies like ARM and OpenStack.
- Technology development gave room for learning about (and often discussing) openSUSE and FOSS technologies like High Availability and openQA.
- Community and project about openSUSE subjects like the conference next year, the Travel Support Program, Marketing and so on
Aside from these tracks, there was an openSUSE Project/TownHall meeting, Keynote and of course a track of BoF sessions where openSUSE technologies and plans were discussed. Last but not least, there was an opening party on on Thursday evening and a big party on Sunday night. We also tried something new this year in that we had no room moderators and with that bestowing the power upon speakers to “kick” a previous speaker that may overrun out. No one was harmed in any way and speakers stayed within their allotted slots. You can read more about the sessions in the daily articles: day 1 (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/25/osc-2014-1st-day/), day 2 (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/27/osc-2014-2nd-day/) and day 3 and 4 (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/04/28/osc-2014-3rd-4th-day/).
Throughout the event people were busy taking pictures and with an upload of over 600 pictures. Our flickr pool can be found here (https://www.flickr.com/groups/osc14). More pictures here (https://plus.google.com/u/0/+MarcelK%C3%BChlhorn/posts) and here (https://plus.google.com/u/0/113385548251515365143/posts).
Town Hall On Sunday morning, the Board chaired a townhall meeting where the conversation that included people in the #opensuse-project channel on IRC freenode centered around two primary discussion topics:
- focus of the distribution
- the release cycle
‘Focus’ on a distro-wide level is something that we do not want to dictate or pursue. Rather, we believe that the current model in which various teams focus on their interests provides the best approach for openSUSE. For example the various desktops are all well integrated and all desktop teams focus on providing a great “end user” experience. As such we want to continue to encourage the different teams in openSUSE to set clear directions and goals for themselves, something that allows potential new contributors to find out what speaks to them most and join that effort.
This keeps openSUSE the fun and open place it is and should be – yet allows clear goals to steer development. Relationships in the project are strong and good enough to navigate any conflicts and the board can play a role in that area if needed.
We all agreed that our “kick ass” feature of the distribution is the full integration of the build service and that this is not nearly advertised enough.
Lifecycle The lifecycle of openSUSE is still open for continued dialog and will be ongoing for a while. We recognized that nailing this down now may be a bit pre-mature. Work on the staging and ring model is still in full swing. It would be great to have more contributors to the effort to mold OBS into an even more powerful tool that will allow us to make releases easier and have a more stable “rolling release” with Factory Tested. In this new model Tumbleweed would continue to serve it’s current purpose of accumulating newer versions of packages considered stable by their developers on top of the previous release.
Party As usual, a party was organized by the conference team. The location was excellent, can’t beat a pub at the beach, giving a great view on the gorgeous coast line around Dubrovnik. Everybody was delighted to hear that the bikini Andrew had bought for the occasion was too small and he used a decently sized speedo shared with him by another visitor. In the end (https://plus.google.com/+AndrewWafaa/posts/c8pEUtRtMKB), we managed to avoid the worst (https://plus.google.com/104341033738676731182/posts/KqDUTRcta3K) (neither link for the faint of heart). Three Geekos even went for a swim but the rest considered it too cold, too wet or both and stayed away from the Mediterranean Sea. Meanwhile, we did a group photo with a thank-you to Hans, who plans to organize oSC15 but couldn’t join us this year.
After the group photo, there was great food followed by dancing into the wee hours, details of which will remain in Dubrovnik!
Looking ahead: oSC15 Den Hague, Netherlands! The announcement shared by the board in the opening session and later detailed in a talk was the location and plans for the openSUSE Conference 2015. Unfortunately Hans de Raadt, the lead of the oSC15 organization team was unable to attend oSC14 and Bruno Friedman lead the presentation about Den Hague as the oSC15 location. As the only Dutchy on the premises, Jos Poortvliet read a message during the townhall meeting from Hans to the community in the best Dutch accent he could muster.
So, oSC15 will be in the international city of peace, justice and excellent Surinaamse Roti in the April-May timeframe next year. We hope that more of us Geekos will be able to come together to carry the spirit of openSUSE and share the invigorating conversations and knowledge exchange the conference brings with it. The organization for oSC15 will get rolling in the next month or so and help will be needed, so think about volunteering.
Overall Dubrovnik was great to the Geekos, and we hope the Geekos haven’t disturbed the city too much! See you in Den Hague in 2015!
Article written by Robert Schweikert & Jos Poortvliet
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
14 May 2014, 8:25 pm
Hello :-)
I want to share my experience in managing a personal hosted web server with openSUSE.
Two points, first.
- I’m not a computer professional, but an openSUSE addict since 1996;
- I will describe the use of hosted server, that is one that is not in your home, but somewhere in the cloud, but is still a hardware machine reserved to your own usage.
Why should I need my own server? There are two main reasons.
- The first is fun. It’s fun to use openSUSE Linux to manage a server. It’s fun to ba able to say to friends “I have my own web site, I can manage one for you if you want”. It’s fun to be able to setup the computer to fit your precise needs, without having to cope with shared hosting never having the good php version or refusing ssh access. It’s fun to learn how to manage such a frightening beast, it’s fun to reach a new knowledge level.
- The second is friendliness and sharing. Nowadays, the cloud is everything. Internet is the key. Families are spread all over the world as are friends. To be able to share data, that is images, videos, comments, technical notes is essential. Managing it’s own server is the most effective way to do so.
But one will pretty fast notice that the DSL line is not the best internet connection for this use. DSL is usually named “ADSL”, the “A” being for “Asymmetrical”. The speed of the data is approx 10,000 for downloading and only 1,000 for uploading (the real unit do not matter), that’s why it’s so difficult to send photos to a friend. So each time somebody wants to get something from your server at home, he will have to wait forever.
An other reason is cost. It’s not so cheap to have at home a computer running 7/7 and 24/24. Even is you can find a place where the noise is not a problem, power consumption is not that cheap. The simpler computer is like letting a bulb on all the time and my mother kept saying to me “please, switch off the light” :-).
I can’t know for you, but in France, where I live, hosting providers are really cheap. My own provider price list varies largely depending on the moment. Last year one could borrow a server for as low as $3 a month, just when I write it’s $8 for the smaller one. The one I use now cost me approximately $35 a month but have 4 processors, 8 threads, 2Tb Hard drive and 24Gb ram, that is much more than my desktop computer!
And for this price, I have 100Mbits symmetrical network, a fixed IP and a professional staff to maintain the hardware.
The drawback is that I have to manage the software myself entirely, but it’s exactly why I wanted a server so no complain on that :-).
Last word: When I say hosted, I don’t mean it’s you that have to provide the hardware. The hardware is property of the provider and maintained by him.
What do I need on my server? Before doing anything in the life, one have to ask himself “why”? Same for a server. Right now I use my server to host my photo collection (more than 30,000 photos), my videos (much less in number, but very heavy in size), my personal wiki with all my technical notes and a blog. Also my personal mail server that I find to be more reliable than many professional ones. All this do not take more than 100Gb disk space, so there is a lot of free space where I can backup some data for friends or Linux groups I work with.
What is the real task? I try to write down all what I do, let only to remember it myself! Of course it’s not very well organized, but my wiki page lists this, and I plan to discuss this with you now and in the future. Not being a professional, many things I do are not that good or not that smart. I always accept constructive criticisms and tips, and will be glad to receive them.
Partition and large disk
- VirtualBoxHost
- VirtualBoxGuest
- Kimsufi-kernel-and-boot-setup-3 (old pages Kimsufi-kernel-and-boot-setup-2)
- OpenSUSE-small-server_basics-3 (old pages OpenSUSE-small-server_basics-2 OpenSUSE-small-server_basics)
- User creation/move/data move
- Hostname
- Communicating-with-the-server-3
- Installing-ntp-2
- MySQL-2
- Installing-Apache
- Installing-ftp
- Remote-access-VNC
- Remote-access-NX
- Postfix-configure-2
- Dovecot-configure-2
- Configure Squirrel webmail (June 2011)
- Install Piwigo
- Archive mails in a way one can read the archives
- Display server’s logs
- Reinstal a Kimsufi server
- install php scripts
- Passphrase autentication with ssh
- Complete backup of a server
- EditCron
The beginning: partitioning and installing Partitioning Installation on a hosted server is not as easy as on a local machine, because you don’t have any DVD access. The way you can access your computer depends on the provider. Mine gives the client a large choice of Linux distributions (among other systems), including openSUSE, and can deliver the server with a basic install and ssh access. One have also a rescue access (similar to openSUSE rescue access) to the server in case the machine do not boot anymore, but this is as friendly as is the rescue disk, better not have to use it too often.
Along the years, I have tested many partitioning schemes, and turn back to the simplest. Fact is on a remote server it’s difficult to manage several installations, like one do with dualboots –you don’t have access to a boot menu!
You can have one or two disks, the goal of two disks being to use raid 1 -my provider offers free change of damaged hardware- but one have to reconstruct it’s own raid. Using half the disk size as raid is pretty expensive, and simply having two disks for raid usually makes you shift to an other price list. I simply do not see any real reason to use raid on such server. After all if my personal server is out of business for some hours, nobody will notice (or nearly), We will see later than I use an other server as a backup.
So simple partitioning. On my own server I had problems with the default (provider) partitioning –yast didn’t like it- but I could reinstall the system and choose a simple configuration:
/dev/sda1 20Gb /
/dev/sda2 512Mb swap
/dev/sda3 1,8Tb /home
Notice I have a very small swap. I probably could have simply avoided to use swap (with 24Gb ram!), but I have this as default and kept it and it’s used by some application (496Kb), I don’t know why.
Actual system size is very low, so the 20Gb root size is much more than necessary, but like this the risk to have /tmp or /usr grow excessively is smaller and with 2Tb total size, why discuss?
Installation Each provider have it’s own install interface, like any Linux distribution do, so I wont speak about it and say what is the result when, finally, you get the ssh prompt :-),
My provider provides a specific Kernel, also available as “net boot”. This is very interesting, because it’s always patched against all the problems, and, after all, you have never to change hardware on a hosted computer, and so one can reboot it’s server against net boot in case something go wrong. But the usual way is to boot normally, the hardware being provided with the kernel installed in /boot.
But, believe it or not, I was years before noticing the kernel was NOT part of default openSUSE install by the provider! It simply added manually the provider disk image. During these years I simply thought the hardware was not standard and that was the reason openSUSE couldn’t boot. I know today it’s wrong, because I had to use the standard kernel to make use of virtualization.
That said, I urge you to use the provider’s kernel if it exists, because it’s much more convenient and simplify eventual problems with the providers maintenance staff.
To get rid of the provider kernel I had to remove the /etc/grub.d/06-something-providersname config file and install the default kernel with YaST. Configure the boot system with YaST and reboot. The file in grubd is only used if it’s executable, so “chmod a-x” is enough to make it unavailable (and easily recovered if necessary).
Test and retest! Before going to use the server in production, test it as long as necessary, two or three months not being ridiculous. Chance is you will reinstall several times during this period and it’s always better to have as few as possible work to do again. Don’t forget any critical error may need to use the recovery console or reinstall the system.
Write down the exact partition scheme. It can happen that reinstalling with the exact same partitions makes you able to recover at least the data untouched. Not sure, just a guess…
Works tricks On my server the initial installation was extremely small, may be smaller than the minimal server install openSUSE gives. For sure, no YaST! You are lucky if you have zypper! May be you only have rpm!
So first things to install is zypper (you may have anyway some way to download rpm files, see providers help), then “zypper in yast”,
There having ncurse YaST is extremely handy, but yast2 (graphic) is much more, so it’s a good idea to install a minimum graphic system, then use “ssh -Y root@yourdomain.yourtld” to have yast2 displayed locally.
The basics Fixed IP With the server you must have a fixed IP. This mean you have an IP of your own. This may be the case -or not- for your home network. It means also you have to take double care of what you do, because you sign all your passage with your IP. This also mean most server in the net will trust you better exactly for the same reason, they know you.
Using certificates is an all other thing I wont discuss now.
Update The very first thing you have to do is update your system. The first install is always from initial data and a server have to be uptodate. As soon as you have zypper, do a “zypper ref & zypper up”, Be prepared to see things shine, you get a semi-professional bandwith, at least. Mine is 100Mb symetrical, pretty pleasant.
Having an automatic update through yast is challenged. A professional server manager may not like it (always fearing an update break his system), but on your case, I beg you may be weeks before connection as root on the server and updating is important, so go for it.
Installs software Don’t forget to install and launch sshd! Else at the first reboot you will have no mean to log in your server!
Depending of your initial install you will probably have to install a lot of things. My provider installed a very minimal system. I had to install nearly all by hand. Begin to install all the meaningful YaST modules (search for yast in software install). I had yast (mandatory!), but not yast2 (no gui) when using “ssh -X -C” to connect then yast2 is much friendlier. Notice that ssh -X seems to need a minimal X install. I use to install xfce4 (but not to run it at boot).
I didn’t write down all what I installed. A short list is probably: mc, w3m, yast2-gtk and qt, vsftpd (ftp), dovecot (mail imap/pop3), mrtg (http statistics), inn (news server), mailman (list server), spamassassin (spam fighter), apache2, ntp (time sync), tightVNC (remote admin). X and xfce may be useful some day. You even may have to install vim if you get only minimal vi.
Don’t forget to activate the necessary services in YaST, system, services (run levels).
Using patterns is friendly, but for example I ended with libreoffice and Gimp, not really necessary on a web server :-) (don’t forget eventually to remove them :-).
Firewall Do you need a firewall is an other controversial question. Your server is alone in it’s network, not a gateway. Unused ports are by the way closed. Open ports are managed par the application that listen. But Firewall is said to manage better than other applications things like attacks. It may also block things done by your others users (you will soon have to host friends). So may be better have a firewall.
Default openSUSE firewall is SuSEFirewall2. Most options are setup with the YaST2 module.
The main error to avoid is to launch the firewall before having setup the ssh opening – doing so you will lose the connection to the server…
Test the firewall: http://www.auditmypc.com/firewall-test.asp (but from the tested computer).
Add as allowed:
dovecot
- smtp (postfix)
- http (apache)
- https
- VNC
- vsftp
To allow X11 forwarding to work on modern distributions, you have to add
X11Forwarding yes
#X11UseLocalhost no
AddressFamily inet
to “/etc/ssh/sshd_config”.
then log in with “ssh -X -C [-p
Notice: I keep the “X11UseLocalhost no” in the list (but not activated thanks to #) because it’s often given as a working solution. But I was said that the problem is an obscure IPV6 problem and that “AddressFamily inet” instruct ssh to use IPV4 and is much more secure, so better use it.
To be continued. On the next article, we will discuss how to configure the server, give it a name, communicate with it, setup mysql (in fact mariadb) and finally apache :-).
Article Contributed by Jean-Daniel Dodin
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
19 May 2014, 7:38 pm
The openSUSE-Education team is proud to present a special, 64-bit edition of openSUSE Edu Li-f-e with the MATE desktop environment (http://mate-desktop.org/).
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/6/68/Life131-mate1.png/797px-Life131-mate1.png)
Li-f-e MATE edition came about to support schools in Gujarat, India, they needed synfig studio (http://www.synfig.org): a very simple to use C and Java IDE, apart from standard fare of complete office suite and other applications. Gujarat now starts teaching open(libre)office in 9th grade, and Linux operating system all the way to shell scripting in 10th, and Java, C, HTML, Javascript etc in 11th and 12 grades. This Li-f-e edition tries to get everything they need in an integrated bundle which they can use on a stand alone PC or set up LTSP server to PXE boot their entire lab without having to modify their existing setup on the client PC side.
The MATE desktop was choosen as default desktop manager as it looks close to the pictures in their textbook, however latest GNOME desktop is also available at the login screen. MATE is well known for being a traditional desktop environment, a fork of the classic GNOME 2 session. It uses a two-panel layout and darkish theme, as well as a neat collection of educational apps, such as gElemental, Scilab, Xcos, Scinotes, Geany, Inkscape, Synfig Studio, Bluefish, Epoptes, and LTSP.
Default applications include the Pidgin multi-protocol instant messenger, Mozilla Firefox web browser, GIMP image editor, pluma text editor, VLC Media Player, as well as the entire LibreOffice office suite.
Download the operating system as a Live DVD ISO (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensuse-edu/files/download/ISOs/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-Mate.x86_64-13.1.1.iso/download) image that must be burned onto a DVD discs or written on a USB flash drive in order to boot it from the BIOS of the PC.
As with all openSUSE-Education releases, we based on the recently released openSUSE (13.1) (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3A13.1) with all the official online updates applied.
Get Li-f-e MATE from here: direct Download (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensuse-edu/files/download/ISOs/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-Mate.x86_64-13.1.1.iso/download) | md5sum (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensuse-edu/files/download/ISOs/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-Mate.x86_64-13.1.1.iso.md5/download) | Alternate download and mirrors (http://download.opensuse-education.org/ISOs/)
Quoting Marius Nestor on softpedia.com (http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Linux-Distributions/openSUSE-Edu-Li-f-e-MATE-103448.shtml) :
openSUSE Edu Li-f-e MATE is a surprise addition to the educational edition of the award winning and widely used openSUSE Linux operating system. The MATE desktop environment will provide for a faster working environment suitable for classroom use.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
21 May 2014, 11:13 am
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMAG0507-300x169.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/IMAG0507.jpg)
Spreading the word about our project has again become a little bit easier. As announced during the Opening Keynote (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xWHgqxFhYA) at oSC14 the reimbursement program for locally produced materials is BACK!
We would like to thank Jim Henderson, who will lead the team, Shawn Dunn, and Alexandros Vennos for volunteering their time to manage the requests. The program is funded with up to $200 US per event with a limit of $2000 US per quarter. The initiative is no limited to events as in small local conferences. If you need material for a local LUG meeting or if you can produce material for a “permanent” display of openSUSE in a University or other public place of interest use this program.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/image3-300x225.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/image3.jpg)
How does it work? The process is outlined in the wiki (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ALocal_Material_Production_Reimbursement#Process) and will share the Travel Support Program (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3ATravel_Support_Program) application. Basically you will need to submit a request through the application prior to the time of need. The team will evaluate the information and get back to you in a reasonable amount of time. The team may also decide that it may be worth sending out a booth box instead of producing material locally. If you accept the booth box the request will be handled for you if booth boxes are available at the time. After you have approval you can go ahead and produce the material for the event/promotion campaign. Once the event is completed provide a report, blog post on lizards or your own blog for example and submit your receipts. That’s it. For permanent displays, the “event” is obviously “never” over, thus you’d just submit your receipt after you setup the display (hang up the posters), send along a picture and some advertisement, possibly on social media and that’s it.
We tried to keep things as simple as possible while still assuring that there’s some verifiable bang for the buck for our project. After all having posters hanging in someone’s basement does not hep us find more users or contributors.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/6062126071_f849f28c66_b-300x207.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/6062126071_f849f28c66_b.jpg)
What else? A word on the booth boxes and larger events. A list of events where we would like to have people represent our project is in the works and will soon appear on the wiki. Booth boxes for those events have been set aside. Keep an eye out for an announcement about the events list and a call for advocates to represent the project. As a hint, OSCON is happening from July 20-24 in Portland Oregon and we have no one yet organizing a local team to show off openSUSE.
The local production reimbursement program is live and you can start using it today. As we are just starting out there are bound to be some rough edges, thus please be patient, provide as much feedback as possible about the process and the handling of things to allow everyone involved to improve the initiative for everyone that might want to take advantage of it.
Go and spread the word about openSUSE and Have a lot of fun…
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
22 May 2014, 3:21 pm
Eppur si muove! Even though we sometimes feel there’s a sort of a standstill once first major bugs are fixed in a new release and it settles on our machine, that’s not the case by any viable metric. The openSUSE team works diligently on delivering a new release (openSUSE 13.2) ever since 13.1 was released, and among them, we find the artwork team, which is brainstorming the creation and subsequent selection of the new default wallpaper of the next openSUSE release (the awesome picture your desktop defaults to after installation).
Though this is just an initial brainstorming phase, there are a few hints to show us where the default wallpaper appearance is heading.
It all started with an e-mail on the artwork mailing list. As a true community should operate, Victor found a fan-made wallpaper, made by an Uruguayan designer on the local spanish-language openSUSE forum. He made it for the 13.1 release, and it looks like this:
Neat, right?
Soon the other mailing list members agreed it’s a nice suggestion, and started contributing their ideas. First it was suggested to remove the dot between the openSUSE logo and the version number, and later to remove the version number altogether. Right after that, the team got engaged in creating of a nice gradient for wallpaper’s base. It seems it will be a modern, a tad washed, but fresh green gradient which is mixed with a shade of blue:
That’s pretty much how far the team made it for now, since there’s still more then enough time and quite a number of tasks the artwork team needs to fulfill, but the things seem to be moving in the right way after two releases of not much change on the wallpaper and plymouth front.
However, you users also might have an idea, suggestion, or a template on how the wallpaper should look like, or maybe some general ideas. We kindly invite you to become part of the openSUSE community. Read through the artwork mailing list, join our Artwork Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/groups/opensuse-artwork/) community, or suggest artwork via the openSUSE PixelPool (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3APixel_pool).
Or, just wait for awesome geeko’s good looks to amaze you come the beginning of winter. And remember…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
22 May 2014, 8:04 pm
If you have fun, the rest is easy…
(https://en.opensuse.org/images/thumb/0/01/Life131-mate11.png/796px-Life131-mate11.png) (https://en.opensuse.org/Screenshots#openSUSE_Edu_Li-f-e_Mate.2FGnome-classic.2FGnome_Edition)The openSUSE-Education team is proud to announce the availability of another great release: the GNOME classic edition.
This one is nearly identical to the MATE desktop, but already includes a few minor bug fixes and some additional applications:
- scite editor (http://www.scintilla.org/SciTE.html)
- kompozer (http://kompozer.net/)
- rstudio (https://www.rstudio.com/)
Quoting Jigish Gohil:
classic is so much better than standard gnome i wonder why it is not standardBTW: openSUSE Education releases always contain the latest official openSUSE updates and other cool stuff, so you should be able to get an up-to date live system up and running in a few seconds/minutes (depending on your hardware) – which can also be installed on your local hard disk with just a few mouse clicks. Just click on the “Live-Install” icon on the desktop.
Get Li-f-e GNOME Classic edition from here: direct Download (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensuse-edu/files/download/ISOs/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-gnome-classic.x86_64-13.1.1.iso/download) | md5sum (http://sourceforge.net/projects/opensuse-edu/files/download/ISOs/openSUSE-Edu-li-f-e-gnome-classic.x86_64-13.1.1.iso.md5/download) | Alternate download and mirrors (http://download.opensuse-education.org/ISOs/)
You want to join the team? Just ping us at #opensuse-education (http://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/irc://irc.freenode.net/#opensuse-education). We are hiring community members to help out on web work and marketing (be warned: we currently pay in honor and fun).
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
26 May 2014, 7:22 pm
(https://1-ps.googleusercontent.com/sx/s.google-melange.appspot.com/www.google-melange.com/soc/content/2-1-20140523/images/gsoc/logo/920x156xbanner-gsoc2014.png.pagespeed.ic.gdr4t3Igca.png)
openSUSE welcomes Google Summer of Code 2014 participants. Thanks to Google, openSUSE has an excellent number of slots and an equally excellent number of mentors and students for Google Summer of Code 2014. Throughuout the summer, students participanting in this program will code for openSUSE and its sister organizations ownCloud, MATE and Zorp and help them move forward. The best part of GSoC is that most of the code written by students will go upstream and will benefit openSUSE in general also. Along with this, we have an equally good range of projects that will improve the existing openSUSE architecture.
The list of successful students are :
- Travel Support Program application – Karthik Senthil
- Playlist Functionality for ownCloud Music App – Volkan
- ownCloud Calendar Application in angularJS – Raghu Nayyar
- openSUSE GSOC ideas: Cool live flash – Zsolt Peter Basak
- Open Source Event Manager (OSEM): Refactor user management model - Stella Rouzi
- Open Source Event Manager (OSEM): Implemention Organizer Dashboard – cbruckmayer
- MATE: Port from deprecated GStreamer 0.10 – Michal Ratajsky
- Integrate Snapper Snapshot browsing into openSUSE Desktop tools - Oguz Kayral
- Implement an application-level LBaaS driver for Zorp – Péter Vörös
- Extend Git-Review to support BitBucket – xystushi
- Event Splash page for Visitors In Open Source Event Manager Application. – Gopesh Tulsyan
- ePub support in Atril (MATE) – Avishkar gupta
- Add Snapshot management API to libvirt Xenlight driver – David Kiarie
- Improving the functionality of the extensions system in Caja – Alexandervdm
Lets brew some code now.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.06.2014 - klo:06:10
27 May 2014, 9:12 pm
Hi Geekos! Today we’re introducing a new series, called ‘Command Line Tuesdays‘. Why command line Tuesdays? Because in this series, everyday computer enthusiasts like yours truly, will try to step a little out of bounds of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) Culture, which is today synonymous to ‘making stuff easier for the masses‘.
Of course, if you visited any of the GNU/Linux related community forums, you’ve probably read, and this is an assumption, a very fiery debate over which is actually easier. Using GUI for everything, or simply learning and enjoying the Command-line Interface (CLI).
There are many arguments for or against the use of GUI tools. One of the most commonly referred pros is that we’ve been brought up in the point-and-click computing paradigm, so it’s basically a form of a language, or culture if you may, in which we interact with our machine. The patterns are mostly recurring, with big button clicking doing everything we need it to do.
On the other side, one of the most interesting comments I’ve read about the pros of command-line was: you can simply do more via the command-line much quicker, easier and faster than when using GUI tools. But there’s a catch: you have to learn the commands. Yes, learn them, as if learning a poem.
Now, since to us, the semi-indoctrinated clueless users, it all sounds like some useless geek overreaching and overdoing, let me humanize it with a fable:
The Fable I’ve been using Linux for more then 3 years now. I’m a 27 year old literature major, who never held much of an interest in technology of any sort. I didn’t even own a computer until I was in high-school, so let’s say somewhere around 17. That’s barely ten years of computer usage. The only three programs I ever ran were BS Player, Winamp and Football Manager, with occasional usage of MS Word. Three and bit years ago, a colleague at a precarious job I was performing at the time was talking to another coworker, saying there’s a new edition of something which immediately occupied my attention, as it looked different. It was Ubuntu’s Natty Narwhal, I think. After discussing it with him, he pointed out the usual pros we gospel to the newcomers, no antivirus necessary, faster boot, better security, software center blah blah blah, and the peak of it: Free and Open Source (FOSS) philosophy behind it. And he did it in a very non-invasive, non fanboyish manner.
I decided to give it a go, and I never turned back since then. How I got into openSUSE around the 11.4 release, shortly after trying out Ubuntu for the first time is going to have to fit in another time, and how I find it to be the perfect sweet spot is a whole different story. The point is, I finally entered the Linux realm. It was fun, it was different, it made my computer run better, it was more stable. I barely had issues with it (seems I not-knowingly purchased fairly orthodox hardware). It seems that Linux came really far regarding the desktop, so I barely had to use the terminal. But let’s just say it was one of the most dreadful, terrifying and horrific tools to use in Linux. If there wasn’t a GUI for a specific operation, I immediately became nervous as I didn’t know what I was getting into when copy/pasting commands from the forums.
After time, things changed. As opposed to other consumer-oriented systems, what happened to me was maybe somewhat of a human reverse-engineering. Instead of me consuming the system, I feel that in three years, the system consumed me. I learned how to search for basic issues, file bug reports, properly ask questions on forums. With every issue I had, I learned how to be better at providing the information needed for someone more competent to help me with my problem.
A short while ago, my girlfriend commented how she can’t believe I’m using my computer mostly for the sake of using the computer, rather than doing anything else. ‘You use it only for your music collection and Linux thingies, Nenad. Gaawd.’ It made me think, and think hard. Linux, specifically the openSUSE distro has become a hobby of mine. Not at an expert level, by any means, which is reasonable since it isn’t my area of expertise. But I know enough to get around, fix minor issues, play around with some configuration files etc. But what I came to know, is that with my increasing playing and tinkering around the system, I really need to get familiar with CLI. I learned that I’m playing around without knowing of the basics under the hood. What for crying out loud is ETC?!?!? What’s BIN? Why is there .sh at the end? Why is this file here, and this file there? Why do I have to click through gazillion of folders to find the right file to modify? Then I read you can easily list all the files somewhere with a single command. It became interesting. I suddenly felt an urge to try it out.
So Let’s Do It! …and here we are. As a new openSUSE news contributor, I’ll try to contribute in a way I see productive for what I suppose is a large portion of the community. It’s time to plant the banner and start learning the command-line together. If philosophy is what attracted you to Linux and openSUSE, like me, it got you this far. Now it’s time to take a step further. Look, I know there’s a bunch of you like me out there. I know you maybe don’t see the point in all that 90′s geeky black-screen-green-letters-quick-typing-make-everything-go-boom thing. But it’s useful in many aspects. We’ll learn in a fun and communal way which directories are for what, what files are located where, most commonly used terminal commands. It will make our lives easier when we learn to perform tasks through the console, make it even more rewarding when we run into issues. It will also make the lives of bug-squashers easier when they receive proper information from our end, and it will make our hobby infinitely more fun.
I mean, for crying out loud, you’ve already made a transition to a phase where Dilbert and xkcd are actually funny. It’s time for the terminal!
P.S.:
Reference material that will be used: William Shotts – The Linux Command Line and a short tutorial on most commonly used commands by a Croatian hacker Velimir Baksa aka Lutherus. Requirements on your part:
- An hour or two of spare time weekly
– A pint of cold beer or any other beverage
– Someone already pointed out that using Gedit (http://software.opensuse.org/package/gedit), or a manual notepad (you know, pen and paper hehe) would be good for easier learning.
The book by Mr Shotts is exquisite. But there’s probably an issue of time/will-power etc. This way, I’ll try to humanize the lessons a bit more, take some time off your hands, and what’s most important – I count on us learning together, helping each other together (Comments and Forums, people!!) and tying a close-knit openSUSE community! This time next week (it will be June already!), we’ll learn our first commands. And remember…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 11.06.2014 - klo:01:00
10 June 2014, 7:48 pm
Here we are geekos, back in action! Sorry it’s been a while, but let me just assure you we’re back on track, raging to meet the deadlines and to, well, have some fun :)
Now, the whole idea was pretty much completely summed up in the introductory (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/05/27/command-line-tuesdays-the-introductory/) text posted a fortnight ago, so we may get down to business. As the book by Mr. Shotts instructs, we need to know what a shell is, as we’ll be operating withing it, and what a terminal emulator is.
A shell, Mr Shotts states, is actually what we’re talking about when we’re talking about command-line. The shell is basically a program that passes the strokes of your keyboard to your computer, a translator of some sort, so your computer knows what you’re saying. There are many shells in existence, but the most widespread shell used in GNU/Linux distributions is called bash, or Bourne Again Shell. It’s a clever wordplay, as Mr Bourne created the bash’s predecessor, sh, and Brian Fox wrote it as a free alternative for sh. Ahhh, GNU people and their humor, very clever :)
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpaste.opensuse.org%2Fimages%2F54535272.jpg&hash=a66e22e8b23aaf96cab84efd21b7a5643cedeb9c)
Next thing we need so we can interact with the shell is a terminal emulator. Every Linux distribution comes with one, depending on the desktop environment you use, so it should be Konsole from KDE, Gnome terminal in Gnome etc. Mr. Shotts says you probably develop a preference for one, but I use what the desktop environment provides me, most of the time.
Now, fire up your terminal. You get a line, stating your user name and the machine’s host name. This is called the shell prompt. It means it’s ready for you to enter a command. Let’s try something random. Type in anything, and press enter.
Hehe, remember the introductory saying we need to learn the commands as a poem? There we go, random doesn’t work.
Now, press the up arrow, and you’ll see the command reappear. What’s this sorcery? The up arrow key on your keyboard is for accessing the command history. The terminal saves up to 500 commands you entered, so to not type them over and over, you can look for them with the up/down arrow. The left and right arrows are for moving the cursor within a specific line, so you can edit the text in between. Now there’s another thing – ctrl+v for pasting text doesn’t work. You can set it up as a shortcut somewhere, but it’s usually something else. Check your terminal emulator’s shortcuts! (in Konsole, it’s Settings > Configure shortcuts)
Now, for us not to get the ‘command not found’ slap to the face, let’s try something simple. Type date. (Yes, I didn’t know there’s a command for this, so it’s exciting for me also) :)
There you go. Why bother looking at your built in calendar in the clock, when you can fire up your terminal and type date, and see what day it is :) Just kidding, as Mr Shotts states, it’s a simple command, the more useful/difficult ones are coming next time. The related command to date is cal – it will display the current month’s calendar.
You may also try df, and it will list free space on your drives.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpaste.opensuse.org%2Fimages%2F44662534.png&hash=1ad533e81224fb1fb2bbe7a8834ec510664356c9)
Or free, to display the amount of free memory:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpaste.opensuse.org%2Fimages%2F44548116.png&hash=07d395e19ae6763f9dfc967ff7c0adebedf99b65)
If you’re already in the type-only mood, you can enter the command exit to get out of the terminal emulator instead of pressing the x button.
…and we’ll stop to a halt for this week so it won’t be too much to ingest on your already tight schedule. Too sum it up (you can write this conclusion down, for repetition), in part one, we learned:
- what is a shell
- what do we need to communicate with the shell (terminal emulator)
- navigating the terminal commands with cursor buttons and exiting the terminal
- date – displays the current date
- cal – displays the current month’s calendar
- df – shows the amount of free space on your hard drives
- free – amount of free memory
…have a lot of fun!(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpaste.opensuse.org%2Fimages%2F40949666.jpg&hash=ebbc7cb312b382855e64f1777ef4e365677ad69c)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 25.06.2014 - klo:01:01
24 June 2014, 10:24 pm
Heya geekos!
Let’s refresh our memories. Last week (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/06/10/command-line-tuesdays-part-one/), we skimmed through some basic commands, learned what a shell is actually, and made a steady introduction into our CLI Tuesdays series.
Today’s menu offers something else: navigation through the file system.
Now, the best picture I managed to find on the www is from a site called devopsbootcamp (http://devopsbootcamp.readthedocs.org/). You can find their tutorials and the rest here. But anyway, here’s a very nice diagram of what a linux root filesystem looks like.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdevopsbootcamp.readthedocs.org%2Fen%2Flatest%2F_images%2Fhierarchy.jpg&hash=c776b13b2c425e9a690cf53d01f17e7deccc2972)
For example, as stated in the above picture, your user directory (where you usually store your movies, music, documents etc.) is located in the /home folder. /home folder is located under /. Then you have the /etc folder, where most of the files for configuration are located. Anyway, you can find the detailed description here (http://www.tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem-Hierarchy/html/), as we’ll not be getting into which folder is for what, until we start using and configuring them. Today is reserved for navigation only. And on that note, let’s get down to the first command of the day…
pwd pwd, or ‘print working directory’ is a very useful command if you think you are lost navigating through the folders. At any given moment, type pwd, and voila! What appears is a complete pathway you took to arrive to this folder. Those guys in The Cube could sure use it, losers.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fbloody-disgusting.com%2Fimages%2Fnews%2Fcube2review1.gif&hash=2e8e621fbe41a149f56b6a314b6e4c20017bee76)
Imagine yourselves walking from room to room inside a massive apartment, loosing your way. pwd is like the breadcrumb trail leading you to your starting point, so you don’t loose your way inside the folder maze!
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fredhat.activeventure.com%2F73%2Fgettingstartedguide%2Ffigs%2Fbasics%2Fpwd.png&hash=e0caa900f8de30a7f950aae484a5bad37bfe0af8)
cd Now you know in which directory you’re situated thanks to your usage of the pwd command. Now you want to take the next step and move to another directory. Let’s say you have a folder/directory inside your home folder you want to relocate your top secret terminal operation to. For this, you use the ‘cd’ command. cd, or ‘change directory’, will change the location of wanted directory. How do you use it? Simple, type cd and the path to your folder. Let’s say, for example, you want to enter your Hello Kitty picture collection in your home folder. You type ‘cd /home/username/Hello_Kitty’.
As you see, we didn’t use the space bar in the folder name. That’s because the terminal won’t recognize it. Whenever you want to navigate to a folder containing a space in it’s name, you replace it with the underscore character.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fblogote.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F06%2Fterminal-cd-desktop.png&hash=194f7028b49c0f93c1ddd57626e0a360454c4732)
Try it out yourself. Navigate to a different directory using cd, and when there, type pwd to see if everything worked as it’s supposed to.
Mr. Shotts’ Shottcuts Mr. Shotts reminds us there are also some shortcuts available.
If you type only cd, without the path following it, your terminal will change your working directory (whatever it may be) to your /home folder.
The same, if you type cd ~user_name it will lead you to the home folder of the specific user you stated.
Next Week Next week, we’ll head over to the next chapter – we’ll learn how to list files and directories, view text files and classify file’s contents so it will be a bit more work than we’re used to, but I hope you’ll have enough time. Command by command, and if you haven’t the time to do it yourself, we’ll learn the basics together in a matter of months!
and remember…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.06.2014 - klo:07:00
29 June 2014, 12:53 am
As we stated in one of our earlier articles, the openSUSE team is working full steam. Even though it may sometimes seem quiet news-wise, it’s not so by any means. So, let’s look at the progress the artwork team has been making since the last time (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/05/22/what-will-opensuse-13-2-default-wallpaper-look-like/) we posted about new bling-bling hitting openSUSE 13.2.
Let’s begin with one of the starting points regarding the new design paradigm for openSUSE. An interesting lecture was held during the openSUSE conference in Dubrovnik this year. It’s aptly titled “The Way Forward”. Namely, there’s a problem when we’re talking about the uniformity of openSUSE branding. Basically, there are a few guidelines in existence, which you can find here and here, which define mostly the color palette (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_guidelines) and appropriate logo use (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_brand). That’s why probably the two most obvious associations to the openSUSE brand are “green” and “gecko”. But, which way is geeko facing, why that way, which shade of green and why…? It’s all quite vague, or better yet, it has washed out a little over the years.
Two of SUSE’s professional designers, and also members of the openSUSE community (of course) Kenneth Wimer and Zvezdana Marjanović, have decided to create new artwork and branding guidelines to freshen up, modernize and uniform the openSUSE brand, making it good looking, unique and homogenous across the whole product spectrum. You are more than welcome to listen to the whole lecture here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-r_ML-MnMo), as it’s quite informative. The idea sprung when they were assigned with the task of doing printed material for the conference. The new guidelines (there’s talk about colors, branding, branding process and typography) could , or, to be more accurate, might be a newly paved road for the artwork team to take for the coming releases.
The lecture sprung quite a lively debate on both the mailing list and the official openSUSE forums that resulted in quite a number of ideas. Also, Ken and Zvezdana are working uploading the resources they created so the community could use them in an appropriate way. Today, some of the colors have been translated from CMYK to RGB, and have been uploaded (http://paste.opensuse.org/42467162). More is yet to come. The overall feeling is there’s a bit of a blue touch to the existing geeko green, and here’s how it all looks like:
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpaste.opensuse.org%2Fview%2Fraw%2F42060848&hash=7d37a1d11c2932e9d1efd91f753c24ae12578279)
There have also been some attempts in KDE theming, and, considering some of the recent discussion, here’s a new look at some wallpaper suggestions and improvements. Nothing’s official yet, as there’s a lot of work to be done, but it seems to work.
There’s also work being done on LX panel theming, and there has been discussion on greening up GNOME, but we’re yet to see some substantial results for it. The hardest part is definitely behind the team, and that’s setting some base rules and putting things in motion.
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fopensuse.ethz.ch%2F13.2%2FKDE4_pure.png&hash=ebaee8d06a2119f00144fda5ce45f6305a1f4f86)
The timing is also perfect as KDE will be going through substantial visual changes, so it could be a perfect chance for openSUSE to introduce some desktop branding uniformity without disrupting the users (too much :) ).
Any way, consider this a call to join the debate with your artistic geeko portfolio, suggestions and comments on our mailing list (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AMailing_lists)and the forums (http://forums.opensuse.org). Don’t forget our Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/groups/opensuse-artwork/) and Pixel Pool (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3APixel_pool)pages. And, of course, we urge you to…
…have a lot of fun! :)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 01.07.2014 - klo:13:01
1 July 2014, 9:04 am
Heya Geekos! New week, new part in our CLT series!
Today, mr Shotts takes us on a first part of a guided tour through our file system. We’ll learn how to visit, list files within directories and we’ll learn to use some options for the first time. So let’s begin with the first command of the week.
ls ls is a command used to list files in a directory. It can be used in various ways. These various ways come with using a form of adding an option to our command. To make things clearer; You can type only ls. But, you can also add an option, which will modify your command. It can come in useful when you want to sandbox some of the information, when looking for something specific, and the command issues a very long output, you can, for example, narrow it down to only specific information.
That’s what an option is. And formally we can write it down like this:
command -option argument
Command is, well, a command we write in (like pwd, ls or anything else we have learned by now).
We already stated above the purpose of an option. But let me note it should be written exactly as it’s in the form; With a dash in front of it. So, if the option is l, you should put -l after the command.
An argument is an object upon which the command operates (in this case, it will be directories, as we’ll learning how to navigate through them).
So, let’s try out ls, and use it on the /etc directory in our home folder. This time, without any options.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184127.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184127.png)
There you go, a whole bunch of files. It also sorts them by colours. The blue ones are directories, the white ones are files, the green one seems like a shell script of some sort. There are more colors, as they represent different file types.
Next, you can use the same command, but with an option -l added. Option -l will list the same files and directories, but in a long format. In case you need more information:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184542.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184542.png)
The Long Format So, using the long format, you see much more information, and some crazy looking signs like -rw-r–r– at the beginning of all lines. Actually, here’s a scheme, representing what all of the given information actually means.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184829.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-184829.png)
File Name is the name of the file. Modification time is the last time the file has been modified. Size is the size of the file in bytes. Group is the name of the group that has file permissions along with the owner, and Owner is the user who owns the file. The most important one is…
…File Permissions That’s the gibberish at the beginning of every line in long format. The first character is the file type. If it’s a ‘d’, it means the file’s a directory. If it’s ‘-’, it means it’s an ordinary file. The next three characters represent the read, write and execution rights of the file’s owner. The next three are the same rights of the group that also has access to the file, and the last three characters represent rights of everyone else trying to use the file.
So for example, if we have a file which in long format displays: -rw-r–r–, it means it’s an ordinary file (the first ‘-’), the owner of the file can read and write the file, but he can’t execute it, as it’s not an executable file (the ‘rw-’ characters after the initial ‘-’), and the user group and everyone else can only read the file (you can see ‘r–’ sequence repeating twice. If the user group had ‘rwx’ instead of ‘r–’, it would mean they could read, write and execute the file).
Next option for ls is ls -la .. – this will list all of the files, as in a usual command, hidden files are not shown. It will list all files in the parent of the working directory in long format.
less Less is a command which will display your text file. For example, you’re looking for text file os-release in /etc. You have succesfully found it there with ls /etc, and now you want to read it.
You just use less /etc/os-release.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-190252.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-190252.png)
..and there you go.
How do you control less?
Easy, with your keyboard!
less will display only one page of your text at a time. To go forward one page, you can press Page Up, or ‘b’. To go back one page, you can use Page Down, or space. Capital G will take you to the end of the text file, while ‘1G‘ will take you to the beginning of the text. /characters will search for characters inside the text (for example, if you write /suse, it will search for occurances of suse inside your text and mark them). n will repeat the last search you performed, and h will display all your options (h, as in haalp!).
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/halp.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/halp.jpg)
You quit less with the letter q.
file The file command will show what kind of file is that you’re looking for, be it ASCII text, a jpg image, a bash script etc. As we performed our exercise with /etc/os-release, let’s use it here also.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-191402.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Screenshot-30.-06.-2014-191402.png)
There you go, os-release is an ASCII text file. Please, do try it out with something else, and see the output.
And until next time, remember to…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 04.07.2014 - klo:19:00
4 July 2014, 3:34 pm
Heya geekos, geekos-to-be, and all other interested parties. This time it’s going to be a short one. We, the geekos kindly invite you to hang out with us!
Yes, hang out. You know a good song you’d like to share with someone to help them kickoff a good and productive day? Do share! Seriously, our forums are well regarded in the FOSS community for being a great source of technical aid by kind and patient people. You’ve probably also stumbled onto the official #opensuse IRC channel, and met a few individuals who were eager to help. But, openSUSE’s web infrastructure has a lot more to offer. There’s our own social network called Connect (https://connect.opensuse.org/), for instance. There, you can create your geeko profile and spread your social network with like-minded individuals from all over the world. Then there’s #opensuse-chat (https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AIRC_list) on irc.opensuse.org (powered by freenode). And last but not least, the most powerful of them – the openSUSE forums (http://forums.opensuse.org)! The help section of the forum is really really active. You see new threads pop up in a matter of minutes. But, what people usually miss out is the ‘Community & Fun’ subforum, where many of us are hanging out, exchanging music videos, book & film recommendations, travelogues from all over the world where our members have been, and for those with only technical inclinations – there have been three systemd discussions in the past month or so :D . Three. (You can also chat in Russian, Dutch, French, Greek, Chinese and German in the localized subforums!)
Yes, we understand many of you feel like ‘we don’t need to pat each other on the back’ for using openSUSE. Granted. But, we all have our reasons for using this great concoction of software. And yes, it deserves to be shown off. And we deserve to have a closely-knit community. The closer together a community is, the more efficient and strong it will become. You’re running openSUSE? Well, you’ve made your first step. You have entered the green realm. And the green realm has cookies. Or was that the dark…ah, never mind :).
Anyway, do join the green side. There’s a lot of fun to be had :D
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 08.07.2014 - klo:19:00
8 July 2014, 2:48 pm
Heya there geekos! New week, new adventure!
Today, we’ll learn how to manipulate files using four fairly simple commands. So let’s begin!
Before we start with the commands themselves, let’s take a quick stop at a section called…
…wildcards: Copying, pasting files, creating directories etc. is probably easier using graphical tools, but, if you’d like to perform more complicated tasks, like copying only .html files from one folder to another, and only copying files that don’t exist in the destination directory, CLI just might come in handy. So, to get back to wildcards, it’s basically a shell feature, a set of special characters, that helps you pick out a set of files based on some simple rules (which characters appear in a file name, how many characters, upper/lower case characters etc.). Here’s the table (click to enlarge):
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-125946-300x152.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-125946.png)And here are a few examples mr Shotts posted in a table of usage also click to enlarge: (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-125959-300x206.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-125959.png)If you use a command with an argument containing a filename, you can use wildcards with no problem.
cp cp is used to copy files or directories. You can use it pretty easily: navigate to the folder you’d like to copy the files from and to, and simply do
cp file1 file2 – to copy single files,
or
cp file1 file2 … directory – to copy files from your current working directory to the directory specified. Here’s mr Shotts’ table with numerous options:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-134248-300x116.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-134248.png)
mv mv is the second command of the day. We can use mv to rename a file or directory, or to move a file or directory. We can use it this way:
mv filename1 filename2 – if we want to rename filename1 to filename2
or
mv file directory – if we want to move file to directory.
Here’s a table of few examples of mv with options used with it:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-133515-300x123.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-133515.png)rm The rm command removes/deletes files and directories. Usage is pretty straightforward:
rm file
or
rm -r directory
And here’s also a table with some additional options:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-133529-300x83.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-08.-07.-2014-133529.png)But, do be careful when using rm as there is no undelete option, so be extra careful not to inflict unwanted damage to your system!
mkdir mkdir is used for creating directories. It’s the most simple command of the day. Simply:
mkdir directory
Voila, directory created!
So this is it for this week, geekos. Hope to see you next tuesday! All the best and kind regards,
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 14.07.2014 - klo:19:00
14 July 2014, 3:50 pm
The first ever openSUSE Summit (http://summ) in Asia will take place in Beihang University, Beijing on October 18th and 19th, 2014. We aim to promote the use of openSUSE and other free open source software in the region. We will have a series of talks, discussions and workshops that will induct people into the openSUSE Project. The goal of the Summit is to provide a platform for everyone to understand openSUSE so that it becomes easier to use and contribute to it. It is also a great opportunity for openSUSE contributors and users from all over Asia who have only been interacting online with each other so far, to meet face to face. And to learn about various free and open technologies, sharing experiences with each other and having a lot of fun.
So what are you waiting for? Come join us in beautiful Bejing!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/6216638459_f36e453db7_b.jpg) (http://summit.opensuse.org)Bejing Skyline by Michael McDonough (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikemcd/6216638459). CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 15.07.2014 - klo:13:01
15 July 2014, 10:44 am
Yes, you’ve guessed what time it is! It’s time to rrrrrrrrummmbleeeee! And this time, we’ll learn how to work with commands. So without further ado, let’s get to business.
Mr Shotts states that until now, we worked with a few mysterious commands, arguments and options, and today is the day we shed a little light upon that mystery. We’ll learn the following commands and what they do: type, which, help and man. But first, let’s learn…
…what are commands? All great things come in fours, and it’s the same with commands. We can split them up into four categories:
1) An executable program: a command can be an executable program. If you’ve ‘traveled’ across your file system in the previous lessons like you were supposed to, you probably visited the /usr/bin folder. You’ve seen quite a number of familiar names like transmission-gtk, deluge-gtk etc. What’s less important for us novices currently is that programs there can be compiled binaries or programs written in scripting languages. Point is, since they are executable programs, you can run them. Try it. Navigate to it, list the files inside, pick one and run it simply by typing its name.
2) A command built into the shell: bash provides a number of commands internally called shell builtins. The cd command, for example, is a shell builtin, mr Shotts says.
3) A shell function: miniature shell script, built into the environment. For the time being, we’ll just mention it, as it will be covered in the following weeks.
4) An alias: commands you can define yourself, using other commands. Also coming in the following lessons.
Now, it’s useful to know what type of command we’re dealing with. And we can find out using…
…type You can use type + command to inspect what kind of command is the command you’d like to use. You do it by simply typing: type command and you’ll get an output. For example:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-091448.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-091448.png)
or
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-091640.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-091640.png)
…where we can see that the ‘ls’ command is actually an alias of ‘_ls’!
which Sometimes (but rarely on a desktop system, though) there are more versions of one executable installed on a machine. To find out the exact location of a given executable, we can use command which. Additionally, it only works with executable programs.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-092052.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-15-092052.png)
Now, mostly every command has documentation that comes with it. So you’re somewhere doing your CLI thing, no access to the internet so you can’t bug geekos on the forums or IRC, and you need to find out how to exactly use a command. You can do it two ways. First being…
…help help command works with shell builtins (the second category we have mentioned above). So you can pick a shell builtin, like cd, for example, and simply type help cd. You’ll get a helpful page printed out in your terminal, so go ahead and read what cd has to offer. It shows in what ways you can use the command, what options you can use (it’s in square brackets, which means they are optional! Also, if there’s a vertical separator inside the square brackets, it means the options mentioned are mutually exclusive. Don’t use them together!)
–help help works only for the shell builtins. But most executables work with –help. As far as usage goes, it’s similar to help, but you have to type –help after the command you want to inspect. For example, transmission-gtk –help. Try it out, and see what options you can use with that executable etc.
man Most executables come with a formal documentation page. You can inspect it using the man command. You just enter man program, and see what it prints out. Pick any program on your computer, and try it out. For example, let’s try man transmission-gtk. You get a file opened, split into categories. It gives you information what the program is, what it does, how you can use it etc., but it doesn’t offer examples, as it’s not a tutorial.
And we’re stoping to a halt there.
I’d like to take a minute and thank everyone commenting and contributing to this section. You make this series vastly better, and I hope that with your help, us noobs will be able to use the CLI basics by the end of summer (just in time for 13.2 :) ). You guys are the best. Newbie users like me, who are feeling lost, stick with it. It will pay off in the end!
And I’d also like to add a formal heads up: part six will not come next Tuesday, as I’ll sadly be away, so we’ll see/hear each other in 14 days, on July 29th. And until then…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 16.07.2014 - klo:19:00
16 July 2014, 5:39 pm
We announced the openSUSE Asia Summit yesterday and here we are already opening up our registrations for the summit. We welcome you with open hands to visit our conference and also enjoy the rich Chinese history in and around Beijing.
The openSUSE Asia Summit 2014 website is up on summit.opensuse.org (http://summit.opensuse.org) and we’re looking forward almost as much to your visit there. as a real life appearance at the event. You may register in our conference submission tool (https://events.opensuse.org/accounts/sign_in) before Sep 30th. We are looking forward to having you with us on this Oct in Beijing.
Want a summit Tee Shirt? Be a Speaker!!!(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3654543066_2c8823cb03_o-e1363960517132-300x280.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/3654543066_2c8823cb03_o-e1363960517132.jpg) Our call for papers is also open: you can shoot in your sessions proposals! Once you are part of the summit roaster your talks and presentation will be added to our tracking system in order to generate a schedule. All speakers will get a cool summit tee shirt too.
The theme of our summit is
“openSUSE – openSUSE – Bring you to the free world!” We have four tracks.
- End User Track
- Business Track
- Community & Project Track
- Technology & Development Track
- Lightning Talk (10 mins)
- Short Talk (30 mins)
- Long Talk (60 mins)
- Workshop (2 hours)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.07.2014 - klo:19:04
17 July 2014, 4:58 pm
Hi all,
It’s with some regret that we have to announce that Vincent Untz, our current openSUSE Board Chairman, has chosen to step down as a result of a happy personal event that will take up a lot of his spare time in the months (and years!) to come.
We as the board would like to thank Vincent for his contributions to the project and the board over many years and hope that he will continue to be part of our Project, just in a different capacity, for a long time yet.
As we know the chairman of the board is an appointed position. SUSE as the primary sponsor of our project has come to the conclusion that Richard Brown, one of our current Board members, should be the new Chairman, effective from today. Congratulations Richard!
With the change in role for Richard his elected Board seat becomes vacant. We are discussing various options to fill the seat for the remaining 5 months until the next election, please stay tuned for an announcement in the next couple of weeks.
Your openSUSE Board
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 22.07.2014 - klo:01:01
21 July 2014, 11:20 pm
The first openSUSE.Asia Summit will be held in Beijing, China in Oct, 2014. However, no Summit or Conference is successful without a symbol. The openSUSE Asia Summit organizing team is organizing a logo design contest. The best logo will be awarded with a special super secret Geeko Prize. The logo will be used for all promotional and marketing activities for the summit.
The Rules of the Contest are pretty simple :(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/12_1vs13_1-300x228.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/12_1vs13_1.png)
- We will accept only SVG format for original design. Both color and monochrome(black and white) version are required.
- The elements of your design should reflect the openSUSE community in Asia.
- Please note that there are some things should not be used in your design:
- No brand names or trademarks of any kind.
- No illustrations some may consider inappropriate, offensive, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libelous.
- No sexually explicit or provocative images.
- No images of weapons or violence.
- No alcohol, tobacco, or drug use imagery.
- No designs which promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against groups or individuals; or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
- No religious, political, or nationalist imagery.
- Your art work should comply with “openSUSE Project Trademark Guidelines” published at: https://en.opensuse.org/File:OpenSUSE_Trademark_Guidelines.pdf (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3AOpenSUSE_Trademark_Guidelines.pdf)
- You should also agree that the openSUSE community have right to interpret the usage of the artwork.
- All your artwork will be licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
- http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Artwork_guidelines (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_guidelines)
- http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Artwork_brand (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_brand)
- Vector file of the design in attachement, with svg format ONLY.
- Bitmap of design in attachment – image size: 256*256px at least. Format: png or jpg. Less than 512KB.
- Your name.
- Where are you working/studying now.
- Your phone number.
Note:
- The final decision will be made by openSUSE.Asia Summit Committee. Please understand that the highest vote score of the design may not be designated as the final winner.
- To create your artwork, we recommend to use Inkscape, which is a powerful vector graphics tool for all kinds of design. It’s free and open sourced.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 24.07.2014 - klo:19:00
24 July 2014, 1:00 pm
The news writer from SUSE office snuck into the openSUSE Asia’s trello board and found that they will use an open source voting tool for their upcoming (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/halp.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/halp.jpg)events. Snoek is a voting tool developed during the SUSE Hackweek by Beijing R&D Team, SUSE. Snoek is written in Django and is eagerly seeking out more django developers to add more features to it like OpenID support and richer (picture, link) voting item support.
Source code of snoek can be found at : https://github.com/yifanjiang/snoek
and Yifan has also written a nice https://github.com/yifanjiang/snoek/blob/master/README to get you started.
All that is required is a little django and python knowledge from a fellow Geeko.
As a big “Thank you” for your efforts, the developer will also receive a free tee shirt shipped to his place.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 29.07.2014 - klo:19:01
29 July 2014, 4:30 pm
We are proud to announce that we have just switched our beloved development distribution, openSUSE Factory, to be an independent distribution using the “rolling release” development model. openSUSE Factory is now a tested, reliable and bleeding edge Linux distribution! This change will shorten the stabilization process for our major releases (next up: 13.2) and eliminate the need for pre-releases and milestones.
A more distributed development process for openSUSE In the old development model, an army of packagers would shoot new packages and updates to Factory, with a relatively small team of Factory Maintainers taking care of the integration process of all those packages. This often took a long time to stabilize for a release.
In the new “rolling release” development model, package submissions cannot go to Factory directly. First they have to prove to be functional and trustworthy in a staging project. Staging projects are projects in our Open Build Service (https://build.opensuse.org) where groups of submissions are collected, reviewed, compiled and tested with openQA (http://openqa.opensuse.org). But even after the packages survived the staging project, they don’t directly end up in Factory. First all Factory media (e.g. DVDs etc.) are being built and put again through more tests in openQA. The Factory maintainers then decide on the basis of the Factory-To-Test overview (https://openqa.opensuse.org/tests/overview?distri=opensuse&version=FTT) if the new packages should be published to the users.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Factory_workflow_2014.png)
This new Factory development model (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AFactory_development_model) balances responsibility among packagers, testers and end users while putting more emphasis on automated quality assurance. As a result, openSUSE Factory becomes a reliable, always-ready working distribution.
“With this new openSUSE development model, users get the latest free software packages without waiting for the next release”said Richard Brown, openSUSE board chair. He continues
With a daily fresh Factory distribution making it easier for those who want to preview and test, we hope to see more users and contributors, leading to faster fixes and even higher quality. Factory is critical as it provides the base technology for openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise, which is used by tens of thousands of organizations around the world.”Get it while is hot! So there is no excuse not to give Factory a try (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AFactory_installation) and provide feedback or, if you are not so interested in living on the edge, to help spreading the word: there is a new (old) kid on the Linux Distributions block: openSUSE Factory!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/factory-tested.png)
Thanks This major change in how we develop our distribution would have not been possible without the tireless work of the openSUSE Team from SUSE who drove this process, the openQA developers who integrated all the features and certainly not without our most awesome package maintainers who provided feedback along the way. Thank you guys for another astonishing job completed!
About the openSUSE Project The openSUSE project is a worldwide effort that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. openSUSE creates one of the world’s best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community.
The project is controlled by its community and relies on the contributions of individuals, working as testers, writers, translators, usability experts, artists and ambassadors or developers. The project embraces a wide variety of technology, people with different levels of expertise, speaking different languages and having different cultural backgrounds.
About the openSUSE Distribution The openSUSE distribution is a stable, easy to use and complete multi-purpose distribution. It is aimed towards users and developers working on the desktop or server. It is great for beginners, experienced users and ultra geeks alike, in short, it is perfect for everybody! The latest release, openSUSE 13.1, features new and massively improved versions of all useful server and desktop applications. It comes with more than 1,000 open source applications. openSUSE is also the base for SUSE’s award-winning SUSE Linux Enterprise products (https://www.suse.com/products/).
About openQA openQA (https://github.com/os-autoinst/openQA) is the only comprehensive, fully automated Linux distribution testing framework which can run tests on every level of the OS, from core functionality like the kernel up to testing applications like Firefox or LibreOffice. It shows the results in a convenient web interface and allows testers to see screenshots and even videos of the issues found.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 30.07.2014 - klo:13:00
30 July 2014, 11:58 am
Hey guys. Yes, it’s Wednesday, and yes, we’re a day late. Reason? This awesome announcement (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/29/factory-rolling-release/), that had to take the whole glory of Tuesday. Also, in the future, if there’s an important announcement/release announcement from the project, the CLT series will be postponed.
Anyway, let’s move on to our today’s agenda: The input/output redirection.
Most commands we have used, post their results in the terminal display. But, we can also make them display it in a file, device or input of other commands by redirecting them.
Standard output So, how it basically works is that command line programs usually send the results of commands to a facility called standard output. The standard output then usually sends it to your display, so you can read off of it. But, you can also make it display the results in a text file, like this, using the ‘>’ character (my case):
man zypper > man.txtWhat I did here, is I wanted a man page for zypper. But I wanted it in a text file, so I can easily access the results in case I need them (asking for help on the forums, IRC, f.ex.). So what this command did is that it saved the output of man zypper to man.txt in my home folder, which you can see here, opened in gedit (click to enlarge):
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-30-103144-300x212.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Zaslonska-slika-2014-07-30-103144.png)If I should repeat the command, or use different commands with the same file name output, it would rewrite the file over and over again. So, in that case, if I’d like to have the output redirection append the next results to the existing file, the only thing I have to do is use ‘>>’ instead of ‘>’ the next time.
Standard input Many commands can also accept input from a facility called standard input. By default, it comes from a keyboard, but it can also come from a file. To redirect it, use the inverted character from the one before: ‘<’
The example given is the following:
sort < man.txt
Pipeline To connect multiple commands together, you use pipelines. What pipelines do, is feed the standard output of one command into the standard input of the other command. Mr Shotts’ favorite:
ls – l | lessBy using this'| less' trick, you can make any command have scrolling output.
Filters Filters is a commonly used program in pipelines. Filters take a standard input, perform an operation on it, and send the results to the standard output. They can process information in a very powerful way. Here’s a list of the programs, most commonly used as filters. For exercise, look up, or redirect man pages to them to a file!
Filters: sort, uniq, grep (we’ve all seen this one appear all over forums, so I suggest we look into it more), fmt, pr, head, tail, tr, sed, awk.
Finito Once again, halting to a stop for this week. We have only a couple of lessons left, to cover the basics of the CLI, and by the time autumn comes, I hope you’ll be all interested in CLI a little more and continue with some winter explorations! And while doing it, I hope you’ll…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 30.07.2014 - klo:19:05
30 July 2014, 6:10 pm
In the past 4 months during this years Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for open source software projects, Christian Bruckmayer collaborated with other students and mentors to code a dashboard for the Open Source Event Manager (OSEM). In this series of three posts Christian will tell you about his project and what he has learned from this experience.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/GoogleSummer_2014logo-300x270.jpg)
Hey my name is Christian and I’m a student currently in the third year of the Bachelor of Science course with information systems and management major in Nuremberg, Germany. During my time at university I already was interested in developing web applications and gained first experience. Google Summer of Code at openSUSE was a great opportunity for me to improve my knowledge and work together with other excellent developers. There are only two weeks left which makes now the perfect time to summarize what I have achieved and learned so far.
About the Open Source Event Manager (OSEM) With OSEM it’s incredible easy to set up and manage all tasks to organize a successful open source conference. As conference organizer you can let people register for your event, run a call for papers and create an entertaining schedule out of users proposals. And as participant you have a central place to get all the info about the event.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/OSEM.png)
OSEM is used by openSUSE, owncloud and other Free and Open Source projects to run their events, it is written in Ruby on Rails, an open source web application framework. openSUSE has released OSEM as free software, under the MIT license. You can run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve it. The source code and the developers are on github (https://github.com/openSUSE/osem).
My Project: Organizer Dashboard My GSoC project for OSEM is about implementing an organizer dashboard and it’s goal is to make it possible for conference organizers to get a glance at all relevant information about their conference. To simply make organizers aware about how their conference is doing.
What to show on the dashboard? The first thing to do for me and my mentor was to identify which information is the most important for the conference organizers and should therefore be displayed on the new dashboard. I researched what data was available, what competing apps showed and in the end decided together with my mentor on:
- Registrations – People who are going to attend my conference
- Submissions – Content submitted to my call for papers
- Program – Content I have accepted out of the submissions.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/37018733-1024x235.png)
Gathering the relevant data and presenting it How many people are going to show up? The most important piece of information to show was the progress of the registrations over time. We decided that a week is enough granularity. To get this data I implemented a method in the conference model.
def get_registrations_per_week result = [] reg = registrations.group(:week).count result = calculate_items_per_week(21, 6, reg) result endWe query the database for all registrations, group them by week and then count them. As you can see :week is a database column, this was nessecary to make this query database independent.
We then go on to cumulate the registrations for each week, with padding on the left side (in case you haven’t registrations in the first weeks).
def calculate_items_per_week(start_week, weeks, hash) # Insert zero if key not in hash (start_week..(start_week + weeks)).each do |key| if !hash[key] hash[key] = 0 end end result = hash.sort.to_h result = hash.values # Cumulate the values sum = 0 result.map { |x| sum += x } end So in the end if I have four registrations in week 23, six registrations in week 25 and two registrations in week 26 and my registration period started in week 21 the result would be:[0, 0, 4, 4, 10, 13]That’s a nice dataset to show in a line graph!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/45879787.png)
What are people submitting to my call for papers? For the call for paper submissions we not only wanted to show the progress but we wanted to show the progress of the different states (e.g. submitted, accepted, confirmed). As it turned out, this was not so easy as initially thought! The reason is that, as you can imagine, the event states change so that we can’t just do a simple database query at rendering time. Instead we have to take a snapshot each week of the event state distribution and save it to our database (like ‘historical data’). Luckily we use the papertrail gem to track the object changes. Therefore I was able to calculate the event state distribution of past conferences, too. :) To get the amount of proposals in a certain state I implemented the following method..
def get_submissions_data result = {} result = get_events_per_week_by_state start_week = call_for_papers.start_week end_week = end_date.strftime('%W').to_i weeks = weeks(start_week, end_week) result.each do |state, values| if state == 'Submitted' result['Submitted'] = pad_array_left_cumulative(start_week, values) else result[state] = pad_array_left_not_cumulative(start_week, values) end end result['Weeks'] = weeks > 0 ? (1..weeks).to_a : 0 result end At first I fetch a hash with the submissions per week for each state. Therefore I implemented the helper methodget_events_per_week_by_statewhich selects the values from the database and returns a result that looks something like this:
{ 'Submitted' => {22 => 1, 24 => 2}, 'Confirmed' => {23 => 1, 25 => 2}, 'Unconfirmed' => {22 => 1, 24 => 2} } We only keep in account proposals that are submitted between the call for papers start and the end of the conference! The next step is similar to the registrations over time with one difference: We just want to cumulate the values for submitted proposals and not for the other states. Let me explain that a little bit more. To get the submitted proposals we can do a simple database query (it’s very similiar to registrations over time) but for the other states we have to take a snapshot at the end of each week! Because of that it’s not necessary to cumulate the values! Last but not least I add the weeks (the x-axis) to the result hash. The result for the example above would then simple looks like this:{ 'Submitted' => [0, 1, 1, 3, 3], 'Confirmed' => [0, 0. 1, 0, 2], 'Unconfirmed' => [0, 1, 0, 2, 0], 'Weeks' => [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] } (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/48318522.png)How is my program going to look? Another really essential information for conference organinzers is how the program is going to look. This includes for example how many events do I have for a certain track (e.g. end user, business), difficulty level or a special type (e.g. short talk, workshop). These information is crucial for the organizers because so they can see if they have to less or to many events for a track. Luckily Chart.js doesn’t only support line charts, it also supports pie charts which is the preferred display mode for these information. The following image shows how this feature does look:
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/32190087.png)
To get the track distribution I implemented for example the following method:
def tracks_distribution(state = nil) if state tracks_grouped = events.where('state = ?', state).group(:track_id) else tracks_grouped = events.group(:track_id) end calculate_track_distribution_hash(tracks_grouped, tracks_counted) end As you can see in the image above, we have two different tabs for this feature. The first tab shows the conference programm for all submitted proposal no matter in which state they are (e.g. submitted or rejected) and the second tab shows how the program would look only for the confirmed proposals! To meet this requirement, our function is generic: If you just calltracks_distributionyou will get the information for all proposals and if you call
tracks_distribution(:confirmed)(or any other state) you will get the information just for this state.
def calculate_track_distribution_hash(tracks_grouped, tracks_counter) result = {} tracks_grouped.each do |event| if event.track result[event.track.name] = { 'value' => tracks_counter[event.track_id], 'color' => event.track.color } end end result end The functioncalculate_track_distribution_hashthen simply assigns each track the amount of proposals and the associated hex color. The result would simple look like this:
{ 'Workshop' => { 'value' => 10, 'color' => '#00FF00'} Show, don’t tell In the end, if you plug all of this together, we ended up with a nice dashboard for conference organizers.(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/events.opensuse.org_2014-07-30_16-55-39-215x300.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/events.opensuse.org_2014-07-30_16-55-39.png)
What’s left for the remaining GSoC time? Because of the new features that my GSoC colleagues and I implemented over the past weeks the admin interface has become very complex and confusing. As you can imagine, that’s very bad because an interface should be simple, easy and comprehensible. Otherwise the organizers won’t use our awesome new features. Reconsider and refactor the admin interface and menu will be my task for the remaining few weeks.
I hope you enjoyed this article, I’m looking forward to your comments below. And don’t forget to check out my second post in this series next week! It will be about Conference Targets and Campaigns.
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 01.08.2014 - klo:01:00
31 July 2014, 9:31 pm
After GNOME 2.x passed the torch to GNOME 3, a lot of people started to wonder what is the perfect graphical user interface for them. Many users moved to Xfce, since it offers kind of a similar user experience to the late GNOME 2.x. But for those still fond of the GNOME 2.x environment, there is a fork of GNOME 2 available, and it’s called MATE Desktop Environment (http://mate-desktop.org/).
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mate-version-1024x682.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/mate-version.png)
The MATE Desktop Environment fork of GNOME2 was started by an Arch Linux user named perberos (you can read his forum announcement here (https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=121162)). The project started by mostly maintaining GNOME 2 packages. Many developers joined the project later on, so MATE Desktop Environment caught on quite successfully, improving vastly in the years past. There are also plans afoot to move to GTK3, wayland etc.
Applications Do you remember the native GNOME applications? MATE Desktop developers renamed them. Here is the list:
- Alacarte is renamed Mozo.
- Nautilus is renamed Caja.
- Metacity is renamed Marco.
- Gedit is renamed Pluma.
- Eye of GNOME is now known as Eye of MATE.
- Evince is renamed Atril.
- File Roller is renamed Engrampa.
- GNOME Terminal is renamed MATE Terminal.
- About GNOME is renamed About MATE
- Calculator is renamed MATE Calculator
- GNOME control center is renamed MATE control center
- GNOME Screenshot is renamed MATE Screenshot
- Zenity is renamed MATE Dialog
- gweather is renamed mateweather
MATE and openSUSE The first MATE version available on openSUSE was the 1.6 incarnation, but recently the ever diligent openSUSE MATE team succeeded in adding MATE Desktop environment to Factory repositories (https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/202034). That means that next openSUSE version, 13.2, will include MATE Desktop officially!
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/yast-1024x585.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/yast.png)
We have changed our repository scheme to avoid people having to change their repositories for each update. Everything is now unified in only one repository, X11:MATE:Current, so you don’t have to go through the repo-changing hassle every release.
To install MATE, visit our Portal (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AMATE) and utilise the one click install ymp files (simply click on the icons next to the appropriate version).
Contact us If you have any questions, please, don’t hesitate to contact us.
You can find pretty much all the needed information regarding MATE on openSUSE at:
- openSUSE MATE Portal (https://en.opensuse.org/Portal%3AMATE)
- openSUSE Connect MATE Page (https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/groups/42076/mate-desktop-environment/)
- Twitter (https://twitter.com/opensuse_mate)
- Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/opensusemate)
- Google + (https://plus.google.com/u/0/110057139932804157139/posts)
- MATE Forums (http://forums.mate-desktop.org/viewforum.php?f=14&sid=71a9f34766fe4ce851b2618a4a4c0295)
- Mailing List (http://ml.mate-desktop.org/listinfo/opensuse-mate)
- IRC Channel: #opensuse-mate @ Freenode
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 05.08.2014 - klo:19:00
5 August 2014, 1:37 pm
Heya geekos. I’ve checked the ‘curriculum’, and we’re at part 7 of 8 as of today. Which means there will be one more – and sadly final – CLT next tuesday. So for today, let’s deal with some permissions!
As we all know, we can have many users using one machine. To protect the users from each other, permissions have been devised. And we have already discussed file permissions, so let’s refresh our memories with a single click (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/01/command-line-tuesdays-part-three/).
(https://opensuse.fi/keskustelu/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flinuxcommand.org%2Fimages%2Ffile_permissions.png&hash=437ac090847eecab457a20d48fe335b57fc05ef6)
chmod The chmod command is used for changing permissions on a directory or a file. To use it, you first type the chmod command, after that you type the permissions specification, and after that the file or directory you’d like to change the permissions of. It can be done in more way, but mr Shotts focuses on the octal notation method.
Imagine permissions as a series of bits. For every permission slot that’s not empty, there’s a 1, and for every empty one there’s a 0. For example:
rwx = 111And to see how it looks in binary:
rw- = 110
etc.
rwx = 111 —> in binary = 7Now, if we would like to have a file with read, write and executing permissions for the file owner and for the group owner of the file, but make it unavailable to all other users, we do:
rw- = 110 —> in binary = 6
r-x = 101 —> in binary = 5
r– = 100 —> in binary = 4
chmod 770 example_file…where example_file is any file you’d like to try this command on. So, you always have to enter three separate digits, for three separate groups known already from our second lesson. The same can be done for directories.
su and sudo It is sometimes needed for a user to become a super user, so he can accomplish a task (usually something like installing software, for example). For temporary accessing to the super user mode, there’s a program called su, or substitute user. You just have to type in
suand type your superuser password, and you’re in. However, a word of warning: don’t remember to log out and use it for a short period of time.
Also there’s an option probably more used in openSUSE and Ubuntu, and it’s called sudo. Sudo is only different in the aspect, that it’s a special command that’s allocated to one specific user. So unlike su, with sudo you can use your user password instead of the superuser’s password. Example:
sudo zypper in goodiegoodieChanging file and group ownership To change the owner of the file, you have to run chown as a superuser. For example, if I’d want to change ownership from ‘nenad’ to ‘suse’, I do it this way:
suI can also accomplish the same with changing group ownership, but with a slightly different command chgrp. Easy peasy:
[enter password]
chown suse example_file
chgrp suse_group example_file…and that’s it.
Next time As I already stated, next time we’ll have a photo-finish of sorts. And after that, you’ll be on your own (along with me, wandering through the terminal’s darkness, with only a blinking green cursor as a lighthouse :) ). Until then geekos, remember to…
…have a lot of fun!
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.08.2014 - klo:01:00
6 August 2014, 9:11 pm
In the past 4 months during this years Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for open source software projects, Christian Bruckmayer collaborated with other students and mentors to code a dashboard for the Open Source Event Manager (OSEM). In this series of posts Christian will tell you about his project and what he has learned from this experience.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/GoogleSummer_2014logo-300x270.jpg)
Hey there, Christian here again. This is my second post in a three post series about my GSoC project, last week I explained the dashboard in my post OSEM: Conference Dashboard (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/30/gsoc-open-source-event-manager-organizer-dashboard/). You should go and read that if you haven’t already! This week I would like to tell you about another feature that I have implemented during this summer: Conference Goals & Campaigns.
Setting expectations for a conference While working on the dashboard it became more and more evident that conference organizers have expectations about registrations, call for paper submissions and the program. Stuff like
- I need more than 50 people to attend to make the conference a success.
- I need at least a hundred submissions by next month to build a reasonable schedule.
- In the end I have room for 21 hours of program on my schedule.
- Specific: The goal should be clear and unambiguous
- Measurable: The goal should be trackable
- Achievable: The goal is realistic and manageable
- Relevant: The goal should matter for your conference
- Time-bound: The goal should be achieved in a specific period of time
- due_date
- goal_count
- unit
To get the current progress of the goal I simply implemented the following method:
def get_progress numerator = 0 if unit == Goal.units[:submissions] numerator = conference.events.where('created_at < ?', due_date).count elsif unit == Goal.units[:registrations] numerator = conference.registrations.where('created_at < ?', due_date).count elsif unit == Goal.units[:program_minutes] numerator = conference.current_program_hours end (numerator / goal_count.to_f * 100).round(0).to_s end Depending of the unit I query the current amount of it and divide it by the goal count. That’s it!Campaigns Another idea we came up are marketing campaigns. This is an incredible useful feature for organizers, because now they not only know how many, but also where the registrations and proposal submissions are coming from. For this feature we make heavily use of Ahoy (http://ankane.github.io/ahoy/), a Ruby on Rails extension which provides a solid foundation to track visits and events. With Ahoy we can now simply track a registration like this:
def register ... ahoy.track 'Registered', title: 'New registration' ... endNow we know whether the registration comes from our blog article or a tweet! That’s awesome, isn’t it?
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/campaigns_list-1024x314.png)
In addition you can combine the marketing campaign with specific targets. If an organizer for example wants to generate 20 registrations with a tweet, he can generate a target ’20 registrations’ and then attach it to an campaign. Now he can easily monitor the success of his goal.
For this to work I had to implement the following method:
def get_campaign numerator = 0 if unit == Goal.units[:submissions] numerator = campaign.submissions_count elsif unit == Goal.units[:registrations] numerator = campaign.registrations_count elsif unit == Goal.units[:program_minutes] numerator = campaign.current_program_hours end progress = (numerator / goal_count.to_f * 100).round(0).to_s result = { 'goal_name' => to_s, 'campaign_name' => campaign.name, 'value' => numerator, 'unit' => unit, 'created_at' => created_at, 'progress' => progress, 'days_left' => days_left, } result end In the end we calculate a hash with all the relevant data which we display on our dashboard:(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/campaigns_targets.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/campaigns_targets.png)
That’s it for the Goals & Campaigns feature of the Open Source Event Manager. I hope you again enjoyed my summary, next week I’m going less technical on you and will tell you what GSoC taught me. Till then!
Don’t forget to check out my other posts in this series
- OSEM: Conference Dashboard (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/30/gsoc-open-source-event-manager-organizer-dashboard/)
- OSEM: Goals & Campaigns (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/06/gsoc-osem-goals-campaigns/)
- GSoC: What I have learned
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.08.2014 - klo:19:01
7 August 2014, 3:00 pm
We are proud to announce official Docker containers for our latest openSUSE release, 13.1. Docker is an open-source project that automates the deployment of applications inside software containers. With the official openSUSE Docker containers it’s now easy for developers to leverage the power of our Linux distribution and it’s free software Eco-system as base for their applications.
openSUSE + Docker == Awesome The Docker project was released in March last year. Until now, during this short amount of time, more than 450 people contributed with patches and 14,000 containers have been published on its central index. Docker recently released version 1.0, the first one declared enterprise-ready.
The container technology has been around since quite some time, think about FreeBSD jails, Solaris zones, OpenVZ, LXC. However none of these tools has ever attracted as much attention as Docker. Docker has been so successful because it makes easy to harness the power of containers and at the same time it provides two important features: a developer oriented work flow to manage containers’ life cycle and a set of collaborative functionalities.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-from-2014-08-04-124354-300x175.png) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Screenshot-from-2014-08-04-124354.png)
Managing Docker images shares analogies with version control systems used to track the evolution of source code. Containers are stored on a central repository called Docker Hub (https://registry.hub.docker.com/). Users can download them using the “pull” command. They can “diff” a running container to see which changes have been made. They can fork containers and “push” their derived work back to the Docker Hub.
The creation of new containers starting from the existing ones is achieved using Docker’s integrated build system. The feature is based on a special file called “Dockerfile”, a text file containing a list of Docker build directives. These commands can do several operations like: select the image to extend, execute a command inside of the container at build time, expose a service running inside of the container to the outside world and more.
Starting today the Docker Hub provides official openSUSE containers (https://registry.hub.docker.com/_/opensuse/) for our stable releases. This container can be used as a foundation block to create new awesome containers based on our beloved Linux distribution.
Try the official openSUSE docker containers The first thing to do is to install Docker by following the official installation instructions for openSUSE (https://docs.docker.com/installation/openSUSE/). Users of Factory can install docker straight from the main repository. The same should happen pretty soon to Tumbleweed users (the docker package is currently staged in the Tumbleweed:testing repository).
To download the official openSUSE container just run:
docker pull opensuse:13.1
To run a program inside of the container use the following command:
docker run opensuse:13.1
There are several options for the docker run command, please refer to Docker’s documentation (https://docs.docker.com/reference/run/). However, a use case which is worth mentioning regards the execution of an interactive shell inside of the container. This can be achieved by using the following command:
docker run -t -i opensuse:13.1 /bin/bash
Creating a docker application based on the official containers is easy too. Just use Docker’s build system and create a Dockerfile like this one:
FROM opensuse:13.1 MAINTAINERThen from the directory containing the Dockerfile run:" " # make sure the repositories are up to date RUN zypper --non-interactive --gpg-auto-import-keys ref RUN zypper in -y
docker build -t
At the end of the build process the new image will be added to your list of local images.
For more complex images (like ones exposing services running inside of them), please refer to Docker’s documentation (http://docs.docker.com/reference/builder/).
Let’s Collaborate! If you find something about our containers that can be improved, please collaborate with us. We have created the docker containers with KIWI (http://opensuse.github.io/kiwi/), openSUSEs Operating System Image and Appliance builder which is the basis of SUSE Studio (https://susestudio.com/) and the imaging functionality of the Open Build Service (http://openbuildservice.org). The files used to create these images are available in our Github repository (https://github.com/openSUSE/docker-containers). They are free software, released under the MIT license. You can run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve them.
Thank you We have to thank Flavio Castelli (http://flavio.castelli.name), maintainer of the Docker package, for the creation of these containers, the KIWI developers for adding the docker build format and finally the Docker team for marking these containers as official on the Docker Hub.
About openSUSE The openSUSE Project is a worldwide community that promotes the use of Linux everywhere. It creates one of the world’s best Linux distributions, working together in an open, transparent and friendly manner as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community. The project is controlled by its community and relies on the contributions of individuals, working as testers, writers, translators, usability experts, artists and ambassadors or developers. The project embraces a wide variety of technology, people with different levels of expertise, speaking different languages and having different cultural backgrounds. Learn more about it on opensuse.org (http://www.opensuse.org)
About Docker Docker is an open platform for developers and sysadmins to build, ship, and run distributed applications. Consisting of Docker Engine, a portable, lightweight runtime and packaging tool, and Docker Hub, a cloud service for sharing applications and automating workflows. Docker enables apps to be quickly assembled from components and eliminates the friction between development, QA, and production environments. As a result, IT can ship faster and run the same app, unchanged, on laptops, data center VMs, and any cloud. Learn more about it on docker.com (https://www.docker.com/)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 09.08.2014 - klo:01:01
8 August 2014, 8:07 pm
Heya there geekos! As we have already reported, there’s an ongoing contest for the official logo for the openSUSE Asia Summit. (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/14/the-first-opensuse-asia-summit-is-announced/) You can read the announcement here (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/07/21/opensuse-asia-summit-announces-its-logo-contest/). There have been proposals coming our way, but…
…(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/terry-crews-yelling-I-want-MOAR.jpg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/terry-crews-yelling-I-want-MOAR.jpg)
For that reason, we’re issuing a reminder for all geekos with a sense of design to help us make this summit successful as it can and should be. You won’t be doing it for the sheer thrill of it, though. You can do it for the geeko pride of having your logo printed all over the place an all of promotional material, and, to top it off, there’s a super secret Geeko prize! (https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/4267944192/hA35263DC/)
We kindly invite you to join our effort, and hope to have our mailbox crammed with suggestions come deadline, August 18th. And here are the super simple rules for all the potential contestants:
- We will accept only SVG format for original design. Both color and monochrome(black and white) version are required.
- The elements of your design should reflect the openSUSE community in Asia.
- Please note that there are some things should not be used in your design:elements of your design should reflect the openSUSE community in Asia.
- No brand names or trademarks of any kind.
- No illustrations some may consider inappropriate, offensive, hateful, tortuous, defamatory, slanderous or libelous.
- No sexually explicit or provocative images.
- No images of weapons or violence.
- No alcohol, tobacco, or drug use imagery.
- No designs which promotes bigotry, racism, hatred or harm against groups or individuals; or promotes discrimination based on race, gender, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.
- No religious, political, or nationalist imagery.
- Your artwork should comply with “openSUSE Project Trademark Guidelines” published at: https://en.opensuse.org/File:OpenSUSE_Trademark_Guidelines.pdf (https://en.opensuse.org/File%3AOpenSUSE_Trademark_Guidelines.pdf)
- You should also agree that the openSUSE community have right to interpret the usage of the artwork.
- All your artwork will be licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/).
- http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Artwork_guidelines (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_guidelines)
- http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Artwork_brand (http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE%3AArtwork_brand)
- Vector file of the design in attachement, with svg format ONLY.
- Bitmap of design in attachment – image size: 256*256px at least. Format: png or jpg. Less than 512KB.
- Your name.
- Where are you working/studying now. (optional)
- Your phone number. (optional)
Note:
- The final decision will be made by openSUSE.Asia Summit Committee. Please understand that the highest vote score of the design may not be designated as the final winner.
- To create your artwork, we recommend to use Inkscape, which is a powerful vector graphics tool for all kinds of design. It’s free and open sourced.
- The article has been updated after discussion with openSUSE Asia team regarding entry rules.
(https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/unclesamF.jpeg) (https://news.opensuse.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/unclesamF.jpeg)
Source: openSUSE News (https://news.opensuse.org)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Heya there geekos! As we have already reported, there’s an ongoing contest for the official logo for the openSUSE Asia Summit. You can read the announcement here. There have been proposals coming our way, but… … For that reason, we’re issuing a reminder for all geekos with a sense of design to help us make […]
Source: REMINDER: openSUSE Asia Summit Logo Contest Continues! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/08/reminder-opensuse-asia-summit-logo-contest-continues/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Yo yo, geekos! Here we are, for the final chapter of our CLT hangout. Today, we’ll be talking about job control through which we’ll learn how to control processes running on our computer! An Example As we have learned, we can run programs directly from the CLI by simply typing the name of the program. […]
Source: Command Line Tuesdays – Part Eight (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/12/command-line-tuesdays-part-eight/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
openSUSE, despite the vastness of the www stating it’s primarily a KDE distro, prides itself in offering a one stop shop for your operating system needs, regardless of your desktop environment preferences. And it’s true. For a couple of months, I’ve been running openSUSE GNOME exclusively on my laptop. And it worked like a charm. […]
Source: Need a Wallpaper Changer for GNOME? Try Variety! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/13/need-a-wallpaper-changer-for-gnome-try-variety/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Heya geekos! We love the fact that the openSUSE News section is being generally well-adopted and well read. But, we’d like to do more, and do better! And for that, we need your input. Don’t worry, we won’t demand any 10000 characters super-articles (for now :P), but what we would like from you is to […]
Source: openSUSE News Team Needs Your Feedback! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/14/opensuse-news-team-needs-your-feedback/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
In the past 4 months during this years Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for open source software projects, Christian Bruckmayer collaborated with other students and mentors to code a dashboard for the Open Source Event Manager (OSEM). In this series of posts Christian will […]
Source: GSoC: What I have learned (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/14/gsoc-what-i-have-learned/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Hi there, green machine users! As you know, there has been a survey going on about your favorite news spot. It was our way of feeling your pulse a little, to see what you desire the most, where do we excel and where do we leave something to be desired for. And the results have […]
Source: openSUSE News Survey – Responses (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/29/opensuse-news-survey-responses/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Following the announcement of our logo contests, thanks to our awesome community as usual, we now have several logos. Choosing the best of them off course was a lot of work for us and so the openSUSE Asia committee has decided that the community will choose its own logo for the summit. We are happy […]
Source: openSUSE Asia Summit – Choose our Logo (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/08/30/opensuse-asia-summit-choose-our-logo/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Greetings everyone, this is Peter from Hungary. In the last few months I have spent a lot of time and effort to give something to the open source community in the framework of GSoC. The aim of my project was to implement a Load Balancer as a Service (LBaaS) Zorp (http://www.balabit.com/network-security/zorp) driver for OpenStack (http://www.openstack.org/) […]
Source: Things I learnt with the Zorp and openSUSE Team (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/01/things-i-learnt-with-the-zorp-and-opensuse-team/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Another Google Summer of Code has come to an end. This year has been particularly satisfying as we achieved 100% success. All of our students passed their final evaluation and a lot of code has been pushed upstream. Though the students deserve a big round of applause, special credit has to be given to the […]
Source: Thank you mentors for an amazing GSoC!!! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/04/thank-you-mentors-for-an-amazing-gsoc/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 07.09.2014 - klo:08:29
Since the announcement at the end of July of the new Factory development model, the machinery worked tirelessly releasing more than 15 Factory snapshots during the next month. As you can see in the changelogs that are published in the openSUSE-Factory mailing list following every snapshot, the changes are not restricted to leaf packages. The […]
Source: Factory: Over 6000 installations and growing! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/05/factory-over-6000-installations-and-growing/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 09.09.2014 - klo:10:00
GSoC:My journey with openSUSE begins Hello everyone, I am Gopesh Tulsyan from India.I got involved with openSUSE community during GSoC to add features to OSEM(Open Source Event Manager Application).I am currently studying Information Technology in National Institute of Technology, Durgapur ,India. During GSoC I added two big features to OSEM, one is the Event Splash […]
Source: Gopesh talks about his GSoC Experience as an openSUSE student (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/09/gopesh-talks-about-his-gsoc-experience-as-an-opensuse-student/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.09.2014 - klo:20:02
We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Logo Design contest is the No.8 candidate authored by *W.H*! Congratulations, *W.H*! W.H’s logo has been chosen as the official logo. A heartfelt thanks from the openSUSE Asia community to all the logo designers for their time and effort, as well as the voters […]
Source: openSUSE.Asia Summit 2014 – We have a Logo now (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/12/opensuse-asia-summit-2014-we-have-a-logo-now/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 17.09.2014 - klo:12:04
Dear openSUSE Community, As you might be aware, SUSE’s parent entity, the Attachmate Group has entered into an agreement to merge into Micro Focus, a UK-based enterprise software company. As the primary sponsor of the openSUSE Project, SUSE’s President and General Manager, Nils Brauckmann has contacted the openSUSE Board to share the following key points Business […]
Source: Statement on the recent Merger announcement (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/17/statement-on-the-recent-merger-announcement/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 22.09.2014 - klo:10:00
The openSUSE Asia Summit committee has been working hard and is finally prepared to welcome you and give a taste of rich Chinese history and hospitality. You may register in our CONFERENCE SUBMISSION TOOL before Sep 30th. We are looking forward to having you with us on this Oct in Beijing. Off course, once you have registered […]
Source: openSUSE Asia – Register and book your dates!!! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/22/opensuse-asia-register-and-book-your-dates/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 22.09.2014 - klo:17:00
Our brand new ‘Rolling Factory’ has already amassed over 6000 installations and that’s just kicking awesome. But we won’t just roll: we will still create releases of openSUSE, and 13.2 is next! According to the roadmap, our latest Geeko is due in November and it will be awesome. We promise. But it doesn’t come for […]
Source: openSUSE 13.2 Is Coming – First Beta Has Arrived! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/09/22/opensuse-13-2-is-coming-first-beta-has-arrived/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 08.10.2014 - klo:11:02
Hello Geekos, You may be aware the Linux Foundation recently launched two Certification programs – Linux Foundation Certified Sysadmin (LFCS) covering basic system administration – Linux Foundation Certified Engineers (LFCE) covering advanced system administration and engineering skills Full details on the programs is at http://bit.ly/1yKRjxp Unlike other Linux Certification programs the exams for these are […]
Source: openSUSE users and the new Linux Foundation Certification Programs (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/08/opensuse-users-and-the-new-linux-foundation-certification-programs/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 09.10.2014 - klo:13:02
openSUSE 13.2 RC1 is baked and ready to serve!. This previous Beta release was a blast with almost 10.000 downloads. The community responded to the call and we had lot of eyes looking for bugs in openSUSE 13.2 Beta1. Many of them have been already squashed and openSUSE 13.2 Release Candidate 1 is here to […]
Source: openSUSE 13.2 RC1 is now out, hands on (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/09/opensuse-13-2-rc1-is-now-out-hands-on/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 16.10.2014 - klo:16:03
With less than three weeks from the release of our beloved green distro and the first release candidate already rocking, we can feel like we are almost there. This is exactly the right time to remember that there is still a lot of work to do and fun to have. Open source is awesome, but […]
Source: openSUSE 13.2: time to get your hands dirty (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/16/opensuse-13-2-time-to-get-your-hands-dirty/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 16.10.2014 - klo:16:03
This weekend is the start of openSUSE’s first Asia Summit in Beijing. The summit, which is a follow on to an open source summit SUSE sponsored in May, is expected to increase awareness in Asia about openSUSE and other Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Students, professors and computer technologists attending the summit will listen […]
Source: Asia Summit Highlights Growing Open Source Community in Asia (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/16/asia-summit-highlights-growing-open-source-community-in-asia/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 21.10.2014 - klo:16:01
Hi everyone, I’m Doug! This is the beginning of my third week at openSUSE contributing to marketing and communications. It is great to be of the community. Everything here is new, and during my first week, I kept hearing people here talk about Hack Week. Several thoughts of what Hack Week could be crossed my […]
Source: Hack Week Event Inspires Innovation, Creativity, Fun (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/21/hack-week-event-inspires-innovation-creativity-fun/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 23.10.2014 - klo:11:01
openSUSE 13.2 comes with the latest and greatest that the GNOME desktop has to offer — GNOME 3.14. At the time of the release 13.2 offers GNOME 3.14.1, which improves upon the user-experience of GNOME 3.10, that came with openSUSE 13.1, several notches, featuring notably a much improved gnome-shell with pretty-but-subtle animations and multi-touch gestures […]
Source: Sneak Peek into GNOME on openSUSE 13.2 (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/23/sneak-peek-into-gnome-on-opensuse-13-2/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 24.10.2014 - klo:15:00
With the release of openSUSE 13.2 in November, two of openSUSE’s open-source projects, the ‘Tumbleweed’ and ‘Factory’ rolling releases will be merging, and offered as a single openSUSE rolling release under the name ‘Tumbleweed’ Factory will remain the name of the development process where openSUSE’s new developments are integrated, with the tested, user-ready rolling release […]
Source: Tumbleweed, Factory rolling releases to merge (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/10/24/tumbleweed-factory-rolling-releases-to-merge/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 04.11.2014 - klo:15:03
Dear contributors, friends and fans: openSUSE 13.2 is out! After one year on continuous improvement in the tools and procedures and many hours of developing, packaging, testing and fixing issues a new stable release is here providing the best that Free and Open Source has to offer with our special green touch: stable, innovative and […]
Source: openSUSE 13.2: green light to freedom! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/04/opensuse-13-2-green-light-to-freedom/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 06.11.2014 - klo:12:02
NUREMBERG, Germany (5-Nov.-2014) – Many Linux user groups throughout Italy met at separate, but collectively themed events on Oct. 25 for Linux Day to promote the use of GNU/Linux and free software. Alexjan Carraturo, a openSUSE advocate, used this year’s Linux Day, which is sponsored by the Italian Linux Society, to promote participation in the […]
Source: openSUSE project creates buzz in Italy (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/06/opensuse-project-creates-buzz-in-italy/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 10.11.2014 - klo:22:01
To help promote 13.2, we have assembled some badges, backgrounds, counters and banners for you to put on your social media or blog pages. For your blog and social media accounts If you want to decorate your blog or website with a nice 13.2 banner, grab one of these two: 468×60 728×90 Twitter, […]
Source: Help promote openSUSE 13.2! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/10/help-promote-opensuse-13-2/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2014 - klo:13:04
To help promote 13.2, we have assembled some badges, backgrounds, counters and banners for you to put on your social media or blog pages. For your blog and social media accounts If you want to decorate your blog or website with a nice 13.2 banner, grab one of these two: 468×60 728×90 600×100 […]
Source: Help promote openSUSE 13.2! (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/10/help-promote-opensuse-13-2/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2014 - klo:13:04
As the first major Linux distribution to have btrfs as the default file system, what can users and developers expect from openSUSE 13.2? How is the systems capabilities enhanced? Btrfs has different performance characteristics; it’s a logging-style file system that provides fault tolerance, repair, and easy management features. The most well known advantage of btrfs […]
Source: What to expect from btrfs on openSUSE 13.2? (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/12/what-to-expect-from-btrfs-on-opensuse-13-2/)
Kirjoitti: openSUSE.fi - 12.11.2014 - klo:16:00
As the first major Linux distribution to have Btrfs as the default file system, what can users and developers expect from openSUSE 13.2? How is the systems capabilities enhanced? Btrfs has different performance characteristics; it’s a logging-style file system that provides fault tolerance, repair, and easy management features. The most well known advantage of Btrfs […]
Source: What to expect from Btrfs on openSUSE 13.2? (https://news.opensuse.org/2014/11/12/what-to-expect-from-btrfs-on-opensuse-13-2/)