Klaas wrote an article about the openSUSE Build Service that got published in the german edition of Linux Magazin. Everyone able to read german go here.

It covers general introduction into openSUSE’s Build Service, tutorials how to build a simple package, touches upon OSC and web client and gives an overview over the underlying technology.

The survey is designed to pinpoint areas of user need in order to focus development efforts and accelerate the global adoption of Linux desktops and clients. It will be conducted till November 30, 2007. Survey results will be made publicly available shortly after it concludes. The survey is available here.

Have a lot of fun!

As the first reviews start to roll in, TuxMachines have just released one of the first comprehensive reviews of openSUSE 10.3, concluding that it is a mature, stable, free Linux distribution:

“Underneath its new green artwork, version 10.3’s improvements over previous versions include cutting down the time it takes to reach the graphical login screen; speeding up and streamlining its package management utility; and making it easier for users to install software using a new “one-click install” process.”

openSUSE 10.3 has been declared Gold and will now be uploaded to the mirrors and available for download on October 4th - the boxed version can be pre-ordered for delivery shortly after. tuxmachines.org has a late report on openSUSE 10.3 RC 1 with lots of new screenshots. Francis has created statistics about the openSUSE 10.3 bug reporters - half of the bug reports were done by non-Novell community members. Novell is now putting more resources into the Linux Driver Project which offers to write drivers for companies, for free.

Stephan Kulow has announced Live-CD builds (GNOME, KDE ISOs) based on the openSUSE 10.3 Beta3plus packages. tuxmachines.org published their report on and screenshots of openSUSE 10.3 Beta 3. The openSUSE-Community site got a facelift and offers 1-click-install definitions for 10.3 packages. KDE 4.0 Beta 2 has been released and as usual unsupported packages are available as well as a new “KDE Four Live” CD which was created with Kiwi.

tuxmachines.org provides again a report about the latest openSUSE Beta releases - more screenshot galleries are linked on the “In the Press” wiki page. Rune has announced an own translation statistics page where you can watch the localization teams struggling for the top positions. A detailed list of new AppArmor features and changes in openSUSE 10.3 has been posted to the opensuse-packaging mailing list. The openSUSE-Education project has been featured in this ZDNet.com blog. The Brazilian Portuguese IRC channel #suse-br has been merged into the general Portuguese IRC channel #opensuse-pt.

Some interesting data on the dektop usage of Linux. What’s striking is that popularity of openSUSE almost doubled form roughly 10% in 2006 to close to 20% in 2007 survey.

Again time to sum up news that didn’t make it to an own story here: At LinuxWorld San Francisco it was announced that SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, which is based on the openSUSE distribution, will be preloaded on systems of Dell and Lenovo. DistroWatch.com has interviewed Stephan Kulow about his new role as openSUSE project manager. Tomer wrote in to inform us about the chameleon.org.il portal he founded which offers forums, articles, chat and you can even test-drive openSUSE via NX. openSUSE artwork is now developed in a new SVN repository. Last but not least, a court ruled against SCO, stating that Novell is the owner of the UNIX copyrights.

Susan from tuxmachines.org has been one of the most constant testers of openSUSE releases for quite some time and for openSUSE 10.3 Alpha 7 she wrote again a detailed report with her observations and put up a screenshot gallery showing the new artwork. The wiki internationalization effort continues, with the Finnish Wiki joining the existing 16 international wikis. Daniel informed us that he recently launched suseforum.se, a web forum with the intention of being a gathering point for the openSUSE community in Sweden.

Ars Technica features a four-page story about the recent Hack Week in the Novell Open Platform Solutions business unit (where most of Novell’s openSUSE contributors are employed). Together with a few invited community members the developers worked a whole week on ideas and projects on their own. The article includes a general coverage, an interview with the initiator Nat Friedman, presents some selected projects and asks their developers for their Hack Week resume.