The openSUSE release is not only available for free download but also as separate boxed product to buy from retail shops and internet shops. The box product contains two DVDs for 32-bit x86 and 64-bit x86-64 systems which have the complete ftp tree of the openSUSE 10.3 distribution. Additionally, it comes with a printed start up manual and free installation support.

As with every openSUSE release — and also previously with SUSE Linux releases — we have sent out during the last week to upstream package maintainers, the openSUSE translation teams and to active bug reporters an openSUSE 10.3 box for free to say thank you!

A masters student from the University of Oslo (yours truly) is currently doing a research project on firm-sponsored open-source communities. openSUSE is the main case of study, and the research will provide some knowledge about how the community is working and its collaboration and affiliation with Novell.

As part of this study, a contributor survey has been launched. If you are an active contributor to the openSUSE project (involved in packaging, support, discussions, documentation, translation etc), please take 2 minutes to fill out this survey by clicking the link.

The results from the survey will be published on opensuse.org within a month, and the full thesis will be ready by June 2008.

As part of a Novell Open Audio series on openSUSE, they will be interviewing various openSUSE developers to find out more about the project, particular involvements and new technologies in the distribution. Today’s interview features a talk with Martin Lasarsch, an openSUSE evangelist. He extensively goes over the changes in openSUSE 10.3, highlighting all the nice improvements along the way.

The episode also features a talk with no fewer than 10 of the core openSUSE developers, as they provide insight into the openSUSE releases and how things like the numbering of our releases work.

To strengthen the openSUSE project we’re looking for an enthusiastic Chief Evangelist to:

• promote and spread the adoption of openSUSE
• be a public face for the project on conferences and events
• act as voice of the community back to Novell’s leadership team
• develop and nurture the openSUSE communities
• pro actively drive openSUSE marketing

This is a global role and as such, you can be located anywhere in the world. We’re looking forward to you. For detailed information please look here.

Weekly status reports from the different areas of the openSUSE project are now posted to the mailing lists and get linked on the IRC meeting wiki pages (current) - the bi-weekly meeting has been renamed from status meeting to project meeting as a consequence. Klaas Freitag has been appointed as architect of the SUSE department which develops the openSUSE Build Service, he introduced himself with this post. This preloading announcement of SLED and openSUSE on machines in Europe may make a computer of Shuttle worth to buy. Microsoft will deliver the specifications and codecs to allow to implement and run an implementation of Silverlight for Linux called Moonlight.

It happened again. Another year passed (flew by). Happy Birthday openSUSE!

Read on for a look back and some things to come.

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As announced at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo, AMD has been unveiled as a Platinum Sponsor of openSUSE providing it with powerful infrastructure upon which the openSUSE Build Service (OBS) can be run.

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Cornelius has posted the final draft of the openSUSE Guiding Principles to the opensuse-project mailing list. The openSUSE Guiding Principles are addressing the openSUSE community and outside world by providing documentation of the common understanding how the project works. The project is now working on getting broad support from inside Novell as well as the external openSUSE community for the final version of the Guiding Principles and will then officially announce them.