The Waltham, Massachusetts-based Linux and identity management software vendor introduced openSUSE in August 2005 as a means of getting the code for its Linux distributions in front of die-hard users earlier in the development process.
While openSUSE members were able to download the code, report bugs, and suggest changes, they have not been able to contribute directly to the development process so far.
That is set to change in the coming months with the release of a public development framework based on Novell’s internal Autobuild technology that will enable open source and third-party application developers to make code and patch contributions.
Novell said the framework will include core libraries and a public build server that can be used by any registered project member. The openSUSE project’s build service team plans to present the results of its work at the FOSDEM Free and Open source Software Developers’ European Meeting event at the end of 2006.
Novell added that the SUSE Linux code had been installed more than 750,000 times since it launched the openSUSE project, which equates to an average of one installation every 12 seconds.
While that appears to indicate a good level of interest in the project, its success will really be measured in the company increasing interest in, and adoption of, its commercially supported Linux packages: SUSE Linux Professional, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Novell Linux Desktop. All three are based on the common SUSE Linux code base and stand to benefit if Novell can increase community-level involvement with the code.
The company has some catching up to do on Red Hat Inc, both in terms of subscriptions to commercial products and community involvement. Red Hat launched its Fedora Linux community project in mid-2003 and last year created the non-profit Fedora Foundation to broaden community involvement with the Fedora project.
