The Linux Foundation Adds the openSUSE Build Service to its Developer Network
by Kristin Shoemaker - Apr. 08, 2009Comments (0)- Related Blog Posts
- Over 50 Free, Must-Have Open Source Resources
- What Does a User Cost?
- Amarok Refreshed: Better, Stronger, Faster!
- Dell's Multimedia Mini PC Ships With Ubuntu
- What Lies Ahead for Chrome OS?
One of the first announcements rolling out of the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco this morning is the Linux Foundation's addition of the openSUSE Build Service (OBS) to its Linux Developer Network. The Foundation plans to provide an interface to the OBS via the LDN site to aid developers wishing to package their projects for all of the major Linux distributions.
This is a significant step forward for the OBS, the development community, and, ultimately, Linux users of all walks of life, using just about any distribution on nearly every chip architecture.
The openSUSE Build Service was, from the beginning, meant to help developers cross compile their software for a number of architectures and distributions. Able to package RPMs and DEBs quickly and without fuss, it transcends the openSUSE Project, and even reaches beyond those distributions using the Red Hat Package Managment framework. The fact that it's been hosted by the openSUSE Project (and of course bears its name) has actually somewhat hampered its use in the general developer community, says openSUSE community manager, Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier.
Brockmeier told OStatic yesterday that he's very hopeful about what this announcement means for Linux in the long-term:
...it [the OBS] really, truly, really and truly, is a tool that could benefit the entire Linux community. I'd like to see uptake of OBS outside of openSUSE and much more contribution to it. My dream is that someday it'd be a tool for literally all Linux distros.
He stresses that the real key for Linux adoption -- general Linux adoption -- is to make it easy for developers to package their applications for every major distribution. This is why the OBS team is particularly excited to see the service push beyond openSUSE and gain traction in a very non-distribution specific setting.
There's another bit of news packaged with the OBS/LDN partnership announcement. The openSUSE Project has rolled out the 1.6 release of the OBS, which supports compiling for the ARM architecture (used primarily in smaller, embedded devices). This enables developers using one architecture to compile RPM or DEB packages for ARM devices through a single interface.
Does this mean there's an openSUSE ARM port in the works? Not right away, Brockmeier tells us, but anything is possible:
The tools are there to create an ARM port, it's a matter now of whether the community decides to move in that direction. We're not planning on an "official" ARM release for 11.2, but 5e [OStatic note: 5e DataSoft GmbH contributed as an openSUSE community member to integrate ARM-support in the current OBS release] and others have shown interest in leading that effort, so we may very well have an "unofficial" 11.2 release for ARM.
The OBS was created with the entirety of the Linux community in mind -- to aid developers in bringing their software to as many distributions and users as possible. In conjunction with the LDN's other developer tools, it can enrich (and preserve) the diversity of Linux distributions -- and save developers time while expanding the reach of their efforts.
Comments
