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SUSE Studio — Linux Customization For the Masses

apokryphos writes "Novell just released the first alpha of SUSE Studio (screencast), which provides an easy way to customize your own Linux distribution with the software and configuration you want. Among other things, you can spin a Live CD, a USB image, or create a VMware image. It builds upon the already established openSUSE Build Service and KIWI imaging system."

29 of 126 comments (clear)

  1. Wasn't this a Phil Collins song? by Majik+Sheff · · Score: 5, Funny

    SUSE SUSE Studio

    --
    Women are like electronics: you don't know how damaged they are until you try to turn them on.
  2. Yes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    For very small values of masses.

    1. Re:Yes by dimeglio · · Score: 3, Funny

      We can now spam distrowatch with a gazillion custom versions!

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      Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
    2. Re:Yes by Anarke_Incarnate · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Dude, you are so full of shit, your eyes are brown. Microsoft does NOT own Novell in part nor in whole. Microsoft paid Novell in a cross license/agree not to sue our customers deal. Novell Paid MS in the same deal, just a lot less.

      MS thought they had a Tier 1 Linux vendor by the short hairs and sent press releases saying that Novell agreed that Linux infringed on their IP. Novell released their own stating "Go screw, no we don't" essentially.

      Short of the MS apologist, Miguel, Novell has not agreed with MS in many ways, however they have worked on interoperability with contributions to SAMBA as well as Open Office, to allow better MS Office compatibility for macros and such.

      Before you make yourself look EVEN STUPIDER, I suggest you stop talking.

  3. Correct screencast link... by Zapotek · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. Re:Correct screencast link... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Honestly, what the fuck. We already know the "editors" don't read the articles, but is it too much to ask to verify the links?!?! Sadly, I think the answer is "yes". At this point in time, I see no reason why every single "editor" couldn't be replaced by a simple script.

    2. Re:Correct screencast link... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey! I wrote all those scripts myself ! I apologize for KDawson, I wrote that one when I was nodding off on heroin.

      -- Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda

    3. Re:Correct screencast link... by Mish · · Score: 3, Funny

      I put this script together a while back to help me relive the days of quality slashdot content.

      curl --silent http://feeds.digg.com/digg/container/technology/popular.rss http://feeds.digg.com/digg/container/science/popular.rss http://feeds.digg.com/digg/container/gaming/popular.rss | grep -e "<title>digg.com: Stories" -e "<link>http://feeds.digg.com" | sed -e '/<title>digg.com/s//slashdot.org/g' -e '/<\/title>/s///g' -e '/<link>/s///g' -e '/<\/link>/s///g'

      Yes, I'm kidding, Yes, it works.

    4. Re:Correct screencast link... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh crap, the CmdrTaco script is now self-aware and self-replicating.

    5. Re:Correct screencast link... by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 2, Funny

      Nuke it from orbit -- it's the only way to be sure.

      (There goes my karma, but someone had to say it.)

      --
      Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
  4. Actual screencast URL by moonbender · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, the screencast is at http://studio.suse.com/, not suse.studio.com, which is an adfarm that just struck gold.

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  5. Re:IE not supported... by palegray.net · · Score: 2, Funny

    Citation needed.

  6. OpenID by phantomcircuit · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Finally someone actually using OpenID as a consumer.

    1. Re:OpenID by thetartanavenger · · Score: 2, Funny

      First time I've ever seen something using OpenID, and it refused to let me login. Dang alpha signup.

      --
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  7. Re:IE not supported... by russlar · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Your browser is not officially supported We have detected that the browser you are using, Microsoft Internet Explorer, is not officially supported. Currently, for the alpha of SUSE Studio, we only support Firefox 2 and 3, and Safari 3."

    FUCKING YES!

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    Anybody want my mod points?
  8. Re:IE not supported... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Apparently the site only creates Linux distributions. It would be nice if you could roll your own windows cd, too. I'll file both bugs right now.

  9. "Mass customization" by techno-vampire · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In TFA, Matthew Richards is quoted as saying, "We didn't achieve mass customization of cars until Ford thought up the assembly line." No, Mr. Richards, that's not what Ford's assembly line achieved. It achieved mass production of essentially identical cars. That's why, for many years, you could buy a Ford in any color you wanted, as long as you wanted black. Similarly, you can use this software to produce any custom Linux you want, as long as you want it based on Open SuSe.

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    1. Re:"Mass customization" by mgblst · · Score: 2, Interesting

      6. Any Color As Long As It's Black - The myth that the Model T only came in black probably comes from the reality that almost 12 million of the 15 million total Model Ts were black. But, in the early and late years of Model T production, the car was produced in many different colors, including blue, red, green and grey. Oddly, many these hues were so dark they were hardly discernable from black, another reason the myth lives on.

      http://www.seriouswheels.com/cars/def/top-Ford-Model-T-Centennial.htm

  10. Re:IE not supported... by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 4, Funny

    i believe i speak for all* linux users when i say:
    HAHAHA, how does it feel now bitches!!! oh yeah now its your turn!

    *well im sure that's how my mate feels and as microsoft has pointed out many a time, there are in fact only 3 people using linux.

    --
    IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  11. Re:An Excellent Idea by apokryphos · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Indeed, it is actually designed to be friendly for other distributions as well. Both the build service and KIWI (both GPL) intentionally have generic designs so that you can both build packages for other distributions, and build customisable versions of other distributions, too. It's a really nice thing: when a distribution goes out of their way to ensure that others can benefit from the tools as well.

  12. Car analogy..... ... .... by w0mprat · · Score: 3, Informative
    FTFA:

    "We didn't achieve mass customization of cars until Ford thought up the assembly line. We need the equivalent of the assembly line in the (operating system) world:"

    Err, no we don't, at least not Dell/Apple's definition of 'customization' where you have two or three choices of hardrive upgrade options, each increment of cost would buy your the retail part outright.

    Worse, ford and his mass production gave us any colour so long as it's black.

    This is rather the opposite and a Good Thing. The better analogy would have been the custom car scene from the 1950s onwards, where you can pay for a customized build, rather than do all the work yourself. This might get frowns from those who like object to paying someone do it.

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  13. Re:IE not supported... by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 2, Informative

    Better than Ubuntu, IMO. Their tools feel more polished.

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
  14. Re:IE not supported... by mooreti1 · · Score: 2, Funny

    "Your browser is not officially supported We have detected that the browser you are using, Microsoft Internet Explorer, is not officially supported. Currently, for the alpha of SUSE Studio, we only support Firefox 2 and 3, and Safari 3." Way to go SUSE, not supporting the most used web browser on earth.

    Dude, we thank you for telling us...even though I don't know if I'd admit to using IE. You are buh-rave!

    --
    Oh, for the days when sig's didn't have to be cute...hey, wait a sec.
  15. Re:IE not supported... by lysergic.acid · · Score: 4, Interesting

    as a web developer, i definitely agree that not having to support IE saves a lot of development time. on most projects i've worked on, about 20% of the development time is spent going back and forth with the client to come up with a layout design that they're happy with. only 5% of the time is used to cut up the graphics and actually implement the layout for standards-compliant browsers like Firefox/Safari/Opera/etc., which is pretty straight forward; just follow the W3C specs, and if it works in one browser, it'll pretty much work in all of them.

    but the most painful part of any project is trying to get your site, which validates and renders properly in all other browsers, to render correctly in IE--which takes up the remaining 75% of the development time. not only is it a huge PITA for web developers (who are forced to mangle their previously elegant & well-formed code with a patchwork of unwieldy CSS hacks and clumsy JavaScript), but it also costs website owners a ton of money (if your designer/developer charges by the hour--which most smart freelance web developers do) as well. sure, the percentage may be less if it's a relatively simple site, or the designer creates the layout with tables, or if they simply design the site just for IE, standards be damned. but on the whole, supporting IE takes more time, effort, and money than is required for all other browsers added together.

    however, in this case i think SUSE is a large enough company that they can afford to spend the money on IE support. so if their site doesn't work in IE, it's probably done on purpose to, either, a.) support web standards (and send a message to IE users), b.) support Firefox (and send a message to IE users), or c.) filter out clueless IE users that don't belong on their site. i mean, this service isn't exactly aimed at the typical computer novice who accidentally wandered out of their AOL/MSN playpen. anyone who's expected to use this site would know better than to use IE.

  16. Fedora Spins? by kenh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Haven't I seen this before - yes, over on Fedora, they have a "spins" functionality, making this an evolutionary, not revolutionary improvement.

    http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/CustomSpins

    --
    Ken
    1. Re:Fedora Spins? by erikina · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's not even in the same league. A fedora spin is very difficult, cumbersome and far more trouble than its worth. (Unless you're doing an official spin). Revisor makes it a little more palpable, but it's buggy as hell (I've not been able to get it to work, not even once.)

      From the screencast this looks easy as pie, but I'll reserve my final judgment for when I try it.

  17. Re:IE not supported... by cerberusss · · Score: 3, Insightful

    but the most painful part of any project is trying to get your site, which validates and renders properly in all other browsers, to render correctly in IE--which takes up the remaining 75% of the development time

    I find that percentage hard to believe. Almost all IE6 bugs have been thoroughly documented including fixes. If you consistently spend that percentage of time, then I think you need to rethink your process. For example, one developer could focus on IE6 bugs and port your layouts. That person would have most bugs (including fixes) in his head.

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  18. Similar to Fedora's revisor? by perrin · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Judging from the screencast, this looks just like what Fedora is trying to do with the revisor application. I wonder how fast it is, though. In the screencast, it looked like the image was created almost instantly, while revisor can take hours to complete, and it is so full of bugs and so hard to make working images with that it is IMHO nearly unusable. I have spent days trying to make revisor and then pungi create working images with a custom kickstart file, but eventually had to go over to doing everything by hand instead. I really hope SuSe deliver on their promises on this, it will make life so much simpler for people working with embedded systems and kiosk systems.

  19. I thought... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ...that's, what Gentoo Linux is for.

    You can't get any more customization, without doing Linux from scratch.

    And why in the world would I want to install an RPM-based package manager, when I can have a Ports-based one?

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.