SUSE Studio 1.0 Released

apokryphos writes "Novell has just announced the release of SUSE Studio 1.0 — a user-friendly Web service that allows you to create your customized Linux distribution as a live CD, USB, Xen, or VMware image. Users have control over adding any repositories, packages, and files to the distribution. A new user can do the full creation and customization of the software appliance in roughly ten minutes. It also includes a Flash-based 'test drive' service, which allows you to try out your appliance in a Web browser before downloading it."

Comments

First Post

[fredtheshingle]

I 3 Studio with all my heart.

Just say the word...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh if she called me Id be there Id come running anywhere Shes all I need, all my life I feel so good if I just say the word SuSE Studio, just say the word Oh SuSE Studio

Re:Just say the word...

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh if she called me Id be there
Id come running anywhere
Shes all I need, all my life
I feel so good if I just say the word
SuSE Studio, just say the word
Oh SuSE Studio

If I knew who you are, I would come to your house and hit your computer with a sledgehammer.

Re:Just say the word...

[Joe Jay Bee]

Why hit him? Hit Phil Collins first - after all, he started it.

Re:Just say the word...

[KingMotley]

He was trying to be funny, as sledgehammer was a popular song released by peter gabriel around the same time that phil collin's sussudio was released.

Re:Just say the word...

[CronoCloud]

And Phil Collins was Peter Gabriel's successor as lead singer for Genesis.

Re:Just say the word...

[PopeRatzo]

Hit Phil Collins first

Now, you're talking my language. And with a big-ass sledgehammer.

If for no other reason than Buster (but god knows there are many many other reasons).

If it wasn't for his very special drumming on Brian Eno's Another Green World I'd say that Phil Collins should be tried for crimes against humanity. I was once driving on 90 through southwestern Wisconsin and Phil Collins' Groovy Kind of Love came on the radio. My ears bled and made the steering wheel slippery, making me lose control of the car, causing a nine-vehicle pileup, which included a bus full of developmentally-disabled children coming back from camp, as well as a station wagon driven by an ex-Victoria's Secret model dog breeder, who was carrying a litter of new-born beagle pups. I'm the only one who survived, but I'm still wracked with post-traumatic stress syndrome, which makes me shake and scream with terror every time I hear the combination of piano, synthesized strings and overly compressed drums. I've been feeling a lot better since I've been reading Catcher in the Rye, though.

I hope to meet Phil Collins some day.

Re:Just say the word...

[FatdogHaiku]

"nine-vehicle pileup" would be a great name for a band...

Re:Just say the word...

[cs02rm0]

http://www.tsrocks.com/p/phil_collins_texts/sussudio.html

Re:Just say the word...

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Joe Jay Bee, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Anonymous Cowardon, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Joe Jay Bee, get down on your knees so Anonymous Cowardon can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Anonymous Cowardon, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is SuSE Studio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.

Sweet!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'll use the service to make a Fedora 11 clone!

Re:Sweet!

[killthepoor187]

I don't think this is to make full fledged distros like ubuntu and fedora so much as software appliances like the gparted live cd.

"A software appliance is a full application stack containing the operating system, the application software and any required dependencies, and the configuration and data files required to operate. Everything is preinstalled, preintegrated, and ready to run.
You can think of this like an extreme form of static linking."

Although an easy way to make a full custom distro would be hot.

Re:Sweet!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

You certainly could make something that qualifies as a "custom distro"; but it would still pretty much be a subset of Suse's options, along with custom art, prepopulated DB tables, or whatever.

I'm not even sure what an "easy way to make a full custom distro" would look like, unless a copy of Linux From Scratch and an internet connection qualifies...

Nice except....

[praseodym]

"SUSE Studio is currently available to invited users only. Request an invitation on our user sign in page, and we'll send you an email soon!"

Re:Nice except....

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

This sort of service is presumably a fairly big server/bandwidth drain, and not as easy to break up across mirrors/bittorrent swarms as basic downloads are.

It'll be interesting to see if it is made freely and broadly available, whether there will be any volume restrictions, or whether it will be a pay service.

Re:Nice except....

[Hurricane78]

Isn't that why BitTorrent was invented?

Oh wait, it's a web-service instead of a real application. Well, I call that shooting in its own food, or an EPIC FAIL in new Internetspeak.

Re:Nice except....

[badkarmadayaccount]

Somebody fix git's binary performance, and fire up the torrent back end.

jews are filthy animals

[Anonymous Coward]

I am adolf hitler and i am here to shower all the jews.

Re:jews are filthy animals

[Anonymous Coward]

I am Adolf Nigger and I am here to fuck your asshole. Me and the 3rd reiche Niggas want to play with your ass a little bit. 7pm, Bring your tears.

Signed,
Nigger Socialist Movement

Wow, customized distros

[icebike]

This seems like a big step forward in distro design and customization. The ability to specify exactly what you want included and where you want to run it makes a lot of installations easier.

The time to download a .iso, then install, then add packages and repositories was always a significant portion of any new distro testing/adaptation.

I especially like the ability to get a pre-loaded VMware image, because that is where I test new releases.

Re:Wow, customized distros

[Anonymous Coward]

Truly a breath of fresh air in disto handling. I greatly look forward to the direction this is heading.

Re:Wow, customized distros

[nurb432]

oh, like you have been able to do with Freebsd for a while now with the FreeSBIE port ( at least the customized version angle )

Re:Wow, customized distros

[icebike]

It seems like this goes way beyond Free, in that this will deliver a working virtual machine, Live CD, or installation CD already with the additional repositories attached, and packages installed.

When it gets enhanced so you can select hardware of interest simply by clicking machine make/model from a list it will be sweeter yet.

Re:Wow, customized distros

[nurb432]

Yes, thats why i had the disclaimer...

Re:Wow, customized distros

[xtracto]

I thought something like Jigdo could be used to achieve just that.

An online web page which let you select what you want your system to have and then created a "jigdo" file containing such downloads will be a powerful tool.

Makes sense to go with SuSE.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Germans killed millions of Jews; we should all strive for such success.

Not really the same but

[Anonymous Coward]

I use sidux with fromiso booting and persistence. While not as elegant as configuring your distro, it allows to make live usb bootable pens/disk with customized settings/documents.

Now let's focus on KDE

[bogaboga]

KDE is very promising but needs polish with the 4.3 release. Now here is my request:

Let's focus on making the default KDE install not only beautiful but also functional to the fullest extent KDE allows. In other words, we need meaningful defaults.

I am doing my part helping out with KDE help files.

Re:Now let's focus on KDE

[netdur]

Nat, the guy behind SUSE Studio, is GNOME developer... so your wish may not... you figure out

Easily in the Top 5 innovations

[itomato]

I have been using this through Alpha and Beta, and it is the answer to many of the challenges I have faced when using tools like Debian's live-helper.

Less need to roll your own solutions to things like setting up repos, setting up a virtualization server, routines to handle changes/versioning (to some extent), storage, etc.

I have used it to pull out some demo environments to land a job (or intimidate the interviewers out of one), and grease the wheels on personal projects - things like a Live environment for Retail POS terminals, a LiveCD that boots into a 68K Mac emulator, and a playground for virtualized IBM s/390 and zSeries hardware with Hercules.

Seriously great tool. Nat Friedman and team have put a tremendous amount of effort and energy into this project, and they continue to be willing and open to lend a hand on IRC.

Hooray! I'd tele-cheers with a beer if I could!

This tool will hopefully end up on someone's short list of major Linux-related innovations of 2009.

Re:Easily in the Top 5 innovations

[cbuhler]

I've played with it some too. Great way to make a custom live cd with My Stuff. Suse and team do really need to get recognized for this.

Re:Easily in the Top 5 innovations

[moonbender]

a LiveCD that boots into a 68K Mac emulator

Now that is a neat idea. That'd make a really nice gift for some people I know, if you're willing to overlook the fact that the ROM isn't free.

Neat.

[Manip]

Neat.

But perhaps instead of wasting time proving how HUGE most Linux distro's have become, they should instead work on the usability of the OS. Linux is still restricted to both advanced users and relatively advanced system administrators. Until they can decrease the learning curve and reduced the need for time consuming configuration file changes then their userbase will be small with or without customized distributions.

Re:Neat.

[Usually Unlucky]

IMO the larger distrobutions, such as Ubuntu and Red Hat, can be even more inuitive to use than Windows. No "advanced" certifications required.

Re:Neat.

[armanox]

In my experience, Windows has the largest learning curve of any OS. Just because it is the most popular doesn't make it easy, sensible, or the best.

Re:Neat.

[Manip]

I challenge you to setup a stereotypical server WITHOUT changing a configuration file by hand.

Running:
  - E-Mail (IMAP, SMTP)
  - Calendar (sync-ed)
  - Web Server (PHP, MySQL)
  - FTP Server
  - Remote Desktop Connection (for re-configuring the server remotely)
  - Firewall

That isn't an unreasonable setup. In fact I think I just described 75% of Small Business Servers running today. Heck I didn't even require Samba running a DC and Shares (which is also extremely common).

Re:Neat.

[raylu]

"Stereotypical?"

Anyway, I challenge you to do the same on a Windows machine. As the other reply to your comment says, Windows does not have an easier learning curve.

Re:Neat.

[Anonymous Coward]

"In my experience" is another variation of the "some people say" opener. It's a hollow attempt to increase the credibility of an upcoming statement. Your experience doesn't carry much weight because we have no idea who you are except that you post on Slashdot. To make matters worse, your tag line suggests that you are a Linux zealot. As such, you will degrade Windows at every possible opportunity in order to promote GNU/Linux. Your "experience" is nothing more than heavily biased opinion.

Re:Neat.

[sammyF70]

... says AC. Now THAT is a credible source of information!

Re:Neat.

[armanox]

Then allow me to give you some insight. I'm a Network Administrator at an all Windows workplace. I handle systems running Windows XP, Windows Vista, Server 2003, Server 2003 R2, Server 2008, used to handle Windows 2000 and Server 2000. Handle Windows Domain Controllers, IIS, Office Sharepoint Server (2003 and 2007), Exchange, and MS SQL Server (2000, 2005, and 2008).

On the home front, when dealing with people who are not very tech savvy (take my Grandmother, Cousin and a few others) they have had an easier time using systems running Fedora and Slackware then Windows XP. They use KOffice and Open Office without issue, complain that Office 2007 is too different to be comfortable, complain that MS Office is too incompatible with itself. They are the people who I draw opinions from. I see Windows XP take several minutes to boot on my Pentium 4 and Linux boot in under 20 seconds. My bias, like many others, comes from experience. Linux and Solaris offer the same and sometimes better experience then Windows, and without the price tag.

Re:Neat.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a hollow attempt to increase the credibility of an upcoming statement.

No, it's an accurate description of where the information comes from.

Your experience doesn't carry much weight because we have no idea who you are

Well, your experience or the experience of Microsoft's paid marketing drones carry even less weight.

To make matters worse, your tag line suggests that you are a Linux zealot. As such, you will degrade Windows at every possible opportunity in order to promote GNU/Linux.

I don't know about him, but I certainly am a Linux zealot. What's wrong with that? Our zealotry is based on experience.

Re:Neat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Doing the above with windows technologies is trivial and does not require editing any config files by hand. Windows most certainly does have an easier learning curve when you don't have to constantly resort to doc.

Re:Neat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apparently you missed GPs point. Try posting some actual evidence instead of your anecdotal hearsay garbage.

Re:Neat.

[Runaway1956]

No, that isn't true. I wouldn't hand a LiveCD to a complete novice, and expect him to install successfully. But, an intermediate user can certainly do so. A novice could get through it, if he were willing to learn as he goes. Of course, learning is a benefit, in and of itself. Once that novice has managed to get his Linux set up, he is no longer a novice, and no longer dependent on the local computer shop that charges a hundred bucks to clean up a virus, or reconfigure the internet connection when it's been buggered up.

I'm afraid that you are either behind the times, or you are helping to spread FUD.

Of course, Linux is NOT for people whose IQ's are smaller than their shoe (or bra) size. I don't think it ever will be. Of course, to be fair, neither is Windows.

Re:Neat.

[Abreu]

This conversation just sounded like:

Inspector Clouseau is interviewing his new assistant:

- And you are?
- Gilbert Ponton. Detective, second class. I've been assigned to work with you.
- And what qualifications do you have for police work?
- My family's done police work in Paris for nine generations.
- And before that?
- We were policemen in the surrounding areas for 200 years.
- And before that?
- Immigrants from various countries in Europe all involving police work.
- And before that?
- Farmers.
- Hmm. So you are a little lamb who has come to Clouseau for to learn.

Re:Neat.

[__aasqbs9791]

No, you're right. So instead you spend half a freaking hour looking through tabs trying to find the option that you're sure you saw a while back, hoping that it is actually going to fix the problem you're having. Oh, and the forums to get help? They're full of people having the same damn problem and no one has the answer yet. I have yet to have as much problem with a Linux box. Give me a config file that I can search any day of the week.

Re:Neat.

[Anonymous Coward]

Better then the forums with lunix zealots telling you to patch the million lines of source code. Searching is useless if you don't know the string to look for.

Re:Neat.

[colinrichardday]

And what version of Windows includes a web server and ftp server, and how much does it cost?

Re:Neat.

[Alpha830RulZ]

And what version of Windows includes a web server and ftp server

Wouldn't that be Windows 2003 Server? While it's not my preferred platform, I've been serving a lot of files and pages off of windows for many years, without ever paying extra for the privilege.

I prefer linux, but windows is a decent alternative if you have the money.

Re:Neat.

[Alpha830RulZ]

Windows has the largest learning curve of any OS

Would you pass whatever it is you're smoking? I love linux, but denying it has a higher learning curve than windows is hallucination. How about MVS/Z-OS, Solaris, HP-UX, VMS, MPE? You would assert that windows is harder for the novice or even the well travelled geek to learn than these? You be crazy, boy.

Re:Neat.

[colinrichardday]

Actually, Windows 2008. The small-business version costs $1,089 and includes 5 CALs. Additional CALs are $77 each.

Re:Neat.

[jonbryce]

Small Business Server certainly does. It comes with IIS, and is included in the price.

Re:Neat.

[Richard_at_work]

Windows Vista anbd Windows 7 both include IIS, which includes an FTP server.

Re:Neat.

[mspohr]

What's a CAL? Why do I need them? How many do I need? Why do they cost money?

Re:Neat.

[dbcad7]

At least with a LiveCD a novice can try it for awhile before deciding if it suits his experience level. The idea that Linux is too hard and only for geeks goes away when the user actually uses it, and says "hey I can do this". The only real difficulty in installing, in most cases, is a little knowledge of what is going on with hard drives and partitions. Some distros are easier than others in conveying hard drive setup. This is the only real worry for the uninformed, but as you say it is just as bad if not worse when doing the same thing on Windows.

Re:Neat.

[ciderVisor]

What's a CAL ?

Charlotte Abigail Lux

Re:Neat.

[mspohr]

Thanks so much. I love Doctor Who and I have seen this episode but forgot about CAL. It all makes sense now.

Re:Neat.

[ciderVisor]

Then allow me to give you some insight. I'm a Network Administrator at an all Windows workplace.
[...]
I see Windows XP take several minutes to boot on my Pentium 4.

There's something wrong with your setup, then. I dual-boot between XP and Linux Mint and they both take roughly the same time (around 30 seconds). Seriously, as a professional administrator you should be diagnosing the problems with your home machine's Windows configuration.

Re:Neat.

[Alpha830RulZ]

On the off chance that you're serious, it's a Client Access License. It's effectively a user seat via remote desktop. You need as many as you are going to have concurrent user logins to the machine. It's rare that you need more than what the OS comes with. They cost money because MSFT is an evil profit-seeking commercial business who has the nerve to expect to be able to charge people for using their product.

Re:Neat.

[mspohr]

Thanks for this informative post. I had some vague idea of what a CAL was so my question was part serious and part to point out the oddity of the idea that you should have to pay extra to use the software 'more' which just doesn't happen in the Linux world.

Re:Neat.

[colinrichardday]

According to this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Information_Services, IIS in Windows Vista only allowed 10 concurrent connections.

Re:Neat.

[Alpha830RulZ]

I should add, CALs can affect pricing of other MSFT products as well, notably SQL Server. It's also a pretty standard component of pricing other things like CRM and ERP software, where per seat costs are common. We use Perforce at my office, and they are even worse, where it's $700/seat/year!

Re:Neat.

[L0rdJedi]

IIS started shipping in XP Media Center edition. It can be had for $110. Getting a version of Windows with a web and ftp server is very easy to do.

If you don't want to buy a more expensive version, you can also simply download a free web and ftp server. There's plenty out there that run on Windows.

Re:Neat.

[L0rdJedi]

Really? Normally, if I have a major problem, a quick Google search of the error message will take me right to Microsoft's support page with the solution.

Or I can do it the Linux way. Where I need to change something, but I can't remember where the damn web server config file is. I know it's in /etc somewhere (due to experience, otherwise I'd really be fucked). Hmm, maybe it's under "web". Nope, not there. Oh, that's right, it's probably under "apache" since that's the server for Linux. Whoops, not there either. Hmm, maybe the process list will give me a hint. Oh, that's right, it's under httpd. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. Mind you that I searched for it for several minutes.

I actually had the above scenario happen to me. I don't configure Linux boxes on a regular basis, but I'm not exactly a n00b either. It had just been a while since I'd had to touch one, so it took me a while to find the file. I don't even bother with the GUI config tools under Linux unless I'm working on a machine that's not in the building.

At least with Windows all the GUI programs are in one spot (everything's under Administrative Tools) and Microsoft has plenty of support articles on how to edit the registry (when it's necessary and it often is) and exactly what needs to be changed.

I have seen plenty of forums, for both platforms, with people having the same damn problem and not getting any answers. That isn't strictly a Windows or Linux issue. That applies to every OS.

Re:Neat.

[L0rdJedi]

Are you kidding? With Windows 2003 and Exchange 2003, it practically does this for you. Insert the CD and click on each step. The installer tells you exactly what to do. Open Add or Remove Programs. Click on Add/Remove Windows Programs. Select SMTP, IIS, and whatever else the installer is telling you to do. Finish installing Exchange. That gives you POP3, IMAP, SMTP, synced calendaring, and web.

PHP and MySQL can be installed as msi's. You could install wamp if you wanted. You may have to tweak the php.ini after installing php, but that's about it.

The firewall is turned on by default.

Right-click "My Computer", select Properties, then select "Remote". Click "Enable Remote Desktop on this Computer". There's your RDP. This can also be done via the registry from a system on the same domain logged into by an admin if you know where it's at.

Seriously, I think I've had to hit an actual config file all of once when setting up a Windows server. It's on a regular basis when working on a Linux server. About the only time I need to edit the registry for something like this is to change a port number (for RDP). Everything else can easily be done through the GUI.

Re:Neat.

[colinrichardday]

Yes, Apache (among others) is available on Windows, but doesn't that require hand editing configuration files? Which is actually what the OP wanted to avoid.

Re:Neat.

[Richard_at_work]

You never asked about limitations.

Some questions

[corychristison]

1) does it force the use of RPM? Some prefer DEB, or even ebuilds.
2) potential for HyperVM, Virtualbox, etc images? Would be nice to see them.
3) kernels? what about kernels? Can you config your own? How about patches?

If it can't do these, it sounds like it's more of a toy for new comers. Not saying that's a bad thing, it just won't be as useful as I had hoped.

Re:Some questions

[techprophet]

1) It's SUSE, so yes, RPM
2) Just Xen images right now, but VBox/HyperVM can use the VirtualDisk export option on SUSE Studio
3) It lets you pick a kernel, and lets you add repos, so you could rollyourown and add it to a custom repo, then install on it.

Re:Some questions

[SpoodyGoon]

RPM it sounds like you want to build every little piece of it which may be in the future but if you don't like Suse (-uses RPM) then you probably won't like their studio. I have found it to be an interesting idea, I have been trying it out and I have my fingers crossed that it will be a huge success. Let's be honest here, we all want our own custom distro this is not perfect nor is it for everyone but it is an interesting step.

Re:Some questions

[Korin43]

I wish there was a "-1 Too High Expectations For the First Version" mod..

Re:Some questions

[houghi]

1) does it force the use of RPM? Some prefer DEB, or even ebuilds.
It is SLE and openSUSE based distro's so yes, you will be best to use RPM.

2) potential for HyperVM, Virtualbox, etc images? Would be nice to see them.
You can make USB, ISO, Xen and VMware Virsual Machine images.

3) kernels? what about kernels? Can you config your own? How about patches?
This builds the image, not the software. You can point it to any repository you desire, so if you make your own repository with the kernel in it with e.g. https://build.opensuse.org/, you can use it.

What it does is 'just' make an image.
Some screenshots I have made here: http://houghi.org/susestudio/

Updates and patches will be gotten from openSUSE or Novell or somewhere else if you point it somewhere else.

Just go to http://susestudio.com/ and click on the "Watch a screencast" or go to http://susestudio.com/screencast for two more movies that explain just what and how things work.

Re:Some questions

[Runaway1956]

"1) does it force the use of RPM? Some prefer DEB, or even ebuilds."

It doesn't force anything. No one with a shotgun tells you that you must visit the website, or that you must create your own custom distro, or that you must use RPM. It's all voluntary. If there is any small part of the thing that you do not like, you can leave any time. That is one of the wonderful things about OSS, after all. There is no warning, "By entering this site, you agree to forfeit your soul, along with your first born child, subject to interpretations of law by myriad demans living below Redmond."

Take it for a test drive, and see how you like it. If you walk all the way through it, download the disk image, and burn it, THEN decide that you still don't like it, well, no big deal. Just flip the CD/DVD image into the trash, and go back to Debian.

Re:Some questions

[Orion Blastar]

Just for the record, VirtualBox can use VMWare images. I am running a VMWare HaikuOS with VirtualBox.

If you want to convert a VMWare image to VirtualBox format, you need QEMU and follow these instructions.

Re:Some questions

[SilverHatHacker]

Posting here to counter a 'school of thought', if you will, I've seen a lot of lately.
Forced != Gunpoint.
If something only gives you one option, you are effectively forced to use it. Walking away and writing your own are not always feasible alternatives.

Song?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wasn't "SUSE Studio" a Phil Collins song?

some things you may not know...

[DragonTHC]

first, you can create a bootable thumb drive distro.

second, you can test your distro in a VM on the website. Though resources are limited.

the faggots will be happy.

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't get so uptight about it fags

It's great that Canonical has done this

[Anonymous Coward]

Thank you Ubuntu! Thank you Mark Shuttlesworth!

You waited 25 years for that, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now you can go shower, shave, and have something other than bugs and rats on the menu. Trim those nails, too, you look awfully Hughes-like !!

This sounds interesting

[Sadsfae]

It's nice to see this come from the Suse folks, sounds like it would be a nice tool for the Suse users/admins that don't want to use something like:
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraLiveCD/LiveCDHowTo (which can create another distribution livecd)

The web test drive stuff really looks neat as well.

there we go

[Lord Bitman]

Why has it taken so long for this to exist?

Re:there we go

[Anonymous Coward]

the linux fags had to debate how to make it impossible to include evil proprietary software into this

Re:there we go

[msuarezalvarez]

Because no one, including you, sat down and did it before.

Re:there we go

[junner518]

It has existed! Slax has had an online customized ISO builder for a few months now.

Re:there we go

[Lord Bitman]

I didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road.

I suspect it's more to do with storage, bandwidth, and processing power finally hitting the sweet-spot.

Re:there we go

[Jorophose]

Slax isn't quite there, though.

What if I only want specific packages? Or more obscure packages?

I want this to get adapted for Debian and Ubuntu, that way you can roll your own custom version a lot more easily. So that way you could, for example, just make your own version of Ubuntu, but including proprietary codecs + software, and maybe other packages you often use, and remove some you don't like on the CD, no matter how obscure.

And this is why Linux will eventually win

[rolfwind]

One day. Sheer flexibility in licensing and usage. Loading up Windows 7, it doesn't even want to pretend that you might want to dualboot. No repartitioning of existing partitions or anything.

Linux is the equivalent of a contortionist acrobat and Windows is a quadriplegic that makes everyone's life hell if you don't accomodate it's needs just right. Which would you rather marry and hang around all day?

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[moonbender]

The quadriplegic's hot contortionist sister?

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[SilverHatHacker]

And you thought MOTHERS-in-law (sp?) were bad...

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[w0mprat]

One day. Sheer flexibility in licensing and usage. Loading up Windows 7, it doesn't even want to pretend that you might want to dualboot. No repartitioning of existing partitions or anything.

Not true about Windows 7's installer, which does now give you the option to resize partitions in the GUI, the console is also accessible which gives you partitioning tools (which was always available on a windows installer disk). No support for ext and other file systems of course.

The new windows bootloader BCD is very powerful and a delight to work with, it *can* actually boot other OSes including linux. If grub is not in the root partition you need to ins

It would seem Microsoft is under pressure with the flexibility of linux, at some point they are going to be really playing catch-up with the free OS universe.

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[rliden]

Do you even know what you're talking about or are you making up a bunch of spin that will make you sound good?

When you install Win 7 you can repartition, format the partitions, and select the partition you want to install to. You can dual boot if you choose and it's no more difficult to get running than it is with Linux and GRUB (or your other favorite bootloader). The ease of setting up dual-booting is subjective but that is my opinion.

So why do you have to make up weird stuff that gives you some illusion that you're winning a non-existent race? Isn't the innovation here enough, even though it's been done in some ways with other systems (BSD and rPath for examples), that the accomplishment stands on it's own without having to be a secret weapon to knock out the other guy?

Look, there is no "win". Linux will never destroy Microsoft and Windows and Microsoft will in no way ever eradicate Linux and the open development community. It's just not going to happen. There are enough people that like different platforms that no one platform will ever rule.

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[u38cg]

That would be BeOS, right?

Re:And this is why Linux will eventually win

[theskipper]

If grub is not in the root partition you need to ins

Argh, don't keep us in suspense...that's like the slashdot equivalent of blue balls.

So this is somehow t o compete ...

[lbalbalba]

... with Red Hat Developer Studio ? No contest.

Re:So this is somehow to compete ...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah! Who's heard of Red Hat Developer Studio, anyway?

RHEL

[Anonymous Coward]

The SUSE STUDIO was available for some time.. I have an account there for quite a while... Now they released version 1.0 but only available through invitation. Anyway it's a good service IMO.

This is great

[Orion Blastar]

someone can now develop their own Linux application and use SuSE Studio to create a LiveCD for it. They can pick only the things they need to run their program to create a demo CD or use it as a Live Distro that installs their Linux application with it.

I would like to see someone use it to create a Linux gaming CD with popular open source games on it, to help convert the GameHeads to Linux from Windows. At the very least they can boot the SuSE Studio LiveCD to play the games, if not run it in a Virtual Machine.

When my father's Windows XP computer had problems, I gave him a Linspire 5.0 LiveCD of mine and he was able to use the Internet for email and web access until I could get back to fix his Windows XP problems. But now I can build an SuSE Studio LiveCD with applications he may want to use as well with it, for example he likes card games and plays virtual pool, I could include those on a LiveCD as well as an OpenOffice.Org to work with his documents and a Scanner program to use his All in One Inkjet Printer, Scanner, and Fax machine. Giving him a LiveCD to use when his computer is down until I can come over there to fix it is a good idea, and I might even dual boot Linux and Windows for him as well if he likes it enough.

I am thinking of developing business applications for Linux, and this would be a good way to create a Demo CD or LiveCD with the software on it to promote it. It would have to include a database like MySQL or PostgresSQL with data in it to run the Demo, and then when it gets installed on the system the Database would be read/write and work as an actual install. Doing things that way might help a company decide to migrate away from Windows and consider a few Linux workstations to see how well they run next to the Windows versions. I was trying to figure out a way to make the server end with the database easy enough to install for non-technical people and the LiveCD route may be the way to go.

Re:This is great

[owlman17]

I would like to see someone use it to create a Linux gaming CD with popular open source games on it, to help convert the GameHeads to Linux from Windows.

This is one of the best I've seen so far.

Re:This is great

[Orion Blastar]

Thank you. I finally got a SuSE Studio account but when I started to add in games, it told me I had a conflict of libraries that needed to be resolved.

I'll try the Linux Gamers CD/DVD and see what happens.

LinuxCOE

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds a bit like LinuxCOE, which has been around for a while, and supports a bunch of different distros.

Is it FOSS?

[bhepple]

Reason I ask is there is a similar thing called rPath which I used on a project a couple of years ago. It spun off from RedHat (Eric Troan, Michael Johnson et al). Mr Johnson was kind enough to explain (http://lwn.net/Articles/283070/) that although it used usernames/passwords to control access to the software this was not "DRM", and that it contained proprietary code - I was never quite clear if that meant the source code was available or available only to paying customers.

So is the SuSE offering completely FOSS?

Bob

Re:Is it FOSS?

[houghi]

Yes. Also YOU can decide if you want things added that are not completely FOSS or even closed source if you so desire. It is _you_ who adds whatever you want. If you decide to add wine and put Office on it, that is your choice.

If you talk about openSUSE itself, then you can decide to just rune pure FOSS and not add the extra repository where non FOSS software is, like Opera.

We have a beta user, impressed

[midicase]

One of our project managers just received his beta login this week and he showed it to me and I have to say it is pretty amazing. He is totally a non-techie type but in one day he had custom ISO's made and deployed (something he had been trying to get another engineer to do for month's). Heck, he even had non-RPM'd tarballs stuffed in there (good for those things you don't quite want to go through learning RPM spec files, but still a temp solution for him).

An important disctinction.

[w0mprat]

There is a huge difference between Free as in lack of restrictions and Free as in easy access to sophisitcated features. This is a step in opening access up to the more sophisticated things Linux can do (that OSX/Windows can't do), without uncessary complexity and barriers like command line usage. Linux becoming really 'open' in that it is finally becoming accessible to people of all skill levels.

I'm waiting to try this out. Exciting.

-1 Offtopic?

[Anonymous Coward]

KDE help files.

Yeah, they have a lot to do with advancing KDE 4.3.

Re:-1 Offtopic?

[Anonymous Coward]

you STUPID fucking COCK!! FUCK YOU, you fucking ASSFUCK

Re:-1 Offtopic?

[Anonymous Coward]

you STUPID fucking COCK!! FUCK YOU, you fucking ASSFUCK

This is exactly the discourse I've come to expect from a KDE4 fan.

Someone has to prepare for the future

[Anonymous Coward]

If you haven't been doing your part to make Linux 'usable' in your view, what do you think is missing, and why is it beyond your capacity to deliver the change?

Don't you have work to do?

Oh, and who wants things to be painlessly simple? Maybe a Wii is your speed?

An API was made available a month or so ago..

[itomato]

http://en.opensuse.org/SUSE_Studio_API
http://susestudio.com/help/api/v1

You can do pretty much everything with curl.

Also, you can export to KIWI from Studio.

I think some of the questions about feature availability, costs, etc. have been answered by Nat & Team, and should be available in channel logs, along with a bunch of other good stuff.

Outbreak of distros

[Yuioup]

Great.

Just what we need.

A way to create an unlimited amount of distros.

As if Linux doesn't have enough fragmentation problems already.

I really really don't see any need for this. This screams SOLUTION LOOKING FOR A PROBLEM to me.

Y

Re:Outbreak of distros

[Jellybob]

This isn't really intended for people who want to make SuperAwesomeLinux 17, although it could certainly be used for that. It's target audience is software companies, and open source projects, who want to provide a quick and easy way to create virtual machines to run their software.

It's designed to get around the problem that to get your software into a company at the moment, you need to provide installation instructions, which may or may not work, and could take hours to follow. This is just what's needed to get anyone to *look at* your software. By providing virtual machines it becomes a lot simpler to get people to take a look at your software, because they just need to download it, and fire up VMWare or similar.

And then, when they want to put it into production, they can move the VM to their virtual servers (most large companies have them now, it's our standard method of deployment), and start it up.

That's me paraphrasing badly, if you want it from the horse's mouth, have a read of Nat Friedman's blog entry on the subject.

I don't see how

[bferrell]

something that is by invitation only can be a release.

In the mean time, I'll keep playing with Kiwi even if it does re-boot my system when I try to make a USB version

This is the Microsoft distribution of Linux

[LorenzoV]

you have been warned

charge for it

[Locklin]

This seems like the ideal application for monetizing FOSS. They could easily charge a small fee for this, as you would be paying for CPU/bandwidth costs, and a custom product. It would be difficult for someone to do it for free without a big bankroll, and people distributing the product would not devalue the service (as the service is custom and the redistributions would be simple ISOs).

it is nice

[Anonymous Coward]

it is nice, you can make a distro with a predefined your very own background

Nobody Reads the Subject Anyways

[neurovish]

This looks like it just moves the normal SuSE installer onto a website, why all the excitement?
I've been able to make a "customized linux installation" since...forever because that's kind of how they come.
If you wanted to make a basic template system to install in a few different places, you can already do that with autoyast.
The build and test stage is interesting, but not anything you couldn't do yourself inside of a VM.

What does this service offer that didn't exist before?

Re:Some questions (yes rpm, but not bad anymore)

[vdboor]

1) does it force the use of RPM? Some prefer DEB, or even ebuilds.

Yes, because it produces a openSUSE derivative.

Fortunately, openSUSE also comes with zypper as high level tool. It's quite like apt is a high level tool to dpkg and DEB packages.
For a comparison:

• rpm -i <-> dpkg -i
• zypper install <-> apt-get install

Zypper is also just as fast as apt-get. So it may not be that bad after all. :-)

Secondly the openSUSE build service allows you to search for an insane number of packages in community / addon repositories.

How can i register there?

[Saija]

honestly, i'm in windows xp right now and using firefox 3.5.1 and trying to choose the Google authentication doesn't work(don't do anything) and using internet explorer 8 shows an error page telling me that browser isn't supported, well i think i'm gonna give it a try in home using ubuntu and firefox/konqueror.

Re:How can i register there?

[Saija]

i feel bad for reply myself but this fine post resolved the mistery, mybad

haha, okay.

[rantingkitten]

Right, you have a problem with Windows because yet another installer (which you downloaded from a completely unknown source off the web) stuffed up the registry, and needs its own particular dll and there was no way to tell that beforehand. Well, no problem! Just figure out which dll it needs, search the web, download and install it (hope it's clean!), then edit HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Hardware Profiles\Current and change value 0x762A63 to (obviously!) 0x77H4B45.

It's easy! Windows: Ready for the desktop!