openSUSE Project

Web Page: http://wiki.opensuse.org/openSUSE:GSOC_2011_Ideas

Mailing List: mailto:opensuse-project@opensuse.org

openSUSE is a community project to promote the use of Linux everywhere, focusing on the openSUSE distribution itself but also on infrastructure tools like the Build Service, that are used by other projects (Meego, for example). The openSUSE project delivers everything that developers and enthusiasts need to get started with Linux. We are a worldwide project, with a community of people with different levels of expertise, speaking different languages and having different cultural backgrounds, and we embrace a wide variety of technology. We rely on contributions from the community and this is why we have opened the access to our development process, and we are working on extensive community development programs.

Projects

• A utility for merging configuration / sysconfig files The main goal of this project is to offer a utility capable of merging configuration / sysconfig files, and then integrate it with openSUSE in order to replace fillup, the tool which is currently used. This new utility will deal with any existent problems and will offer many new benefits, like better maintainability, support for more types of configuration files etc.
• Archlinux backend for OpenSUSE Build Service The Build Service currently allows to build packages for RPM and DEB based distributions. Goal is to add support for building Archlinux packages and an UI integration into OBS.
• Command line client for Suse Studio Abstract Appliances built with Suse Studio can be thought of as any other software project that has to be built, tested and deployed. Currently appliances have to be built using the web-interface, which while being full-featured might be a little clunky if extensive configuration, through multiple overlay files and packages, is required. The goal of this project is to create a command line tool(ssc) to make it easy for users to create appliances locally and deploy them.
• Create a testsuite for btrfs features Btrfs is a new copy on write file system for Linux aimed at implementing advanced features while focusing on fault tolerance, repair and easy administration. Currently the xfs test suite is used to validate the base functionality of btrfs. It would be good to extend it to test btrfs-specific functions like snapshot creation/deletion, balancing and relocation.
• Creating a browser-based user interface test-suite Design and implement an automated browser-based test-suite for the web interface of OpenSUSE Build Service.
• Entomologist UI Changes/improvements. The primary goal of this proposed project is to improve the UI that Entomologist has and to enhance the users experience of using it. Doing so will hopefully benefit the developer community and improve their interaction with bug trackers.
• ICC Device Profile Repository A colour database to allow clients to request or submit colour profiles for colour managed devices. Colour profiles are critical to ensure accurate colour reproduction on print and screen content.
• new python obs library (osc code cleanup) Cleanup the osc code and refactor existing code into a new (osc independent) python obs library.
• openSUSE Build Service (OBS) for Android Currently, the openSUSE Build Service (OBS) mobile client offers very limited functions. I would like to improve and extend the OBS mobile interface for Android. The goals include not only adding powerful functionalities such as sorting requests by different criteria and enabling real-time user actions, but also integrating a mobile test-suite for each new feature, and ultimately improving the overall user experience that will make the OBS mobile interface more efficient and convenient to use.
• PackageKit backend and AppStream integration for Software Center AppStream is an initiative of cross-distro collaboration, which aims creating an unified software metadata database, and also a centralized OCS (Open Collaboration Services) user-contributed content database, thus providing the best user experience. By this project, a PackageKit backend and integration with constructed metadata will be added to Software Center, providing a solid software management client for the AppStream.
• SaX3 The project aims at providing a Graphical Utility for editing xorg.conf.d in a simplified manner so that users do not undergo the pain to modify configuration files. X currently, has automatic configuration but sometimes these configurations have to be manually overriden, in such cases SaX3 can be a useful tool too. The project will be implemented using libYUI to implement its GUI as it provides an interface to ncurses, GTK and Qt.
• Separating and Porting YUI library to other operating systems (Linux Based) The YUI library is a library that gives the programmer the ability to have his program use 3 GUI's or front ends with a single code. It acts as an abstraction layer to Qt, GTK as well as ncurses libraries. But, as of now, it is restricted to SUSE based operating systems because of it's excessive dependance on YaST infrastructure. The main aim of this project is to extract, package and port libYUI to other operating systems so that it can be used by a larger number of people.
• SUSE bug reporter SUSE bug reporter is the tool that will help users submit bug reports to the developers, allowing even people with limited technical knowledge to fill out a relevant and useful bug report in a quick and simple way. This will reduce the delays, confusions and even frustrations between users and developers.