Ready...Set...Code!

Yesterday marked the official start of Google Summer of Code’s Coding Period.  And openSUSE mentors are right in the thick of it working with 16 students seeking to make a better world in FOSS.

openSUSE can take particular pride in GSoC further supporting the openSUSE goal of creating an environment that  supports not only openSUSE but FOSS in general.  Indeed we are mentoring several projects that directly benefit openSUSE, but there’s also several projects that support other projects, like the Arch Linux backend for our Open Build Service, a test suite for btrfs, ext4 snapshots in snapper, PackageKit backend in Software Center, and ICC device profile repository.

I do believe that our main contribution is that we will be sharing our enthusiasm about Free Software with our students and students from other organizations. And this is what will, hopefully, keep the students involved in the Free Software world after GSoC.

– Vincent Untz, openSUSE GSoC Organizer

And it is true that students are already experiencing the spirit of the openSUSE Project.  As student Alex Eftimie says:

What can I say? I'm excited about everything.  openSUSE is the perfect umbrella for such a project.  What I like most about it is that the result will be usable in a cross-distro fashion.  Until GSoC, I wasn't familiar with openSUSE efforts on collaboration.  Package management is a domain where distros can do better, and I'm glad to be a part of this effort.

You can see the complete list of student projects we’re working with here.

Pavol Rusnak, our other openSUSE GSoC organizer, reminds us that there are also some long-standing tasks directly beneitting the openSUSE Project which will now be tackled by some of our student projects.

With projects like Open Build Service for Android, a new python OBS library, and solutions to enhance SUSE Studio and YaST, we'll be further strengthening some of the unique selling points of openSUSE.

The Timeline:

May 23 - Coding begins July 11 - Midterm Evaluation August 15 - Suggested Pencil Down August 26 - Final Evaluation Deadline

Stay Informed:

Students are asked to post weekly reports. You can follow it on their blogs, which are aggregated on Planet openSUSE or through our openSUSE Project mailing list.