openSUSE 11.1 beta 4 was released earlier this week, and we need to work out the bugs before 11.1 final. Tomorrow we’re having a testing meeting in IRC to try some directed testing of new features in 11.1.

We’ll be meeting in IRC on Freenode, in the #opensuse-testing channel on Thursday, November 6 from 11:00 to 19:00 CET. (That’s 5:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern, and 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Tokyo time…) We may go later in the day depending on how successful the testing is going — but the participants from our Nuremberg office will probably be ready to check out by 19:00 CET.

We’ll be working off the 11.1 Feature Test list here: http://en.opensuse.org/Testing:Features_11.1 It’s crucial that we get these features tested for the 11.1 release, as they’re new to 11.1 and we want to shake out any bugs we can. Unfortunately, not a lot of testing has been done for this list (at least, if the features have been tested, very little has been reported back…)

The workflow will look like this:

1. Connect to the #opensuse-testing channel, and the topic should have the numbers of the ongoing tests.
2. Look on the wiki page for a feature that isn’t tested. It should show:
   Status: ready to test
   Test Result: idle
3. Announce the number in channel so everyone knows that it’s being worked on.
4. Announce the results once the test has finished
5. One of the openSUSE team will enter the results of the test in the wiki and in the internal feature db.

All you need is a beta 4 install (or possibly just a system running the live CDs) and some time.

We want 11.1 to be the best release possible — which means that it needs to be well-tested before the release. If you want a bug-free (or as close as possible) release, then you can help get there by taking the time to help test. If not tomorrow — and we’re happy to have testers any ‘ol time — then any time is fine. Just grab the feature test page and go. Or, if you happen to encounter bugs in the release that don’t relate to features on the list, fire up bugzilla and let us know about those too.

If you have questions, sign up for the openSUSE testing mailing list, or feel free to ask in the #opensuse-factory channel on Freenode.

Just got a question via email (which I will respond to shortly) and the topic came up during one of my five or so meetings today: openSUSE 11.1 release parties.

Short answer: Yes, my friends, there will be release parties so you can get your Geeko on with other openSUSE enthusiasts.

Long answer: Short on details, but will be announcing more as we approach the release. Would like suggestions or thoughts on the topic, though — realizing that we do not have infinite funds to buy the world pizza and beer (sorry world!) we’ll be looking for realistic ways to support our community that wants to hold or attend release parties.

Suggestions and comments welcome. What have you done in the past for release parties? What’s been successful? What doesn’t work so well?

Particularly interested in hearing from LUGs and university groups. Comment here or send me email.

The GSoC Mentor’s Summit wrapped up as strongly as it started. The second day of sessions were also productive — although some last minute schedule changes kept cutting into the “mini distro summit” that Donnie Berkholz suggested for the second day.

Despite the changes, we managed to get some discussion in and plan to continue the discussion. Present at the summit within the summit were representatives from Debian, Fedora, Pardus, Gentoo, and (of course) openSUSE. We talked about common problems like the mirror situation (and had representation from OSUOSL to hear it from the mirror side too) and issues of cross-distro communication.

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Free airport wi-fi is so wonderful. I’m sitting in Sarasota airport (SRQ) getting ready to fly off to Indiana for the Indiana and Ohio Linuxfests. (The flight crews are starting to look familiar. You know you fly too much when the steward asks if you want “the usual” when they roll by with the beverage cart…)

I just got back from Tokyo, but how could I resist the opportunity to speak at these shows? Haven’t been to the Indiana show before, but I am confident it’ll be a good day. This will be my fourth year at OLF — 2005, I covered the event for Linux.com, 2006 I helped organize the event and ran PR, 2007 I helped organize PR and speakers, and this year I’m slacking off and just giving a presentation and working the openSUSE booth.

If you’re anywhere near OLF, you really do not want to miss it — it’s a huge gathering of Linux and FOSS enthusiasts, and it’s been going strong for years. I know gas prices are making some folks a bit iffy on the drive, but it’s well worth it.

See you in Indiana and/or Ohio!

Getting ready to head back from Tokyo, but already looking forward to my next trip out — specifically, heading to Indiana for Linuxfest 2008, and then to Columbus, Ohio for Ohio Linuxfest 2008!

I’ll be doing a keynote at both events. I’m really looking forward to seeing the Indiana Linuxfest for the first time, and I always have an excellent time at OLF. Especially this year when I’m not responsible for organizing it!

By the way, if you’re interested in helping out at the OLF booth this year, please get in touch. We still have room.

Update: If you live near Bloomington, Indiana and were thinking about heading to OLF but didn’t want to splurge on gas — I might have room in my car for one or two passengers. I’ll be driving from Bloomington to Columbus Friday afternoon and then back Sunday morning. You’ll have to arrange your own room in Columbus, but I’m happy to help a few Linux enthusiasts get from point A to point B to support the cause.

Just three years ago today, the openSUSE Project announced its first release.

Andreas Jaeger sent the word out to the opensuse-announce list on October 6, 2005, announcing the release of SUSE Linux 10.0:

I’m glad to announce the final version (aka the Goldmaster) of SUSE Linux 10.0. Developing 10.0 as part of the openSUSE project with an open bugzilla was a new and great experience. Thanks a lot to everybody that contributed in testing, reporting and fixing bugs, discussions etc.

The 10.0 release featured the latest and greatest free and open source software: the 2.6.13 Linux kernel, Firefox 1.0.6, GNOME 2.12, OpenOffice.org 1.9, and more.

The project, which was announced at LinuxWorld Expo in San Francisco in August of 2005, has achieved a lot in just three years:

• The formation of the first openSUSE Board
• Five stable releases in three years (10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, and 11.0)
• Introduction and complete re-write of Zypper/libzypp for better package management
• More than 200 members approved since the start of the project
• Release of the openSUSE Build Service 1.0, which allows complete and transparent participation in building openSUSE Linux
• First openSUSE Board elections begun
• Launch of News.opensuse.org
• Creation of the lizards.opensuse.org portal
• Launch of unified English-language openSUSE Forums

And much more I’m probably forgetting at the moment. The openSUSE Project has grown a lot since the first release in 2005, and the future is looking bright!

We celebrated the 3rd anniversary of the first release today in Tokyo at the Novell office and had a wonderful time. Thanks much to Ayako and Satoru and everyone who helped pull the event together.

The cake was fantastic! It was as good as it looks, and as you can see, it’s a beautiful cake.

One of the things I’ve been trying to do this trip is to take plenty of pictures. I’ve been uploading stuff to Flickr like crazy, haven’t had a chance to caption and comment on all the photos yet, but the images are there (from the trip so far).

This is Satoru Matsumoto, an openSUSE member and one of the people working hard on openSUSE in Japan.

That’s Ayako Kiryu, one of my colleagues from Novell, who helped organize much of this trip.

You can see the slideshow of OSC photos or just head to the set on Flickr. Sun’s Jim Grisanzio was kind enough to come to my talk on Saturday, he grabbed a few shots of my talk and also of the conference at large.

That would be me. Check out the rest of Jim’s slideshow from the conference, though, his pics are fantastic. You can debate the relative merits of OpenSolaris and openSUSE, but the fact that Jim’s camera skills outpace mine by a country mile are beyond debate.

I’ve also got a larger set of photos from Japan that may or may not be of interest. Usually, when I go somewhere new, I come away with a few photos that I really think capture the visit, but this time I haven’t succeeded yet in getting one really good picture. I should find the time for a photography class in the near future… definitely before I come back to Japan!

That’s a scene from the temple I visited on Sunday while sightseeing.

More on the trip to come, but I thought I’d put up some pics for those of you who always comment “where are the pictures!”

It’s been a busy week, trying to adjust to the radical difference in time zone and attend meetings and juggle other things that need doing (like scraping together the release notes for the beta 2 announcement…). But, it’s been really fun and interesting so far as well.

I had the pleasure of meeting a number of colleagues from Novell Japan, who have been exceedingly gracious and kind enough to take me out for some wonderful food. And to overlook the fact that my chopstick skills are, shall we say, less than expert. However, by the time I get home, I will probably be able to manage just about any food with chopsticks. Also, there’s some measure of irony in the fact that I went to my first Korean barbecue restauarant in Japan, I think…

So far this week I’ve had the chance to meet with local representatives of the Linux Foundation, and also got a chance to meet our own Satoru Matsumoto (known on IRC as helios_reds). Several good ideas from these meetings, but the most pressing need for openSUSE to grow in Japan is obviously a better translation infrastructure. (And more contributors helping with translation and original content in Japanese.) The local community has created a site called Geeko.jp especially for rallying the Japanese-speaking community around openSUSE, and I’m looking forward to seeing it grow and flourish.

Yesterday, I participated in a meeting with Yukio Yoshida of the Linux Consortium and HitachiSystems to talk about openSUSE and solict some thoughts on building community in Japan. This was a new experience for me not only because it was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting Yoshida-san, but also because it was my first meeting with an interpreter.

And a few hours later, we had a press conference to discuss openSUSE with the local tech press, and I had the opportunity once again to work with an interpreter — while giving a presentation. This made me extremely conscious of my presentation skills, because I had to slow down greatly and had time to pause and reflect on the presentation one thought at a time.

Today is the first day of the Open Source Conference in Tokyo. I’m really looking forward to seeing the show and seeing the projects and companies that are participating. Tomorrow, I’ll be giving another presentation on openSUSE, and showing off some of the nifty features of openSUSE 11.0 and beyond. Looking forward to meeting more open source enthusiasts and getting the word out!

I’m in Tokyo to attend the Open Source Conference (OSC) this weekend, and to meet with the local openSUSE community. I am very excited to be here and have the chance to meet with openSUSE users and contributors (and potential users and contributors), and other members of the open source community.

My flight got in mid-afternoon yesterday, so I haven’t been around Tokyo very much, but I’m looking forward to seeing more of the city and meeting colleagues and open source enthusiasts here. If you happen to be in Tokyo, I hope to see you at the OSC. Please get in touch, or just stop by the openSUSE booth at the OSC if you’d like to talk about openSUSE and open source. I’ll be here through next week.

Also — I’d welcome any tips about things to see and do in Tokyo! I don’t have a lot of free time, but I do have some free time built in to my schedule at the moment and want to make the most of it!

You might think that after attending a dozen or so Linux and FOSS-related shows in the last year, that I’d stop getting excited about upcoming shows — but, you’d wrong! Especially when it comes to the Ohio LinuxFest (OLF), which is coming up on October 11, in Columbus, Ohio.

The Ohio LinuxFest is one of my favorite community driven shows. The entire thing is organized by volunteers, and attendance is free for anyone who wants to show up — though they also have a Supporter Package for $65 for the people who want to spend money to support the event. And, yes, a lot of people actually want to spend the $65, since it goes to a good cause and helps ensure that the event continues every year.

I’m doubly excited about this year’s event, because I’m going to be doing the morning keynote. (I’ll be blogging more about that…)

Want to learn more about OLF? One of the Ohio LinuxFest rockstars, Beth Lynn Eicher, is going to be on the Linux Link Tech Show tonight to talk about what goes in to organizing the event, and what there is to look forward to. Beth Lynn will be on at 8:30 Eastern, so don’t miss it. (Well, if you do, they will have podcasts after the fact…)

If you haven’t registered – do it! It’s a Saturday very well spent. Lots of great talks, a great group of people, and a ton of fun. If you’re anywhere near Columbus, Ohio on the 11th, please join us!

There’s also an #ohiolinux channel on OFTC if you want to chat with some of the organizers and enthusiasts around OLF. It’s a good spot to hang out if you have questions about OLF, or want to volunteer. They’re also having a “Digg Party” tonight to try to drive up awareness for the show.