In the past 4 months during this years Google Summer of Code (GSoC), a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for open source software projects, Christian Bruckmayer collaborated with other students and mentors to code a dashboard for the Open Source Event Manager (OSEM). In this series of three posts Christian will tell you about his project and what he has learned from this experience.

OpenSUSE "Factory" up to now has referred to the development version of the openSUSE Linux distribution while being announced by SUSE today is that it's also going to serve as an independent distribution under a rolling-release development model.

OpenSUSE Factory will still serve where openSUSE development takes place, but it's also going to aim for being a distribution on its own as a "tested and stable fresh-daily bleeding-edge distribution."

The SUSE method for live kernel patching, kGraft, is being proposed for possible inclusion into the linux-next branch in hopes it will be merged into an upcoming Linux kernel release cycle.

The kGraft patches for live kernel patching continue to be revised and reviewed but at the same time there's still Kpatch that's been developed by Red Hat with some different design principles for updating the running kernel in real-time. To date there's been no general consensus on the superior solution nor any agreement to try to merge Kpatch and kGraft.

There are so many Linux distributions in the world that sometimes it's difficult to keep track of each and every one of them. Despite what people might think about Linux distros, the truth is that most of them are actually uninteresting and of sub-par quality.

People are used to the quality of systems like Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, or openSUSE, but not all distros have been created equal. In fact, users wouldn't install such distros because they simply lack a team with the manpower to make the operating system interesting.

Ubuntu is one of the most popular GNU/Linux-based operating system, along with Linux Mint. Ubuntu started off as a great operating system which, with the help of LUGs and communities, became extremely popular.

The Edu Li-f-e edition of openSUSE is bundled with a lot of goodies useful for students, teachers, as well as IT admins or educational institutions. It's been around for quite some time and it usually follows the other major releases of openSUSE, in this case, 13.1.1.

In order to install Linux from a bootable USB stick I need to be able to get to the Boot Selection menu, but on Acer systems with UEFI firmware, this is a bit tricky. The Boot Menu key (F12) is disabled by default, so I first have to boot to the BIOS Setup Utility, by pressing F2 during the power on or reboot cycle. Then in the Main setup screen there is an option to enable "F12 Boot Menu".

That's one trick down, but there's another one which might be required. Depending on what version of Linux you want to install, and perhaps how you feel about Secure Boot, you might want/need to disable that. In the BIOS Setup Utility, on the Boot menu there is an option to disable Secure Boot - but I can't get to it: moving the cursor down just skips over it!

I can change boot mode from UEFI to 'Legacy BIOS', but that isn't what I want to do. I learned (the hard way) with my previous Acer Aspire One, that I have to go to the Security menu and set a "Supervisor Password" before it will let me disable Secure Boot mode. I'm sure this makes sense to someone, but whoever that is, it isn't me.

In this case I am going to start by installing Linux with Secure Boot still enabled, so I don't really have to do this, but I went ahead and set a supervisor password anyway, because I will eventually want to turn off Secure Boot anyway.

Today's news includes two Linux makers now offering new training courses. The Var Guy discusses the biggest change afoot in Fedora development. David Ramel recaps some of the more publicized "Linus Torvalds Rants," and a lot more Linux advice for former XP users.

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In the Linux news today is a new survey of small business owners finds that 11% will switch to Linux when XP is really really officially no longer supported. In other news, Fedora Chris Roberts speaks Fedora changes and Matthew Miller shares plans for the new Fedora "community hubs." And Jos Poortvliet kicked off the official development season for openSUSE 13.2.

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The code, set to be released in March, doesn't patch kernel code in-place but rather uses an ftrace-like approach to replace whole functions in the Linux kernel with fixed variants, said Pavlik. SUSE then plans to submit it to the Linux kernel community for upstream integration.

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Today's highlights include another silly-names-of-open-source post, this time by Bryan Lunduke. Sam Varghese spoke to Nils Brauckmann, SUSE president, about their latest successes. Nick Heath is reporting of more Munich Open Source migration. WorldofGNOME.org covered a post by Matthias Clasen on Wayland in GNOME and Michael Meeks blogged on his response to the UK Cabinet Office's open standards recommendations.

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Evolve OS is a new upcoming Linux distribution based on openSUSE and sporting a new desktop environment based on the Gnome 3 stack. You may immediately be thinking, is this yet another 'Ubuntu Killer' promising a lot and ultimately delivering little? But Evolve OS has a different philosophy and some interesting ideas. Read on to find out more.

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The big news around Linuxville today is the union of Red Hat and CentOS which Sam Dean covered this morning. Close behind was the hacking of openSUSE Forum reported first by The Hacker News. Opensource.com is running a favorite distribution poll and Mageia 4 RC has been delayed.

The Hacker News broke the news yesterday that the openSUSE Forum had been hacked by Pakistani hacker 'H4x0r HuSsY' who managed to upload taunts and possibly steal user data. Mohit Kumar said a zero-day exploit in the vBulletin software used for the openSUSE forums was . As of Kumar's posting, openSUSE weren't even aware of the breach. However, before the day was out a post on opensuse.org appeared informing users of the entry. Passwords were not stored on the compromised server, but user emails were available. The openSUSE Forum has since been taken offline until a solution is found.

More from Susan

openSUSE 13.1 has been released so it’s time for a review. I’ve always liked openSUSE, I started out with SUSE Linux years ago and it’s always had a special place in my heart. I’m glad it’s still around and doing so well these days. Whenever I install it, I’m reminded of where I got my start with Linux and I’m grateful that it was available back then.

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The openSUSE 13.1 Linux distribution officially became generally available Nov. 19, providing users of the open-source software with a number of new features. openSUSE is SUSE's community Linux project that then feeds into development of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server release. At the core of openSUSE 13.1 is the Linux 3.11 kernel that was first released by Linux creator Linus Torvalds in September. The Linux 3.11 kernel improves performance and expands support for the ARM system architecture, which is now also supported by openSUSE. For server and cloud users, the new release includes the latest OpenStack Havana platform that first debuted at the end of October. For desktop users, openSUSE provides the KDE 4.11 Plasma desktop as the default choice, though there are options that users can choose, including the GNOME 3.10 desktop. Among the default applications included in openSUSE 13.1 are the latest Firefox browser, the LibreOffice office suite and the Amarok music player. For KDE users, the release includes the latest Kontact Personal Information Manager suite of mail, calendar and contact capabilities. In this slide show, eWEEK takes a look at some of the new features in openSUSE 13.1.

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I recently sold my Linux news Website, but I can't stop the urge to link to interesting posts from around Linuxville. It feels like such a waste to read them and then just click the little corner "X." So, here are a few from the last couple of days. openSUSE 13.1 is getting good reviews, a couple nice advocacy posts appeared, and Linus' father confirms US government intentions are among the topics.

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I often hear the argument that Android is not Linux or Chrome OS is not Linux. Technically that’s not true. Linux is just the kernel and both these operating systems user Linux so they are Linux-based operating systems.

What people are actually trying to say is they don’t get the same ‘Linux experience’ when they use these operating systems. What’s that Linux experience?

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nwrickert2.wordpress: There has been some urging for beta testers to try out “btrfs”. So I did. I tried it on one of my 13.1Beta1 installs. I would have tried it on two installs, except that the UEFI install had already given problems before I got to that point.

theregister.co.uk: The beta preview of openSUSE 13.1, released this month, shows this distro is waddling in the footsteps of its Linux brethren. New admin bling, yes, but no tacky desktop tricks

ostatic.com: SUSE, the entity behind the popular Linux distributions of similar handles, yesterday made an interesting announcement. In a press release, SUSE announced its LibreOffice team would be teaming up with Collabora Productivity to support LibreOffice commercially.