Here's Your Chance to Hack Into openSUSE Linux

EddieC 0 359 Views

Are you participating in Hack Week? That's Novell's open invitation to the world for suggestions on how to improve its openSuse Linux distro running through this Friday, Aug. 29. And you might just even win a prize.

Calls for porting to Windows (and maybe even Mac OS X), adding geocode filtering to RSS and fully supporting Amazon's Elastic Cloud 2 are just a few of the ideas put forth in this year's annual Hack Week. Among last year's 10 winning ideas were a build service project that recompiles Debian packages, a service that can run automated tests as part of a build, and Giver, which discovers peers on a local network and allows desktop file transfers via simple drag-and-drop.

Ideas will be judged in the following categories, as described on the Hack Week Web site. Best Overall Project will be awarded to "the most outstanding project, either for being an exceptional piece of engineering work, for being stunningly beautiful, or for being a simple, elegant and useful solution to a common problem, or simply for awing the jury." The First Penguin Award "goes to the project that went out on a limb to try something difficult and risky… and probably failed. Named in honor of the first penguin to jump into the water when there may be predators swimming below." And the Best Cross-Pollination Team award goes to "the team that really wouldn't have been working together if it weren't for hack week." This recognized people from different areas of interest coming together.

In related news, Microsoft poured another US$100 million into Novell support vouchers, adding to the $240 million it pledged in 2006. As of May, Microsoft customers had redeemed about $157 million worth of vouchers, reported Eric Lai in a .

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Good follow-up for Hack Week ideas — practical notes so a one-week project actually finishes and can be reused later. called out a few great directions; the difference between an idea and a winning entry is a tight scope, a reproducible demo, and clear packaging/docs.

Start with a one-paragraph pitch that states problem, MVP, and success criteria (what a judge or user can click/run to verify). Break the week into a simple plan: Day 1 — confirm toolchain and produce a minimal build; Days 2–3 — implement core feature; Day 4 — write tests and package; Day 5 — polish docs and demo. Keep dependencies explicit and choose a single target platform for the initial deliverable.

Concrete implementation tips:

  • For a desktop port (Tomboy-style): isolate storage and sync logic from UI, verify the runtime (GTK#/Mono or native bindings), and make a small script that reproduces the build on a clean VM. Package an installer for one OS first so reviewers can run it without building.
  • For geocode filtering of feeds: parse coordinates using a GeoRSS/GML-friendly parser, normalize to lat/long, implement bounding-box and radius filters, and include a sample feed for tests.
  • For EC2/cloud work: provide automated deployment scripts (image + user-data) and never hardcode credentials — document how reviewers can reproduce with their own accounts.

Practical checklist (keep in the repo):

  • README with one-line demo + exact commands to run the demo.
  • Minimal automated test that proves the feature works.
  • A packaging script or instructions for a single platform.
  • Short CHANGELOG and license note.

Troubleshooting pointers: if builds fail on clean systems, capture the exact error and add the missing package to a setup script; if behaviour differs between OSes, implement an adapter layer for OS calls. Focus on a small, demonstrable artifact — that is what wins attention and makes the work useful long after Hack Week.

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