Portal:Factory
tagline: From openSUSE
Welcome to the Factory Portal edit
The next release will be openSUSE 11.4, to be released in March 2011.
The Factory distribution is the current state of the development for the next openSUSE release. The development releases of openSUSE (like Milestones or Release Candidates) are snapshots from this distribution.
This means the Factory distribution can be in any state, while the development releases do get some basic testing before the release. This is true between two distribution intervals (just after the release of the new distribution) as in the middle of a distribution test. The Factory distribution is always moving :-).
What is it good for?
The Factory distribution is mainly useful for developers and experienced testers. It is used as an always up-to-date development or testing platform. For the most part, it is also possible only to update a certain package, if you use the last development release to validate a bug fix. It always provides the latest source code within the src.rpm files.
A fixed and submitted package should be available one day later within the Factory distribution.
How often does it update?
Each of the trees (x86, x86_64, ppc) is only synced when it is in a consistent state (all builds completed) and that usually happens only once or twice a week.
All trees should be in sync, when a new development version of openSUSE is released. Have a look at the Roadmap for the next date.
Resources edit
Releases edit

- More about version 11.3
- More about version 11.2
- More about version 11.1
- More about Factory (development version)
- More about derivatives
Communicate edit
Development discussions happen on the openSUSE mailing lists, in Bugzilla, openFATE and on IRC (#opensuse-factory).
The most important mailing lists to follow Factory development are:
- opensuse-factory@opensuse.org - Discussion about all Milestone and RC versions of openSUSE
- Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Help | Archives
- opensuse-packaging@opensuse.org - RPM packaging-oriented mailing list
- Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Help | Archives
Besides those many more mailing lists for specific topics and development projects exist.
News edit
Changes in Building the Distribution
Changes in Base System
Desktops
Removal of Packages
Please update this page with links to announcement on the opensuse-factory mailing list for changes that affect others as well.
