SUSE Studio – First impression… WOW!
Someone finally took pity on me and sent me an invite for SUSE Studio. My first impression – Wow!
SUSE Studio lets you build your own custom linux distribution using SUSE as the starting point. The process requires only a few mouse clicks and is so fast and simple any Geeko can do it 
Step 1: choose a starting point for your build. Options range from bare-bones (Just Enough OS) OpenSUSE 11, to a full blown SUSE Enterprise Server.
Step 2: Add additional packages. Of course the full SUSE package list is available which includes everything you would normally find on the DVD. But, you can add any repository from the internet including your own custom ones either uploaded as an RPM or downloaded automatically from your own site.
But the goodness doesn’t end there… All of the respositories from the SUSE build service are also avaialble. You’ll be hard pressed to find a package that isn’t already available in Studio giving unprecidented flexability for building custom appliances.
Step 3: Next you configure some basic options such as Language, Timezone, Networking, and the default users and groups.
Step 4: Overylay files. If you need to add some files to your distro, just tar them up and they will be automatically un-tared in the directory specified.
Step 5: Create your applicance. You can pick one of 4 target formats. USB/Disk image, ISO, VMWare/VirtualBox, or XEN. Then click “Build”.
It typically takes less than 5 minutes to build the appliance and when you’re done you are presented with 2 options: Test Drive, or Download.
Test drive is really neat. Your appliance launches right in your browser window. You can watch it boot up, login, and test things out. The full desktop is there! Really cool! You can go back at any time and make changes.
Once you’re satisfied with your appliance click the download link and you’re done!
SUSE Studio is truly amazing.
I have only one small dissapointment; it only supports x86 archetectures and I had wanted to use it to build a PPC appliance that would run on the Sony PS3. I suspect they’ll add support for other CPUs in the future. Afterall, most small appliances don’t run full blown processors.
