Novell on Wednesday announced open source availability of openSuse Build Service, a framework for developers to build and compile packages from multiple Linux distributions.Users of the service can piece together their own Linux distribution based on technologies available on the OpenSuse Web site, said Justin Steinman, Novell director of marketing for Linux and open platform solutions. More than 6,000 open source packages are featured at OpenSuse, he said. The main goal of the service is to promote Linux development, Steinman said. “As members of the open source community, we’re about delivering tools back out to the community,” he said. The service lets developers build Linux packages that can be based on platforms such as openSuse, Suse Linux Enterprise, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu. Developers can maintain and build packages at a single location. Novell’s service features a server back end to host sources and the build infrastructure. Also included are package download and mirroring tools as well as communication infrastructure. The client front end offers tools and interfaces to organize and build packages from source code. It features a command line and a Web-based interface. The build service is available at Novell’s OpenSuse.org Web site. The company also announced availability of Kiwi, a system-imaging tool to build live media, including Xen virtual images. Both the build service and imaging tool are available for immediate download. Software Development