This not really something new. Factory development is open for few weeks already. But what does this mean? What changed and how?
First thing that has changed is that our internal only tools doesn’t work anymore. So everybody has to use BuildService to send packages to the openSUSE. Even people inside. That’s a good. So now even community members can see how package is developed and developers will more probably notice submitrequests.
Second advantage even for ordinary users is that all Factory packages has to be developed in some topic project. So no more development in developers home project. Well, development can happened this way, but before it goes to the Factory, it has to go through topic project anyway. So people interested in bleeding edge packages will have easier situation.
Current disadvantage is that it’s a little bit messy. Projects were created quite quickly and some time will be needed to merge some projects and to move other projects to the more meaningful location. But process already started and now it’s all up to evolution 😀
Third advantage and the reason for all this is that anybody can maintain package in Factory. Not only Novell/SuSE employees. So even YOU can have your package on next openSUSE DVD. How to do it? Create package in BuildService, send it to the correct topic project and convince other project members that you are reliable and willing to do this. Well, as this is new for all of us, we will see how it will work. But if you are interested in participation, we’ve got wiki page about it 😀