Press Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 25-Feb-2004
The OpenPKG project releases version 2.0 of the
unique cross-platform software packaging facility.
http://www.openpkg.org/ — Munich, DE — February 25, 2004 — The
OpenPKG project is proud to announce version 2.0 of its OpenPKG
software, another evolutionary step after a series of four
predecessors. Much valued by IT decision makers and beloved by Unix
system administrators, OpenPKG is the world leading instrument for
deployment and maintenance of Open Source software when administration
crosses Unix platform boundaries. The unique OpenPKG architecture
leverages proven technologies like Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) and
OSSP and GNU components to establish a unified software administration
environment, independent of the underlying operating system.
NEW IN VERSION 2.0
OpenPKG platform support has doubled and OpenPKG 2.0 is now available
for 16 different Unix flavors. Most notably, it is supported on
FreeBSD 4.9 and 5.2, Debian GNU/Linux 3.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux
3, Red Hat Fedora Core 1, SuSE Linux 9.0, and Sun Solaris 8 and 9.
Additionally, all CORE and the vast majority of BASE class packages
are already available for the tentative platforms Debian GNU/Linux
3.1, Gentoo Linux 1.4.3, Sun Solaris 10 and still available for the
obsoleted (end-of-life) platforms Debian GNU/Linux 2.2, Red Hat Linux
9, SuSE Linux 8.2, and Sun Solaris 2.6.
Since the previous release a half year ago, the OpenPKG package
repository has again grown by 20%. A subset of 473 packages were
carefully selected for inclusion into the OpenPKG 2.0 release,
including latest versions of popular Open Source Unix software
like Apache, Bash, BIND, GCC, INN, MySQL, OpenSSH, Perl, Postfix,
PostgreSQL, Samba, Squid, and Vim.
The major technical efforts for this release were spent on the
RPM-based OpenPKG packaging framework. The most prominent change
is the upgrade from RPM 4.0.2 to RPM 4.2.1 which contributes over
three years of development, including support for concurrent package
database operations and transactional safety. On top of this OpenPKG
greatly enhanced RPM's portability and added tools for improved RPM
database maintenance and troubleshooting.
The complete packaging was revamped to use GNU shtool's new platform
identification. This allows both product and technology recognition in
order to enable unambiguous naming and more accurate packaging.
Finally, OpenPKG extended the RPM capabilities by adding specification
headers and sections to allow even more complete packaging, including
package classification and automated vendor source tracking. To allow
enterprise grade deployment and inventory integration, OpenPKG 2.0
provides ISO/IEC 11578:1996 compliant Universally Unique Identifiers
(UUID) for reasonable OpenPKG instance identification.
VOICE OF THE COMMUNITY
OpenPKG has been tremendously helpful in our efforts to make
Open Source software available to the entire campus.
— Dennis McRitchie, Princeton University.
Deployment of the OpenPKG infrastructure on a fleet of Sun
Solaris machines has allowed our organization to migrate
away from a convoluted, out-of-date, shared NFS directory
to a cleanly managed and easily upgraded package system.
This is light-years ahead of any vendor alternative from Sun.
— Matt Hoosier, Kansas State University.
OpenPKG has proven itself time and time again as an excellent base
for the Kolab E-mail server. Nowhere else can one deploy such a
rich set of applications, so consistently, across so many different
platforms. The ability to move between different Unix platforms and
GNU/Linux distributions while maintaining a consistent, high quality,
environment is an invaluable tool for any administrator. OpenPKG is
a natural choice for any organization or Free Software project that
need to support various applications on a plethora of Unix systems.
— Stephan Buys, Code Fusion.
I would like to see every Unix operating system make use of this
approach so that installation and upgrade of software finally lose
the aura of magic and adventure.
— Christian Reiber, Zeppelin.
We are moving all our internal and customer's systems to OpenPKG
which has simplified our development and support.
— Bill Campbell, Celestial Software.
HIGHLIGHTS OF OPENPKG
* Portable across major Unix flavors.
* Available for the supported platforms:
FreeBSD 4.9/5.2, Debian Linux 3.0, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3,
Red Hat Fedora Core 1, SuSE Linux 9.0 and Solaris 8 and 9.
* Already available for the tentative platforms:
Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, Gentoo Linux 1.4.3, Sun Solaris 10.
* Still available for the obsoleted platforms:
Debian GNU/Linux 2.2, Red Hat Linux 9, SuSE Linux 8.2,
and Sun Solaris 2.6.
* Entirely based on Open Source software technology.
* Minimum operating system intrusion and dependency.
* Minimum overhead in software packaging.
* Sources of 473 CORE+BASE+PLUS packages released.
* Binaries of CORE+BASE class packages provided for supported platforms.
* Binaries of CORE class packages provided for all platforms.
* Easy installation, updating and deinstallation of packages.
* Bundled with useful and secure package preconfigurations.
* Includes an abstracted and powerful run-command facility.
* Virtual hosting through multiple instances on a single system.
* Proxy packages for reusing packages across instances.
* Build-time package variations for maximum flexibility.
* Foundation to build encapsulated and self-contained environments.
HISTORY OF THE OPENPKG PROJECT
The OpenPKG project was founded in 2000 by Cable & Wireless, who first
released it as Open Source software in January 2002. Today OpenPKG is
a mature technology in production use, and is maintained and improved
by its original developers and volunteer contributors.
OpenPKG is the brainchild of Ralf S. Engelschall, principal author of
numerous other popular Open Source Software technologies like OSSP
components, Apache SSL/TLS Engine (mod_ssl), Apache URL Rewriting
Engine (mod_rewrite), GNU Portable Threads (Pth), GNU Portable Shell
Tool (Shtool), Website META Language (WML) and more.
MORE INFORMATION
The OpenPKG Project
openpkg@openpkg.org
+49-89-92699-251 (CET)
+49-172-8986801 (CET)
