Many Linux distributions provide build services under various names: openSUSE Build Service (OBS), Fedora Copr, and so on. These resources are indispensable for upstream developers, and also for their users. I will demonstrate this through some examples from the syslog-ng project. Note: this blog is loosely based on a talk idea I had for the FOSDEM Distributions Devroom. There is no deep technical information about syslog-ng in this blog. This is more like a history of syslog-ng packaging, and how the fantastic tools by openSUSE and Fedora made it a lot easier and made me an active part of these communities.

Recently, I have posted blogs and articles about three operating systems (or rather OS families) I use, and now people ask which one is my “true” love. It’s not easy, but I guess, the best way to describe it is that both FreeBSD and openSUSE are true ones, and Fedora & Co. is a workplace affair :-) This is why I’m writing that it is a polyamorous relationship. Let me explain!

Let me share my Fedora story with you. Hopefully, it helps you to understand, why I am also promoting AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux, even if I am an active Fedora and CentOS community member and contributor. Before the beginnings Someone suggested me to try Red Hat Linux in 1995 and replace Slackware Linux with it on my university server. I installed it, but I did not become a fan. And when I found the print out of the password file of my server on the wall of the Russian students’ computer lab (see: https://peter.