This course has been temporarily replaced by SPO600 Software Portability and Optimization to take advantage of the unique learning opportunity presented by the emergence of a new architecture: 64-bit ARM. We anticipate offering SBR600 at a future date.
Software Build and Release - SBR600
This course is a professional option in the Seneca School of Information and Communication Technology CTY program. It has been offered since January 2009.
SBR600 in Fall 2013
In SBR600, you'll be working directly with the Fedora project and other open source communities, on various build and release projects. This semester, most projects will focus on improvements to Pidora, a Fedora Remix for the Raspberry Pi.
Note that, unlike some other project-based courses, the results of the projects done in SBR600 will be incorporated into Pidora, the Fedora project, or other open source projects, and have a real impact on other people. For this reason, projects must be completed in collaboration with the relevant open source communities, using relevant communication tools. Work performed in this course will be licensed using the relevant open source licenses used by the associated community.
Working in an open source community provides the opportunity to build solid real-world experience, your technical skills and reputation, and a network of contacts, all of which are useful in developing your career.
Course Materials
- Course information and labs are online.
- You will require access to a personal Fedora 18 or Fedora 19 installation. This may be on your own laptop, on a virtual machine on your laptop, on an SSH-accessible system (such as a home desktop computer), or on a SATA disk pack or USB drive for use with the Seneca computers.
- Recommended (optional): Purchase a Raspberry Pi
Professor
SBR600 is taught by Chris Tyler.
Succeeding in SBR600
There are three keys to success in this course:
1. Work in the open source community. The projects we will be doing are too large and too unfamiliar for you to succeed entirely on your own. You will need to use the community's knowledge, connections, and resources to succeed well. Respect the community's standards, tell the community what you're doing, ask when you have a question, and pull your own weight within the community.
2. Blog. Tell your professor, your colleagues, the community, and everyone else what you're doing. Write a lot and write well, include good technical content, and incorporate links to all relevant resources and the product of your work, and write often. Almost all of your work in this course is submitted by blogging.
3. Be ambitious. In this course, you will need to be the driving force behind your project. The community will help you, but it's up to you to supply the energy. It's best to plan to make a bit of progress each day.
Weekly Outline
See the Fall 2013 SBR600 Weekly Schedule for specific dates and topics.
Course Outline
See the online course outline for course details.