How Software Is Built

interviews Mandriva’s Helio Chissini de Castro.
“Sean: Would you tell me a little bit about how Mandriva’s maintained? …
Helio: Our repository, our packages, and everything we do centralizes in the supervisional server. it’s one of the largest supervisional servers ever–around a hundred gigabytes of database. It has the history of all packages and patches and branches and solutions, and it’s open for everyone that’s using the computers, so they can see what is changing in every part, every time.
The most amazing thing is that you can easily port and push patches and make it available for everyone without having the harsh part of, “OK, You need to pick the package that others wish and unpack it and see what is inside and then do the patch and apply for it.” It’s open, and it’s easy to see.”
(Thanks to Adam Williamson).