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openSUSE:Talking points
tagline: From openSUSE
Writing or talking about openSUSE and/or the latest release
A short and nice (about 750 words) "about openSUSE" which you can use:
Hi, we're openSUSE! We are a global community promoting and developing Linux and related tools. Our distribution focuses on stability and flexibility, providing you a platform to Get Things Done. Our tools are innovative, unique and open, supporting other Linux distributions and making it easy to do cool stuff. We do awesome things like the Open Build Service (packaging for 27 Linux distro's via a web interface), Studio (build your own OS in a browser), Tumbleweed (rolling release for openSUSE), WebYaST (control your OS remotely) and more. We work together in an open way without bureaucracy and rules, as part of the worldwide Free and Open Source Software community.
For more information, visit www.opensuse.org.
You can find materials for promoting openSUSE on the Marketing materials page.
A summary of the talking points below is in this document. Please note it is just 1 page, convenient to have with you at a conference, but on this wiki page you can find many more arguments and answers to questions! If you request openSUSE materials via the promoDVD website you will get this included.
Features of the upcoming openSUSE release can be found here.
Why openSUSE
This will depend quite a bit on our strategic decisions - once that is done, some of the results can be put in this page. Why choose openSUSE
Answers focusing on
- our product
- our ecosystem
- our community
openSUSE for Developers
Driving Point: openSUSE offers a stable environment with most developer tools provided and offers a platform for multi-distro packaging, making this an ideal environment for upstream contribution.
Detailed Answers:
- How is openSUSE for developers?
- How is the interaction between openSUSE and Upstream Projects?
- Discuss OBS
- Highlight ability to develop on openSUSE platform for multiple distros instantly.
openSUSE for beginners
About openSUSE and first-time linux users
Answers:
- How EASY is openSUSE for newbies?
- How will I be able to do without my usual software under Windows?
- How will I video and audio chat with my friends, how about games, artwork, audio?
- Can I use my hardware with openSUSE?
- What are the different flavors of openSUSE? How easy is it to get them?
- Can I get support for openSUSE?
openSUSE for administrators and servers
About openSUSE and administrators and small servers
Driving Point: openSUSE provides a comprehensive set of packages to meet the needs of servers in both large and small environments. openSUSE has a strong reputation for its focus on security and stability.
- How easy & complete is openSUSE versus Microsoft Small Business Server
- Is it difficult to set up a server with openSUSE?
- Is openSUSE secure?
- Can I get support for openSUSE?
openSUSE vs other distributions
About openSUSE and other distributions
- Does openSUSE offer something more than Fedora and Ubuntu?
- Be mindful of a fundamental rule: 'never bash down competitors'.
- openSUSE respects people's views, which might be different in some cases. Be prepared to do conflict management in a mature way.
- Promote openSUSE based on arguments which provide differentiation from other distros; as a quick example: "OBS provides a good distribution platform. It's where openSUSE is created and from where it's served. OBS also allows distribution of contents for all major platforms like Fedora or Ubuntu. It's an awesome place for independent projects to hang around and evolve as well." and supply cool arguments like what projects are using OBS. Be constructive based on what we do good, and why we do it that way. Don't bash down competitors or try any weird metrics like user base and stuff.
- Be informed of what GNOME and KDE (, LXDE)are doing, how cool are openSUSE repo's which also provide 'bleeding edge', with probably some more control.
- Promote Factory, which a very important part of openSUSE. How it is important for us, and how attractive it can be for students and developers, even enthusiasts who want to learn more.
Being part of openSUSE
About openSUSE and contributing
- Is it easy to get involved?
- What benefits you get by joining the openSUSE Community?
- What are your duties as openSUSE Member /User/etc?
- Will I get hired by a company if I help openSUSE?
- Ambassadors always should end with a clear invitation for the audience to interact with openSUSE.
- I would recommend the same kind of approach being made by Fedora:
- "Hello, I'm a geeko! Can I help you?" - First contact!
- "Look, we are openSUSE and we're so cool" - cool you introduced openSUSE!
- "Feel free to hang around by our forums... lots of knowledge and cool people sharing information in a fun way!"... - you left an invitation.
- Above all, be yourself! You are Geeko!
Specific issues
RPM and Zypper vs other package technologies
RPM and zypper suck, (random package tool) is better: Why RPM does NOT suck - we make it work!
- Be mindful of the user you are speaking to. A new comer in most cases won't need to work directly with zypper or rpm. In fact either GNOME or KDE have package management interfaces... and openSUSE provides YaST2 also very powerful tools.
- Zypper can be a good concept to introduce OBS. This can be a good hook depending on the user you are speaking to.
- User's that are used to another platform, always be receptive to their views, specially if you haven't got much experience with the tool they are used. Focus on why we have 'zypper' and how powerful it can be when used with OBS for example.
GNOME vs KDE vs ...
openSUSE is one of the few distributions really giving equal treatment to GNOME, KDE, XFCE, LXDE and other desktop implementations, providing our users with a real choice.
KDE, GNOME and why we have them all
Upgrading, release cycle and new versions
About the 8 month release cycle and having to re-install or not Answers:
- what does the release cycle mean? Will I have to reinstall?
- What is openSUSE's Release Cycle?
- Why does openSUSE have an 8 month release cycle while most other distributions have 6 months?
Involvement of SUSE
- How SUSE is involved with openSUSE and why that is good; and about the SUSE-Microsoft deal:
about the relationship with SUSE
- And openSUSE is under SUSE now not NOVELL :D
OBS
- OBS is used by meego, dell and other industrial vendors when distributing their own linux distributions
YaST
- It's a very useful administration tool which i use almost everyday!
- It is the most useful tool among all the Linux distros have.
- I use it for server and hardware configurations
- Can tun on ncurses(graphical mode on commandd line / when X is not running), Qt, GTK.
- Offcourse 11.4 comes with WebYaST a sysadmins dream
A few Quotes from our Ambassadors
- openSUSE to me is the distribution, the operating system, openSUSE is a one
stop software solution that incorporates a stable reliable Graphical Operating Environment with the latest in Office Productivity, Accounts, Graphical Design and Multimedia to name but a few. It can be used as a web server as well as the desktop tools to design the content for the server. Best of all if you join the project you can contribute toward the development and help the shape the project in the future.
- openSUSE: it's open, it's green and it's a lot of fun!
- Linux is choice, openSUSE IS choice. openSUSE can fit nearly any user experience. Any user interface, any harware (old or new)
- "openSUSE for everyone and everybody" and "No lizard , no party" , "
We love openSUSE , we do it!"
- I say openSUSE is far more beautiful than Ubuntu and it has an
elegant style and very powerful collection of tools. Yast is another thing that makes openSUSE unique. Also the web page software.opensuse.org is a lot helpful, you can have any softwares at one click, no terminal, no commands. Its really rocking \m/
- 1 thing I say is scale/focus: openSUSE offeres a much larger scope of
software and flexibility from a single install medium, and our Promo DVD is the awesomest of awesome.
- I am a chameleon: developer, systems administrator, artist, author,
organizer, volunteer, teacher, parent. I need tools that can adapt as well. That's why I choose openSUSE Linux.
- openSUSE is the first, and to date only mainstream distro I have
encountered that shows that free doesn't mean sub-par, advanced doesn't mean complicated and customisable doesn't mean confusing. It shows us that sometimes, just sometimes, we really can have a free lunch.
- openSUSE, it's all about humans, we work together trying to package chaos.
Making it a openminded community, which know we're nothing without all upstream and other projects. We try to do our best, and know also we failed in some part. But we already are working on it!
braindump
Just add ANY ideas on talking points you have, questions you get etc down here.