Archive:OpenSUSE Foundation

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Charter and Purpose of the openSUSE Foundation

Summary Statement

(A short statement - short enough to fit on a presentation slide)

The openSUSE Foundation is the legal body of the openSUSE Project. The primary purpose of the Foundation is to enable and support the openSUSE membership and community efforts in all activities of the openSUSE Project which includes:

  • building a general purpose Linux based Operating System including a wide software spectrum for various use cases such as desktop, server and development tools.
  • the promotion of free software in general and the openSUSE Project in particular
  • providing free content, for example documentation, artwork etc.
  • the infrastructure to support the openSUSE community activities
  • helping people to get together to innovate

The Foundation exercises administrative responsibilities and legal controls to engender open and objective leadership, vision, commitment and solidarity, empowering people to make decisions, attracting additional companies to donate to the project, and attracting a broader range of individual contributors.


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Detailed Statement

(Same statement made as the summary statement, just with more details..)

The primary purpose of the openSUSE Foundation is to enable and support the openSUSE membership and community efforts in all activities of the openSUSE Project which includes:

  • building a general purpose Linux based Operating System including a wide software spectrum for various use cases such as desktop, server and development tools.
  • the promotion of free software in general and the openSUSE Project in particular
  • providing free content, for example documentation, artwork etc.
  • the infrastructure to support the openSUSE community activities
  • helping people to get together to innovate

The openSUSE Foundation is the financial and legal body of the openSUSE Project. It is a part of the project and controls legal aspects affecting the community and can either hold trademarks or has a granted decision power over the trademark usage from the actual trademark owner. Another core responsibility is financial accounting.

The openSUSE Foundation consists of members who elect the board of the Foundation. The membership status of individuals and legal bodies like companies is in the foundations decision as outlined in the bylaws.

Together with the community the openSUSE Foundation is helping to create a space where all community members can benefit from vision and ideas, commitment and solidarity. It cares to empower people to take decisions to develop the openSUSE Project towards an even more open, active and decisive community.

The Guiding Principles of the openSUSE Project is the commitment of the community on how they want to work together. The board of the foundation is the entity that takes a special role in moderation and decision taking as outlined within the Guiding Principles.

The openSUSE Foundation however is not set up to take technical leadership roles in the community. The work and the decision making will continue to be executed by the community and the teams they work in as per the factory development model.