openSUSE:Novell involvement
This page will give you, as an openSUSE ambassador, arguments in a discussion about the involvement of SUSE and our other sponsors in openSUSE.
The page is under construction and mostly contains a random bunch of arguments... Feel free to add any braindump or question you have!
What IS the relationship between the openSUSE sponsors and openSUSE?
- The sponsors provides the openSUSE community with resources to maintain and release the openSUSE distribution.
- The sponsors support openSUSE through sponsoring and maintaining infrastructure, human resources and funding.
- Our sponsors need openSUSE. For example, SUSE needs openSUSE for it's SUSE Linux Enterprise products. SUSE makes money on that by offering services and support for SLE. B1 offers services and support on openSUSE, as does Heinlein. etcetera.
- The sponsors help organize and sponsors meetings, travel and other things
- The sponsors pay people to help openSUSE become more successful (see e.g. the boosters team)
- Their marketing works with the openSUSE marketing team to spread the word
- SUSE supports the openSUSE project with legal advise
Independent from SUSE or not?
- SUSE is committed to the spirit of Free Software and has a strong policy to upstream as much of the work it does. Therefore most SUSE engineers are engaged in upstream Free and Open Source projects.
- The openSUSE Board is our official communication channel with SUSE
- The openSUSE community and SUSE define the content of the distribution based on defined criteria and a transparent process led by the board of maintainers. openSUSE is the base of SUSE's enterprise Linux products. (from FAQ)
- SuSE does not ship anymore the openSUSE retail products in shops, this is done by a third party now.
- SUSE owns the openSUSE trademark and has published guidelines on how to use them - and how to ask for using them.
- We are in the process of setting up an openSUSE foundation which will ensure that openSUSE has control over our own infrastructure and destiny. SUSE is working with us on that and supports us.
The SUSE-Microsoft Deal
We recognize that some people have issues with the deal made between SUSE and Microsoft. However, it is important to understand that openSUSE is a community project that is sponsored by SUSE, not controlled by SUSE. We have more sponsors, including B1, Heinlein and IP Exchange.
The reality is that openSUSE itself had no relationship to the deal and in this instance we are similar to any other major distro. We have bits that may be considered controversial, (e.g., Mono-based software) but this is the same for other major distros such as Fedora or Ubuntu.
We, as a Project, have no official position on the deal, nor are we an agent of SUSE, and any opinions about the deal are expressed by the individual.