October 2010 - openSUSE Project - openSUSE Mailing Lists

[opensuse-project] Who is openSUSE
by Jos Poortvliet 15 Oct '10

15 Oct '10

We're almost there, ladies and gents. Again there was quite some feedback on the strategy doc. We have worked to shorten the document - a difficult thing with something which is the result of many thoughts and ideas. We tried to bring the piece on our target users back to it's essentials and now have a short and a long version - input on what to do with either of those is very much welcome. In the other area's, shortening was even harder - we appreciate input there as well. The plan is to do this one last round of feedback before we will try and finish it all off at the openSUSE conference next week. So if you've held back, have not had a look at this yet - now or never! Provide your input on the draft on co-ment and help shape our description of what being a Geeko means to us all. Yes, this will hopefully describe ourselves - where we stand, but also add a bit of pepper and salt and show our ambitions. Our strategy document has to be inclusive - but not too long. It has to show some ambition - but must also be realistic. Please note that the stuff under 'background' is - well, background. The first 3 parts (target users; what openSUSE offers; and what do we not focus on) are our future self-description! Those are the arguments you have when talking to others about openSUSE - make sure they are convincing and true. So, again, go to co-ment and help shape our future! [1] https://lite.co-ment.com/text/lNPCgzeGHdV/view/

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[opensuse-project] call for help
by Jos Poortvliet 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

Hi all, I'd also like to call on the more technically-knowledgable people to have a look at our talking points for ambassadors: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Talking_points Think about contributing, it helps :D Cheers, Jos

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[opensuse-project] Revising the Board Election Rules, 3rd iteration
by Andreas Jaeger 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

After the second iteration on the rules, a number of clarifications have been made and also the complete rule set got reordered and edited. I'd like to thank David that did the major editing on this one. What do you think? Are we good now to run the next elections with these rules? Andreas openSUSE Board Election Rules Policy ===== Size: The board consists of six members: five seats are elected by the community and a chairperson is appointed. Term: The openSUSE board term is two years. Chairperson: To provide continuity to the organization, the chairperson shall be appointed and replaced at Novell's discretion. Election period: The election period is normally from 1st January to the following 31st December. Company affiliation: To help ensure that the board will always represent a wide part of the community, no single organization or company can control more than 40 per cent of the elected or appointed board seats. Good faith: Members of the openSUSE board shall act on behalf of all openSUSE contributors in the best interest of the openSUSE project. Although board members may be affiliated with companies or organizations that have an interest in the success of openSUSE, they will not be considered representatives of the companies or organizations with which they are affiliated. Procedure ======== Voting: Only openSUSE members may vote, each member having one ballot that has one vote per seat to be elected. The eligible candidates who receive the most votes fill the vacant seats. Election Committee: The election is run by an Election Committee that consists of at least three openSUSE members. The Election Committee is appointed for each election by the board. Constitution: A new board's term should start on the first of January, the elections should be finished 14 days before. In the case of delays, the new board will start 7 days after the election results are published. Appointed board members or members elected during ad-hoc election will start 7 days after appointment or election results are published. Nominations: The election committee will take self-nominations, nominations by others and can nominate people for election. The election committee will contact the nominated people and ask them whether they are willing to stand for election. These nominations are private until accepted by the nominated people. Insufficient Nominations: In the event that the number of eligible candidates is less than or equal to the number of vacant seats, the voting period will be delayed by two weeks. A public message will be sent out to ask again for candidates. In the event that the number of eligible candidates is still less than or equal to the number of available seats, voting occurs as normal but each candidate needs to have more than 50 per cent yes votes to be elected. Tie: In the event of a tie for the final seat(s) on the board, the election committee will schedule run-off elections between the tied candidates within one week, with a voting period of one week to resolve the tie. In the event of a tie during the run-off elections, the newly elected board - or the previous board, if fewer than 50 per cent of the seats have been filled - will appoint candidates running in the run-off elections to fill the vacant seats. Renewal: Approximately half of the board is elected every year. This means that every year, the term of approximately half of the board ends, and the term of the other half ends the year after. If there have been resignations or removals since the last elections, the term for the new board members will be adjusted if necessary to ensure that half of the elected board seats - that means at least two and no more than three out of five - will have to be filled during the next elections. To implement this adjustment, the elected board members with the most votes will have a two years term, while the elected board members with the lowest votes will have a one year term. The number of seats with the lowest votes is calculated so that two of the board seats will have to be filled during the next election Appointment: The sitting board is allowed to appoint new members to fill a board vacancy caused by one of the following conditions: 1) resignation of a Board member or 2) the removal of a Board member, or 3) death of a Board member, or 4) as part of elections if not enough people are elected. In the case that some seats do not get filled at an election, the new board will appoint board members as necessary until the next election. Ad-hoc elections: Instead of opting to appoint more than one board member, the board may opt to call for new board elections for the vacant seats. These board members will then be elected for the current election period and the next period – thus until 31st of December of the next year. Eligibility and Validity ================ Eligible candidates: Only openSUSE members may stand for election and be elected to the Board. Election committee: None of the Election Committee can run for or be elected as an openSUSE board member while serving on the Election Committee. Eligible voters: Only openSUSE members may vote. Resignation: Any person who has resigned from the Board or has been removed from the Board is not eligible for nomination or appointment for or during the next Board election period. Restanding: openSUSE board members can serve for up to two consecutive election periods. After that they must stand down for at least one election period, but may run again after the one election period break. Appointed members: Appointed board members are required to stand down and might seek election at the next election. Company affiliation: In the event that individuals affiliated with a company or organization hold more than 40 per cent of the elected or appointed seats, affiliates from that corporation will be required to resign until fewer than 40 per cent of elected or appointed seats are controlled by that company or organisation. Individuals affiliated with a company or organization are people who are employees, officers, or members of the board of directors of an organization; or have a significant consulting relationship; or own at least 1 per cent of the equity or debt, or derivatives thereof, of a company. Affiliation during election: A candidate is not eligible to be voted onto the board if their election would mean that a company or organization hold more than 40 per cent of the elected or appointed seats. In this case their election and these votes are void. Other Rules ========== Removal of Chairperson: The elected board members can appeal to Novell to have the chairperson replaced. Resignation: A member of the board may resign their current position by giving written notice to the chairperson. The board should appoint a new board member or call elections to fill the vacancy. Removal: In the event of repeated absence without contact, or other serious misconduct or negligence, a Board member may be subject to removal. Before any other process occurs, the Board member in question will be personally contacted by the chairperson to try to resolve the situation. If this contact does not successfully resolve the situation, the Board member in question may be removed by a vote of 2/3s of the other board members. The board should appoint a new board member or call elections to fill the vacancy. Repeated absence includes missing three consecutive board meetings without sending regrets, not answering emails on the board mailing list for more than a month, or missing more than 10 meetings. Forced re-election: If 20 per cent or more of the openSUSE members require a new board, an election will be held for the complete elected Board seats. Amendment: Changes by the election rules can be made by vote of the board where 2/3s or more approve it including the chairperson or by vote of the membership where 2/3 or more of the openSUSE members participating in the vote approve it. -- Andreas Jaeger, Program Manager openSUSE, aj(a){novell.com,opensuse.org} Twitter: jaegerandi | Identica: jaegerandi SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, GF: Markus Rex, HRB 16746 (AG Nürnberg) Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg, Germany GPG fingerprint = 93A3 365E CE47 B889 DF7F FED1 389A 563C C272 A126 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org

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Re: [opensuse-project] Revising the Board Election Rules, 3rd iteration
by suserocks＠bryen.com 11 Oct '10

11 Oct '10

Am election period is the length of time that people may vote in a specific election. Using that term states that you may vote for a candidate at any time between january one and december 31. On other words, voting is never-ending under that language. It isn't ambiguous. ;-). ------Original Message------ From: Administrator To: suserocks(a)bryen.com To: 'Andreas Jaeger' To: opensuse-project(a)opensuse.org ReplyTo: admin(a)different-perspectives.com Subject: RE: [opensuse-project] Revising the Board Election Rules, 3rd iteration Sent: Oct 8, 2010 5:05 PM > Says the election period is for one year? This is a typo, right? An ambiguity. It may be more clear if it said: Elections are held annually (in December). There may be ad-hoc elections as necessary between the annual elections. David Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse-project] What is the rationale for changing repo addresses?
by Carlos E. R. 11 Oct '10

11 Oct '10

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Hi, Recently, somebody enough "high up" has decided to change the address of the "source" repository for 11.2 (one of the official repos). This has resulted in many users broken packagekit, zypper or yast, because although disabled, the repository was left by the default installation on "refresh". And of course, those that made the decision to migrate from 'http://download.opensuse.org/source/distribution/11.2/repo/oss/' to 'http://download.opensuse.org/source/11.2/repo/oss' are not those handling the questions of many users "borked" installs: http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=447447 11.2 oss repo' PackageKit error View this thread: http://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php?t=447433 Repository error - oss source <http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-help-here/looking-something-other-th…> Thread: source repo down? <http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-help-here/looking-something-other-th…> Thread: What Happened to the OSS and Non-OSS Source Repos for 11.2? Me, that I'm an experienced user, took a full day to decide that this was not a temporary hiccup (there have been a few recently) but that something was really broken and that I had to investigate. Took a few minutes to repair once I knew, of course. Just imagine the pain on those less experienced. I fail to see this decission announced in "opensuse-announce" mail list or forum. I thake this point here, to project, because any change done can do damage to others. This was done without forethought for our users. It was not even announced! I propose that such changes are forbidden by policy, repository addresses frozen till life end of the distro. Or, design some method to communicate a message to zypper from the server about those changes. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.12 (GNU/Linux) iEYEARECAAYFAkynLdcACgkQtTMYHG2NR9XTpgCcCMUSj8OfON57n4Eh53g1rKcY VrMAnR89pkPlNFSEMYqUMaPll1bIfYm5 =V94I -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse-project] Strategy part X+2
by Jos Poortvliet 07 Oct '10

07 Oct '10

Hi all, As some might have read, today on news.opensuse.org the second part of the strategy new style went live. Let me compy some of that announcement: Over the last week you have all given input on the new strategy document describing the target users of openSUSE. It saw quite a bit of rewriting and rephrasing but it seems the description fitted most of your perceptions. We have incorporated all the comments into the document and a new iteration can be found on co-ment. Furthermore, the next piece of text has been added: "What does openSUSE offer its users?" [1] Like with "Target Users", we would really appreciate it if you could give your input on co-ment but we will accept any kind of input on any channel we can follow. So if co-ment isn't your thing, feel free to comment below this post, on the forums or anywhere else. For those new to co-ment - it is a pretty awesome commenting tool under the GNU Affero GPL[2]. Giving your input on co-ment [1] will make the discussion a bit more structured and easier for everyone to follow. How-to: select some text you want to comment on (a word, a few words, a sentence) and choose the little yellow + sign on the top-left of the page to add your comment. If you click a colored section of the text, you can see the comments which have been made to that section it and add your own voice to the discussion. Easy peasy! See for reference the openSUSE Strategy portal [3] on the wiki. A copy of the current proposal is at the bottom of the mail. Please have fun! Greetings, Your strategy team [1] https://lite.co-ment.com/text/lNPCgzeGHdV/view/ [2] http://www.fsf.org/licensing/licenses/agpl-3.0.html [3] http://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Strategy The current proposal: As with every other 'who are we' document, this one assumes our community statement [ http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Strategy_Community_Statement ]. Target users ========== The target users of the openSUSE distribution are people who need to get work done and want something stable and usable for their every day needs. They are users who are interested in technology, willing to learn to adapt their computer environment if needed, capable of reading documentation and/or asking questions on forums. But also people who don't want to if they don't have to - good defaults save them time. In short, the technology-adept computer user or IT professional who is productivity-focused. This includes power users, developers, system administrators but also the typical office workers or students handy with computers. A convenient definition would be someone who has read a computer magazine or technology website once or twice and works with computers a lot. The default openSUSE does not target casual computer users. For them we have simplified Netbook editions and in a company they would run a SLED desktop configured by an administrator who uses openSUSE. Our user wants control over his or her computing experience - but at the same time doesn't want to WASTE time - things should work out of the box while offering flexibility and configurability for when it is needed. And this user is empowered to help his or her favorite distribution - it is easy to contribute back to openSUSE and we make sure our users know this. What openSUSE offers ================== * We offer a powerful, stable core and let our community contribute other packages and tools through the Build Service: freedom and choice. * We maintain our software for 18 months and allow a easy upgrade path * We don't jump ship whenever something shiny comes along - users depend on our product so we only move when something is proven better * But through our Build Service we offer the latest and greatest even for older releases in case our users needs it * So we are actually the ONLY DISTRIBUTION having both stability and a fresh taste! * a desktop system that works out of the box with good defaults but offers the needed flexibility and configurability * Easy ways to change the defaults while administration the system and during the installation * A great infrastructure to build upon including technologies like the build service, Kiwi and technology build upon those like SUSE Studio. Thanks to our build service, developers can easily provide users with their software, no matter what Linux distribution they use. And our users can easily contribute back to openSUSE. * A product clearly NOT the result of NIH - we collaborate and cooperate with others, providing the best technology from around the Free Software ecosystem * The option for commercial support from Novell by using SLES In short, our philosophy is stable over shiny and powerful over dumb combined with innovative and flexible technology and an open mind for collaboration.

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[opensuse-project] CfP fosdem!
by Jos Poortvliet 07 Oct '10

07 Oct '10

For those who haven't seen it yet, FOSDEM has send out a CfP for distributions :D Anyone up for submitting a talk?

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[opensuse-project] Keysigning Party at openSUSE conference 2010
by Jan Weber 06 Oct '10

06 Oct '10

Hi Project, just like last year, there will be a keysigning party at this years openSUSE conference as well. If you want to participate please follow the instructions at http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Conference_KSP One small note: Deadline for key submission is Monday October, 18 at 12:00 UTC. Have a lot of fun and extend the web of trust, Jan

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[opensuse-project] Main page - image needs updating
by Malcolm 06 Oct '10

06 Oct '10

Hi Can the 'Get it' image be changed on the main page to remove the PPC dvd since it's not provided anymore? A user it the forum pointed it out when looking for a ppc version of 11.3. http://www.opensuse.org/en/ -- Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890) openSUSE 11.3 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.34.7-0.3-default up 18:43, 4 users, load average: 0.08, 0.20, 0.33 GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 256.53 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org

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[opensuse-project] OpenRheinRuhr
by S.Kemter 05 Oct '10

05 Oct '10

Hello, Next month on 13th and 14th November is in Oberhausen an Linux event called OpenRheinRuhr. http://openrheinruhr.de/ Its the second edition of this event, last year it was in Bottrop and this year it will be in Oberhausen at Rheinisches Industriemuseum. Marcel Richter, Thomas Groß and me go there but Thomas have a talk and me have an workshop and a talk there so help is always welcome. When u have time and fun to help at the openSUSE booth, send me an message br gnokii -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org

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