Boyd Lynn Gerber wrote:
Hello,
With the annoucement today.
http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-announce/2009-08/msg00009.html
that openSUSE is on a 18 month cycle, maybe we need to form a group...
The thought is that a possible out come of this group maybe an openSLE which would be like this model
fedora->centos->RHEL
but for SUSE -SLES openSUSE->openSLE->SLE-| -SLED
This is from the end of the project meeting. I hope the boat has not sailed already and it is too late. I am not quite sure about adding yet another trail of slightly different versions. I would be happy with the following, but for nothing, to gain more valuable media space that is under huge threat now We can also spin this a lot better for the commercial client.
My thoughts from what I have heard from talks with clients, IRC chats, and misc.
WARNING (This is my honest view/perception and is not politically correct)
1. Many small business owners/small companies feel there is a lack of attention to their needs from Novell. That is to say Novell only listens to "Monster Enterprise Clients"
Solution: We form a group that combined has equivelant $$$ behind it to warrent attention. An alternative solution, may be to gather those same $$$ into just fixing the bugs a commercial client reports themselves or via support and to put the screws on production to demand a higher quality output in the first instance together with everyone in development having only
openSLES-> SLED openSLED-> SLES I would believe from a distribution point, the original proposed increased versions would be; far greater in resources to maintain far greater from the development point to package and not intermix modules in various CPU dependant hardware would do nothing, with the exception of creating yet another buffer, for bugs to be found, before we offer the commercial product far greater in mastering, presentation and consumables mass confusion in a great deal of users, they are confused enough the current RC of opensuse.x installed on their PC with default login managers. It is so obvious that development do not use the product as we ship it OR spend the life with a command prompt on the screen and innumerable variations customised to the developer. Do this and we wont see half the bugs in ALPHA or BETA or RC or Commercial.
2. Many resent replies from Novell people (although it is just their opinion) through the various mediums treat SMB's and their staff as idiots. It comes off as if it comes from arrogant 20-something know it alls dictating what the community has to do. To quote some CEO's and COO... "The SUSE/Novell people act like a bunch arrogant 20-something ... that treat us and are staff like idiots.) SMB's have to contribute more time/money/resources to keep openSUSE going. (Why should we when we are treated like idiots)?
Solution: Better communitcation. Some signs of improvement, but a strong feeling of being dictated, rather than lead"
Solution: Perform!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. I have never read such a more true and accurate understanding of the Nature of Business at Novell.de and Suse.DE and its absolutely correct, however in this time of being Politically Correct, I am glad some one has actually articulated these words. This type of working culture starts at the top and works its way to the bottom - I suggest we fix the TOP! Do a search on Bugzilla for all bugs marked as WONTFIX and lay down the law that a developer does not have the ability to remove any functionality already in product, unless it compromises the Kernel or Resources. For every WONTFIX - The reason for this closure item must be written into the bug report in text and justified and each development manager MUST sign of on them Another solution would be to open 'Yast' and 'Gnome' 'Xorg' up for user bugs and Enhancements and FATE. It does not take a genius to work out that both of these areas are closed shops as bugs/enhancements to any of the above most often result in CLOSED/WONTFIX. Its not rocket science to do a simple search in theses areas.
3. They are really concerned "OpenSUSE distro is moving toward just a desktop Ubunto clone. They are ignoreing what was there bigest strength. Providing a Polished First Class Stable Server with necessary Desktop fetures."
Solution: This could be solved by openSLE (A openSUSE centos like clone as refered in the above example).
Solution. Release a products that is more included to work, this means lowering bugs and 'fixed bugs' directly out of development to ZERO With upper hundreds of number of bugs, we are NOT going to produce a "Providing a Polished First Class Stable Server with necessary Desktop features" The first Agenda Item for Project Managers Meetings, is static, its always BUGS/RFC/ETC... Numbers, classifications, how many last week and how many this week, NO reduction? - FIX THE SITUATION and set targets! People are happy at the moment just to have a job!
4. "Tired of hearing we do this for fun, it is not my problem/responsibility, hire a programmer or become one." "Fix it yourself as it is a community distro. The community is not doing enough or is too small." What happens is or feels like the various groups that are part of the community are not fully trusted. What I see/feel/hear is that globally the openSUSE distro is moving to the bottom of the Linux Distro Heap. I am being asked to move to CentOS as it has a longer support window. "Having to update my OS every 2 years is a real pain in the butt! Now it is moving to a 18 month window. I really need to look at something else that meets my needs" Business like to stay as long as they are able to the release. "If it aint broke don't fix it!" "We really need a fall back position. What are your recommendations? Doesn't Novell realize who pays their salaries? What about Ubunto, Debian, Fedora/CentOS, or Solaris, BSDs?"
Solution: Have the openSUSE->openSLE->SLES/SLED path available.
Alternative, we have multiple RC's until we get it good enough for market. All calendars indicating a target release date for next version should be burned. We save so much time/man-hours/production/printing costs to stop this ridiculous waste of money and version number for no functional gain and a few bugs fixed, as the case currently is. Service Packs are O.K, but unfortunately with the massive amount of things that do not work, I think we may need to have more than one RC of a version shipped to market! We just need to hold onto our hats to make sure the upgrade/update works without destroying as much as in the past.
At some of the event I and others I talk with have attended it is often asked "Why doesn't Novell offer an opneSLE alternitive?" People using the fedora->CentOS->RHEL talk of how many of the business they support move this route to become RHEL customers. I think we (being the SUSE prefered" really would benefit from a similar path. That is why I am trying to somehow get a group organized. So we are able to have our voice heard at the higher levels of Novell.
Thanks for reading this. I propose using the Freenode IRC #opensuse-server channel and either of the lists in the CC. to further discuss this idea and form a group.
Thank you,
......and that's my user dummy spit and suggestions for now and I think there will be many to come and they will NOT be so nice, my post will pale into insignificance, once the ball gets rolled out. Thanks for reading such a long post and thanks to the original author who told it the way it is! Scott