Besides the question what would it mean for Novell which is hard to answer as Zonker hinted -, I think we should also discuss what this means for the openSUSE project. Here're the questions that are in my mind about this: There were three topics mentioned and I'm asking myself what a successful "openSUSE Server Media", "openSUSE LTS" or "openSLES" would mean for the openSUSE project itself. So, in total we have at least three different angels to look at this: From Novell's perspective, from the openSUSE project perspective - and from the perspective of server admins. All three projects would require volunteers to step up and those volunteers would be missed in other parts of the project. So, could either of these attract additional volunteers to the openSUSE project and additional users to openSUSE? openSUSE Server Media: * This would be packages that are part of the distribution, so work for it would go back to the distribution itself and strengthen it. It would make openSUSE as a server more popular (openSUSE is already used as a server). openSUSE LTS: * If this would be done every couple of releases, I expect that the LTS team would help to harden this release and this would benefit everybody. * If the team uses technology from openSUSE, like the Build Service, the engineers might improve this technology and therefore improve the tools. * Indirectly, this might give openSLES/openSUSE LTS additional users that then become SLES or openSUSE users later - or work in the Build Service with benefits for openSUSE. openSLES * I see no direct benefit from the packaging work for this to openSUSE distribution itself. * If the team uses technology from openSUSE, like the Build Service, the engineers might improve this technology and therefore improve the tools. * Indirectly, this might give openSLES/openSUSE LTS additional users that then become SLES or openSUSE users later - or work in the Build Service with benefits for openSUSE. Did I miss anything or where is my thinking flawed? Even if I'm not convinced yet that some options are the best for the openSUSE project, it doesn't mean I will block anything (I doubt I could;), it just implies where I engage myself, Andreas -- Andreas Jaeger, aj@{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