On Tuesday 31 August 2010 00:30:02 Helen wrote:
Don't count on that. SUSE is the corporate brand. It is owned by Novell and will continue to be. It is a strong brand and we're lucky to be allowed to connect to it through adding 'open' in front. Besides, I personally like the 'open' part. Name change - you can discuss as long as you want but that won't happen in the next 5 years. Sad (maybe) but true (absolutely).
Frankly I couldn't agree more and I'm relieved to hear this - I'm still getting used to not spelling it SuSE... people don't like change and I think rebranding would waste a heck of a lot of energy and actually be counterproductive in the short term. Ubuntu hasn't been rebranded, just had a makeover.
I mean - get the strategy discussion done. Get marketing materials. Get regular news on news.opensuse.org (besides the great weekly news). Get the ambassador program running. Etc etc etc. No matter how important a brand is, ours might not be super but it IS well known and recognizable and has a cute geeko. Frankly, priority should be on getting work done like the things I mentioned - they make much more difference.
Absolutely. I'm an artist, and I nearly 'missed out' on the experience of openSUSE as I thought it was a business product. But with a free disk on Linux Format magazine I tried it out, wrestled with wireless and liked what I found. I've joined the artwork groups and hope to work on and help develop the 'creative side' of openSUSE along with some less bland merchandise.
Now THAT is the kind of testimony I love to hear ;-) Welcome (again) Helen, we sure can use nice artwork. If you lack ideas, ask on this or the artwork list. In general, however, picking up something because you think it would be good if it was done (and because it seems fun) is just great. After all - being pro-active is what keeps us moving. Anyone talking such efforts down will have to answer to me - I have a bunch of Voodoo dolls here to make sure they won't do it again ;-)
best
Helen