December 2016

[opensuse-project] How we will use the GSoC money
by Vincent Untz 18 Jul '24

18 Jul '24

Hi, (let's see how a public discussion about money goes :-)) The Google Summer of Code brings us great students, but also means that the openSUSE project will get $8000 (if I'm not mistaken) at the end of the summer. That's $500 per student. A while ago, I requested comments on my blog about what to do with the money, but didn't get any feedback. So I take this as "do what you feel is best", and this mail is about the plan. As a reminder, the main issue is that we will likely not have the … [View More]

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[opensuse-project] openSUSE Members retirement
by Michal Hrusecky 27 May '17

27 May '17

Hi everybody, as you all know, we have the openSUSE Members, a group of contributors through their sustained and substantial contributors that are eligible to participate in elections, have @opensuse.org mail and other perks. We have now about 600 of them, but as you can see[1] in last openSUSE Board elections only 150 of them voted. This could mean two things - either most of the members are not interested in elections or plenty of them are simply no longer around. I guess the truth is … [View More]somewhere in middle. This is something we need to know when we take project wide decisions in order to correctly assess the communities interest in the topic. This is a recurring topic that has been discussed at the openSUSE Board Face to Face meeting last year, oSC 15, and on this list several times over the last few years. Taking these into consideration, we (in the board) think it would be a good idea to implement something to help with ensuring our Membership list accurately reflects our current Membership. I have put together a tool which attempts to detect an openSUSE Members activity on mailing lists, OBS, bugzilla, maybe more. This tool will remember when we last saw openSUSE Member on any of those channels and if they doesn't show for 6 months, we will send them an e-mail asking whether they still wants to be a member. A response to that email will automatically count as activity and preserve the Members status. If there is no response within 30 days of the notification, the Member will be 'retired' and be considered a 'Member emeritus'. If someone is retired incorrectly, or a 'Member emeritus' returns to the Project and wants a restoration of their voting privilege, they will be unretired without question by the Membership Committee. There are few implementation details to be worked out, so we don't expect this to go live overnight but consider this a "statement of intent" and an explanation of how we expect things to work before we start testing the process. ==== To answer some of the obvious questions: Q: Shouldn't we retire inactive members anyway after measuring and evaluating their activity? A: No, that would be too hard, too subjective and it could bother people that we cannot measure automatically. Automatic measurement is just an indicator that those people are no longer interested, but they might be just working on project aspects we cannot measure. openSUSE Members are members until THEY no longer want to be. We believe this system preserves that principle. Q: Wouldn't it offend active contributors if they will be falsely accused of not being interested? A: I hope not. If period will be long enough (6 months) and if we monitor even mailing lists, people will usually show up somewhere. We intend to word the 'ping' email in a way that is not judgemental, but just makes it clear that we have failed to automatically find evidence of contribution so want to make sure they are still interested in remaining a Member. Q: Doesn't it change the meaning of the openSUSE Member? A: Not really. So far once you got a membership status, it was forever without question. Now it would be forever as long as you are interested. No big change, just a little difference. Q: What if mail with warning gets lost? A: If you lose your membership by accident by losing an e-mail, you can still contact membership committee and as a retired member you will be reinstated immediately without voting/verification that takes time. And you should fix your e-mail in connect.opensuse.org in that case ;-) Q: Will retired members retain their email & IRC cloak perks? A: No, the intention is that retired members will no longer be eligible for @opensuse.org email addresses and Freenode IRC cloaks. [1] https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/polls/read/pluskalm/49480/opensuse-board-el… -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner(a)opensuse.org [View Less]

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[opensuse-project] Is openSUSE free software? And if not, should it be?
by Axel Braun 14 Jan '17

14 Jan '17

Dear project members, background of the question is a discussion I recently had with R. Stallman. According to his point of view, openSUSE is not free software, as unfree components are installed. Lets take a look at the definition of freedom [1]. Free software allows you to - execute a program - distribute it - analyze and modify the source code - re-distribute the modified program. This matches for the most part the license for openSUSE, see /etc/YaST2/ licenses/base/license.txt : ... … [View More]With the exception of certain files containing the “openSUSE” trademark discussed below, the license terms for the components permit you to copy and redistribute the component. With the potential exception of certain firmware files, the license terms for the components permit you to copy, modify, and redistribute the component, in both source code and binary code forms. This agreement does not limit your rights under, or grant you rights that supersede, the license terms of any particular component. .... Except for the part ' With the potential exception of certain firmware files' , this gives us all required freedoms. Firmware is usually tricky....so looking at this I found some Firmware files with the License string 'openSUSE-Firmware', and [2] on the net (but not sure how up-to-date this page is). Does anyone know the rationale behind openSUSE-Firmware license? openSUSE comes by default with the OSS and non-OSS repository. Richards remark here was that files from non-OSS are installed without making the user aware about the nature of these unfree components. This is true, although the permission is asked for every of the two installed programs (AdobeICCProfiles and a gstreamer-fluendo-mp3). Most users do probably not realize the point of proprietary software here. And the benefit of AdobeICC is limited if you are not using color management. I see the bias between free software and useability: If you desperately need some proprietary firmware to get your hardware up and running, you will see the freedom aspect only in the second row. As a distribution, we should make sure that a wide range of hardware is supported. On the other hand, and as openSUSE explains free software in its flyers (without stating THAT oS is free), we should try to install only free components in the first glance. But we could leave the user the choice (during installation) to include non- free componentes / non-oss repo. By this we can make sure that exotic software as well gets supported, if we separate the non-free Firmware into the non-OSS Repo. Does that sound reasonable? Discussion please! Axel [1] https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html [2] https://de.opensuse.org/Firmware -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner(a)opensuse.org [View Less]

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[opensuse-project] Another Board candidate ;-)
by Christian Boltz 02 Jan '17

02 Jan '17

Hello, I was nominated to run for the board, and finally decided to run ;-) I use openSUSE since years (actually it was still „SuSE Linux“ with lowercase „u“ back then), started annoying people in bugzilla, err, started betatesting in the 9.2 beta phase. Since then, I reported more than 1200 bugs. Later, OBS ruined my bugzilla statistics by introducing the option to send a SR ;-) More recently, I helped in fighting the wiki spam, which also means I‘m admin on the english wiki since … [View More]then, and had some fun[tm] with the current server admin. I‘m one of the founding members of the Heroes team (thanks to Sarah for getting the right people together at oSC16!) Currently, I work on the base server setup (using salt) for our new infrastructure and updating the wiki to an up-to-date MediaWiki version. You can find me on several mailinglists and on IRC, and of course I still scare people in bugzilla. I‘m also a regular visitor and speaker at the openSUSE Conference, and visit other conferences as time permits. Besides openSUSE, I work on AppArmor and PostfixAdmin – both upstream and as packager. Also, I‘m admin on several webservers (all running with Leap). My day job has nothing to do with computers. I produce something you can drink that is named after a software we ship in openSUSE ;-) Oh, and I collect funny quotes from various mailinglists, IRC, bugzilla etc. that then end up as random signatures under my mails, so be careful what you write ;-) Issues I can see - You probably know „DRY“, so – see the next paragraph Aims/Goals - speed! We have too many issues hanging around for too long, and that‘s annoying for people who suffer from them. Especially small things should (and can!) be solved quickly. - clear responsibilities! Part of the speed problem is that it‘s sometimes hard to find out who can fix something, and hunting down people takes time. - don‘t talk (too much) – do it! Sometimes we need to discuss things, but often just doing them works best. Obviously I can‘t do everything alone, so I want to encourage people to help whereever they can. „I don‘t have knownledge how to do this“ doesn‘t count – for example, updating a wiki page or reporting a bug isn‘t hard ;-) and typically people really start to report bugs once they understand that this gives them the right to complain (quoting Pascal Bleser: „Always file a bug: if it‘s not in Bugzilla, then it‘s not there“) - longer days! Maybe I should move to Bajor – I heard they have 26 hour days there, which would solve some of my time problems ;-)) Why you should vote for me? - I tend to kick people to ensure they work faster and fix things. This is your chance to kick me! - Help me to find out if I can get the thing in the (non-random) signature of this mail done! Things I‘ll never do: - use a stable release on my main computer – Tumbleweed is just too good ;-) - open a bugreport if fxing it and sending a SR is faster - be too serious – hey, our motto is „Have a lot of fun...“ ;-) - drink beer ;-) (sorry, not even openSUSE beer) Contact Details: Mail: see sender address for one of my mail addresses ;-) - or use my IRC nick @opensuse.org IRC: cboltz http://blog.cboltz.de (some more posts would be nice, but then you wouldn‘t believe the „don‘t talk – do it!“ ;-) https://connect.opensuse.org/pg/profile/cboltz https://en.opensuse.org/user:cboltz I wish all candidates good luck, hope that we‘ll see lots of voters – and wish everybody all the best for 2017! Regards, Christian Boltz PS: Non-random signature – and while I have serious doubts about the second paragraph, I‘m very sure about the first ;-) -- If you run for the Board this year and get elected, I can see my sanity would be doomed But in a good way ;) [Richard Brown] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner(a)opensuse.org [View Less]

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[opensuse-project] openSUSE Board Election
by Aaron Luna 31 Dec '16

31 Dec '16

Hi I would like to let you know my intention to stand for a position in the openSUSE Board openSUSE Membership Account/username: aaronluna75 IRC: lubaut user page: https://en.opensuse.org/User:Aaronluna75 Attached you will find my introduction and the manifesto according the published rules. By the way, could you add my blog to openSUSE Planet? http://linuxforhuman-beings.blogspot.mx/ Thanks in advance. Best Regards Aaron Luna

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[opensuse-project] Running for the openSUSE Board
by Michal Hrusecky 31 Dec '16

31 Dec '16

Hi everybody! In the end I decided to run for re-election. It is almost last chance to do so and although we have already two great candidates, I feel it is not an election if you don't have a choice. My name is Michal Hrusecky, I'm 32 years old, I used to be quite active in the paste, nowadays I'm quite busy with my personal life, so I'm less involved that I would like. But still try to do some promoting and trying to finish some projects. What you probably remember me the most recently is … [View More]

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Re: [opensuse-project] Running for the openSUSE Board
by Sarah Julia Kriesch 28 Dec '16

28 Dec '16

> > Thanks for the hint! > I fixed it. > > Sarah > > > > Gesendet: Mittwoch, 28. Dezember 2016 um 16:35 Uhr > Von: "Aaron Burgemeister" <dajoker(a)gmail.com> > An: "Sarah Julia Kriesch" <ada.lovelace(a)gmx.de> > Betreff: Re: [opensuse-project] Running for the openSUSE Board > > Sarah, > I tried the links on your blog to LinkedIn/Facebook and they are not working. Copying/pasting them but … [View More]

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[opensuse-project] Running for the openSUSE Board
by Sarah Julia Kriesch 28 Dec '16

28 Dec '16

Dear openSUSE Members, I am nominated as a candidate for the openSUSE Board and want to run for a position. My name is Sarah Julia Kriesch (nick name AdaLovelace). I am 29 years old, an educated Computer Science Expert for System Integration and currently a student in Computer Science at the TH Nürnberg. I recently changed from working life to student life. I have got 4 years of work experience as a Linux System Administrator and (Managing) Systems Engineer. I am a Working Student (Admin/ … [View More]

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[opensuse-project] Last Board Meeting Minutes - 11 Aug 1500 CEST (4 months since last report?)
by Bruno Friedmann 27 Dec '16

27 Dec '16

I just wonder why our Board didn't share any update about what's going on since 4 months. There's several topics I guess which should have move a bit no ? Like Helios voting system, or we will still use connect. Before the elections phase 1, a personnal, or common reviews of our community state would be really appreciate. ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- Subject: [opensuse-project] Board Meeting Minutes - 11 Aug 1500 CEST Date: vendredi, 12 août 2016, 17.26:44 h CET From: … [View More]Richard Brown <RBrownCCB(a)opensuse.org> To: opensuse-project <opensuse-project(a)opensuse.org> # Board Meeting Minutes 11 Aug 1500 CEST ## Present - Richard Brown - Chair - Kostas Koudaras - Tomas Chvatal - Michal Hrušecký - Andrew Wafaa (Treasurer) ## Absent - Bryan Lunduke - Rescheduled meeting incompatible with Timezone difference - Gertjan Lettink - Technical Difficulties ## General Items This meeting was carried out on Thursday 11th as too many people were absent on Monday 9th Aug ### openSUSE Asia The Board has been invited to give a keynote at openSUSE Asia - Bryan Lunduke will be attending and providing the keynote The Board is aware the CFP for openSUSE Asia has been well responded to, but not from Europe - CALL FOR HELP - If you are from Europe and interested in doing a talk at openSUSE, please submit your talk now! ### Travel Support Programme Andrew will be on vacation during the busiest period for openSUSE Asia TSP applications. Michal & Gertjan are considering whether they can help cover this period. ### Bugzilla The Board have recieved a complaint regarding a bugzilla contributor using very abrasive language and attacking other contributors in comments. AI: Michal to write a warning email. ### Brasil Aslan C. de M. Ramos (aslan.ramos(a)suse.com) has stepped up to encorage and boost the openSUSE community in Brasil. If you're in Brasil and interested in representing openSUSE at local events, please get in touch with Aslan. ### LinuxCon NA & Europe SUSE are Platinium sponsors of both events, and due to the community nature of LinuxCon want to make sure openSUSE is a big part of their presence there. For LinuxCon NA in a few weeks openSUSE will have a significant portion of the booth and several demo machines showing openSUSE Tumbleweed & Leap. For LinuxCon Europe plans are still being discussed but a similar strong openSUSE presence is expected. Anyone who happens to be going to either event and is willing to help out please contact rbrown(a)suse.com ### GSoC Mentors Google are sponsoring a summit for GSoC mentors. There is budget to send two people, but there was 3 candidates. The GSoC mentors all agreed on the name of one of the mentors who would go, but asked the Board to conduct a lottery to decide on the second person. We're happy to be able to say that Hernan Schmidt and Christopher Bruckmayer will be going to the GSoC Mentors summit to represent openSUSE. Thanks to them and all of our GSoC mentors for making this a great summer for our GSoCers. ### Trademark Request The Board have heard from the members with the outstanding Trademark request. Local legal requirements complicate our proposed solution. Negotiations ongoing. ### Membership Tidyup No action as Michal is busy moving house ### Infrastructure The Board is really pleased to see the new "openSUSE Heroes" team stepping up to help improve the situation with our infrastructure. https://news.opensuse.org/2016/07/25/introducing-opensuse-heroes/ AI: Board to monitor the situation - Richard to continuing having regular meetings with Roland and Lars to drive progress in this area. ### SLE Packages The Board has spotted a number of cases in Leap 42.2 Alpha 2 where packages inherited from SLE are newer than the ones available in Tumbleweed or Devel Repos. Reminders seem to have helped, but problem still ongoing. AI: Richard to send both general and directed reminders internally at SUSE to remind them of the SUSE company policy to contribute to Tumbleweed before/in parralel/in sync with their work on SLE. ## Action Item Review Due to the large number of action items, the progress of these will be split into 3 sections - DONE; This task is complete and will not be discussed in future meetings - WIP; This task is in progress, and will be discussed in future meetings - TODO; This task is still waiting for some progress by the Board ### DONE ### WIP Board + Ludwig to figure out what to do with all the Volunteers for the "openSUSE Release Team" *Richard & Ludwig to discuss* Board is discussing some ideas with our various Desktop Teams Michal is retiring connect.opensuse.org and doing the Membership tooling and maintenance. Tomas has talked with Craig about OBS team preparing the code for maintaner tidyup *Feature in OBS teams TODO* Bryan has started arrange informal exploratory discussions with ownCloud, nextCloud and Kolab about closer relationships. Had some good chats at oSC 16. *Bryan to keep driving* Kostas is reaching out to our few bloggers on lizards.opensuse.org about moving to other platforms. Richard has been talking to Douglas about the possibility of moving news.opensuse.org to a new blogging platform. Richard's personal blog is running a potential candidate (Jekyll with custom openSUSE theme. http://rootco.de ### TODO Board to request release-team(a)opensuse.org list for the Release Team Board to investigate alternatives for voting & membership management _To be done after the Membership Tidy Up_ Tomas will investigate Helios voting system for openSUSE Richard to review/tune up filtering in current system so trademark enquiries don't get lost Tomas will talk with Andrew and Marketing teams about possible Kickstarter Board intends to create a skeleton of the getting started guides to help people get started with Using, Joining, and Partnering with openSUSE -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner(a)opensuse.org ----------------------------------------- -- Bruno Friedmann Ioda-Net Sàrl www.ioda-net.ch Bareos Partner, openSUSE Member, fsfe fellowship GPG KEY : D5C9B751C4653227 irc: tigerfoot -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner(a)opensuse.org [View Less]

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[opensuse-project] openSUSE Conference & Registration
by Douglas DeMaio 15 Dec '16

15 Dec '16

Hi all, The new year is quickly approaching, which means it is time to prepare for this year's openSUSE Conference. The planning for the conference will begin in January, and we want to assemble teams to help build upon the success of last year's conference. If you are interesting in taking part in the planning of oSC17, please send me an email. Registration for the conference is open at https://events.opensuse.org/, so be sure to register over the holidays if you have time. Also, don't … [View More]

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