December 2020 - openSUSE Project - openSUSE Mailing Lists

[opensuse-project] Proposal: Amending the Board Election rules.
by Simon Lees 16 Dec '20

16 Dec '20

Hi All, Under "by a vote of the membership where 2/3 or more of the openSUSE members participating in the vote approve it. " I would like to propose an amendment to the Board Election rules (Note I rather then the board). I believe that the events in the last year have shown a weakness in at least one part of the rules. With the upcoming regular election I believe this is as good a time as any to address this change. The specific section I would like to modify is the following, I know others have spoken about making changes to some larger sections at some point but I believe this change is small and manageable in the current timeframe so I'd like to keep the discussions in this thread around this topic which is: 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. I believe that this is a very worth while concept, however the current phrasing has left enough ambiguity that in practice it was hard to organise cleanly. My personal view is that the people who authored this text expected that should this ever be needed that some form of basic petition or even just +1's to a mailing list thread would be done. In practice it was decided that this would be too hard to verify and had some privacy concerns and as such the election officials decided to utilize our voting system which was a reasonable way to handle the situation under the current wording. However it now leaves us in a position where one or two people can call for such a vote that will cripple the project for several weeks. I don't believe this was the intent of the original wording as such I am proposing an alternative, this is still in draft form so I am happy to hear other peoples amendments and suggestions. Forced re-election: 10 individual members may contact the election officials requesting a petition of non confidence in the board. If 20 per cent or more openSUSE members require a new board, an election will be held for the complete elected Board seats. The 10 is a number that I felt is reasonable i'd be open to going slightly up and down, its a bit of a balance if 20% of members are interested getting 10 to contact the election officials should be easy. At the same time it should be reasonably easy for election officials to verify 10 members by checking the membership list and sending an email to there registered email address asking for confirmation they sent the original email. There was also some questions around the 20% rather then a 50% majority, My view is to leave this as is, if 20% of people call for a forced election it means there is quite some disagreement in the community, however the current board can run in the election so a different 50% of the community could still reinstate them. My aim is to have a finalized version ready on the 8th of December (A week before voting starts) i'd welcome anyone and everyone's feedback anytime before then. Cheers -- Simon Lees (Simotek) http://simotek.net Emergency Update Team keybase.io/simotek SUSE Linux Adelaide Australia, UTC+10:30 GPG Fingerprint: 5B87 DB9D 88DC F606 E489 CEC5 0922 C246 02F0 014B

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Big update: openSUSE Leap 15.3 testing images are finally available and detail about Leap 15.3 submissions
by Lubos Kocman 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

Ahoy openSUSE! I'd like to inform you that you can already find openSUSE Leap 15.3 testing images on https://software.opensuse.org/distributions/testing . We're really sorry for the delay that was caused mostly by waiting on SLE 15 SP3 Beta1 NDA liftoff and rebuild of openSUSE Backports. I've already requested process changes, so this does not happen next release. Just a reminder that openSUSE Leap 15.3 is based on the Jump concept that we've developed for the past several months. https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Jump Any update request to existing packages should be simply submitted against openSUSE:Leap:15.3 and OBS will determine where to redirect the request either to SLE or openSUSE Backports. The top-level Leap project servers more like a wrapper for building images and to override SLE branding. On new package submissions: Please note that new packages need to be currently submitted against openSUSE:Backports:SLE-15-SP3.opensuse-factory@ We know it's inconvenient and we'll work with the Autobuild team to make it a default destination place for any new package submission for openSUSE Leap 15.3. Note: on SLE submissions: Yes you can finally do them. Please make sure that you reference JIRA (e.g. openSUSE partner id request) or bugzilla number while sending request against package comming from SUSE Linux Enterprise. The feature requests will not be approved by suse-sle- review team https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Suse_sle_review_team More about open SLE/Leap Features and their progress can be found here https://etherpad.opensuse.org/p/FeatureReview-meeting We're already looking forward to your Leap 15.3 submissions. **Just a reminder that our checking deadline for Leap 15.3 Beta is scheduled for the 12th of February.** Note about software.opensuse.org: You may notice that Installation images for all arches can be now found in the Installation tabs, and the tab Ports no longer exist. This new structure corresponds with the way how we build images in 15.3. We will have to decide where to track ARMv7 once we have images, either the same tab or "Additional architectures". Happy Hacking! -- Lubos Kocman, Release Manager openSUSE Leap SUSE Software Solutions Germany GmbH Maxfeldstr. 5, 90409 Nürnberg - Germany (HRB 36809, AG Nürnberg) Geschäftsführer: Felix Imendörffer

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openSUSE Board Election 2020 - ballot is open
by Ish Sookun 15 Dec '20

15 Dec '20

Dear openSUSE members, You may begin to vote in the openSUSE Board Election 2020. You should have received your election url & credential in a separate email sent by Helios. Please follow the instructions in order to vote. The election will end on 30 December 2020 at 23h59. You may change your vote as many times as you wish before that time. Only the last vote cast is recorded and counted. If you have any difficulty, please contact the Election Officials on election-officials(a)lists.opensuse.org. Regards, Ish Sookun

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License for openSUSE Logos
by Axel Braun 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

Hi, does anyone know the license for the openSUSE logos in https://github.com/openSUSE/distribution-logos ? Unfortunately, there is nothing mentioned, nor a license file Thanks Axel

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Board meeting Minutes 2020-12-08 0800 CET
by Axel Braun 12 Dec '20

12 Dec '20

== Board meeting Minutes 2020-12-08 0800 CET == Attendees: Marina, Stasiek, Gerald, Vinz, Simon, Axel Minutes: Axel Meeting closed 0930 CET Next meeting 2020-12-22 0800 CET === General === 6 meeting minutes outstanding - overdue reminder given to individuals === Pending trademark approval for notebook preload === * Shop in Belgium asked for permission to use openSUSE logo for preloads * According to https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Trademark_guidelines redistribution is allowed * Shop wants to apply additional unfree software (Skype, Zoom,...) * Some questions aound this procedure - Simon to drive open questions with shop === Various complaints about user behaviour on openSUSE mailing list(s) === * https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Guiding_principles describes rules of engagement * There were various ML posts in the last weeks that broke guiding principles, adding up to existing complaints * Third party media like Twitter or Facebook is out of openSUSE control, but still reflect (positively or negatively) on openSUSE and therefore matters * Mail reminder being sent by Simon that lists should stay on topic (https:// en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Mailing_lists_subscription) in order to avoid moderation of users in list: https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/project@lists.opensuse.org/thread/ XSYTEQMXPE477IWCRSHY46D3TARU7SGM/ * Additional moderators are welcome. To kickstart the process, if you feel you are a good moderator, please contact mailing list admins admin(a)o.o * Stasiek to discuss this internally with the admins to align that they are OK with the procedure * Gerald sent mail to project@ about steps taken: https://lists.opensuse.org/archives/list/project@lists.opensuse.org/message/ SMZBVV7AF5A5CZCNKGJYJXU5WIM7FMQW/ * accepted by vote 6-0 === Tracking trademark usage approvals === delayed due to time constraints -- Dr. Axel Braun <docb(a)opensuse.org> Member of the openSUSE Board

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An update from the board
by Gerald Pfeifer 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

Dear fellow geekos, last week has seen various interactions on this list and elsewhere that went against the words and the spirit of our guiding principles (cf. https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Guiding_principles ). What I saw was disappointing, discouraging and damaging to our project and community. At the same time I was very encouraged to see some of you step in and moderate themselves and others. Thank you! As a board we received several complaints, and working through those and our own observations in our meeting yesterday we have - issued a warning to some members; - put some members under mailing list moderation for three months; - agreed to share a general reminder to stay a bit more on topic per the respective list chartas (cf. https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Mailing_lists_subscription ) and that moderation of individuals will be considered if necessary. We have not taken these steps lightheartedly and will continue to work on any open issues. I am looking forward to many more respectful, constructive and open conversations around the forthcoming elections and otherwise. And please never hesitate to reach out! Thank you, Gerald -- Dr. Gerald Pfeifer <gp(a)suse.com>, CTO @SUSE + chair @openSUSE

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Re: Election process (Was: An update from the board)
by Conrad Smith 11 Dec '20

11 Dec '20

On Fri, 2020-12-11 at 06:33 +0100, Mark Stopka wrote: > > > Serving on the openSUSE Board is a privilege in a way, but first > > and foremost a service, and generally not very thankful at that. > > If there are perks of the job (or for former members) I have yet > > to see them. ;-) > > > > > Yes it does, it does matter when, where and how you say things, > > > we > > > call it context and there is an entire department at your company > > > called the PR department that thinks about what to say,when to > > > say > > > it, where to say it, and how to say it. > > > > Let's keep our employers out of the conversation here, please. We > > all contribute to openSUSE as individuals, exclusively or to a good > > extent in our spare time. > > I could as well use *any sufficiently large company that does a lot > of > communications with the ouside*, but you can see 13 words against 1 > more relatable example, you can replace that with any organization of > a reasonable size really... The point was communication is a tricky > business, and it does influence views of projects / people / > organizations in the eyes of both the internal and external > stakeholders. > > I admit, that *certain company* established internal comms department > between *certain company* Business Services - Global Infrastructure > Services and rest of the company after I have during *program name* > transition & transformation have communicated some changes in the > structure of company data storage infrastructure to the rest of the > company that were considered too bold without the proper softeners, > for some. > > Example: > I would communicate to Local IT and the L-team of a specific local > subsidiary that as part of the transformation we would be migrating > their IT assets to a different location, as part of a streamlining > effort (we were going from 90+ DCs to about 50), but I have omitted > those in my eyes at the time unimportant details like "there will > likely be no changes to the structure of human resources associated > with this on-going and important effort that strengthens our company > leading position in our industry". > > I hope that does provide some clarity on what I meant by that. First Richard, then Henne, now Gerald - just how many current and ex-board member will you ignore when they teach you how the Project actually works? If Richard was paranoid why do you keep trying to make openSUSE a business? This make no sense. We are a free software community by volunteer. Please stop trying to make openSUSE to something it isn't

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Thoughts on capturing the CentOS marketshare...
by Mark Stopka 10 Dec '20

10 Dec '20

Hi all, as you probably know by now, traditional CentOS is being depreciated by RedHat, and is going to be replaced by CentOS Stream which will basically be the development branch for RHEL N+1... Many (CentOS / RHEL) users are upset about this as this will / may have impact on their products and / or services, I see it as an opportunity to capture some of the CentOS market-share and for SUSE perhaps even some RHEL market share... I am wondering if someone here is committed to trying to come up with the strategy on how to go about that, I think it will be essential to produce easy to understand migration guides from Centos -> openSUSE Leap and stress that CentOS is moving in the exactly opposite direction as we are moving with openSUSE Leap and SUSE Linux Enterprise... If this gains traction here and interest of perhaps 5 - 10 people with right skillset: - technical writer - graphics designer (who does not like pretty graphics) - geeks (so we can translate and test CentOS guides for openSUSE) It will make sense to discuss our thoughts on some sort of a conf. call, by the end of this week, or early next week, and move forward from there... Thoughts? I myself have more knowledge about CentOS / RHEL that I would like, I have started some promotions on Reddit and other social media and it seems it is gaining traction... In addition @ddemaio@opensuse.org is there any chance to have some small budget allocated for some PPC campaign or something like that from the SUSE side? I am not sure how exactly these things work, but I am more than happy to take that off-line with you and discuss options if there are any. -- Best regards / S pozdravem, BSc. Mark Stopka, BBA Managing Partner (at) PERLUR Group mobile: +420 704 373 561 website: www.perlur.cloud

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Backing away from candidacy for openSUSE Board
by Mark Stopka 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

Dear all, after being approached by "The openSUSE Board" regarding my conduct which completely ignores the conduct of Richard Brown and the relevant context, I have decided to back away from my candidacy for openSUSE Board. I wish all candidates good luck in upcoming elections, but I myself won't be a candidate in elections where people in positions of influence attempt to influence the masses to vote or not to vote for a specific candidate, I see enough of that in national politics. I can in no way consider these elections to be free, democratic and fair after failure of The Board to address the behavior of Richard Brown. I would ask for revokal of my membership altogether, but that would mean loosking @opensuse.org account, which I use on too many services. Thank you, and all the best to all of you. -- Best regards / S pozdravem, BSc. Mark Stopka, BBA Managing Partner (at) PERLUR Group mobile: +420 704 373 561 website: www.perlur.cloud

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Board meeting minutes 24-11-2020
by Simon Lees 09 Dec '20

09 Dec '20

Present: Axel, Gerald, Simon, Stasiek, Vinz Excused: Marina - openSUSE Jitsi server still has issues. == overdue meeting minutes == * Simon will send draft for this and last meeting in the next 4 hrs. == Status of Election == * Happy with the progress of the current election process. == Governance (what do we need to formalize?) == * Merge Membership official rules into board rules, and call it constitution (this was agreed and never done by previous boards) A.I. Simon. * Prepare a document on openSUSE governance and proposed changes for newer SUSE upper management. * Better ask teams for updates for conference talk next year == Foundation-Roadmap == * Continue to address some of the governance issues listed above * Formally reapproach SUSE management in the new year once some of these Governance issues have been taken care of and once SUSE management has settled slightly following the merger with Rancher. == Merchandise == * Still looking into organizational logistics.

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