Hey, Dne úterý 9. července 2024 12:48:45, SELČ, Patrick Fitzgerald napsal(a):
Hi Lukas,
Consider it in these terms...
The foundation finally came about because of fears re the funding of future community events. There were a lot less events sponsored by SUSE in the last couple of years, and who knows, for whatever reason that may continue.
The foundation exists to allow for the collection of donations, because openSUSE cannot have a bank account, because it is not a legal entity - just a name.
You might say, well SUSE can take the donations themselves; but then most people would think "why am I donating to a company that sells it's software for a profit?" (Hence the naming issue as well - because outsiders do not understand the difference).
But then in the absolute worst case scenario, imagine what would happen if a larger, hostile competitor bought all of the shares of SUSE (say, when it was public), took the customer base, hired the core dev teams, integrated the software into their own, and killed the brand.
Then there would be no SUSE, and by definition, no openSUSE either - because openSUSE is a trademark of SUSE.
Before you say "that wouldn't happen" - I can assure you that it happens all the time in all industries.
With a foundation, and a new name, it provides at least a chance of survival beyond the lifespan of SUSE (which I hope will be long and prosperous btw!).
/p
(not a SUSE employee in case you are wondering)
I should make it clear, that out of all things I am opposing to, the foundation has become the weakest one over the years. So yeah, naturally some of the possible solutions would require the foundation to exist and operate. In other words - I am for the foundation if it would save the geeko and openSUSE branding. Regards, Gfs