Hello Simon, Am Mittwoch, 16. März 2022, 13:27:55 CET schrieb Simon Lees:
On 3/15/22 00:52, Sasi Olin wrote:
On Mo, Mär 14 2022 at 14:16:53 +0100, Richard Brown
wrote: I'd rather see this project focus on actual relevant real world issues, such as:
- encoraging more contributors to actually contribute to our codebases, - improving the polish of our distributions, especially when it comes to the increasingly relevant cloud & edge use cases - having openSUSE better reflect the diversity of relevant use cases of Linux (server, edge, cloud, embedded...and desktop) rather than it's current over-emphasis of desktop often at the expense of others
It's not like the desktop is openSUSE distros' strength anyway, so I'm not exactly sure where that perceived over-emphasis comes from.
The number of distro's that are easyish for new users and ship a range of desktops is pretty small so it makes sense that openSUSE is recognized as one of the better desktop distro's because really it is (That doesn't mean there isn't more we could do much better).
Personally I think we undersell ourself as a distro for new Linux users, especially with "The makers' choice for sysadmins, developers and desktop users." I think this speaks far more to experienced users when in Reality the installer and Yast combined make openSUSE one of the easiest distros for new Linux users.
True, but the perception in the market (and with some editors/magazines) is that first contact with some other distros is much easier. Mostly because the slam an image on your harddisk and not giving you options to customize your installation. (Resulting in different images per desktop, for example) While we have a very safe clickpath through the installation - default settings work in most cases - this needs to be emphasized to the outside world. Maybe a question of (and for) marketing.
On the original question i'm not going to say what board members should or shouldn't work on in there own time thats up to them. But as a project i'd be uncomfortable signing up to such a statement.
If you feel we need a vote on this, please mention this clearly.
Maybe because in a past life I worked for a manufacturing company so I understand more choices mean significantly larger costs such as QA, warehousing more complex production processes all of which for choices that likely won't make that money back and would therefore impose a cost that would be passed onto all customers making things more expensive for everyone.
We talk about freedom here, and freedom is never for free (as we learn in Europe the hard way...). Coming form manufacturing and Supply Chain myself I would not overrate this. You may buy support for a free system, as you pay a license fee for a proprietary one. In the end it may be a draw.
In reality the only way you could do something like this and actually have it work is not by requiring Vendors to "offer a choice" but rather a model where consumers could hand there OEM keys back to Microsoft and get a rebate in return.
That could be a potential second step as well. But it would still help only the educated consumers
Like Richard I don't really think this sort of political activism is the current role of the openSUSE project but I think its a good thing that we support organizations such as FSFE who's roll it is to look at such things. I'd also be happy if a vote of members found that we should adjust our role / vision to include such things.
Our community members are free to decide where they put emphasis on - those who do, decide. Cheers Axel