Hi, 12.3 Release as you know, RC1 was already published. We are heading RC2 and, if everything goes as expected, we will release on time. Together with you, openSUSE Team at SUSE is dedicating resources to make sure that this release, shorter than usual, has at least the same quality than any other. At the same time, as previously announced, we are taking some actions to reduce the barrier for contributors to participate in this release process: 1.- Hackathons has been a positive experience with impact in the Release. We are working on the report to be sent to the Board. 2.- We are taking some early steps to bring back a community driven QA effort. 3.- We are working in the marketing activities around the release earlier. This seemed to be the major barrier for your involvement during 12.2 cycle. Some other actions are being taken: SUSE in general, and openSUSE Team in particular, are pushing to bring secure boot to openSUSE as soon as possible. Many of you have asked us about this topic. As soon as we have confirmed news we will communicate them. We are making progress in ARM support in openSUSE. SLE/openSUSE As Ralf Flaxa, SUSE VP Engineering, announced in both Hackathons to participants, SUSE will be little by little adding resources to develop our next generation of SLE products, so we will see a progressive increase of activity around factory. When and how is something we will communicate as soon as the action plan is confirmed. oSC13 SUSE involvement framework in the openSUSE Conference 2013 is clear by now. We have to work on executing the tasks assigned to us, specially in the legal/administrative/financial area. Having a community driven conference is very good news for all of us. In our new role, SUSE fully support the event and the organization team. oSC13 is OUR event. Board - SUSE Right after the Release, one of the major working areas will be to define the new relation framework between SUSE and openSUSE Board. I talked about it in a previous mail. It should be closed by the end of the fiscal year (March 31st) so we can execute it in the following one. SUSE is already working internally in the proposal. As announced, we will delegate the definition and organization of the future Hackathons to the Board. SUSE will provide administrative and economic support for them to take place, beside our infrastructure and facilities, as possible locations. openSUSE Team As you probably know, we have an opening for a Graphical Designer / artist for openSUSE Team. The current pressure upon the artwork team, specially in tasks related with the Release, is high. We expect to reduce it for the next release. I would like to thank the artwork team for the job done in the past, but specially, in this release. You guys took risks and delivered. Another opening at openSUSE Team will be announced in the following days. After the release, openSUSE Team plan to develop three actions that will have a positive impact, in my opinion: a.- We will use a tool to manage our activity, so follow up our actions by openSUSE community will be easier and, in a second step, work with us too. b.- We will create a public team regular communication channel. We haven't decided which and how yet. c.- We will put effort into improving the merchandising shipment and the TSP management, together with the community members and SUSE employees involved. These past months some of you has requested me to be "more active". My public involvement in the openSUSE channels has been very limited as a result of the new openSUSE Team set up. Vincent Untz is driving the relation with the Board and Jos is assuming gradually a more prominent role as router for non technical topics between the Team and the community. My involvement in public channels will remain low for some more time. Saludos -- Agustin Benito Bethencourt openSUSE Team Lead at SUSE abebe@suse.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, email: opensuse-project+owner@opensuse.org