After our openly elected Board Members sent their open letter[0] to us the community there seems to have been a bit of a media frenzy. I use the term frenzy very loosely here as there was no circus, certainly nothing like that after some of the things that have happened in the past, but a definite air of FUD on behalf of some supposed journalists.
Now I have made it pretty clear to many that I think journalism nowadays has taken a subterranean nose dive in quality and authenticity, with almost no investigation into the facts and an insatiable lust to turn anything into evil especially in the tech industry. We have the usual FUD merchants doing the rounds which is fine and par for the course unfortunately, but when supposed journalists start publishing FUD that really gets my goat. Let's take the open letter to the community now. As Bryen and Pascal mention, they have been approached by many both publicly and privately about what the layoffs mean for openSUSE as a project and distro. They have thought hard about the best way to answer people's questions and concerns, and I must admit I whole heartedly agree with their approach to making a public statement that is there for all to see. Let's not forget these two fine gents have no access to the inner workings and thoughts of Novell so they don't necessarily know the whole rationale behind Novell's decision (hoping there is one ;) ) but they do have a modicum of access and especially when it comes to openSUSE related items. This letter was not sent out as a pre-emptive strike to quash any questions, it was <u>in response to community members questions</u> and as such I feel it was 100% warranted. Some hacks (it much better represents the faux journalists, and their tabloid nature in reporting) feel that this announcement proves to the world that the openSUSE project is in trouble - bollocks!!
These hacks also try and label Pascal and Bryen as insensitive for asking those that have unfortunately been bitten by the bullet to keep up their fine efforts within the community. Novell do *NOT* run openSUSE /we/ the community run the project, Novell run the enterprise derivative. Some of those that have been laid off have been with openSUSE for over nine years, if not longer, so it is perfectly reasonable to ask those with the knowledge to keep the knowledge pool alive and kicking. Some of those wouldn't think of doing anything other than continuing with contributing to openSUSE. No it isn't insensitive in the slightest, it shows that the Board and the community acknowledge their contributions and that they are still very much thought of as part of the community, even more so now that they are not paid to be part of it. Yes there are one or two (hopefully not more) that believe the layoffs mean they should cut all direct ties off and we as a community understand that, we are sorry to see these members leave but we will continue forging ahead. Hopefully they will return and continue in the fun.
If any of you hacks want to write a story, drop the sensationalism from it, it detracts from what it is that is being said. openSUSE is rock solid with a strong and vibrant community, and one thing that I think our community is best at is acknowledging our faults and wanting to improve and make us a better distro and project. There is no fanboy blindness about us, we are honest and open. Heck we even tip hats to those projects that we think "damn why didn't we think of doing something like that". Dear hacks, if you would like to speak to the Board for clarification or to discuss or report on anything, then drop them an e-mail[1] they don't bite and they don't bullshit.
Oh and dear hacks, for the love of all that is holy and righteous stop fucking misspelling our name. It is spelt, and I'll do it really slow for you, o p e n S U S E; *NOT* OpenSUSE or any other derivative!!!!! If there is one thing that really makes us want to go and chew on some Wookie ass crack it's the misspelling of our name - yes your spell checker is wrong at times ;-)
[0] - http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-project/2009-02/msg00079.html [1] - board@opensuse.org
Hi Awafaa,
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 10:45 PM, Andrew Wafaa awafaa@opensuse.org wrote:
After our openly elected Board Members sent their open letter[0] to us the community there seems to have been a bit of a media frenzy. I use the term frenzy very loosely here as there was no circus, certainly nothing like that after some of the things that have happened in the past, but a definite air of FUD on behalf of some supposed journalists.
Many thanks for your clear explanation completing what Pascal & Bryen told on their open letter to the community. It also help us answer any FUD regarding the recent laid-off.
Me and any openSUSE fan boy here in Indonesia hope you and others fellow openSUSE developer knows that we support what you have done and hope a better situation in the future.
Mandag 23 februar 2009 16:45:03 skrev Andrew Wafaa:
After our openly elected Board Members sent their open letter[0] to us the community there seems to have been a bit of a media frenzy. I use the term frenzy very loosely here as there was no circus, certainly nothing like that after some of the things that have happened in the past, but a definite air of FUD on behalf of some supposed journalists.
Always easy to point fingers at others, and surely reporters rarely have half the story right when they report something.
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
2009/2/23 Martin Schlander martin.schlander@gmail.com:
Always easy to point fingers at others, and surely reporters rarely have half the story right when they report something.
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
Martin, I whole heartedly agree, and this is something that we keep telling Novell - communicate more and communicate clearly. Unfortunately when dealing with a company the size of Novell and also taking into account their endless processes, this will not be an easy or quick solution - even though it should be.
For the short term at least we will have to keep up the pressure on Novell to communicate clearly. I suppose the best thing we can do is lead by example, maybe we as a community should show Novell how to communicate with the wider community. We all know we can improve on that, and yes openSUSE has made vast improvements in communicating but there is always room for improvement.
Martin Schlander a écrit :
prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
exactly. Some people leave, some are fired for fault, some other are fired for lack of money (what can be understood).
When a people you like and respect is fired it's normal to be shoked
jdd NB: not anybody read the journals you are speaking of, some link?
Always easy to point fingers at others, and surely reporters rarely have half the story right when they report something.
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
I agree with Martin, and I understand the goals of the open letter, which are noble. If all my support goes to the fired people, with whom we shared interests and goals, I am a lot less in favour of strong messages to protect Novell position with respect to openSUSE, which made another communication mistake, at least, and whose position on openSUSE and its community has been often contraddictory.
Regards, A.
On Mon, 23 Feb 2009, Martin Schlander wrote:
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
I am sure you understand that with the exception of the CEO and similarily ranked officers no company will provide lists or other details of people leaving, be it voluntary or otherwise. Not the least since this would run afoul of data protection regulations.
Gerald
Mandag 23 februar 2009 20:32:11 skrev Gerald Pfeifer:
I am sure you understand that with the exception of the CEO and similarily ranked officers no company will provide lists or other details of people leaving, be it voluntary or otherwise. Not the least since this would run afoul of data protection regulations.
I don't understand how anybody can claim to want to build a community, and then be completely silent, when major events affecting the community greatly like these firings occur.
I don't remember seing any official communication about this whatsoever, except some executive level bullshit in the press - but nothing at all addressing the concerns of the openSUSE community.
A list of names would probably also be against the interests of the directly affected peopIe, but I'm pretty sure it would have been possible for someone to release some information to the openSUSE community explaining what goes on, why, how it affects (different parts of) openSUSE short and long term etc., without Novell getting in too much legal trouble because of it.
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Martin Schlander martin.schlander@gmail.com wrote:
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
While I agree we could have communicated more effectively, I do want to note a few things: Novell is a public company, and has some restrictions on what it can say (and when). In part, poor communication may be caused by an overabundance of caution -- rather than a desire to withhold information or a lack of desire to inform the community of what's going on.
Also, while I understand the desire to know who's been affected, I don't think it would be appropriate for Novell to post a list of those affected by the layoff. (Not to mention, probably not a legally sound practice, either.)
On Monday 23 February 2009 23:29:37 Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
On Mon, Feb 23, 2009 at 8:15 AM, Martin Schlander
martin.schlander@gmail.com wrote:
But you should always look inwards as well. If there was some proper official communication done, maybe reporters and community members wouldn't have to speculate like crazy about what the hell is going on, and go through a prolonged and extremely painful process of learning about people we care about and enjoy working with have been fired - slowly and painfully one name at a time for a period of weeks and weeks.
While I agree we could have communicated more effectively, I do want to note a few things: Novell is a public company, and has some restrictions on what it can say (and when). In part, poor communication may be caused by an overabundance of caution -- rather than a desire to withhold information or a lack of desire to inform the community of what's going on.
Zonker, full agreement here.
Martin, and others: Sorry for being silent on this publically. If you have specific questions, I'm willing to answer them as long as I don't violate privacy or legal policies.
For now, let me just confirm that we're committed to the openSUSE project. Despite the layoffs, Novell will continue to invest in openSUSE and make together with the community a great project and distribution,
Andreas
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Alberto Passalacqua -
Andreas Jaeger -
Andrew Wafaa -
Gerald Pfeifer -
jdd -
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -
Martin Schlander -
Masim "Vavai" Sugianto