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(a)opensuse.org -- Andrew Wafaa, openSUSE Member: FunkyPenguin openSUSE: Get It, Discover It, Create It at http://www.opensuse.org -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-project+unsubscribe(a)opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-project+help(a)opensuse.org