On Wednesday 02 February 2011 04:46:15 Helen wrote:
I personally have mixed feelings about this - the fact that OBS has openSUSE in its name helps to get the openSUSE name 'out there' as its use becomes more popular, but I agree that there is a strong implication for users that it is only for openSUSE. The other reasons raised by Gumb are also valid ones.
So a change to just 'open' could be positive in many ways.
I'm still relatively new to the project myself, so I don't know the whole story - I imagine this was probably discussed at length when the Build Service first became an entity.
Maybe, I don't know either. However I fully support the namechange to Open Build Service - I'm frankly completely sure that it will have a positive impact on the spread of the technology. And I've never heard of a FOSS project, developed by some team or entity, which didn't credit the original authors. In other words, as long as we develop it, I believe there's zarrooo chance we'll loose any brand value. And even if it's forked - well, credit is important in the world of Free Software. So important even Apple's Safari's About dialog TO THIS DAY credits the initial KDE developers who wrote KHTML with their work forming the base of WebKit... Anyway. So I see little danger, great advantage. So I wonder - what are the open objections, if any?
On a related note, I Again, apologies if this is old territory being covered again! I was under the impression that Bretzn was being renamed to 'AppInstaller' though perhaps I've got the "wrong end of the stick" as the saying goes.
The source of confusion there is that tere are two things: the cross-distro discussion on app installers (headed by Vincent Untz) and project Bretzn. Bretzn is far more than an app installer - actually the app installer is almost an after-thought, something that would be nice to have. But their focus is on a plugin for IDE's - see the latest announcement (yesterday) and the video in there.
Because we are going to be doing a lot of work in the coming months to promote both the OBS and Bretzn, it might be a good idea to clarify naming right away, and also perhaps talk about branding and logos for both of these projects. Is there anything in progress towards developing artwork?
Bretzn - I'll see if I can get Nuno to make something, I can claim it's KDE stuff so his responsibility :D OBS, I'm not even sure, does that have some good logo? If not, yes, it'd be awesome to have something... I'm also very much looking forward to a Tumbleweed logo, on that subject :D
Again, apologies if this is old territory being covered again!
cheers,
Helen
On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 10:44 AM, gumb
wrote: Hi. I am forwarding a proposal for the renaming of the openSUSE Build Service, in order to try and increase its adoption and recognition. Indeed, it seems like certain moves may already have been made in this direction but I'm not too clear on that (see below). This is a follow-up to a suggestion by Jos Poortvliet which he originally made mention of in a recent blog post, here: http://nowwhatthe.blogspot.com/2011/01/lca-on-friday.html
Whilst I am merely an end-user, he has suggested in the spirit of openness that I contact the project via this list to further the discussion. Essentially, such a renaming could be as 'simple' as calling it the 'Open Build Service', and I note that the Meego project, for example, already seems to use this on some of its webpages, but the main OBS introduction page does not, hence my uncertainty. The reasoning behind this subtle change is that the project has perhaps not gained the traction that it should have done in the wider open source and distro community in consideration of what an advanced and useful tool it is. I see there being two key contributory factors behind this:
1) The very name openSUSE Build Service immediately implies something related and perhaps specific to the openSUSE distribution. Many developers / packagers are simply unaware of its scope.
2) There are those for whom anything associated with the name openSUSE makes them run a mile. Rightfully or wrongfully, all the previous Novell / MS associations forever tarnish the image of openSUSE for some. The OBS is unfairly tarred with the same brush, and no matter how good a service it becomes, this perception is unlikely to change for a long time to come.
Of course, general marketing and other factors may also play a part, but I don't think the above two reasons should be easily discounted. Several times I have read conversations involving developers / packagers who are struggling to make packages available for a variety of distros, and when OBS is raised as a potential solution the thread often falls flat or it is dismissed, sometimes for some technical reason or sometimes for no good reason.
To appease the latter category of OBS avoiders, the openSUSE branding could perhaps take a back seat and not be so obviously featured. Let the service speak for itself. The website would need some rewording and perhaps more generic theming or image elements to reduce all the immediate references to openSUSE. I'm basing this broadly on the concept that subtle or subconscious persuasion can often triumph over blatant advertising, but I'm no marketing expert!
Having openSUSE in the title should bring some prestige and publicity to the openSUSE project, but it probably has just as much adverse effect. Far better to attract more people to the service in the first instance, and upon discovering its qualities a certain kudos might then be attributed before the user needs to discover who's behind it.
The rewards and prestige would eventually come from the project generating many times as much usage and therefore media recognition, instead of shouting about itself and falling upon deaf ears, and ultimately occupying a niche.
Not meaning to take anything away from the efforts so far. Having Meego and others on board is a great achievement, but I think the points in Jos's post are an indicator of the widespread ignorance that may be holding it back from reaching out further. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse-buildservice+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse-buildservice+help@opensuse.org