Comments on: openSUSE Guiding Principles Take Effect

By: Andreas Jaeger

Andreas Jaeger — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:02:10 +0000

> WHY Novell does need a veto-right.

Currently Novell is the main sponsor of the project and therefore we sat it up this way as a special precaution. I think this is done in other projects as well, e.g. at Fedora.

Be assured that I will not use my veto power lightly – Novell does not want to alienate the community.

By: SRGlasoe

SRGlasoe — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 16:35:55 +0000

Aren’t SUSE Linux and openSUSE Linux succeeding better than Novell’s stewardship of WordPerfect? The revenues continue to increase. The user base seems to be expanding. The product gets better overall.

Why should Novell have an overall veto right? They are paying for the hardware, bandwidth and a lot of people working on not only openSUSE but many Open Source Software projects. When you decide to pay for all that on your own, let us know what you call your Linux distribution.

I for one welcome Novell’s participation and willingness to keep the lights on. Thank you everyone at Novell for all the work. 10.3 is the best yet. Thanks for not making it perfect so I have something to look forward to in openSUSE 11.

By: Richard

Richard — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 08:25:50 +0000

maybe some of you should stop judging and foreseeing the future, and give the board a chance and see what happens.

Thanks Novell and OpenSuse for all the fine work to get this most amazing distro to all of us

By: BartOtten

BartOtten — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:28:45 +0000

> You couldn’t think of a better example than one solved already
without a board?

I just wondered what should have happened with a board . If ZENworks
was left in then openSUSE would have died….

Maybe we should only have boardleaders who’s parents are still alive
and productive. If the leader fails then we can fork him…..
Still wonder WHY Novell does need a veto-right. If they
can explain their plans in a good way they can earn support
from the community. Really, it’s not that I don’t want to
support the GP, I just want to know what exacly I support

By: Andreas Jaeger

Andreas Jaeger — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 06:25:20 +0000

The board will give the community a much stronger voice for openSUSE with Novell.

By: Embedded

Embedded — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 20:48:46 +0000

The real question is will the community be able to do anything about openSuSE vis et vis Microsoft if it ever counts. Novel of and by itself is mostly harmless except for the small issue of backing a number of wrong horses.

The real harm that can come here is if Microsoft really wants something that the GPL cannot stop them with.

At least that’s my nightmare!

By: Nikolay Derkach

Nikolay Derkach — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:33:24 +0000

Actually I don’t support the principles – the purpose of the “board” is unclear. In my opinion there should be the only leader who makes decisions. The board will lead to a mess.

By: Beineri

Beineri — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:25:49 +0000

> Community: Take ZENworks out the distro
> Novell: We won’t, here we use out veto

You couldn’t think of a better example than one solved already without a board?

> Novell can overrule the community

Correct. You can find the same rule in other open source projects, like Ubuntu or Fedora.

> or stop development at any time

Of course nobody can force Novell to continue contributing. But then openSUSE is the base of the enterprise products.

By: BartOtten

BartOtten — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 18:07:45 +0000

“The board is headed by a chairperson with veto power over any decision. The chairperson is appointed by Novell and will typically be a Novell employee. ”

Community: Take ZENworks out the distro
Novell: We won’t, here we use out veto
Community: -silenced-

Novell can overrule the community or stop development at any time (like they make openSUSE Novell-red instead of SUSE-green).I know that it won’t happen but it CAN happen that way. Or do I miss anything? For the time beining I do not yet support the GP. Someone that can explain?