- you organize or take part of an event
- you want good software in your school/university
- you have a local LUG meeting

To make the process easier Andreas Bauer created an order tool for it, just head over to

http://software.opensuse.org/promodvd

and enter your request there. The old order process, sending mails to me or marketing@whatever is now obsolete.

Everything you need to know is explained on that page. If you want information about the PromoDVD in general:

http://en.opensuse.org/PromoDVD

The major changes we are doing are basically:

• Severity Blocker means “Blocks development and/or testing work”
• Severity Critical means “Crash, loss of data, corruption of data, severe memory leak”
• We would like to ask you to fill in the “Found by” field correctly, this will be “Beta-Customer” for openSUSE community members before a release and “Customer” if you file a bug after the release.
• Novell will use internally both severity and priority for handling bug reports.

We would like you to use the changed severity definitions for every new bugreport that you are filing and also set the “Found by” field.  We hope that these changes reduce some confusion and help us at Novell to better prioritize and fix bug reports.

• Reduce the number of kernel bugs in openSUSE’s bugzilla
• Get rid of old / invalid bugs in bugzilla and find duplicates
• Send patches and bugs upstream
• Test and review fixes for kernel bugs

If you’re interested in helping, join the kernel team on #opensuse-kernel on irc.freenode.net.They’ll be at it all day on Wednesday, July 30th starting at 00:00 UTC — so all time zones have equal opportunity to participate!

The site has also served as a podium for some popular series, such as:

• 46 People of openSUSE interviews
• 30 openSUSE Weekly News issues
• 15 Sneak Peeks at upcoming openSUSE releases

The top three stories by number of comments:

• Announcing openSUSE 11.0 RC 1, 321 comments
• Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM, 287 comments
• Announcing openSUSE 10.3 RC1, 176 comments

Stories were rated 4965 times with an average score of 4.54, the most voted stories:

• Announcing openSUSE 10.3 GM, 306 votes (619 diggs)
• Announcing openSUSE 11.0 GM, 170 votes (912 diggs)
• Announcing openSUSE 11.0 RC 1, 146 votes (697 diggs)

Thanks to all authors and commenters for making openSUSE News the best and most lively distribution news portal!

Nicknames:	fs, FSundermeyer
Homepage:	None.
Blog:	None.
Favorite season:	Definitely spring, when winter, the season I really hate, is finally gone.
Motto:	I do not have a real motto. Being a good father for my kids is my main concern in life at the moment.

Please introduce yourself!

I was born in a small German town near Hannover and moved into the Nuremberg area to study Biology. In late 1996 I joined S.u.S.E. as a webmaster and presales consultant. I also did some marketing and product management in the coming years, but my main responsibility always was the SUSE webservers. Shortly after the merger with Novell I joined the documentation team, where my main responsibility lies with the openSUSE documentation. I am married and have three kids, a daughter (3) and her twin brothers (1).

Off work I enjoy bird watching, my fish tanks and plants, riding my motorbike, and reading fantasy and SF. If all this still leaves time, I am digitizing my 1000+ punk and alternative rock long-play records and play (offline) role playing computer games.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

My first computer was a Sharp MZ731 with a 4 colour ballpen plotter . I did some very basic Pascal and Basic hacking, but most of the time just played Defender and Chess on it. That was in 1983/1984. I entirely stopped using computers until the early 90s where I wrote a 200+ pages report on a friend’s x86 286 with a 2MB hard drive using emTeX under DOS. My first real personal computer was a P60 (suffering from the famous Pentium bug). After a year playing with Windows 3.11, I installed S.u.S.E. Linux.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

My first SUSE version was S.u.S.E. Linux 4.2. That was summer 1996. A friend of mine who was working at S.u.S.E. gave it to me because I was so impressed by the virtual desktops when he showed 4.2 to me. I still vividly remember how much I disliked the default SUSE fvwm2 theming, so first thing I tried to do was to change it (I only succeeded after getting a copy of O’Reilly’s "Running Linux").

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I would say that I joined the community in 1996, because since then I own the SUSE webmaster mail account and therefore have daily contact with SUSE/openSUSE users.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I already mentioned the webmaster@opensuse.org account. Together with Robert also developed and implemented the current openSUSE web skin and helped to develop and set up the Lessons for Lizards (Lfl) project. I regularly do maintenance work on the wiki, too (although I wish I had more time for it).

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

Giving my share back to the community who developed the great software I am using daily.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

The most important contribution is probably the work on the webmaster mails. The majority of the mails to the webmaster are support questions and I try to help everybody as best as I can. But the contribution I am most proud of is the current openSUSE web skin.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

Most of the time at work and sometimes also during the evenings and week-ends.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

"Kraftvoll" - the German word for powerful, which we used quite often in the early days of S.u.S.E.

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

Nothing openSUSE specific, but sometimes the wheel is reinvented once too often, I think. It’s too often "let’s do the same thing but different" rather than "let’s make this thing better by contributing to it".

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

I hope the number of installations will continue to grow, so openSUSE will finally arrive on the desktops. I also wish that the reputation of openSUSE in the overall Linux community will become better, because we deserve it!

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

Because openSUSE has got a very dedicated community, the best choice of prebuild software packages and by far the best administration tool.

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

Too many to list.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

None.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Cowsay. Thanks to Paul G. for introducing me to this most useful application at FOSDEM this year.
OK, just kidding. I really couldn’t live without amaroK. I couldn’t live without listening to music and once you have used amaroK you definitely don’t want to use any other music player.

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

A consistent help system throughout Linux (at least for the GUI part) with useful content. This is one area where Linux is way behind Windows.

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

emacs, because it’s the one I am most familiar with. But I also use vi.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

On the one hand I am very curious to get to know what would happen if Bill Gates and Steve Jobs officially would declare their support for openSUSE, on the other hand I wish they will never ever do it.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

Being a real programmer.

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

It would probably feel very unfamiliar, but I would make use of it and spend time with my wife and kids and go bird watching.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

The end of Thelma & Louise. By driving over the cliff, the two keep their recently acquired freedom instead of going into captivity again.

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Definitely Star Trek, although I am very fond of Star Wars, too.

What is your favorite food and drink?

Thai Curry and red wine.

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

Defender on my Sharp MZ731 and nowadays it’s (still) Baldur’s Gate II.

Which city would you like to visit?

Angkor Watt.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

Backpacking holiday.

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

Build or buy a house for my family.

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

Nowhere particular, but I would be very interested in seeing how the landscape looked like before men changed everything.

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

No.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Yes, but only once.

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

You couldn’t live without…

Listening to music.

Which question was the hardest to answer?

The next one…

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

…therefore it’s intentionally left blank .

btw: I already got feedback on it. If you think the questions should be different, just send me a mail: mlasars at suse.de ….

Issue #31 of openSUSE Weekly News is now out!

In this week’s issue:

• Next Helping Hands Event
• www.opensuse-tutorials.com
• Hubert Mantel: openSUSE Gets the JeOS
• People of openSUSE: Bryen Yunashko
• Pascal Bleser: Reporting Packman package bugs
• Jigish Gohil: New Compiz plugins

Nickname:	suseROCKs
Blog:	www.bryen.com
Favorite season:	Spring because it is a time to plant new plants into the ground and watch them grow.
Motto:	We have a no stupid-questions policy.  We would like you to have a no-stupid answers policy.

Please introduce yourself!

39 years old, December 15th. I currently live in Chicago, IL, my birthtown, but am working on moving to New York City in the near future. I have lived previously for 15 years in Los Angeles, CA. Currently, I am the Director of Technical Services for an online sign-language training program.

Tell us about the background to your computer use.

My parents have been Novell Training and Reseller Partners since the early 80’s.  In fact, my mother was awarded by Novell for having more certifications than anyone else in the world. Watching them, I was adamant that I would NEVER have anything to do with computers. By the late 1990’s it became apparent that I would get sucked into it when I ended up doing database administration for a University in Los Angeles. Around 2000, I decided to jump in with both feet and enrolled in my mother’s school and became a consultant specializing in Novell software. I’ve been a consultant ever since.

When and why did you start using openSUSE/SUSE Linux?

When Microsoft released SP2 for XP, it broke my connection to my internal NetWare servers. That became the last straw for me, so I immediately downloaded NLD (Novell Linux Desktop 9) and not long thereafter, I moved on to SUSE Professional 9.3. It didn’t solve all my problems, but it led me onto a very interesting path and I truly haven’t missed Windows since.

When did you join the openSUSE community and what made you do that?

I joined shortly after the release of openSUSE 10.3. Previously, I hadn’t really accessed any online support and trudged through my experiences on my own with the occasional advice of a friend and fellow Linux user. When 10.3 came along, I had a problem with resolution, so I signed up to the mailing list. On the first day, JP Rosevear spotted me and made me aware of the openSUSE-GNOME team.

One day, there was a GNOME meeting announcement, and I *thought* it was about introducing various features of GNOME. So I went to the meeting, which turned out to be a technical team meeting, and there JP managed to butter me into taking on a task, and I haven’t been able to break free since.

In what way do you participate in the openSUSE project?

I participate with the openSUSE-GNOME team, and recently joined up with the Marketing group.

What especially motivates you to participate in the openSUSE project?

The openness and ease of communication within the project. The dedication of everyone involved and the willingness by everyone to strive to even higher grounds.

What do you think was your most important contribution to the openSUSE project/community or what is the contribution that you’re most proud of?

Well, initially I was asked to give input on Accessibility (a11y) for openSUSE. And I continue to do that with the GNOME team, as well as participating with the GNOME Foundation’s GOPA project. Recently, I created the http://en.opensuse.org/Accessibility wiki pages with the hope of bringing together all the various segments of a11y work in the openSUSE community. There’s so many wonderful things that Novell/SUSE/openSUSE does to improve technology for a11y users and make it openSUSE a more inclusive distro for all users.

Currently, I’ve also established the Helping Hands project. Still in its early stages, it already seems to get positive reviews. Basically, the goal is to introduce users to features and applications on their desktop. At the same time, I hope to see this blossom into more HowTos available for users. For now, it is GNOME-centric. But, I am hoping to take it up to a higher level and encompass all sections of openSUSE. I’m already in discussions on several fronts to make this all happen. You can find out more about this program at http://en.opensuse.org/GNOME/HowTos. If you’re interested in participating, drop me a line.

When do you usually spend time on the openSUSE project?

When my computer is turned on.

Three words to describe openSUSE? Or make up a proper slogan!

Go Green Go!

What do you think is missing or underrated in the distribution or the project?

I think that we need to focus more on introducing new users to what openSUSE can do for them, and try to close the divide between end-user and technical user. We’re mostly in a reactive mode at this time by waiting for users to come onto the IRC channels and ask a specific question. What we haven’t done very well yet is set up an environment where we say "Hello user, here’s what you can do with your new openSUSE."  If a user doesn’t know that a particular feature or application exists, they won’t ask questions about it.

I’m hoping Helping Hands will help close that gap.

What do you think the future holds for the openSUSE project?

I know everyone hates the "This is the year of Linux" line. But I really think that Linux will become far more mainstream in about 5 years, and I think openSUSE will become a major player in that aspect.

A person asks you why he/she should choose openSUSE instead of other distribution/OS. What would be your arguments to convince him/her to pick up openSUSE?

Because I said so!

Which members of the openSUSE community have you met in person?

None at this time.

How many icons are currently on your desktop?

I really don’t pay any attention to my desktop. It is so cluttered with open apps, who can bother to see what’s behind it?  Instead I make use of openSUSE’s GNOME Main Menu. Between it, Application Browser, and the Run Command, the Desktop is pretty useless to me.

What is the application you can’t live without? And why?

Tomboy! I juggle so many unrelated projects on any given day that it is a Godsend to be able to quickly jot down notes before jumping to the next project.

Which application or feature should be invented as soon as possible?

Well, I’ve talked with the Evolution team about creating brain-implantable Evolution email client chips, but no takers yet…

Which is your preferred text editor? And why?

Gedit or vi, depending where I’m at.

Which famous person would you want to join the openSUSE community?

Laura Chappel. I think she would be awesome as a interactive member of the community sharing her knowledge.

Which computer related skills would you like to have?

I would love to be able to code. Those guys have it all… They get the hottest chicks, get invited to the coolest parties, and wear the sharpest threads.

The Internet crashes for a whole week — how would you feel, what would you do?

I would feel very frustrated because all my friends would be constantly calling me asking me to come over and fix their computer because they don’t understand that the Internet died, no matter how many times I explain it to them.

Which is your favorite movie scene?

Never really thought about that.

Star Trek or Star Wars?

Star Wars.

What is your favorite food and drink?

I may be nearing my 40’s, but I’m still battling a serious addiction to milk. As for foods, probably Thai food is my favorite, but I enjoy sampling all kinds of ethnic cuisine.

Favorite game or console (in your childhood and nowadays)?

I have fond memories of playing Adventure on my first computer as a child. Nowadays, I’m more into solitaire games or puzzles. The games kids play nowadays make no sense to me.

Which city would you like to visit?

No particular city, but I would love to take a long leisurely travel period to Europe, South America, and India.

What is your preferred way to spend your vacation?

With friends. Doesn’t matter where.

Someone gives you $1.000.000 — what would you do with the money?

Roll around naked in it for a while…

If traveling through time was possible — when would we be most likely to meet you?

Any pre-email days!  I really hate how email has controlled us so much nowadays. Remember the good old days when we would write a letter, drop it in the mail, wait two weeks, get a reply back, say "oh that’s nice" and write again, wait another two weeks, and so on?

Nowadays, we write emails. If we don’t get a response back in an hour, we grab the phone and shout "Why aren’t you answering my email?!?"

Slow down world…

There’s a thunderstorm outside — do you turn off your computer?

Nah.

Have your ever missed an appointment because you forgot about it while sitting at your computer?

Not that I recall…

Show us a picture of something, you have always wanted to share!

hmm… you could see a collection of photos to concerts I’ve been to at http://bryen.myphotoalbum.com

You couldn’t live without…

Humor. Anyone who has seen me in IRC knows I cannot not inject humor into everyday conversations. People need to not take things too seriously in life.

Which question was the hardest to answer?

The movie scene question…

What other question would you like to answer? And what would you answer?

I’d rather just take this moment to give thanks to all the cool folks in openSUSE who made me feel welcome into the community and made me feel a part of it, even when I know nothing at all.

Issue #30 of openSUSE Weekly News is now out!

In this week’s issue:

• openSUSE Build Service 1.0 Released
• Announcing openSUSE Day at LinuxWorld Expo
• People of openSUSE: Joe Brockmeier
• openSUSE Build Service Trust concept
• John Anderson: Get build dependencies with zypper
• Michal Zugec: Network Documentation

We’ll have a full day of presentations about the openSUSE Project, KDE, GNOME, the Linux kernel, the openSUSE Build Service, and much more.

Come by and learn all about openSUSE, pick up an openSUSE 11.0 DVD and some of the fabulous door prizes — including openSUSE t-shirts, caps, and other big prizes.

The schedule runs from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., including an openSUSE Birds of a Feather at 4:15 p.m. See the full schedule on the wiki at: http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSUSE_Day_at_LinuxWorld_Expo. (Schedule subject to change.)

Want to help with the openSUSE Day or help staff the openSUSE booth in the LWE .Org Pavilion? We’d love to have you! If you’d like to get involved, speak up on the opensuse-marketing list or contact Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier (zonker@opensuse.org).