“Of all the community distributions, probably the least known is
openSUSE. After two and a half years, the distro is not only still
working out details about how its community operates–including how
its governing board is elected–but also struggling to come out of
the shadow of its corporate parent Novell, much as Fedora has
emerged from its initial dominance by Red Hat. With the pending
release of openSUSE 11.0, community manager Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier
suggests that the distribution is finally starting to get the
recognition it deserves. In the middle of preparations for the new
release, Brockmeier took the time to talk with Linux.com about the
priorities within the community and its relation with the larger
world of free software.“Brockmeier became community manager for openSUSE in February,
after nine years as a free software journalist, including time as
an editorial director at Linux.com and editor-in-chief at Linux
Magazine. ‘There’s still a lot of getting acclimated,’ he admits,
but, like the distribution, he seems to be finding his feet. Much
of his time–as much as 50%–is spent on the road, helping to
publicize openSUSE, ‘getting strategy together’ by talking to other
members of openSUSE, and making connections with others in the
larger free software community, especially those who are leading
other non-commercial distributions…”
Related Story:
The
Journalist Who Came in From the Cold(Feb 05, 2008)