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Hello world!
(14 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)
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As you may have already read on news.opensuse.org (thanks, AJ, for the warm welcome!) or elsewhere, I’ve just joined Novell as the openSUSE community manager. I’m really jazzed about joining Novell and the openSUSE team, and excited to be getting started. I’d like to start off by saying a big thanks to AJ, Martin Lasarsch, Michael Loeffler, and Justin Steinman and other openSUSE and Novell folks for the information and help they’ve provided leading up to today. It’s already a group I feel comfortable with and look forward to working with.
Next, I’d like to talk about what this position will entail, and what I hope to accomplish over the short and long term. First, my main priority will be to serve as the openSUSE community’s advocate with Novell and make sure that it has what it needs to make openSUSE the best distro available. I think Max Spevack from Red Hat has done a great job along these lines, helping to transition Fedora into a much more community driven project than it was when it was originally split off from Red Hat Linux, and I’d like to take some cues from his work and apply them to openSUSE. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to many of Novell’s executive team, Ron Hovsepian, John Dragoon, Roger Levy, and Jeff Jaffe, and I think that Novell is seriously committed to making openSUSE a more independent and community driven project.
When I talk about the openSUSE community, I mean all of those involved in some way with openSUSE — the users (and potential users), the openSUSE contributors, and the upstream developers who work on projects that are part of openSUSE.
I’ll be attending a lot of conferences and meeting with the community in order to best get feedback from users and developers (SCALE and FOSDEM are the first two shows on my list) but I also would encourage you to send me an email and/or leave comments on my blog if you have thoughts about what openSUSE needs, or how to make it better — or what we’re doing right, so we know to keep doing it! I’ll also be meeting with the openSUSE board and developers to formulate a plan for world domination, er, growth and improvement.
I’m also going to be focusing my attention on getting the word out about openSUSE to more potential users, and trying to bring in more new users to openSUSE Linux. And by “new users,” I don’t mean people switching from another Linux distro — if someone is using another distro and is happy with Linux, that’s great. I want to reach the masses of Windows users who are looking for a better computing platform, and find ways to address their needs with Linux.
But, I think openSUSE has enormous potential, as a distro and as a community — so I want to make sure that we live up to that potential and give everyone a chance to use and contribute to openSUSE. I’m looking forward to getting started.
Welcome!
Welcome and congratulations. I think you were right with World Domination
Thanks. I hope you’re right!
Welcome! Look forward to meeting with you at FOSDEM
Welcome! We were waiting for somebody on that position for long. openSUSE is doubtless technically cool, but lacks some pushing on the marketing front I think. Nice to now have you filling that gap - that makes the openSUSE future even brighter
Thanks, it’s good to be here.
Yes, openSUSE definitely needs to do a much better job of marketing itself, and I hope to not only take the lead on that, but also to give the community members the tools to help get the word out about openSUSE. I think openSUSE’s future is extremely bright!
Great news and best of luck to you!
Joe, welcome on board! Glad to see you take the position, can’t wait to start working with you.
Ross
It sure is a small world, isn’t it? Hard to believe so much has happened since I was reviewing your LPI “boot camp.” Glad to be on the same team, I look forward to running into you soon, Ross!
Welcome, Joe! Happy to have you on the team!
Welcome
it’s nice that this new position has been finally taken.
Congrats
Kick some ass, Zonker.
and just like everyone wanted to pass on the Giants before this superbowl, may I say that Novell has really taken an also-ran distribution with SuSE Linux Pro which had lost a lot of its luster to become a real champ of an OS, a distro that many now have to look up to and a model for community development. It was only back in the spring of 2005 where I said that SuSE had “lost its mojo” and now look where we are.
http://www.linux-mag.com/id/1999/
I’m sure with you at the helm of the community you will take it to the next level. Novell has made an excellent choice to lead their community flock. I wish you the best.
Jason Perlow
Sr. Technology Editor
Linux Magazine
Thanks, Jason. Keep the feedback coming, I really appreciate the insight and thoughts on where openSUSE could go.
Welcome Joe! Time to get ZONKED!
Welcome!!! Hope to see great things, and help where possible.
Good Luck! And thanks again for chatting with me on Day One of your new job!
(shameless self promo link: http://www.internetnews.com/ent-news/article.php/3725811)
Thanks, Sean — I appreciate the good wishes and the opportunity to do the interview. I’m at your disposal anytime you want to talk openSUSE. Great article, btw.
Hi. I represent your challenge. That is right. I am one of the many former SUSE users that left due to our disagreement with Novell’s deal with MS. I think most of us have taken a wait and see approach. I personally will not use SUSE again until that deal is revoked or until it expires and is not renewed. You all know it is nothing personal against anyone here. Just a different point of view. But, I guess I just wanted to say that, yes, we are still watching.
Hi there,
Obviously, there is a difference of opinion here, but I do thank you for taking the time to share your opinion *and* for the fact that you point out it’s not personal. Even if you don’t use SUSE, I hope that you will find a home with another Linux distro.
Congratulation, Joe.
Hope your background as Editor in Chief in Linux Magazine give our OpenSUSE a brilliant marketing technique. OpenSUSE is a good and nice distro, and we need a more and more positive news to increase the market (user) share of OpenSUSE.
Please keep in writing although you will be busy with your new job.
Congrats! Lets see if we can get you the OpenJDK.
So you are the guy supposed to wrap some candy around the Microsoft deal. Good luck with that one. What spin will you try? Something right out of the PR playbook, or something a little bit more creative? I mean, your rhetoric in the cio.com interview “it’d be a shame for people to focus exclusively on the Microsoft deal” was pretty standard. Just the typical message for the corporate decision makers that these long-bearded free-software hippies should be ashamed to criticize such a deal.
I’d telly you want. I am not ashamed. Novell should be ashamed. And a PR guy is in no position to tell me what I should be ashamed about and what not.
Oh, and welcome!
Congratulations, Joe, on your next great mission to guide OpenSuse into its next stage of usability and marketability. I am excited for you and the OpenSuse teams. If I haven’t before, let me say that at work I no longer boot to Windows and entirely use a Linux distro without having any issues with network printing. Nevertheless, our institution is in the process of switching from Novell to Microsoft Exchange (or the next Microsoft Product). So, my hope some day is that more universities, colleges, and community colleges will embrace OpenSuse as a means of saving money for the State and, more importantly, the students. Thanks for your leadership! I will continue to follow your leaps!