I think the best would be to make the talk two fold:
1) talk about technical innovations: installation from images, LZMA compression in RPMs (and how much smaller packages have become thanks to that), EULA be gone, cross-build in OBS, etc… (poke Coolo, Beineri, Vincent, etc.. for ideas, and Michael Mohrig about cross-build in OBS)
2) talk about community/human related things: membership program, first elected board, contrib repository, opensuse.tv, openfate, …

And then maybe talk about what’s currently going on and happen next: discussing the 11.2 onwards release cycle, making the contrib repository sustainable and a testbed for having “core distro” packages maintained by non-Novell-employees, etc…

Knowing FOSDEM quite well, I think that it is really important to make an interesting talk with stuff others don’t have and probably don’t know about, including very technical aspects, and avoid doing a dull talk with the usual stuff which would just make people using and contributing to other distros think “duh, we do that since 3 years” — not that I think you would do such a talk but.. just stressing.. the obvious I guess..
It is a very good occasion to tickle people’s curiosity.

As a user I would like to know:

- Why should I use openSUSE and not another distribution, so put some emphasis on what openSUSE has and others have not, or in other words on what makes my life easier in comparison with other distributions: YaST, buildservice, 1-click, support for some commercial drivers with easy installation and automatically updated drivers through kmp’s, and so on.

As a potential contributor:

- That I can actually (hard part ) take part to the distribution life and have a role into it, which doesn’t mean the list of all possible ways of contributing. I would not care about it, it is written on the website. I would like to know I can actually influence the distribution, be part of a community that cares of what I think, and where I could, to quote a nice Microsoft commercial, “realize my potential” and my ideas. So for example you might cite 1-Click, which was contributed by benJIman, or the work done by captain_magnus and other GNOME contributors to port new versions of GNOME to released versions of OpenSUSE.

Good luck!

Hey there, i was reading this post and related comments and it seems to be that zonker.opensuse.org has some sort of bug.

I was able to see AlbertoP’s (previous poster) email which is named as “will not be published”. it just shown all the information of previous poster on the places to enter a new post (the one i’m filling now).

If it’s somehow permanent you should be able to see my data there as well now.

I have a screenshot, as i couldnt find your email i posted here.

not that it matters, but i’m using firefox 3.0.5 on opensuse 11.1.

Good luck in FOSDEM!

“what would you want to know about openSUSE,”

I would like to know how I can use openSuse to secure my data aginst data loss and against Big Brother.

“what would you want to say about openSUSE?”

That OSS needs more evangelists. I would emphasize the convenience of openSuse, the ease and comfort of use, the reliability.

I would say some words about the collaboration efforts between openSuse and HP, Dell(?) and, yes, even Microsoft.

What dfficulties do I have to face when switching from a proprietary OS to OpenSource OS?

Tell them that “proprietary programmers” do a 9-to5-job, but opensource hackers do what they do because they *love* what they do and that opensource hackers therefore do the better job. It’s always better when you do what you love, isn’t it?

Tell them that proprietary software is a black box, but opensource software is open and that one therefore has the chance to understand what the software is doing. How can one do a good job without knowing how the tools are functioning?

Talk about possible backdoors in the proprietary black boxes.

Compare proprietary EULAs and opensource licensing. Which of them is easier to understand? Which bears the bigger risks? I mean, when one has a piece of software, all he wants is to use it to get a job done but he doesn’t want to ask a lawyer first.

There is so much opensource software that a user can choose the software that fits to his needs.
And a user can modify OSS till it fits his needs. But when using prorpietary software the user has to modify himself to the needs to the software.

Opensource software is good for educational purposes because the pupil can look inside the software. You know, children look what is inside a doll.

And finally talk aboit the costs.