Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols takes a look at KDE 4.3 RC 2 on top of openSUSE 11.1, and has a lot of nice things to say:

To check out this new version, I used openSUSE 11.1. SUSE and KDE developers have long worked hand in glove with each other. So, whenever you want to try out the latest versions of KDE, the easiest way to is to use one of the openSUSE KDE builds.

What really struck me about this release aren’t any of the new features. Instead, it was the improvement in its overall performance and looks that caught my attention.

The new desktop style, Plasma Air, is both very attractive and very flexible. It’s a nice combination. I’m both happy with its default look and feel, and I appreciate that I can easily set it to working the way I want it to work.

If you’ve been sticking with KDE 3.5.x, or if you’ve never tried KDE before, the KDE 4.3 release might be a good time to take another look when it’s released. You can find KDE live CDs here, courtesy of Stephan Binner. KDE 4.3 RC 3 images are available now.

A friend of mine sent me a note about Jeff Shantz’s post on his initial impression of the openSUSE Project thanks to a couple of helpful responses:

it certainly struck me that these replies that I received were illustrative of a working, functional open source community — the end goal is to improve the product, and if one person doesn’t have time to continue working on a particular piece, then maybe someone else can. No territorial markings or egotism. Just one common goal to get it done.

So thanks to both Daniel and Jan (and my mentor, Marek Stopka, of course!) for a good initial experience in the openSUSE community! I look forward to making many future contributions.

Of course, for every person who is willing to put their neck out and blog about a good (or bad) experience, there are hundreds or thousands who don’t bother.

But please keep this in mind when interacting on the mailing lists. A positive, helpful response can make all the difference. We need to be doing our best to help new users and contributors, rather than spraying (as Karsten Wade often says) “community repellent” on potential contributors and users.

So, as Jeff says – thanks to Jan Weber and J. Daniel Schmidt. Glad to see this sort of attention being focused on openSUSE contributors.

I typically don’t post about Novell enterprise products, but I’m making an exception here because this really affects the larger community and not just the corporate customers.

A few weeks ago, Novell released some videos to demo SUSE Linux Enterprise. The only problem was, they were released without captioning for deaf and hard-of-hearing people. This was due to the rush to finish the videos and release them in time for the launch.

I’m glad to say that this has now been made right, and the videos are available with captioning. Furthermore, in the future I know that Novell will be trying to make sure that videos are released with captioning right away, without any delay.

This is also something that the larger community should take into consideration. If possible, when making tutorials and videos, consider adding closed captioning.

Looking for captioning tools? Jon ‘maddog’ Hall has written a nice piece that discusses this issue over on Linux Pro Magazine:

What finally convinced me was the ease of doing the closed captions. Joner showed me a site where you can easily link to the existing video on various “video” sites, then use overstream to create a file that has the timing marks and the text for your native language. This file is called an “SRT” file. Once you have the marks and closed captioning correct, you can download the file and upload it to places like YouTube by editing your video’s information, clicking on “Captions and Subtitles” and uploading the SRT file.

You can also create another copy of the file, and either you (or a friend) can substitute another language for your native language. Then you have a foreign language subtitle!

Captioning and translation capability in one fell swoop! Can’t beat that.

Most people never have to think about captioning, so it’s one of those things too often overlooked. However, captioning makes a major difference for those who do need it. By going a few extra steps, your message reaches a larger, and grateful, audience.

Copy of the presentation I used for FOSDEM on openSUSE — would need to be modified a bit by anyone else who gave it, but might be a good template for other openSUSE presentations.

FOSDEM Presentation here!

Michael Lessard was kind enough to send me a link to photos from the openSUSE 11.1 Launch Party in Quebec City from December. Looks like a good time was had by all! If you had a launch party, and have some photos, please drop me a line — would love to link to them.

The secret is out!

(I think we have awesome themes, but you have to admit it’s funny…)

You’ve probably heard the news about the Linux Foundation’s “I’m Linux” video contest. In case you haven’t: The Linux Foundation is sponsoring a contest to create videos that “showcases just what Linux means to those who use it, and hopefully inspires many to try it.”

The grand prize is a trip to Linux Foundation’s Linux Symposium in Tokyo, Japan. (To be held in October, 2009.) The contest starts officially on January 26, but they’re accepting early submissions now. Not bad, as far as incentives go. (Well, unless you already live in Tokyo…)

This should be a really fun contest, and a great opportunity for Linux enthusiasts who aren’t developers to help contribute to the promotion of Linux. (Though developers are also welcome, of course.) It will be doubly fun for me,  because I’ve been asked to help judge the contest.

I think this, a grassroots promotion for Linux, is a very good idea. If we start applying the same kind of collaborative effort to marketing Linux that has been applied so far to actually developing code, I think we can get pretty far. (More on this to come…)

If you have a good idea for a video (and I’m sure that a lot of openSUSE community members do…) fire up the video cameras and get to submitting!

ChannelWeb picks openSUSE as one of the “10 coolest Open Source Projects of 2008,” alongside Fedora, Firefox, and OpenOffice.org. Good stuff. 

With the openSUSE launch last week, I spent quite a bit of time talking to press — either on the phone, via e-mail, and on IM — about openSUSE 11.1.

In 2009, I hope that many members of the openSUSE community will have opportunities to speak to press at one point or another, in order to promote and educate about the work that’s being done within openSUSE. I can give high-level overviews of features and trends in the community, but no one is going to explain the importance of work on specific projects as well as the people who actually do the work. So don’t be surprised if you get an email from me or someone in Novell PR saying “hey, can you talk to somebody about your work…?”

Since I’ve been on both sides of the fence (interviewer and interviewee), I’d like to give a few suggestions for talking to press if the opportunity presents itself:

• Be expansive — I’ve noticed that many developers give fairly terse answers, up to and including responses like “you can see what’s new in the release notes.” While technically accurate, it’s not what reporters and journalists (or their editors and readers) are looking for. Take the opportunity to explain the features and how they benefit their intended audience. If you wonder why some projects get better press than others, one reason is that the projects in question understand how to work with press and give them material to work with.I can’t stress this one enough. When a door is opened and you have the opportunity to talk about the good work that’s being done, take it. Give some detail, and show enthusiasm.Responding to questions is sort of like creating a useful bug report. Saying “it doesn’t work” gives the developer little to work with. Saying “look at the release notes” gives the reporter little to work with.

• Be responsive — if you say you’re going to respond by a certain day or time, do so. If you can’t, try to pass the request on to someone who can respond in a timely fashion. (Which is one good reason to involve PR – part of their job is to find the right person to respond and shepherd the response through in time to meet the reporter’s deadline.)
• Be polite — the standard of communication between developers is, let’s face it, fairly blunt. Successful interactions with the press need to be diplomatic. If an article gets a fact wrong, a polite correction is OK – a flame isn’t. The adage about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel still applies, even when there’s no actual ink involved.If it helps, try to remember that press are not generally able to be experts on all thing they cover. (This goes back to rule 1 – be expansive…) Most reporters genuinely try to get the facts right, and when they don’t will welcome polite corrections.
• Be on message – as a reporter, I hated talking to executives who’ve gone through media training and think that a good interview practice is to parrot the same responses to every question in order to “stay on message.” I don’t recommend that.However, I do recommend thinking about what you are trying to accomplish by participating in an interview. If you want to highlight XYZ features in the latest release of a project, make sure you get that message across.Do not feel obligated to stick with the original premise of a question. If a reporter gives you something like “Well, lots of people say that project ABC is better at blah than your project, why is that?” Reframe the question, and don’t give a quote that reinforces a position you don’t agree with. (I get a lot of questions trying to position openSUSE as a competitor to Fedora, for instance, rather than as a competitor to Windows. I won’t go down that path. While I’m happy to talk about what makes openSUSE unique and interesting, the goal is not to win users away from Fedora, it’s to spread Linux to users stuck on proprietary platforms like Windows.)

  Also remember, you should never feel obligated to answer all of a reporter’s questions. A “that’s not my area,” or the like is perfectly acceptable.

• Be careful – remember that when you’re talking to press about a story, everything you say is “on the record,” and don’t count on information being offered “off the record” staying that way.I’m not saying that many reporters will purposefully report information offered off the record (though some will), I’m saying that all reporters are human and subject to mistakes. Information that’s not offered can’t be reported. And don’t confirm “rumors” and such — sometimes a smart reporter will take a shot and luck into getting someone to confirm it.
• Be the media – don’t wait for press to come knocking at your door. If you’re working on projects that you can talk about, do so. Early and often. Blog and use social media (Twitter, Identi.ca, Facebook, etc.) to mention your work, hitting milestones, any hurdles that the community could help with. Join the openSUSE-marketing mailing list / team if you’re working on a project that could benefit from publicity and ask for some assistance in publicizing. (Remember, of course, that as blogs are often quoted by IT press, you shouldn’t say anything on your blog you don’t want to see on the front page of Slashdot or Digg…)

I can’t overstress that last bit. It’s easier than ever to get the word out about open source projects, and taking the time to blog and so forth about work being done on projects can pay off big time.

No comments on the coverage, just links to the (English language) stories I’m aware of so far. This includes news stories, reviews, and a few tutorials. Feel free to send me links if you see additional coverage that I’ve missed.

Linux Developer Network | openSUSE 11.1 Sports New Free Street Cred: “Eventually, the conversation turned to this new release itself and what changes it brings to the operating system table. What was of interest to me was that the least visible change to the distribution could prove to be the most significant to proponents of free software.”

OStatic | Leapin’ Lizards: openSUSE Jumps to 11.1 Tomorrow: “On Thursday, the openSUSE project will make available its stable 11.1 release. I was fortunate enough to take a sneak peek at the new release this week, and while the changes aren’t quite as dizzying as those between 10.3 and 11.0 (understandably), they work nicely to make this new release both eye-catching and functional.”

Ars Technica | The Lizard Roars: openSUSE 11.1 Officially Released: “OpenSUSE 11.1, the next major version of Novell’s community-driven Linux distribution, is scheduled for release on December 18. The new version will include updated software and some important new features that enhance the quality of the distribution.”

The Open Road | openSUSE 11.1: A new license signals renewed community: “Novell officially released openSUSE 11.1 on Thursday, unleashing a torrent of new features like a Linux 2.6.27.7 kernel, improvements to YaST, and others.”

Computerworld UK | Novell rejigs OpenSUSE licensing: “Novell’s openSuSE project is becoming more open, as a new release due out Thursday includes licensing changes that make it easier to redistribute the Linux OS, and a build service to encourage more contributions from developers.”

Heise Online | OpenSUSE 11.1 has arrived: “The OpenSUSE developers have delivered version 11.1 of the OpenSUSE distribution, just in time for Christmas. As well as the updates to the component packages of OpenSUSE, some innovation has taken place compared to the previous version. Most importantly, the developers have implemented a strict separation of free and proprietary software. The OpenSUSE DVD now contains only freely distributable applications, allowing people to legally copy and distribute the DVD.”

ZDNet UK | openSuSE 11.1 Released: “The openSuSE Project made their 11.1 release available yesterday. I have downloaded and installed it on both of my laptops, and it looks very good. At least for the specific hardware and environment that I use, it is a significant improvement over the 11.0 release.

Daniweb | Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier Discusses openSUSE 11.1: “Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier is the Community Manager for openSUSE. He has been involved with Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) since 1996 when he discovered FOSS while a college student and was hooked. For most of his career he has worked as a technology journalist covering Linux and open source topics. Most recently, he was Editor-in-Chief of Linux Magazine prior to joining Novell in February of 2008.”

NetworkWorld | OpenSUSE gets more open with new user license and build service: “Novell’s openSUSE project is becoming more open, as a new release due out Thursday includes licensing changes that make it easier to redistribute the Linux operating system, and a build service that will encourage more contributions from open source developers.”

BetaNews | openSUSE 11.1 Linux OS leaves beta: “The newest edition of the Novell-sponsored OpenSUSE Project’s Linux OS, contains a number of new enhancements built both internally and through the open source community.”

InternetNews | Latest OpenSUSE Has OpenOffice Goodies: “Novell’s community openSUSE Linux distribution is out with version 11.1 today offering updated open source applications, a new license and a new take on the KDE Linux desktop GUI.”

Ars Technica | OpenSUSE 11.1 released. Lizards dance with joy: “OpenSUSE 11.1 has finally been released and it has finally convinced Ryan Paul to switch from Ubuntu. We published his early look this past Monday, which is a great overview of the update. OpenSUSE 11.1 includes over 200 new features including an updated release of GNOME, which has undergone many improvements since the OpenSUSE 11.0 release. 11.1 also includes an updated release of the Banshee media player.”

DesktopLinux | OpenSUSE rev’s license, build system: “The Novell-sponsored openSUSE Project announced the availability of version 11.1 of its open-source openSUSE Linux distribution. Version 11.1 offers a new license that eases redistribution, and it’s the first version developed with the openSUSE Build Service, which improves collaboration and transparency among contributors, says openSUSE.” (Says openSUSE?)

ZDNet | Tough Love with openSUSE 11.1: “From a pure technical achievement, openSUSE 11.1 is at package parity with the best Linux distributions available — such as Fedora 10 and Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex 8.10. In many ways it’s more polished, as clearly it has a lot of customization work that went into it to make it well-integrated, but at the same time, the distribution still feels like it was designed for people who know what they are doing, not for regular end-users. By trying to be a Server, Developer, and end-user Desktop platform at the same time, its target audience remains unfocused and its scope is too big. It’s now the Linux equivalent of the Swiss Army knife with 50 separate tools in it.”

Lifehacker Australia | OpenSUSE 11.1 Adds OpenOffice.org 3.0, Other Improvements: “OpenSUSE is out with an 11.1 release that rolls in the latest improvements to GNOME, KDE, the Linux kernel and more, as well as packaging OpenOffice.org 3.0 (which we’ve toured) and renovating the built-in printer and partition tools. Grab an live CD image or torrent link to try it out.”

Channel Register | Novell dishes up openSUSE 11.1 details: “The next big release of Novell’s community-driven SUSE Linux distro is set to land on Thursday. Ahead of that, the firm has released details about what customers can expect from version 11.1, including a new licence in which the EULA has been ditched.”

ZDNet UK | OpenSuse 11.1 aims at user-friendly desktop: “Novell has launched version 11.1 of OpenSuse, its desktop-oriented, community-supported version of Linux.”

PC Pro | Novell delivers OpenSUSE 11.1 details: “Novell has released further details of what we can expect from the next version of its SUSE Linux distro.”

Neowin | Q&A with Joe Brockmeier at Novell: “If you read the Linux section of the Neowin forums recently, you will know that Neowin was recently given the opportunity for a Q&A session with Joe Brockmeier. Also known as Zonker, Joe has been using Linux since 1996 and currently works as the openSUSE Community Manager at Novell. I had a few questions of my own, but found the best questions came from our members.”

Linux.com | openSUSE 11.1 makes Christmas come early: “It’s that time of the year again. No, not Christmas — it’s the time of the year we get the latest versions of our favorite Linux distributions. Version 11.1 of openSUSE is being released today. Designated as a point release, there are enough new goodies to warrant a new install or upgrade.”

HowtoForge | The Perfect Server – OpenSUSE 11.1: “This is a detailed description about how to set up an OpenSUSE 11.1 server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. This tutorial is written for the 32-bit version of OpenSUSE 11.1, but should apply to the 64-bit version with very little modifications as well.”

HowtoForge | The Perfect Desktop – openSUSE 11.1 (GNOME): “This tutorial shows how you can set up an OpenSUSE 11.1 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.”

Linux Magazine Online | openSUSE 11.1: “OpenSUSE 11.1 rolled out today, sporting more than 230 new features, many updates, and a brand new license. The newest release is also the first built entirely on the openSUSE Build Service.”

iTWire | Novell releases openSUSE 11.1: “The latest version of Novell’s Linux distro, openSUSE 11.1, has been released, with 230 new features, improvements to YaST, major updates to GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, a new license and plenty more.”