Fourjays Veteran Posted December 5, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 5, 2008 Neowin has been given the opportunity to have a Q&A with Joe Brockmeier, also known as Zonker, who works at Novell as the openSUSE Community Manager. I would like to give all Linux users here on Neowin the chance to post any questions about openSUSE (or Linux) that you may have for Zonker. I will be selecting the best questions posted in this thread on the 9th December, which I will then pass on to Zonker to answer for you. Zonker hopes to answer your questions soon after, at which point I will submit them to the front page for all to see. So ask away! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted December 5, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 5, 2008 For people wanting to know a bit about who Joe Brockmeier is, or what some of his items of interest are, you can read some of his blog entries on ZDNet: http://blogs.zdnet.com/community/ or his openSUSE site: http://zonker.opensuse.org/ While I don't have specific questions on individual points, I do have a few broad open-ended questions that might get some good opinions from Joe. With Linux's shift from a "hobbyist" platform to a commercially-accepted and supported platform, where you do see the biggest opportunities for growth, and how do see the importance (or lack of?) community/hobbyist releases fitting into the big picture? I see that you posted a late November entry on your openSUSE Spotlight page on the subject of the elimination of the click through EULA for openSUSE. Do you view this as more important for the technical reasons you described, or for the mindset change it represents? Are there other past, present or future items you personally view as significant improvements for the end user on the openSUSE roadmap? This post and sample questions should at least get the ball rolling for other members to post their questions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kyro Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 the EULA . is it Evil? when will you guys turn Evil? do you think you will get that big so that you can go Evil and still survive? and if you never go Evil should we consider you failed? to get market that is :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lechio Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Here are mine: With the incredible amount of GNU/Linux distributions available today, which ones do you think are the most appealing features in openSUSE? The features that could make a user from distribution "A" switch to openSUSE? How do you see the OSS world in 5 years from now, will it eventually play a bigger role than the one it currently plays? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 I would like to hear an honest and frank opinion of the whole Novell/Microsoft deal, and whether Joe believes it has ultimately damaged Novell and openSUSE's reputation in the Linux community. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted December 6, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted December 6, 2008 Wow, good questions. Keep them coming guys. (Y) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barney T. Administrators Posted December 6, 2008 Administrators Share Posted December 6, 2008 I would like to hear an honest and frank opinion of the whole Novell/Microsoft deal, and whether Joe believes it has ultimately damaged Novell and openSUSE's reputation in the Linux community. +1 (Y) This is viewed VERY suspiciously by many in the Linux community. It is seen as a way for Microsoft to claim that it has some ownership and proprietary claims to SuSE and some previously open source software. This would be really good to ask him! I'd also like to know how Novell views their victory from the SCO lawsuit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted December 6, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 6, 2008 I would like to hear an honest and frank opinion of the whole Novell/Microsoft deal, and whether Joe believes it has ultimately damaged Novell and openSUSE's reputation in the Linux community. Well, their Linux business seems to be doing very well. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10113863-16.html And I don't see near the amount of negativity that existed in the community as when the deal was first announced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elv13 Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 Is novell pushing code violating microsoft patents to upstream projects like OpenOffice or gnome? Are they creation the infamous 242 patent violation? In this case, are other user of the project covered by the patent protection? Do you think mono is the way to go to attract new programmers and enterprise to Linux? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted December 8, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted December 8, 2008 Just a reminder that the deadline for questions is tomorrow, if anyone else has some questions. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Do you think mono is the way to go to attract new programmers and enterprise to Linux? The Mono question is a good one. I've read a lot of comments from users concerned with Mono and it's possible repercussions at some point down the line; arguably a lot of FUD regarding licensing and possible IPR issues (and for some, just an innate hatred of anything even remotely associated with Microsoft). Personally I don't buy into all that, and it seems like a good idea, re Elv13's question, but it would be interesting to hear Joe's viewpoint. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fish Posted December 8, 2008 Share Posted December 8, 2008 Do you think there will ever be a Linux Distro, aimed at desktop users, that would be a completely viable alternative to Windows and MacOS? So much so that it could be sold commercially based on it's content, rather than support options etc.? I'm not sure if I really worded that correctly, but hopefully you get what I'm asking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted December 8, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted December 8, 2008 Do you think there will ever be a Linux Distro, aimed at desktop users, that would be a completely viable alternative to Windows and MacOS? So much so that it could be sold commercially based on it's content, rather than support options etc.?I'm not sure if I really worded that correctly, but hopefully you get what I'm asking? Good question. Made perfect sense to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kreuger Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Along with what Fish asked, will there ever be enough unity for Linux to become more accessible and mainstream? Such as one WM/DE. Personally I don't have a problem with multiple choices but a lot of people seem to and find it overwhelming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markwolfe Veteran Posted December 9, 2008 Veteran Share Posted December 9, 2008 Along with what Fish asked, will there ever be enough unity for Linux to become more accessible and mainstream? Such as one WM/DE. NEVAH!!! No one will force Gnome upon my wonderful fluxbox desk! :p (plus, Gnome is pretty much the defacto choice amongst popular distros) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted December 9, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted December 9, 2008 Thanks for all your questions guys, much better than I could have come up with alone! Going to pass them on to Zonker shortly. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted December 12, 2008 Author Veteran Share Posted December 12, 2008 A quick post to say that your questions, and Zonker's answers, are up on the front page: https://www.neowin.net/news/main/08/12/12/q...meier-at-novell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GatorV Posted December 14, 2008 Share Posted December 14, 2008 Very good interview, I like his responses :-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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