Next week I’ll be in Orlando attending both SUSE Con, and also openSUSE Summit. Not only will I be attending the Summit, but I’ll also be joining Michael Miller in the Opening Ceremony. In addition to you being able to see, talk and interact with me, I’ll also be giving away a whole heap of goodies ;-) So if you’re in the area and have an interest in ARM or most things Geeko, please give me a shout.

Here are a couple of web badges made for people who like our project and are going to the Summit in Florida next week. I decided to use a real badge image that I found on this excellent free stock photography website SXC.HU


I decided that it was a good idea to use very bright and contrasted colors. The summit logo works with a deep blue and deep-dark greens. I placed these on a yellow background to give the idea of a sunny place. In case you didn't know, Florida is sunny most of the times.

If you like them, please feel free to download and use.

The KR49 repo holds KDE SC 4.9.1 packages for openSUSE users, including openSUSE 12.2 which was released recently. For information on how to update please refer to the openSUSE wiki.

They do already contain a fix for Bug 306260 – KWin freezes when navigating between windows.

For 12.2 KR49 now includes Tomahawk an alternative to Amarok. Packages such as digikam, calligra etc. were updated to their latest stable release.

I just finished creating a new Twitter bacgkground for the release of openSUSE 12.2. Join us in this promoting effort by placing this image as the background on your Twitter account.


Happy release!

Andy (anditosan)

The last few weeks were a bit crazy, but there was a good reason for this: the team I've joined a couple of months ago has been focusing on polishing SUSE Cloud for its first stable release. We had some long working days, but we did it: SUSE Cloud 1.0 went out last week! There's been some positive noise in the online media, which is always good to see :-)

With this first milestone now reached, I've looked back a bit at the switch to my new position. It was a bit of a slow start because of hardware failures (try getting a full development and testing environment for some cloud stuff on one laptop with 2GB of RAM; possible, but painful) and because there was a lot to learn; it was actually quite frustrating to feel useless for so long.

However, it seems I found the highway after coming back from GUADEC and everything is going very smoothly now. Of course, doing something completely different was a bit of a challenge for me, and I didn't know how I'd react to playing nearly full-time with OpenStack and Crowbar (a tool created by Dell to ease OpenStack deployments that we adopted). It turns out I'm enjoying it! On top of that, the SUSE Cloud team is really great, with a good mix of fun and work. The only missing bit is that we haven't properly celebrated the SUSE Cloud release with ice cream — I'll have to get this fixed ;-)

It’s been interesting following the recent discussion about the Linux Desktop and how it failed. It’s a notion that’s been around for some time – I’d say approximately since people tired of discussing whether next year was going to be the Year of the Linux Desktop or so. Painful as it is, it’s also a notion that needs to be discussed, so we can learn from it or at least try to put it to bed.

Sometimes I feel like we’re talking past each other, though. As with any discussion, it’s a good idea to define what we’re talking about:

“Linux”

Most of us use the term “Linux” very loosely (just ask RMS). For instance, it can refer to:

• Linus’ kernel tree, or the tree of some other well-respected Linux maintainer.
• GNU/Linux proper, including the much-loved userspace.
• Anything based on a lightly modified Linux kernel – this is what GNU/Linux distributions tend to ship, but it also appears in routers and all kinds of embedded devices.
• Anything based on a Linux-derived kernel, including heavily modified/forked Linux kernels – the Android kernel comes to mind.

“Success”

As it happens, we also use the term “success” (and conversely, “failure”) very loosely. It reflects who we are and what we want to achieve with Linux, e.g:

• Works-for-me. A solution that works well for ourselves and for some of our friends. Also known as “itch-driven development”.
• Works-for-everyone. We tend to define “everyone” as people who have requirements different from our own – often typified as parents, grandparents, spouses, and so on. Whether these demographics will end up using it is seen as a separate problem. Maybe if you build it, they will come, but it’s not a requirement that they do so.
• Engineering excellence. A product of inherent beauty, often the result of some design process/criteria, but not necessarily addressing a specific problem. Sometimes you will see this masquerading as works-for-everyone, but you’ll be able to tell it’s about excellence by its uncompromising nature.
• Commercial ecosystem. A big, commercial ecosystem built around Linux, often expressed as market share or total revenue generated by sales.
• Big user base. Similar to commercial success in that it emphasizes quantity and popularity, but usually with the aim of enabling freedom/free culture instead of business models.

“Desktop”

This used to mean something like “a top-level graphical user interface with a file browser and application launcher”, but user interfaces have become more diverse, and it might make sense to include media libraries, smartphone interfaces and other environments where you can’t explicitly browse files. We’d have to draw the line somewhere, though – I doubt my router’s configuration UI would make the cut.

What do you want from (GNU/)Linux?

Depending on your perspective, Desktop Linux may be a failure – and if you were expecting to put GNOME in front of a majority of the population of planet Earth, it certainly is.

In many other ways, it’s a success. It’s been a test bed for a very capable free library stack, including GLib, GTK+, Cairo, Pango, D-Bus, GVFS, GStreamer, and more recently, Clutter and Cogl. This is not trivial. The surrounding community has also grown and diversified, and it has nurtured individuals and groups who’ve gone on to do some pretty sterling stuff.

Post scriptum

I think a desktop built on the GNOME platform could still be a moderate commercial success if integrated and marketed skilfully, perhaps tied to some kind of hardware. The window of opportunity hasn’t closed – the UI space is fragmented, Windows 8 is coming out, Valve have announced Steam for Linux (shiny games!) – and our building blocks are better than ever.

Most everyone agrees that going through airport security and being groped by the TSA is not only offensive, but also a major nuisance.

How about replacing the TSA with privately run airport security?

It sounds like San Francisco travelers much prefer their privately run airport security than the TSA at all other US airports.

Hey friends!

Here is a quick way to promote openSUSE's release at your own website. This is taken from Yaloki's website.

If you have a website/blog, here is the HTML markup to add in order to include the openSUSE release countdown image:  The markup above will add a 256x256 pixel image. If you prefer to have the smaller (130x130) one:  And in case you prefer the huge one (400x400px) for maximum visibility: 

Enjoy :D

Last four months have gone fast, really fast:

• Akademy-es in Zaragoza
• Flying to Berling to work on KDE eV economic report and LinuxTag
• Moving to Nuremebrg
• Begin to work as openSUSE Team Lead at SUSE
• Prepare my Akademy keynote and my talk about KDE Connect
• Develop and present the economic report during KDE eV AGM plus Board elections
• Complete the administrative work derived from relocation
• Flying to GUADEC
• Looking for a flat and moving.

and working, of course. All of them time consuming, but specially, vital energy consuming. So this August I've been trying to cool down a little and go back to routine, now that I have my flat (how important is this step, right?).

Meanwhile, at SUSE.....

the openSUSE Release team, together with the community, have managed to release 12.2 RC2 on time. This could be no news for openSUSE users and supporters. But for us means that we are delivering even tough we are in a transition phase, and despite the fact that we are reducing the pressure over the Release Team instead of increasing it. Delivering on time is always a good sign.

12.2 RC2 is usable so, if you are a developer or an openSUSE power user, consider installing it and giving us feedback. No major bugs should be expected but your reports are very valuable to us. I already have it in my laptop and, except for little details, it works as expected. If you prefer to wait until September 5th, you will be able to install the fresh 12.2. openSUSE Team at SUSE is finishing these days the last few tasks, specially related with generating the Gold Master and creating marketing material.

This month of August openSUSE Team is also putting energy into the openSUSE Conference organization. As you probably know, this is not a normal event. We host four events in one

• Future Media
• openSUSE Conference
• Gentoo Conference
• Linux Days

so there is a lot to do, as you can imagine. Organizing Free Software events is something that follows me in every job I take, no matter where that is. I'm kind of getting used to it. Don't know if that is a good sign though.

openSUSE community in America has an important milestone in September at openSUSE Summit, the community conference organized right after the SUSE Conference in Orlando, Florida, USA. So if you live in South, Central or North America and like openSUSE, don't miss it. More than 50 people have registered already so it looks like is going to be a good opportunity to give a push to our community in North America.

So September and October are going to be busy months for me and the Team.