You have to grant me that I’m persistent ;-)
OK so this time round I thought I’d do a quick round up of some of the feedback that I’ve received so far – some of it has been in the form of comments on this here blog, others have been responses on mailing lists, and some has been from direct converstation with me. I’d love to get more from you, and ultimately you get more from yourselves.
The following is in no particular order, and if anyone has anything else to add then please let me know. Also remember this is a discussion so feel free to discuss sensibly and calmly – usual flame ban is in place ;-) :
- Still a lot of animosity between KDE & GNOME within openSUSE.
- The Community Manager role is too focused on marketing, and not the Community. People would like to see a more operational role, getting involved with the actual project.
- It is unclear as to what Novell (being the project sponsor) would like from the openSUSE Project, and how do the two fit with each other.
- There is a percieved distrust of external contributors, their code isnt good enough etc.
- openSUSE needs to be pushed more by all parties. There is a distinct lack of overt and covert marketing.
- There is too much focus on Novell employees.
- openSUSE has no clear goal or direction, openSUSE appears to be fumbling along not really sure of what it wants or how to do things.
- There is too much infrastucture, or the infrastructure isn’t easy to navigate or understand.
- Sometimes we are starting to lag behind upstream and don’t necessarily keep up with the latest and greatest that is out there.
- There is too much reliance on a handful of individuals, there isn’t a decent spread of knowledge/power amongst teams.
- There doesn’t seem to be enough “full time” (I believe Novell employee is meant here) people involved in some teams which are core to both openSUSE and SLE.
So do you agree with what some of your peers say? If not then step up and let your voice be heard, even if you do let it be known. Remember, as a member of the community you have a chance to influence your surroundings – not taking any action will only mean that you are to blame not those that took action that you don’t agree with.