openSUSE transformation step 2. The user oriented distro.

openSUSE Tumbleweed is a rolling release that was designed with a clear goal, target and metric. It was developed following a clear picture of where to go. Design it was a painful but unavoidable process that challenged an assumption established in many people mindset back in 2012. Latest/greatest and stability were incompatible. Hence, Factory, the rolling release back then, was for hardcore SUSE/openSUSE OS developers only. As rolling distros, there were more popular and better options out there.

This summary might help you to get some background.

Goals are easier to achieve if you have a good reference to beat. For those who worked in the project, Gentoo and specially Arch Linux were those references. As you can imagine, transform openSUSE required management support. We had it, specially from Roland Haidl, Operations and Communities Director at SUSE back then. He created the environment that allowed those who worked in his department to be creative.... and take risks.

Simplifying, for the new "development version", a.k.a Tumbleweed (former Factory), the goal was to implement a model that allowed us to improve the existing Factory one, based on continuous delivery. The target chosen were our core contributors (packagers fundamentally) and the metric was, in summary, to make sure that, no matter how wrong things could go after an update, you would always have a console and network, so you would be able to revert your change. In terms of the process, the resulting integration deployment processes should be transparent, not just internally but also from our community members perspective. It also needed to be simpler in order to gain contributors, not just users. And it needed to empower them to own it.

Instead of following what SUSE was doing back then, the company dedicated resources to challenge itself. As result, openSUSE Tumbleweed is today, not just the best rolling distro out there, with all what that means in terms of excitement among its contributors, but is generating higher value to SUSE, since the company have an outstanding playground at home that allows them to incorporate true innovation into their production process before their competitors do.

openSUSE is discussing nowadays to take a second step, this time focused on its user oriented version. Today is openSUSE 13.2.

In my opinion, based on the previous experience, and independently of the decision/discussion process chosen, the same steps need to be taken. They are unavoidable in any transformation process. It is necessary to define a clear goal, something short that you can explain and understand easily, a clear target and a key metric that helps to clarify the "acceptance criteria" to be used during the whole process.

Like back then, I would like to see SUSE challenging itself, putting in question well established principles within the OS industry. Again, choosing a reference would make the final picture easier to achieve.

Most openSUSE users are desktop users and sysadmin. If, as I conclude from the latest oSC15 videos and factory mailing list discussions, sysadmins are the chosen target, It would be great to see SUSE/openSUSE challenging the assumption that, through a continuous delivery process, you cannot release a stable and high quality (for the target) distribution. That stability is only achievable through a waterfall like model. I would choose CoreOS as reference. It is a project that, based on different questions, is providing innovative answers to new challenges.

I would like to see that, base on the current process (standing on the shoulders of giants) openSUSE/SUSE creates a process that "pulverize" the current mindset, deprecating many of the existing problems, focusing on solving new ones. Imagine the best of both worlds, a new paradigm of OS with the green values.

It took about a year and a half for a dedicated team to release what today is Tumbleweed. I think that this second challenge is bigger than the first one. An even bigger commitment from SUSE will be needed in order to succeed.

But if the resources are there, the creative environment is set, the right steps are followed and the openSUSE community supports the effort, there is nothing that can stop the project to achieve what today are dreams. SUSE has the talent, and the experience, to make it happen.

I wish them all the best in this new challenge.

Team blog: more than just a blog.

Motivations

Creating high quality contents takes time. A lot of people write nowadays but very few are writers. In the software industry, most of those who write very well are in the marketing side not on the technical side.

The impact of high quality contents is very high over time. Engineers and other profiles related with technology tend to underestimate this fact. When approaching the creation of contents, their first reaction is to think about the effort that takes, not the impact. Marketers have exactly the opposite view. They tend to focus in the short term impact.

Successful organizations have something in common. They focus a lot of effort and energy in reporting efficiently across the entire organization, not just vertically but horizontally, not just internally but also externally. Knowing what others around you are doing, their goals, motivations and progress is as important as communicating results

One of the sentences that I do not stop repeating is that a good team gets further than a bunch of rock stars. I think that a collective approach to content creation provides better results in general, in the mid term, than individual ones. Specially if we consider that Free Software is mainstream nowadays. There are so many people doing incredible things out there, it is becoming so hard to get attention....

Technology is everywhere. Everybody is interested on it. We all understand that it has a significant impact in our lives and it will have even more in the future. That doesn't mean everybody understands it. For many of us, that work in the software industry, speaking an understandable language for wider audiences do not comes naturally or simply by practising. It requires learning/training.

Very often is not enough to create something outstanding once in a while to be widely recognized. The dark work counts as much as the one that shines. The hows and whys are relevant. Reputation is not in direct relation with popularity and short term successes. Being recognized for your work is an everyday task, a mid term achievement. The good thing about reputation is that once you achieve it,  the impact of your following actions multiplies.

We need to remember that code is meant to die, to disappear, to be replaced by better code, faster code, simpler code. A lot of the work we do ends nowhere. Both facts, that are not restricted to software, doesn't mean that creating that code or project was not worth it. Creating good content, helps increasing the life time of our work, specially if we do not restrict them to results.

All the above are some of the motivations that drives me to promote the creation of a team blog wherever I work. Sometimes I succeed and sometimes not, obviously.

What is a team blog for me? 

• It is a team effort. Each post should be led by a person, an author, but created by the team.
• It focuses on what the team/group do, not on what they will do, what they think or what they want. Why? because a team blog is way more than a promo tool, it is also a reporting one.
• It is supported by a communication expert as editor, not just to increase the quality and potential impact of every content, but to increase the team skills as writers in a practical way.
• It is management driven because it requires to embed it in the team processes and group dynamics. So it requires analysis, a clear goal, follow up and activation energy, specially during those moments in which the team workload is high, so writing is not perceived as a high priority. 
• In order to ease the identification of the team with the blog and vice-versa, the promo aspects should serve the team and not the other way around. This is a key difference between this action and other common marketing efforts done by every organization.
• Selecting the right topics to write about is not a question since, as mentioned before, the team blog is about what the team is working on. The question is about when to publish, together with the approach used to create the articles. Again, a management point of view is essential here. That view can come from different areas of the organization or within the team, but has to be there to take full advantage of the effort.
• It feeds engineering reports. It saves time on this task in the long run.
• If the goal of the action and the vision brought up by the editor are set up correctly, the team blog should also feed the technical marketing and customer engagement efforts of the organization/business unit. 
• In the mid term, the blog serves as input for evaluating the performance/accomplishments of the team as a group, when associated with the key objectives previously defined. This is true not just from a management or customers perspective. What is more important, the team blog serves as evaluation input for the team itself too. The retrospective that this action can provide is essential for the growth of any team. 

Core Dump

I am pushing such action once more, this time at Linaro. The name of the blog is Core Dump. My presentation describes the motivations and goals that drives it. There is a talented group of professionals behind it so I hope that in just a few months we will be able to evaluate the results. I am confident we will succeed since we have every required ingredient.

First weeks al Linaro and other things

I few weeks ago I announced I was joining Linaro. I work there as Director of Core Development Group. I moved from Prague to Cambridge (the original), that is, from continental to oceanic climate. From dry, cold in winter and hot in summer to wet, soft in summer and above zero most of the winter. In theory an improvement, you might think. Well, depending on much it rains. I will tell you better in spring.

A few days ago The Mukt published and interview where I explained a little what is Linaro and what do I do as Core Development Director. 

Core Development Group

I can add that Linaro is an engineering focused organization, divided in Engineering Groups. Some of them, like the one I am part of, are formed by several engineering teams, some of them called Working Groups. Core Development is formed by four:

• Kernel
• Power Management
• Security
• Virtualization

 You can find more details in the Core Development wiki page, at Linaro Wiki.

These first few weeks I have gone through the natural landing process, meeting my colleagues and managers, knowing how we operate, learning about my responsibilities, the work engineers are doing, the plans for the future, analysing our internal processes, etc. Nothing unusual in these cases.

In July I had the opportunity to attend to the Linaro Kernel and Power Management Sprint, hosted by one of our Members, ST, in Le Mans. It was a very interesting week.

Linaro Connect

My following event will be Linaro Connect, in San Francisco, USA, in September. Linaro Connect are the events where all the Linaro employees meet. Those of you who are familiar with the Ubuntu Developer Summit knows what I am talking about. Linaro Connect takes place twice a year in a different continent and it is also an opportunity to have a direct contact with our Members.

Factory as a rolling release: openSUSE development version

A few days ago it was announced that Factory moved to a rolling release model. So the first step of the 2014/2016 plan has been completed. I was very happy to see that the openSUSE team could lead the execution of this relevant step for the distro in time. The Development version of openSUSE is now a reality that not just can increase the overall number of contributors, but also bring significant innovation to SUSE Linux Enterprise integration process. Congratulations. I am very proud of being part of the team. I will always be.

I would like to specially congratulate Roland Haidl, the Director of Communities at SUSE. The most important (and hardest) thing you can get from a manager is trust, and the openSUSE team had it from him to build a good team, support the changes the team went through back in 2012 (tough times), stand strong behind the new strategy defined in 2013 and support the team during the design and execution of this first milestone. And he did this without making noise, letting the results speak. A management handbook success.

Personal challenges

On the personal side, relocating has taken most of my energy the last two and a half month. But I have managed to do/plan other things.

LinuxCon Europe

I am part of the LinuxCon Europe Content Committee. The last few days I have been evaluating, together with my colleagues in the committee, the abstracts presented. I has been an interesting work

LinuxCon Europe have very promising keynote speakers but the whole program will be filled up with first class contents.

Sometimes you never know what lives will bring you. I was invited to be part of the committee before joining Linaro. My work now is very related to the Linux Kernel and suddenly, last week, Linaro becomes a Linux Foundation Member. I do not want to think too much about coincidences vs. destiny but....

Akademy 2014

This year Akademy has moved to September and the dates collide with a personal compromise (a wedding) and the preparations for the Linaro Connect so I won't be able to attend. It will be the first time I'll miss it since 2005, when I attended for the first time. I am very sad about it. I tried but...

And it is specially sad for me because the new Treasurer will have to present the financial report about the past 2013, when I was the Treasurer. Being there should be the right thing to do. But I simply cannot make it.

I already missed Akademy-es 2014, that took place in Málaga and was organized by my former colleague Antonio Larrosa and sponsored by my former company, SUSE. I am not running away from KDE, I promise. The Calendar is working against me, that's all.

TEDxLaLaguna

I am a TED video consumer since some years ago, not many. Suddenly, I received a mail from a colleague at college giving me the opportunity to start.....and at home, in the Canary Islands.

Of course I want to try!

So in October I will be in Tenerife giving a TED talk in the local event TEDxLalaguna. Obviously I am already preparing the talk. Let's see how it goes.

As you can see, it is going to be an intensive year, after all.

Sponsored vs supported

Probably the most relevant non technical action that a community executes is events. Most mature communities organize one or several big events in different part of the world with different goals, but one of them is common in every single case: engagement needs face to face relations. We are humans....after all.

In order to organize these events, sooner or later you need a legal organization that provides financial support to these actions. You might not know that, in words of the founders, this was the main reason behind the foundation of KDE e.V. .

And when you want to bring contributors together, most organizations end up having as goal to financially support some of them since they cannot afford it:

• The trip is expensive since they come from the other side of the world.
• They come from countries where the cost of the trip or accommodation represent the salary of a year.
• They are students, so they have little income.
• They have family and they cannot afford the expenses derived from being a week far from home.

There are many more use cases.

So one way or the other, most organization that support FLOSS communities dedicate resources for supporting contributors to attend to its main event(s). But if we look closer, there are small differences among different organizations.

Some differences among organizations.

Since resources are limited, organizations try to make sure they support those who have made significant contributions to the project throughout the year. Being supported/sponsored though, have frequently attached an expectation of being heavily involved in the event itself. Giving a talk or helping the organizers are the more obvious expected actions.

The difference comes when making these variables a plus or a requirement for being sponsored.

The process for being sponsored is also different. The tools used to manage the request/reimbursement process and the "amount of support" too. I will not get into those.

There is a "motivational" difference that do not have much impact but that I have always found interesting. Some organizations support their contributors "as a reward" and some do it "as a duty".

The first case means that some kind of "thank you" is expected/required, linked to that support, as usual when you receive a prize. This act of gratitude might come in different forms but usually tend to publicly reflect that support. The basic idea behind it is to justify the investment in order to increase the level of sponsorship the organization gets from donors. It is a very popular approach in other industries/areas and there are a good number of FLOSS organizations that follow this model.

The other approach, the "support as duty", is based on the principle that if you have made a significant contribution, that is, you are part of the community, and since the organization is there to support the community , it is its duty to support you. So the support comes with no recognition as requirement.  No "public thank you" is expected.

Some refer to this as the difference between being sponsored versus being supported.

My view on this last topic

In different countries/cultures, the sense and consequences of "thank you" are different. Also, the reasons that can "invite" you to ask for support might not be fun to talk, or being being questioned about. You might not feel comfortable by being identify as "sponsored". It also might generate some undesired debate about who is being sponsored or why among people that do not have all the information.

Over the years I have changed my mind. Lately I identify myself more with the second approach, which do not mean I am against the first one. It has a point too.

In any case, what matters is that FLOSS organizations has supporting contributors to attend to the community event as one of their main goals.

A request

If you are not very familiar with how Free Software is developed, all this might sound strange. Investing money in paying trips and accommodation to go to an event to have fun with no or very little deliverables in return?

When thinking about donating to a community project or sponsoring it, ask for this particular topic to the Board of the organization behind it or the coordinators of the travel support program. You will be surprised by how important is this topic for them. They will provide reasons that, I am sure, will satisfy you.

For me, and many others, is one of the main reasons why these organizations deserve to be sponsored. Face to face meetings are essential to build a healthy community or ecosystem and many people have no way to attend if third parties do not sponsor/support them.

Closing doors

Yesterday was my last day as KDE e.V. Board Member. As you know I have been the KDE Treasurer since April 2012. I will keep being part of the Financial Working Group so I will be able to help my successor during the landing process and in the future. I still have some leftovers to finish (reports) and I plan to write a couple of posts about our numbers, so you all know what it the situation of KDE e.V. in general....healthy, by the way :-) It is being a soft transition.

KDE e.V. is in the right time to be ambitious and heavily increase its resources to support KDE community. Several decisions have been made in this regard and they will be executed during this 2014. The financial situation is healthy enough to afford some level of expansion. So I think it is time for somebody else to come with energy and enthusiasm to drive these changes the following months/years. And we have that person so.....

KDE e.V. is a solid organization, well managed and with a Board that takes the financial area seriously. It has been a pleasure and a honor to be part of the Board.

On the other hand, my relation with SUSE will end this month. Working on openSUSE, an specially building and leading the openSUSE Team, has been a great experience. I wish them all the best, specially in their current main task, turning Factory into a "usable" rolling release by changing the development work flow/process. It is a goal with a high impact for openSUSE.

 

openQA has a nice present, a tremendous potential and future, not just from the technical but also from the business point of view. For those of you looking for a great place to work, consider SUSE. It was for me.

The last few weeks I have been temporary living in Prague. I love this city. I am not attending to openSUSE Conference (I am sure it will be a great one) and I am not sure if I will be able to go to Akademy-es, which is a pity since it takes place in Malaga, where I lived for three years, and it is organized by one of my colleagues, Antonio Larrosa. I plan to go to Akademy in Brno though.

As you can see, these are times for changes, after around two years putting my best in KDE e.V. Board and SUSE/openSUSE. I have no idea what am I going to do next but I am sure it will be exciting so I expect an article soon called "Open Doors". Otherwise....I will not know what to do with so much time, or maybe I will... write more posts. :-)

openSUSE 2016: taking a picture of openSUSE today

As some of you know, the openSUSE Team at SUSE is publishing a series of proposals to the openSUSE community in several key areas of the project. The first of those mails tried to provide a general picture of the project based, among other sources, on the data mining done during these past few months. 

Many of you do not follow the project closely or you do but are not subscribed to openSUSE mailing lists. I would like you to read the below article/mail and share your thoughts.

I believe that sharing a common understanding of the current strengths and weaknesses of the openSUSE project is helpful in order to agree on the steps to be taken in the near future and evaluating them. But above all, agreeing in an initial picture, even if not in the details, is relevant to have a chance to agree in the direction the project might take in the future.

Before reading the text of that first mail, posted below, there are three remarks to be made:

1. I think some people from the openSUSE community has perceived this first mail as a negative criticism to the project and their contributors. Cold analysis based on numbers do not provide a complete picture of the project... but provides a good one, in my opinion. I wrote the below mail/article thinking about a better future, not to revisit a past I am part of. 
2. A summary of the proposals was published in an openSUSE Team blog post. Please read it to get in context. As stated in that article, this first mail/article has as goal to share the motivations behind the later published proposals, trying to open a discussion about our current state that can lead us to agree on a picture we can use as starting point.
3. At the end of the article/mail, I proposed some questions. If you are interested in answering them (I would appreciate it), please:

• Subscribe to the openSUSE-project mailing list. Check how to do it first. 
• Make your comments as a reply of this thread.

Otherwise, in order to keep the debate centralized (for record purposes also), I will post/summarize your answers and comments also in that mailing list.

----------
 

openSUSE 2016: taking a picture of openSUSE today

Once openSUSE 13.1 has been released, it is time for the openSUSE Team to focus on the future. We want to share some ideas we have about the project in general and factory in particular. The topic is not easy. so this mail is a little long and dense, but hopefully worth it. It won't be the last one so let me know how to improve it.

INTRODUCTION/GOALS

This is the first of a series of mails we will publish the following days with different ideas. The process we are proposing has no intention of pointing at anybody, revisiting the past or enforce any situation within the community. Our goals are:

• Share a picture as a starting point of discussion.
• Use the discussed picture as a reference to agree on actions we all can/want to execute. 

FIRST STEP: PIECES OF THE PUZZLE

One of the first things we did was digging into numbers that provided us information about the status of the project. Data cannot be the only source to create a complete picture, but it is helpful as first step.

In order to better understand the rest of the mail, you probably want to look the following references:

• Alberto Planas talk at oSC13: openSUSE in Numbers[1]
• Alberto Planas' slides from the above talk[2]
• First openSUSE Team blog post: Numbers in openSUSE[3]
• Second openSUSE Team blog post: More on statistics[4]
• Jos post about numbers[5] 

One important note about the numbers: since most of the behaviors of the variables reflected on the graphs were consolidated, at some point we decided to stop adding effort in collecting numbers until 13.1 was released. Once the Release is well established, we will update them and evaluate the influence of this Release in the global picture.

 

I won't try to go very deep in the analysis. It would be too long. There are many interpretations that can be done based on the graphs. I will just point out the most relevant for our purpose. Feel free to add others.

 

Following Alberto Planas' order from his slides[2]...

1.- Downloads

The number of downloads do not measure our user base, but provide hints about the impact of the work done every 8 months, the potential new users we might bring to the project and, looking at pre-release downloads, the number of testers. 

Taking a look at the graphs, we can see that the overall number of downloads is growing at a slow path (slope). This behavior is not consistent in every release. For instance, 12.1 was more downloaded that 12.2 or 12.3. More and more people uses zypper for updating the distribution though.

2.- UUIDs (installations that update regularly)

• Looking at the number of machines that regularly update against openSUSE repositories (daily, weekly and monthly), we can easily conclude that the situation is very stable. The speed of growth (daily and weekly stats) or decline (monthly) is low.
• What the graph do not show is the acceleration. It has been negative (small in value) for quiet some time now.
• When looking at the architectures, we see that x86_64 is more popular than i586. This behavior is accelerating, as confirmed in the download numbers collected for 12.3
• When looking at the mediums where those installations come from, we clearly see three dominant ones: .iso (dvd version), ftp (net installs) and Live CD.
• There is a relevant detail that Alberto mentioned in his talk. More than half, almost 2/3, of openSUSE installations are not using the last version many weeks after Release date. There is also a significant amount of installations using unmaintained or Evergreen versions.

3.- Factory and Tumbleweed installations/"users"

Factory is our ongoing development effort. As you can see in the graph, the number of Factory installations is constant. Tumbleweed was very successful when it came out. Many developers and bleeding edge users liked it. Its popularity is decreasing though.

4.- Contributors to factory and devel projects

The numbers of users that are submitting request to factory/devel projects is increasing. Now we have more non SUSE contributors. SUSE ones remain constant. The overall growth is about 27 new contributors per year, a little bit more than 2 new contributors per month.

5.- Social media and comparison with Fedora

openSUSE is, in the social media channels evaluated, in the range of Fedora. Comparing our numbers, I guess we all agree with this general trend that states that openSUSE is a more user oriented distribution than Fedora is. We have less downloads but more users (installations updating regularly).

SOLVING THE PUZZLE

All the above pieces shows a stable picture. Every sign of growth or decline is, in absolute and/or relative numbers, small except social media, due  to their explosion as communication channels (which I do not think is way different from what other Free Software communities are experiencing).

ADDING CONTEXT TO THE PICTURE

openSUSE coexist with other "coopetitors" (Free Software competitors+cooperators) and competitors (closed sources distributions). Touchscreens, cloud, big data, games...the Linux ecosystem is evolving and there are new users with new needs.

New players are consolidating their positions: Arch, Chakra, Mint... Ubuntu is moving to the mobile space, Debian is getting some attention back from previous Ubuntu users....

On the other hand, some distros that were relevant in the past have disappeared, our 13.1 has got more attention than previous ones, SUSE is healthy and willing to invest more in openSUSE in the future ...

In the above context, how is our "stable" situation perceived? How do we think it should be perceived?

INTERPRETING THE PICTURE

If we agree that the overall number of users of Linux based server + "traditional" desktop OS (let's remove the mobile/embedded space and cloud for now), is growing, not following the "market" growing trend might be perceived as a wake up call, a clear sign that improvements needs to be done.

But if we agree that we are playing in a risky and challenging field, stability can be perceived as a healthy sign.

After these months of analysis and discussions with both, contributors and users, I would like to ask you if you agree with the the idea that the first picture is more prominent than the second one. But, does the second one provide us a good platform to improve our current position?

 

SHARE YOUR OWN PICTURE

Let me propose you some questions:

1. What other variables we should put in place to create an accurate picture of the current state of the project?
2. What is the perception you think others have from the project?
3. What is your perception, your picture?

To get some context you might want to take a look at the following contents:

• Current strategy[6]
• Ralf Flaxa keynote at oSC'13[7]
• Jos article: Strategy and Stable[8]
• Jos article: Strategy and Factory[9]

REFERENCES:

Please point us to other relevant references:

[1] Alberto Planas talk at oSC13: openSUSE in Numbers:

http://youtu.be/NwfohZ8RBd8
[2] Alberto Planas' slides from the above talk:

https://github.com/aplanas/opensuse-data/tree/master/osc13
[3] First openSUSE at SUSE team blog post: Numbers in openSUSE http://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/07/04/numbers-is-opensuse/
[4] Second openSUSE at SUSE team blog post: More on statistics http://lizards.opensuse.org/2013/08/23/more-on-statistics/
[5] Jos article about numbers:

http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/08/on-distributions-numbers-and-breaking.html
[6] Current strategy: http://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:Strategy
[7] Ralf Flaxa keynote at oSC'13: http://youtu.be/fdroo2JZano
[8] Jos article: Strategy and Factory:

http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/07/osc13-strategy-and-factory.html
[9] Jos article: Strategy and Stable:

http://blog.jospoortvliet.com/2013/08/osc13-strategy-and-stable.html

---------------------------------

Summary about what the openSUSE Team @ SUSE is doing

openSUSE 13.1 is about to be Released (Nov. 19th) and I would like to share what the team I am part of is doing.

I joined SUSE in June 2012, almost 18 months ago. I haven't written much about anything during this time. And it haven't been because I hadn't time, but because I haven't have enough energy. I have received though these past months several requests to write a little about what I do at SUSE, so here we go....

The openSUSE Team is a good mix of long term SUSE employees and fresh blood, youth and experience, openSUSE and other distros background, on site and remote workers, people with management or commercial/customer support experience together with integrators and developers, people coming from R&D or product focus companies together with people with a strong community profile.... a very diverse (1 Taiwanese, 2 Czechs, 1 Dutch, 1 Serbian, 4 Spaniards and 3 Germans) and talented group. We also have trainees in the team. Having students is something I like because it helps any team to develop engagement skills.

The Team has as major focus the openSUSE distribution. It is element around which the whole project circles. It is the key point that sustain everything else in openSUSE. Obviously we put effort in other actions but we try that everything we do is directly related, have its roots, in the distribution, in the software. Obviously we are not the only force in openSUSE, not even the most numerous. There are hundreds (literally) of people that participates in this collective effort.

The team have a big impact since we are dedicated full time to work on the project, we have focused our activity in limited areas and we are fairly well organized. But in terms of effort, the rest of the community has a much bigger weight than my team... fortunately :-).

Those familiar with KDE will understand what I mean if I name Blue Systems work in the project today.

From the community perspective we have focused our action in two major areas:
* The openSUSE Conference.
* openSUSE news portal (marketing).

In 2012, like it happened before, SUSE took the lead in organizing the Conference. This changed in 2013. A group of contributors led by Kostas and Stella, reputed community members, organized it, opening the door for a new model within openSUSE.

SUSE role in the organization changed. Now we support the organizers in different tasks instead of leading the organization. For me, this is a relevant success story that should serve as example for many in the future. I feel very comfortable in this new role because the efficiency of our contribution has increased significantly. Organizing an event FOR a community is different than supporting the community in organizing THEIR event, right?

In marketing my team makes a significant impact by keeping the News portal as a reference point of information about openSUSE. We focus most of our action around the openSUSE Releases. We also link the innovation brought by SUSE into openSUSE with our community. We help SUSE Teams in marketing their work when it makes sense.

These two actions leave us little time for supporting further initiatives in the news portal. We do it once in a while though, not in regular basis. The situation in this regard is not much different than other communities I know. Keeping the main news portal up and healthy requires more people than usually is available. A more collective approach is what we all want. It is not an easy goal to achieve in any case.

So we basically have concentrated our effort in three main areas:

• What we call "the future". You will know more about it soon.
• The openSUSE Development and Release process, that will have openSUSE 13.1 as the main result, coming in a few days (November 19th).
• Community work. Specially around the openSUSE Conference and the news portal.

I hope this overview provides some answers to those of you interested in what I am up to lately. You can follow closely our actions through our Team blog, that has Jos Poortvliet as main editor and the whole team as authors.

This week I am participating together with other colleagues in SUSECon'13 and openSUSE Summit 2013. If you are in the Orlando Area, FL, US, consider coming. You won't regret it.

Insides about the new openSUSE Team at SUSE blog

Yesterday we created a new blog [1]to communicate to our community and readers what do we do as a team within the openSUSE project. It is a collective effort and it will be part of our duties to create and publish contents for it.

Its main goal is to talk about what we do so in the long run, it becomes a reference channel to follow up the activity of the group of people that SUSE employs to work full time in openSUSE.

Once of the discussion topics we faced was how to make compatible this blog, that has a corporate nature, with our personal blogs, our work in the community and the motivations of our team members. It is a very interesting topic since it is not trivial in practice to separate the information you handle as employee and your work within a community, in a case like our ours, employees that work for a community.

The easy approach is to say that, by default,  all what we do is public and treated as "community" work, or the opposite, but there are many corner cases, some of them relevant, that are not cover by these general approaches. Usually this topic has no relevance until something happens, usually bad. We need to understand that, as employees, we hold a responsibility that, if non properly managed, can potentially harm our company. It also can hurt us as professionals or affect our community. Often you are not a perceived as a regular community member only, but as a company advocate/representative too.

As a manager, I have to make compatible the community interest, the personal interest of the people under my responsibility and the company interest. In a company like SUSE, specially when talking about openSUSE, conflicts are small in this regard. We are a very open company in general and in my area in particular. I am glad of being part of a company that understand Free Software.

But under certain situations, nobody is out of risk. I even face this limitations being the KDE Treasurer. Being open is one thing and publishing all the information is another one. Obvious in theory but....where are the limits in practice? Who should take care of ensuring those limits are respected? What measures should be taken to satisfy all parties interest? When managing information, how to be fair with your community, yourself and your company at the same time? 

It is impossible to clearly define how to react in every case, what things should be kept private and what things don't, how to deal with the information you get as an employee but should be publish as part of your everyday activity within the community....

But what is possible is to create a clear field in which the people involved can move as freely as possible, making sure that some processes are put in place to avoid harmful mistakes. But above all, you have to rely on people, train them and be close to them so they understand the risks and the possible conflicts. Experience usually helps a lot in this field.

Behind this team blog, there are some processes that try to answer some of the previous questions and concerns, reducing the risk for the company and the authors but, at the same time, keeping the spirit of our work and goals: being open. I will talk about the concrete measures in a couple of months, when we get some conclusions about their efficiency.

I hope you will find the blog interesting.

[1] Link to the blog: https://lizards.opensuse.org/author/calumma/

Are you a senior KDE developer? Join openSUSE Team at SUSE

openSUSE Team at SUSE is looking for a senior KDE developer that is willing to join the company to work on openSUSE distribution and customer products where KDE technologies are present.

As those of you who are closer to KDE and/or openSUSE know, Will Stephenson has been leading this area the last few years. He is now facing new professional challenges within SUSE so we are looking for somebody that coordinates the openSUSE Team efforts related with KDE together with the openSUSE community, upstream and other SUSE Teams.

Our default openSUSE desktop, KDE, is obviously a relevant piece of our puzzle. But beyond pure KDE work, the selected candidate will also work in other areas of the distribution and will play an important role as openSUSE/SUSE advocate in technical forums.

openSUSE currently ships other desktops too so it will be important for the selected candidate to drive high levels of cooperation with the openSUSE GNOME (and others) team and upstream in cross-distro development efforts.

As a preferred choice, we are looking for a KDE developer willing to move to our Headquarters in Nuremberg, GE or to our office in Prague, CZ.

If you are interested, please check the opening details and send your CV through the SUSE Careers website. Links to your contributions to KDE and contacts for references are welcome.

In a more personal note......

Will, thanks for standing strong and work hard for openSUSE and KDE. Good luck in your new position.

Distribution hacker wanted: join the openSUSE Team at SUSE

openSUSE Team at SUSE is looking for a hacker willing to work on the openSUSE distribution with us. You can find the details of the job opening at the SUSE career website.

So we are looking for a software engineer with experience in a Linux distribution or a recognized upstream project, that wants to work full time in our distribution and enjoys being part of a community effort. 

He/she will work in English and attend to community events so some international traveling should be expected. We would like to increase our team located at SUSE offices in Prague (I love Prague), although Nuremberg/remote work are also options.

If you are interested, apply through the SUSE career website. Please do not forget to provide us links to your code and references if you have them. There are many other interesting openings at SUSE for senior and junior professionals, specially software developers. Put an eye on the Career page at SUSE website.

Job opening for an artist/graphical designer at openSUSE Team at SUSE

openSUSE Team at SUSE is looking for an Artist / Graphical designer who help us in two main areas:

• The openSUSE distribution
• Different artwork needed for the project like merchandising, banners, etc.

This work will be done together with the openSUSE community so, besides good technical skills, it will be welcome previous experience in FLOSS communities. We have at SUSE several senior graphical designers, so the candidate will work in coordination with them too.

The candidate might work in Nuremberg, Prague (preferred) or even remotely (if you have previous experience working this way). Must be available to travel internationally three to four times per year, beside some regular visits to our offices in Nuremberg, where most of the openSUSE Team at SUSE currently works.

We are an international team so English is a requirement. Other languages will be welcome. The candidate will give talks, presentations, workshops, etc. so good communication skills will be also required.

We are looking for somebody that can join us soon since we would like to begin working on our release, to be published this fall, as soon as possible.

If you are willing to work at SUSE for openSUSE, please send us your CV through our career website. Please include external and internal (SUSE/openSUSE) references, if you have them, along with links or examples of your work.

If you have further questions, I would be happy to answer them.

Another opening in openSUSE Team at SUSE

A few weeks ago I published in this blog the general requirements of the opening for my team at SUSE. I come here again with another description for another opening we have for the openSUSE Team at SUSE. The basic requirements are the following:

We are looking for a web developer, preferably with experience in Ruby - RoR (although other languages frameworks are also valid), that have worked on customer oriented projects. He/she must be familiar with popular Free Software data bases, control version systems, bug tracking tools, etc.

Since this team is very community oriented (20% of the working time will be related with engagement activities), is interesting that the candidate have a FLOSS community background.

The candidate will need to represent the team or openSUSE project in events, giving talks, participating in training sessions, meetings, etc. He/she must have good communications skills. Experience in international community oriented events is a plus.

The position is located in Nuremberg, Germany, although only English is required. Depending on the candidate’s experience and origin, it is possible to move back to his country to work remotely after 18-24 months, having to travel to Germany a few times a year.

In general, SUSE hires people from all over the world. We usually help those who are from outside the EU to get the work permit to work in Germany or Prague. But since we need to fill the position as soon as possible, it will be a plus, not a requirement, if you are a EU citizen or already have permission to work in a EU country. The position is also open for SUSE employees from US, Taiwan, China or other countries.

As a mentioned in a previous post, SUSE are growing and has a very good combination of a hacker and customer oriented atmosphere. The openSUSE Team at SUSE is formed by employees that work full time in this community project, which I think that it gives the position a plus for those who enjoy interacting with contributors and professionals in a learning and innovative ecosystem.

Finally, if you apply for one or our openings but you better fit in another one, or there are several good candidates for a single position, take in consideration that each selection process is not isolated. So escalating through a process for any opening, increases your chances to succeed in another opening for a different department.

• Apply to the opening
• Apply for other openings
• Further information about openings at SUSE

Applying to the opening through the above link ensures that your CV will be received by me, so please follow it so we make sure your CV do not get lost in my Inbox. ;-)

Finally, I want to say that the Team Leaders at SUSE check every CV we receive through HR. But due to the high amount of candidates we usually have, we cannot send a personal answer to every candidate (through the HR Department). Only those candidates that get to the final step of the process received them.


This is probably not the answer that you deserve as candidate from us but we simply cannot handle it in any other way. So if you just receive the standard automatic response, receive my apologies.

Last months

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.

openSUSE Team at SUSE: we have an opening

As you know from a previous post, I recently joined SUSE as openSUSE Team Lead. After several years of great work, the team is now getting ready to face new challenges keeping the same basic goal: make openSUSE rock.

To achieve this task, we want a senior developer to join us.

openSUSE Team at SUSE is a multidisciplinary group of professionals that works in many different areas in constant evolution so learning is part of our natural process. We have a clear R & D focus. We will work in projects covering several different technologies, so we are looking for somebody that is open minded, not afraid to work with a wide range of tools.

The position involves mentoring. It won't be just about designing solutions, solving problems and delivering, but also about engaging new developers and motivate them. Our team have high exposure to the openSUSE community and internally at SUSE. We also work with other communities and companies. Therefor communication skills (with other engineers) is a relevant skill for this position.

openSUSE Team has members in other parts of the world so having experience working remotely will be a plus. The team is based in Nuremberg. So the new member will be located there and will travel to events a few times per year.

SUSE is now operating as an independent business unit of The Attachmate Group, it is growing and profitable. At openSUSE Team we are defining our action plan for the near future and we want this person to get involved in this process. So I think it is a great moment for joining us.


If you are a senior developer, care about Free Software, are a team player willing to help openSUSE and want to work in the open in projects with a great potential impact, getting a lot of exposure, consider applying to our opening. 

New life, new country, new job, new community, new....

So yes, everything is new these days for me.

On Monday June 17th I moved to Nuremberg to join SUSE to lead a team that is 'under construction', that will follow openSUSE Boosters experience.In a few weeks I will be able to give you more details about our plans since at the moment I'm working on them along with some Boosters, other SUSE/openSUSE members and new people that is joining us. Obviously openSUSE community members will be the first to know.

So basically, I'm in a new city/country, working for a new company building a partially new team and I will be involved in a new community (openSUSE) .

On the personal side, I'm going through the natural process everybody that moves from one country to another goes. SUSE people is helping me and I have some friends in this city so I'm doing fine.

I will begin to learn German in a couple of weeks, after Akademy. It's going to be a tough task, I know. But hey, it is something I will bring with me forever, right?

I would like to thank SUSE for this opportunity and to my family and friends for all the support I've received the last few months so I could get to this point.

Now it is time to work hard and work smart.