openSUSE is a free, open project. Although Novell sponsors it heavily, the project belongs to the openSUSE community. Things were not always this way; before Novell's acquisition of SuSE, SuSE internally managed the course of the distribution, with little input or participation from the user community.

This blog post covers the main presentation from our ODF workshop that took place in Redmond last week: Peter Amstein’s explanation of the guiding principles behind our support of ODF in Office 2007 SP2. I’ve added explanations of some of the details that were covered verbally in the workshop, but if anything’s not clear here, please let me know.

"The HTML Working Group has published the First Public Working Draft of HTML Design Principles. This document describes the set of guiding principles used by the HTML Working Group for the development of HTML5, expected to define the fifth major revision of the core language of the World Wide Web..."

To strengthen the openSUSE project we’re looking for an enthusiastic Chief Evangelist to: promote and spread the adoption of openSUSE; be a public face for the project on conferences and events; act as voice of the community back to Novell’s leadership team; develop and nurture the openSUSE communities; pro actively drive openSUSE marketing;

Clarifications about the role of OpenSUSE and how it is primarily developed by full-time Novell staff (while marketed as "community project")

Some Novell developers, who were also contributors to the OpenSUSE project, were laid off by the company. This has caused some other contriburors to apparently ask the OpenSUSE board about the future of the project.

Dear openSUSE Community. Users. Contributors. Fans and friends. The time
has come: openSUSE 11.4 has arrived!. After 8 months of hard work, you
can learn what is new, download it and upgrade!

We are proud to announce the launch of 11.4 in the openSUSE tradition of
delivering the latest technology while maintaining stability. The 11.4

Novell has announced plans to make openSUSE more community driven by opening up their Online Build System which controls Factory to contributors outside their staffing ranks. What does it mean for the project and community at large?

Want to help spread the word about the openSUSE Project and encourage more people to become part of the openSUSE Community? Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and spread the word about the openSUSE Project?