Previously at the OpenSUSE Conference we chatted with Program Manager Andreas Jaeger. Later on we caught up with Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier, the distro's Community Manager. Read on for his thoughts on the KDE-as-default-desktop choice, lessons we can learn from Apple's iPhone App Store, and why Linux is like The Ramones...

Of all the community distributions, probably the least known is openSUSE. After two and a half years, the distro is not only still working out details about how its community operates -- including how its governing board is elected -- but also struggling to come out of the shadow of its corporate parent Novell, much as Fedora has emerged from its initial dominance by Red Hat.

Yesterday, Network World rolled out a new podcast series, Open Mic with Zonker, hosted by openSUSE community manager, Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier.

It's been almost a year since I last interviewed Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier, who is the community manager at openSUSE. I sent him several questions to answer by email. I was curious about the new version of openSUSE, 11.2, along with his increasing use of social media to promote it.

Today marks the end of the Era of Zonker at Novell, as Joe Brockmeier ends his tenure as Community Manager of openSUSE.

Three years on from Microsoft's deal with Novell, the real importance is coming through, says Novell's OpenSUSE community manager, Joe Brockmeier

Linux advocate Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier signs on as Novell's community manager and new voice of openSUSE users and developers. Hear his thoughts on Linux love, the challenges he expects from his new role, and why techies choose one distribution over another.

January 31st will be my last day with Novell. I've given it a great deal of thought, and decided that it's time to move on.

Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier is a stable fixture in the Linux community, spreading the word about Linux and open source to all who will listen. recently talked to Zonker to find out what topics he plans to cover in his address at our first LinuxCon event on September 21-23.