Breaking: The openSUSE Board discusses SUSE's request to stop using its brand, highlighting the need for cooperation and goodwill.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/37281970

Believe it or not, an unexpected conflict has arisen in the openSUSE community with its long-time supporter and namesake, the SUSE company.

At the heart of this tension lies a quiet request that has stirred not-so-quiet ripples across the open source landscape: SUSE has formally asked openSUSE to discontinue using its brand name.

Richard Brown, a key figure within the openSUSE project, shared insights into the discussions that have unfolded behind closed doors.

Despite SUSE’s request’s calm and respectful tone, the implications of not meeting it could be far-reaching, threatening the symbiotic relationship that has benefited both entities over the years.

  • AggressivelyPassive@feddit.de
    0·
    4 months ago

    That is absolute nonsense. SUSE mostly serves large enterprise customers.

    And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information? Mind share is important.

    I’m pretty sure SUSE is bigger than Canonical.

    That’s actually surprising to me, but I’d argue that Suse offers more products, it seems like Rancher, Longhorn, etc. have no canonical equivalent.

    • fr0g@piefed.socialEnglish
      0·
      4 months ago

      And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information? Mind share is important.

      Most certainly not in Linux distro community spaces, because those are completely irrelevant for them and their needs.

    • Laser@feddit.org
      0·
      4 months ago

      And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information?

      Advertisements at large airports

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
      0·
      4 months ago

      If enterprise IT departments could decide what kind of IT infrastructure gets bought, systems administrators across the world would be elated.

      Unfortunately, a lot of technical decisions are made in conferences, on golf courses, in sky boxes near stadiums, and in plain and simple YouTube ads.

      I agree that mind share is important, but Fedora seems to be doing a fine job selling Red Hat Enterprise Linux, as did CentOS before it. You don’t need to have an identical name as long as the company maintaining the free product has its logos everywhere.