Bonum Certa Men Certa

Novell News Summary - Part I: OpenSUSE Conference 2009 Reports

Gecko



Summary: OpenSUSE news this week is mostly to do with the conference which ended last week

A LOT has been written about the conference in Nürnberg, but the one person who wrote the most about it was also in part an organiser.

We have several tracks at the conference — two tracks of pre-planned discussions, two rooms for the “unconference” which have been consistently lively and full, and the “hallway” track.


Keysigning and elections were on the agenda. Coverage came mostly from the OpenSUSE community, e.g. the ambassador Sascha Manns [1, 2]. Roger Whittaker flew over from the UK to Germany [1, 2, 3, 4] and so did Benjamin Weber. Bryen Yunashko from the Board also attended alongside core members like Adrian Schröter and Andreas Jaeger, who collected some links to photos.

Today at the openSUSE Conference I took the notes of the governance session. We will continue the discussion tomorrow but let me just publish the raw notes as I took them at the meeting without much editing.


 

Sunday morning of the openSUSE conference I took part in the Lightning Talks which were short talks on a variety of topics.


More photos can be found here.

Zonker wrote about the event in the company's PR blog and his final coverage was crossposted (semi-professional and the personal blog). Michael Löffler did a wrap-up, Martin Vidner took notes later in the week, and a female member of the team was disappointed that they had no shirts for females at the conference.

Unfortunately, this year's openSUSE conference organizing team either assumed that all the conference participants will be male, or (more likely) deliberately chose not to take female minority into account. Ladies tees were sadly not among the conference swag. So I said no, thanks, I already have a shelf full of Linux/opensource/tech conference T-shirts I can hardly wear, because they simply do not fit (those of you who happened to meet me at the conference know that I look drowned even in men's S size ;-) ). I see no point in handing them to friends/relatives either, after all, it was me, not them, who participated at the event, right?


Some technical work that transpired at the conference is this:

On the outskirts of the OpenSUSE Conference, core developers revealed details on the new openSUSE version 11.2. Although it will have Kernel 2.6.31, browser users will have to wait a bit longer for YaST.


In other news, OpenSUSE Edu Li-f-e is said to have gone "hybrid" (not meaning semi-proprietary).

I am happy to announce that the very first working hybrid iso of openSUSE Education Li-f-e DVD created on openSUSE Build Service is now available for testing.


A few days ago, Zonker canceled the project's IRC meeting. He explained this decision as follows: "The openSUSE Project meeting for today is canceled as many of the openSUSE team are traveling or in off-site meetings today. The next meeting will be held in two weeks. If you have any questions or concerns in the meantime, please feel free to bring them up on the -project mailing list." So the IRC meeting was canceled, but SLLUG decided to hold a meeting with an introduction to SUSE Studio.

This month's Salt Lake Linux Users Group (SLLUG) meeting will be an introduction to SUSE Studio.


On the technical side, Duncan writes about zypper, as usual, Sascha Manns puts another package in OBS and here is a new set of instructions for Avidemux on OpenSUSE. An OpenSUSE/SLE book is being put together as yet another new product gets OpenSUSE preinstalled.

TabletKiosk announced three portable computers running OpenSUSE Linux 11 on Intel Atom processors, two of them seven-inch UMPCs (ultra mobile PCs) with built-in Wacom digitizers. The UMPCs are the Eo a7330D and the ruggedized TufTab a7230XD, joined by the 12.1-inch Sahara NetSlate a230T tablet, according to the company.


On the Moblin/Goblin side of things, mechanisms from OpenSUSE are being converged and the significance of this we last mentioned here. Moblin and OpenSUSE getting together [1, 2] would raise some important questions. More news can probably be found in the OpenSUSE Web site.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Techrights Was Months Ahead of "XBox" News (Mass Layoffs)
Next: end of XBox as a console
More Commentary on June 2026 IBM Layoffs and Why They Happen
It sounds a lot like what happened to the EPO
The Cyber Show: Remember That Code is Art
The article is very long, very profound, and speaks of "the next installation"
Only Days After Mass Layoffs in Microsoft's Azure There Are Headlines About Much-Expected XBox Layoffs
XBox as a console is basically dead or "fast-dying"
 
Sonny Piers Finally Spills the Beans on GNOME Cover-up, Points Finger at Robert McQueen, Misusing "Defamation" to Silence Critics of Wrongdoing
Robert McQueen, who is extremely connected to Garrett (they share digital nests)
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Transcending Partisan Rivalry in the National Interest
Up until now, Campinos has generally been regarded as a Portuguese "asset" on the international stage
Gratitude to Whistleblowers or Sources of Techrights
Whistleblowers are what makes journalism work
Links 12/06/2026: "NearlyFreeSpeech" No More, Openwashing by Google (DiffusionGemma)
Links for the day
Today There's a Massive EPO Strike (Like Every Friday), Workers Explain Further Cuts Despite the EPO Making More Income by Granting Illegal Patents (or Invalid Patents Illegally)
"Recent exchange with the Administration on the implications of the SAP on the Education and Childcare Allowance"
Communicating With Freedom - Part IV - Quibble Now in quibble.chat, Open for Contributions Via Codeberg
Today we continue the series about Quibble
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Importance of Having "Pals from the Palacete"
for his reappointment bid to succeed, Campinos will need to be able to rely on the support of both the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, and the President of the European Council, António Costa
Cyber Show on How Updates or Upgrades Break Workflows, Even in Free Software
"We did a big upgrade on the AV production pipeline"
Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal
Gemini Links 12/06/2026: Decks and Work Essay
Links for the day
"Rolling Strikes" Continue at the European Patent Office, the Administrative Council Needs to Take Action Against Crooked Office Management
This coming weekend we'll talk about some of the other issues and concerns expressed by the union
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 11, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, June 11, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: Disputes Over Copyright Infringement, Failure to Meet Climate Goals, "ChatGPT Caught Recommending “Products” That Are Just Scams"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2026: Programmable Systems and Slop "is Coming for Your Serifs"
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 103 Out of 200: Telling People What They Know and Don't Know About Death Threats They Receive
patronising letters sent on behalf of the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
IBM Genies in the Bottle
for ordinary people working who at at IBM, it's not hard to see that IBM is floundering
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 10, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 10, 2026
Links 11/06/2026: LF Openwashing of Slop and "Azerbaijan Bans TikTok and Other Social Media Apps in School"
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: The Centre (in Portugal) Falls Apart…
Luís Montenegro became embroiled in a conflict-of-interest controversy
IBM Lost About 18% of Its "Market Value" This Month
In IBM's case, a lot of the latest "pump" was Arvind's "quantum" hype/fantasy
Gemini Links 10/06/2026: Signal to Noise, Cancer, and Permacomputing
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2026: More Microsoft Layoffs, Sweden to "Ban Mobile Phones in Schools"
Links for the day
Communities and "Prosumers."
today's meetup will be about community
Gemini and Gopher Links 10/06/2026: Roasting, Changes, and Harms of Slop
Links for the day
Microsoft Azure Shrinking With More Mass Layoffs
"Reports suggest the layoffs will impact close to 200 out of 400 workers, who are set to cease employment at Azure on July 6"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 09, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 09, 2026