Just posting this here, for completeness/awareness, as I know not everybody uses the mailing lists.
Looking at the Mailing List discussion I would suggest the following –
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In these Forums we could take more care to handle the issues around SUSE users posting questions here and, be more sensitive to our actions consequent to SUSE customers using these Forums –
They’ve paid for SUSE Support and therefore, they should be using what they’ve paid for. -
There’s an awful amount to SUSE packages included in the openSUSE Leap distribution.
openSUSE Leap is based on SLE builds.
Therefore rebranding openSUSE Leap will require more than little bit of effort.
Other openSUSE offerings are less affected by the SLE builds and therefore, are somewhat easier to rebrand.
Given that, SLE as a Desktop is mostly a non-event, exactly how Aeon ( MicroOS GNOME Desktop) and Kalpa (MicroOS KDE Plasma Desktop) will fit in to the picture is a good question.
A suggestion –
- Pull the name of the Desktop system to the left (increase the significance) and move the term “openSUSE” to the right – possibly in small print «decrease the significance» …
For example:
- “Tumbleweed / Slowroll / Leap / Aeon / Kalpa” – small print: “Brought to you by openSUSE.”
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That’s certainly one of the options that could be done. Nothing has been decided yet.
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Just a point of view from a newbie to the project. I think most people know the difference between SUSE and openSUSE, but are too lazy to type the full openSUSE name every time.
I think it’s beneficial to keep the name as it is. openSUSE is not that popular as some other distributions. But this may change in the next few years where immutable desktops are maybe becoming more popular.
Ubuntu is gaining more popularity in the enterprise sector, and I think it may have to do with that some people used Ubuntu as their distro at home and during their studies. If openSUSE can gain popularity with SUSE in its name, these new engineers might prefer SUSE over RHEL/Ubuntu in the enterprise sector. Because they are then familiar with the quality and tools of that distro and might make a case for it in important meetings.
Maybe it’s a stretch, but just my point of view.
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If, this route were to be taken then, the current openSUSE MicroOS server – no Desktop – would have to be renamed – possibly something which also expresses “timeless” or “a long period of time” …
I’ve noticed that, in the KDE Discuss forums, openSUSE products are often (usually?) referred to as simply “Tumbleweed” …
- I mostly have the feeling that, I’m the only “Leap” user in those forums …
No, you are not the only one.
This is largely an artifact of the simple fact that leap ships old versions of what the KDE upstream produces, it’s not intended as any kind of knock against Leap, but because Tumbleweed is the product that’s tracking upstream, the vast majority of bug reports and discussion is by nature focused round $KDE_Current and the distributions that are shipping it.
It could be argued that perhaps upstream should have more focus on LTS situations for things like Leap or Debian and others, but it is what it is.
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I don’t see where that would be necessary, and that’s something that would be for the MicroOS developers to discuss and decide, when it all comes down to it
Merge with the Gecko Linux project and become the Gecko. 
After reading the messages on the mailing list, a concern I have regarding any potential rebranding, is why this is an issue now and not 17 years ago when the openSUSE project first began?
If SUSE S.A.'s Linux products originate with the openSUSE project, then I see no need for any rebranding, unless SUSE S.A. itself changes its legal name.
I forced myself to read some of the emails in that list. In particular, I found that Jeff Mahoney’s comments were informative and balanced. A very educational summary of the openSUSE ecosystem.
Well, right off, I thought it was a mistake in 2005 to call it openSUSE, and I still think it’s a mistake.
But that’s neither here, nor there.
I think the part that everybody is failing to take into account here, is that as of right now this is a request from SUSE S.A. They are giving us the opportunity to discuss, as a community, a request from them, as the Trademark Holder of the name SUSE, openSUSE, and the representations of that, such as the Geeko Logos and other marks.
As a member of the openSUSE Board, I can tell you that right now, that is all this is. There is no pressure from SUSE S.A. for the community project to do anything at this point other than talk about it.
As was discussed in the Project-ML discussion, this gives US the opportunity, as a community, to basically define our own destiny.
There is nothing stopping SUSE S.A., EQT S.A. (The owners of SUSE S.A.) or any other future entity that might own SUSE S.A. from making the decision to rescind the project’s permission to use the Trademarks.
This is about a lot more than just the Name.
It touches on the long term viability of the Project, It touches on how the project is governed, it touches on basically everything that openSUSE is or has been since it was split off from SUSE in 2005.
And for my part, I don’t intend to dig my heels in, and/or just jam my head in the sand, and wait until it’s a decision that’s made for the project.
Are there community members that aren’t going to like this? Obviously.
But it is what it is, and it’s happening, and I’d much rather be talking about progress, and people with actual ideas, rather than just an endless rehashing/restating of “SUSE is horrible for asking this of us, why the heck don’t they change?”
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A friendly reminder to ALL to remember the Forum Terms and Conditions, a breach of these can lead to a temporary suspension from the forum, but also the openSUSE Code of Conduct which will lead to suspension from not only the Forum but entire openSUSE Infrastructure.
Wouldn’t it be clearer, simpler, easier all around for the commercial version to rebrand itself as “$U$€”?
The original distribution began in 1992 with the name „Gesellschaft für Software und Systementwicklung mbH” → “S.u.S.E.” …
- What is a „GmbH”?
Answer: “A company with limited liability” …
Which means, from the very beginning, S.u.S.E. was a Company with a company office …
- In other words – commercial …
IMNSHO, Open Source as such will have to come to grips with commercial operation –
- At the very minimum, someone has to finance the servers (hardware costs; power bills; network access costs; system maintenance) which allow network access to the distribution.
There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.
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In 2006, with version 10.2, the SUSE Linux distribution was officially renamed to openSUSE
Totally agree, SUSE is well known Linux among people.
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The naming of purchased, paid for, boxed (commercial) versions may help to visualise the S.u.S.E. / SuSE (Professional) /SUSE (Professional) / openSUSE name discussion –
No apologies for the inclusion of a Red Hat box which I bought after trying a set of Diskettes containing an Erlangen Slackware (LST Power Linux) distribution in 1993.
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Only for a trip down memory lane. Not how most of us install software these days.