On 26/10/2007, Brandorr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On 10/26/07, John Plocher <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > Brandorr wrote:
> > > It seems this discussion is not leading anywhere. And Sun is doing
> > > what Sun is going to do.
> >
> > So, lead it where you want it to go.  Make a proposal!
> >
> > Don't just sit there and complain.
> >
> > > I'll tell you why. It's a falicy, OpenSolaris is actually the more
> > > valuable brand at this point.
> >
> > Glad you think so.  And, maybe to you, it is. All the more reason for
> > you to suggest how you think we should use it!
> >
> > You obviously don't like my suggestions:
> >
> >     1) Don't wish to use the name /.*OpenSolaris.*/ ?
> >         no problem, do what you want...
> >
> >     2) Wish to use it, and are "compatible"?
> >         Use "___, an OpenSolaris Operating System" or
> >             "Compatible with OpenSolaris"
> >
> >     3) Wish to use it, and aren't "compatible"?
> >         Use "Built on OpenSolaris" or
> >         "Built with OpenSolaris Technology" or
> >         other phrases that don't imply compatibility.
> >
> > so again I ask you - please make a counter proposal.  Be part of
> > the solution!
>
> Proposal: No distro will be named OpenSolaris. The definition of
> OpenSolaris will not be changed just to suit Sun's marketing needs. I

First of all, this isn't about suiting "Sun's marketing needs." This
is about meeting user expectations and the needs of the OpenSolaris
community. Having a reference distribution is about meeting user
expectations. Having it named OpenSolaris is about meeting user
expectations.

> know this isn't a discussion of what is and isn't Sun's prerogative,
> but you asked for a proposal, and I am asking Sun *NOT* to do
> something, and I feel that a counterproposal should have a viable
> alternative. Part of that counterprosal is a name that works.

Sun is not involved here other than being owner of a trademark and
asking the community to help define the usage guidelines.

> How about naming Sun's new distro "SolarisNG"?

Sun doesn't have a distro; the community has a distro. What Sun distro
are you talking about? Project Indiana is a *proposed* distribution by
members of the OpenSolaris community, many of which happen to work for
Sun.

> > >  Why doesn't someone
> >
> > Why don't *you*?  What do *you* want?  Not, what do you think someone
> > else might want...
>
> I want what everyone else wants. I want to belong to an inclusive open
> source community, where decisions aren't driven by Sun's undisclosed
> business needs.

> John's proposal, as I understand, is that only people/teams that can
> use the OpenSolaris trademark as a standalone brand, are people/teams
> that make a product that only consists of Sun's binaries.

Wrong. You need to get this idea that Sun is the one behind this;
they're not. It's just saying that only the distribution designated as
the reference distribution *by the OpenSolaris community* would be
called OpenSolaris.

The community has the ability to through communities to get a vote to
happen to change what the reference distribution is. In addition,
there is nothing that says Sun has to be the one to produce the
binaries.

> If the decision to use OpenSolaris as a distro name is for Sun or
> noone, then I'd rather no one use it. So I guess I don't want
> OpenSolaris to be the name of any distro.

It isn't for Sun or noone. It is for the community's reference
distribution that best represents OpenSolaris.

> > Martin has jumped in and said
> > > I identify the term "OpenSolaris" with OS/Net
> >
> > as well as
> >
> > > I can better understand you now, with taking your message from above into 
> > > account.
> > > ...
> > > Maybe we can find some compromise (what a bad word) :  A reference
> > > thing one level higher than the basic kernel+libs OS/Net stuff.
> > > You can have that called "Sun $NAME OpenSolaris", rather than
> > > "$NAME OpenSolaris".
> >
> > so I wouldn'd write him off as "...doesn't seem to approve of the plan".
>
> Ah, but there is a difference. From what I understand, Martin is
> proposing something along the lines of: Sun Indiana OpenSolaris
> [distro/OS], where the key brand is Indiana. This is not the same
> thing as the "OpenSolaris laptop distro" (Which inevitably would be
> labeled as "OpenSolaris" in big letters, and laptop distro in tiny,
> tiny letters.)

Which is wrong. Indiana is not a Sun distribution. Indiana is a
distribution proposed by a member of the OpenSolaris community that
works for Sun. If someone from Intel had proposed Indiana would you
then want to call it the "Intel Indiana OpenSolaris Distro"?

> I want the following distros to coexist:
>
> SolarisNG, OpenSolaris Distro - Indiana
> Belenix, OpenSolaris Distro - SolarisNG with KDE (or whatever Moinak
> and team want to do)
> Nexenta, OpenSolaris Distro - A backwards compatible Solaris distro
> that supports both SYSV and Debian packages, as well as SYSV/Solaris
> and GNU commands.
> MartUX, OpenSolaris Distro
> Shillix, OpenSolaris Distro

Which is going to be incredibly confusing to users.

When I go to Ubuntu.com, I expect to download something called Ubuntu.

When I go to FreeBSD.org, I expect to download something called FreeBSD.

...the list goes on.

> > If you are so dead set against actually contributing a counter proposal,
> > and would rather rail against everything and anything that Sun employees
> > attempt to do, there is probably nothing I can do to make you happy.
>
> The problem is that your current proposal makes a major assumption
> that basically states that Sun's Indiana project/distro will be known
> as ****OpenSolaris**** blah blah, come hell or high water.  Everything
> else in the propasal is predicated on that assumption. Thus, a point
> by point is pretty useless, until that assumption can be agreed upon,
> or is removed from the proposal.

The problem with this, again, is that you are portraying the proposed
reference distribution as a Sun product; it is not. It is a product of
the OpenSolaris community. At this point, the majority of the
OpenSolaris community happens to work for Sun.

> It seems that many in the community seem to feel that the OpenSolaris
> name should not be bestowed to a [proprietary, closed source] Sun
> distro.

Where has it ever been said that a proprietary, closed source Sun
distro would receive the OpenSolaris name?

> It also seems that many feel that the current definition of
> OpenSolaris shouldn't change. Currently no distro can use the
> OpenSolaris trademark as part of their name. I am starting to see the
> wisdom of that decision by the founders of the community.

Experience has proven that users expect otherwise.

> My proposal boils down to not allowing distros to call themselves
> OpenSolaris. (At least at this point in time). This obviously would
> require Sun to name Indiana something other than OpenSolaris. Perhaps
> SolarisNG?

A proposal to throw away the proposal isn't much of a proposal.

Even if you don't want to allow anyone to use OpenSolaris as their
name you still have not properly addressed what you think should be
*all of the allowed possible usages* of the trademark and what the
possible restrictions might be.

-- 
Shawn Walker, Software and Systems Analyst
[EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://binarycrusader.blogspot.com/

"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not
tried it. " --Donald Knuth
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