[advocacy-discuss] OpenSolaris Branding Guidelines - an alternate proposal

[John Plocher]

[Replies set to advocacy-discuss]

Sara's slide at OSDS07 said
> What is OpenSolaris?
> -- OpenSolaris 3/08, Indiana
> -- OpenSolaris 9/08, Jerico
> -- etc.

There is a rampaging discussion over on ogb-discuss about the use of
the word "OpenSolaris" in relation to various distros, including Indiana.
(http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/ogb-discuss/2007-October/002653.html)

The high-order bit seems to be that it is OK to use the "OpenSolaris"
name as an adjective (Indiana is an OpenSolaris Distro, Indiana is OpenSolaris
Compatible, Indiana defines the OpenSolaris Laptop Distro Core, ...), but not
as an exclusive noun (branding Indiana exclusively as "OpenSolaris")


> Usage Guidelines
> --------------------
> - Unmodified bins - OpenSolaris - no mods on the TM
> - superset/unmodified bins = Built on openSolaris
> - subset/modified bins = Built on openSolaris and will req a click-thru license
> - any derivative of code itself is not entitled to the TM in any way.
> - no one is required to use TM, it is a privilege, not a requirement
> - We have OpenSolaris community project that will convert to a click-thru

This is a good start, but it suffers from the unwarranted need to define
something as OpenSolaris - singular.  OpenSolaris isn't a noun, it is an
adjective.  OpenSolaris is not a single product, it is a product FAMILY.
As such, its family members need given names as well:

The OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB)
The OpenSolaris Community
The OpenSolaris Nevada (aka ON) Community
The OpenSolaris Advocacy Community
The OpenSolaris Indiana Project
The OpenSolaris ON Consolidation
...  etc ...


Part of the confusion comes from the fact that Indiana is doing
many things:
    It is driving significant change into our processes, code
    and culture

    As a result of being an aggregation point, it is developing
    a "distro definition recipe mechanism" that can be used to
    easily articulate sets of packages.

    As part of its near-term release plan, it will be defining
    at least two recipes:
       1) The Core Compatibility Recipe, and
       2) The Indiana extensions to that core

    It will also be producing distro releases based on those recipes,
    and those releases will need names.

In addition to Indiana, there are other distros being contemplated,
including appliances, cellphones, powerPC ports, web stacks and
enterprise deployments, not to mention Sun' Solaris products.

Using OpenSolaris as a product line unifier instead of the name
of a specific product allows us to grow our family:

Indiana    - defines the "OpenSolaris Laptop Core Compatibility Recipe"
	       which is used as the basis for many other recipes
	     defines the "OpenSolaris Laptop GNOME Recipe",
	     delivers OpenSolaris GNOME Laptop Distro releases

Kansas     - uses the "OpenSolaris Laptop Core Compatibility Recipe"
              defines  the "OpenSolaris Laptop KDE Recipe", and
	     delivers OpenSolaris KDE Laptop Distro releases

California - defines the "OpenSolaris iPhone Compatibility Core Recipe"
	     delivers OpenSolaris iPhone Distro releases

Hawaii     - uses the "OpenSolaris Laptop Core Compatibility Recipe"
              defines the "OpenSolaris web services appliance Compatablity Recipe"
	     delivers OpenSolaris web services appliance distro releases

Don't read too much into these names - they are intended to be
illustrative and not definitive...

My proposal is to modify Sara's branding guidelines to encourage
this type of brand usage.  An example follows:

Updated Usage Guidelines
------------------------

  A) If your distro is constructed exclusively out of one of the
     OpenSolaris-Community ratified recipes, using the unmodified
     packages from the OpenSolaris repository, then you can use the
     branded label associated with that recipe:

	The OpenSolaris GNOME Laptop Distro
	The OpenSolaris KDE Laptop Distro
	The OpenSolaris Enterprise Distro
	
  B) If your distro is a strict superset of one of the OpenSolaris-
     Community ratified recipes, using the unmodified packages from
     the OpenSolaris repository for the associated OS.o recipes, then
     you can use the phrase "Built on", the branded label associated
     with that recipe, followed by your additions to that recipe:

	Built on the OpenSolaris Core Distro with GNOME, KDE, WebServices and Java
	Built on the OpenSolaris Enterprise Distro with Clustering

     Note that you can not brand your superset distro as OpenSolaris

  C) If your distro uses a modified OS.o recipe, or if it uses a recipe
     that is not (yet?) ratified, or if you use packages modified from
     that found in the OpenSolaris repository, then you can use the branding

	Built with OpenSolaris Technology

     Note that you can not brand your modified distro as either
     OpenSolaris or Built on OpenSolaris.

  D) If your distro uses a modified version of the packages found in
     the OpenSolaris.org repository, regardless of the recipe used,
     you may not brand your distro using A or B above.

  E) any derivative of code itself is not entitled to use the
     OpenSolaris TradeMark in any way.

  F) no one is required to use TM, it is a privilege, not a
     requirement

I would also strongly suggest that the Advocacy CG reach out to the
overall community to encourage participation, understanding and buy-in
on this effort.

   -John (IANA(TM)L)