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

[Patrick Finch]

[taking ogb-discuss off copy as John has indicated that he is bringing 
the discussion here]

John Plocher wrote:
> [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")

I don't agree that "OpenSolaris" works as an adjective.  Although our 
definition of it may vary and even suffer from inconsistencies, we all 
use it as a noun, and a large part of the target audience for Indiana 
uses it to describe a binary distribution that does not yet exist.

So while I think that this is an imaginative approach, I would add that 
if the distro is called "The OpenSolaris binary distro", it will tend to 
be known just as "OpenSolaris", in the same way that "Solaris 10 
Operating System" is known as "Solaris".  This may not be a bad thing, 
but I think it is worth remembering.


>>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 ...

If making that statement addresses the concerns of the OGB and others, I 
think it is fine.  I would point out that we could talk of
The Ubuntu Community
The Ubuntu Community Council
The Ubuntu Gamers Arena
...

Ubuntu is ultimately an operating system and so, too, is OpenSolaris, 
albeit an incomplete one that you have to build from sources and with a 
variety of possible implementations (at the moment).

The outside world understands this, but because we are busy trying to 
explain exactly what goes on in the name of OpenSolaris to the outside 
world, we often reject this conception.



> 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

Couple of queries:

Could you use the definite article even where there could be more than 
one implementation of an OpenSolaris GNOME Laptop Distro ?

Given that Sun, who owns the trademark, intends to bring out an 
enterprise distro called "Solaris", I can imagine that there would be 
some resistance if another entity produced something called the 
OpenSolaris Enterprise Distro.  Although I realise that the example was 
illustrative and not literal, it does raise the point, who is allowed to 
define which nouns may have "OpenSolaris" attributed to them?


>   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.

Agree, but think that we have a little more common understanding here 
first.  I think that we can say OpenSolaris is an attributive noun, 
rather than an adjective.  It points to a thing.  We can either make 
that thing something accessible to the world (a binary distro), or we 
can continue to make statements like "you can't actually boot 
OpenSolaris, you need to boot an OpenSolaris distribution" which risk 
confusing the user.

Personally, I think your proposal would work pretty well, as I expect 
that "OpenSolaris" would, in every day usage, simply take on the meaning 
of the binary operating system with a GNOME desktop environment.


Patrick