[advocacy-discuss] [osol-discuss] Project Indiana and the OpenSolaris name

[Simon Phipps]

[Reply-to points at trademark-policy-dev at opensolaris.org where I  
suggest we focus discussion]

On Oct 31, 2007, at 20:16, Alan Burlison wrote:
> What will be the point of having a vote on something that is a fait
> accompli?

That's a very negative way to frame things, in my view. We are in a  
time of change, and today's release is just an element in it that's  
moving us forward. Personally I am delighted to see work done rather  
than just talk talked. Let's look at some data points.

*  As a community we've moved to a place where using "OpenSolaris"  
directly as an element of the name of a binary distribution (rather  
than just in "fair use") has become a possibility, and we've had  
indications from the people with a veto over that usage that some  
formulation will be OK.
*  The first community project with the chance to do so is producing  
an alpha-level preview.
*  The name applied to that preview follows an approach explored in  
Santa Cruz and discussed here.
*  We now have a lump of code, that we can talk about. We can now  
make concrete proposals about how it should be shaped, and we can  
either try to convince the people doing the work to change things to  
make them better or, if we're able, make the changes ourselves.
*  The lump of code has a name, illustrative of the proposal we're  
already evolving, and we can shape that proposal and get it ready for  
the people with fiduciary responsibility for the Solaris trademark to  
review it and either agree or tell us it doesn't pass muster.

Seems to me we are in a great position. Instead of endlessly talking,  
tearing each other apart, finding reasons to disagree, accusing some  
unseen "da Man", being rude about "marketing" and other  
manifestations of endless failure, we have an alpha code-base with an  
alpha name based on an alpha policy that we can drive forward together.

It's only a fait accompli if we fail to engage to positively fix  
issues we believe exist.

S.