[advocacy-discuss] The OpenSolaris "Attitude"

[Ian Collins]

Jim Grisanzio wrote:
> Ian Collins wrote:
>
>> Part of the strength of the Linux brand is it's ubiquity.  Just about
>> every major distribution call its self "Bla [enterprise] Linux".  We
>> don't see that with OpenSolaris.  
>
> Linux is a decade old though. OpenSolaris is 2. That's a big
> difference. How many Linux distros were there two years after Linux
> started? (I have no clue, by the way :)).

Thinking back that far, I can remember a couple, both used Linux in
their names.  Maybe "OpenSolaris" is too much of a mouthful?

Another very significant cultural difference is rather than Sun trying
to form a community, the Linux companies were formed from the Linux
community, so the brand was key to their identity.

>
>> Every OpenSolaris distribution has its
>> own name, even Sun's distributions use the Solaris rather than
>> OpenSolaris brand.
>
> So, is that the direction we should continue?

Couldn't Sun lead by example?  The Solaris Express name predates
OpenSolaris by a number of years, maybe retire it and rename Solaris
Express Developer Edition as OpenSolaris Developer Edition?  Or how
about changing Solaris Express Community Edition to Sun OpenSolaris?

>
>> There has to be a better way of associating the brand with the
>> distributions.
>
> Yah, I'm no brand guru here so I don't know. But is the brand
> necessarily tied to the community culture? I would love it if the
> culture emerged naturally from the /bottom/, rather than being created
> from the top (in this case by Sun with various branding efforts). It's
> probably a combination of both. 
That'll be difficult with Sun contributing the bulk of the effort, the
culture is still driven by Sun engineers, if not the company.  It will
stay that way until those of us in the wider community who would like to
contribute to the development get the opportunity.  The wider community
is still very much a consumer rather than a contributor group.

> I'm not really concerned about the brand, per say, but I'm more
> interested in the underling gut of the community. When people say
> "OpenSolaris" ... what does that mean?
>
At present, that's still very much Sun engineering.

Ian