[advocacy-discuss] The OpenSolaris "Attitude"

[Martin Bochnig]

Ian Collins wrote:
> 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?
>   

Maybe you overlooked my response to one of your recent emails.
Whether it would be too much of a mouthful or not, it is just not 
allowed to choose such a name for a Sun-external distro:

http://opensolaris.org/os/trademark/
"Without a trademark license, you may not use Solaris or OpenSolaris in 
the name of your distribution, or any product, service or company name."


It is therefore out of the question and has less to do with how it would 
feel/look/sound like.
I once owned a domain called solaris4u.org for a month (I wanted to 
provide noncommercial community services from there). I got warned and 
instantly dropped that domain. I can tell you that I would have called 
"MartUX" "MartUX OpenSolaris", if that had not been prevented by 
OpenSolaris' main sponsor's legal policies, which I obviously have to - 
and do - respect.

> 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
Minor correction, actually by less than two years, rather than by a 
number of years (SE came first out in September 2003 / 
Solaris10_build42_or_something: with support: 99$/month, else for free 
but unsupported).
I otherwise might agree with your statement/proposal, that the whole 
naming policy is sort of confusing.


Martin