Re: [Fedora-marketing-list] Re: Fedora 6 to strengthen virtualisation features with Xen 3.0.3
chasd(a)silveroaks.com wrote:
My bad, in a message speaking to the accuracy of terminology, I
incorrectly referred to "Fedora Core" as "Fedora" - confusing the
issue.
Sorry.
Not to belabor the point, but would the Fedora Community "release"
Fedora Extras, or would that effort be better considered under the
Fedora Project umbrella ?
The latter. The community consists of both users and contributors. Only
the contributors are involved in the release. Hence a release is from
the "Fedora Project".
> So realistically that's just Red Hat doing
> all the release management work.
So the article was correct stating Red Hat releases Fedora Core ?
It's not grossly inaccurate at this point. We would prefer that they say
that Fedora Project did the release however.
To me, it is more correct to say Red Hat engineers as part of the
Fedora
Community play a staggeringly large role in the release of Fedora Core.
I suppose for simplicity's sake, just saying Red Hat isn't far off.
However I think that simple statement re-enforces a general perception
that the Fedora Project seems to keep fighting.
We have to point out that there is a difference. Our official
announcements and press releases always use and emphasize consistent
terms for this reason.
I think that outside of the Fedora Community, the following statements
might be viewed as true:
Red Hat = Fedora Core
Red Hat = Fedora Project
The first is false in my mind ( and comparing different types ) while
the second would be more accurate with a tilde above the equal sign; it
is not _completely_ true.
Or maybe my glasses need cleaning, and I'm not seeing things straight ;)
It goes both ways. There are also people surprised at the news that Red
Hat is involved in the project at all. See ambassadors list for some
event reports which match my own experiences speaking at events or
discussing with people there.
I still remember the big ruffle when Alan Cox wearing a big Red Fedora
booted up Fedora Core to do a keynote presentation about contributing to
Free software in the foss.in event last year with everyone around me
wondering loudly what has Red Hat doing with Fedora.
It kind of swings from one end to another time to time depending on what
people want. Some end users worry that without the commercial backing
Fedora wouldnt be moving ahead as fast or feature rich as it does while
others worry that it isnt a community project when one organization is
involved to this extend.
Using consistent terms when discussing the distribution and the entities
involved is important to outside perception.
Getting reviewers and other individuals in the media to use the
consistent terms is part of guiding that perception in the desired
direction.
Getting random posters on Slashdot to use the consistent terms is a pipe
dream ;)
Sure. Feel free to send a note to reporters when they use incorrect
terminology.
Rahul