[FW: Some questions for an editorial piece on Neowin.net]

[Paul W. Frields]

Hello Marketing team,

We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
questions here?

To frame the answers I would suggest some of the following key points:

* We don't "compete" with other Linux distributions; we advance free
  software in cooperation with upstream in a way that benefits
  everyone

* Windows 7 is (presumably) aimed at an extremely large audience, much
  of which falls outside our target audience of free software
  enthusiasts, developers, and remixers.  Nevertheless, the stability
  and features in Fedora are loved by millions.

* Features are found on the wiki Feature List.

* We have lots of desktop features for ease of use that do not get in
  users' way and help people get things done quickly, securely, and
  with respect for users' freedom.

OK, with that I open the floor! :-)

Paul


----- Forwarded message from Matthew Hopson <redacted> -----

Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:49:39 +0000
From: Matthew Hopson <redacted>
To: press(a)fedoraproject.org
Subject: Some questions for an editorial piece on Neowin.net

Hi,
I am on the news staff at Neowin.net, a technology site with a large
community of over 800,000 members as well as our own Linux distro (Shift
Linux).

I am going to be writing a comparison editorial piece about Ubuntu 8.10 and
the upcoming Fedora 10 and openSuse 11.1, to appear on the front page of
Neowin.net. Basically I will be installing each of the distros, doing a
quick review with things I like and dislike, and also a section on how each
aims to compete with Windows 7. I was wondering if a member of the
development team would be able to answer the following questions as I know
our members would be extremely interested to hear of anything new about your
Linux distro.

Can you tell me what new features users could see in the next release,
Fedora 11?

Microsoft is currently aiming for a 2009 Holiday release for Windows 7 and
it has been said their main rival now is Linux. Are there any concerns about
how Fedora can compete with Windows 7 in the future and can you give any
hints as to what features you hope to include to rival Windows?

One of the reasons behind the popularity of Ubuntu, Fedora and openSuse is
their improved ease-of-use, howeverLinux as a whole is still criticized for
being too "techie/geeky". What else is being done to further improve the
usability and ease-of-use of Fedora in the future?

I look forward to hearing from you and thank-you, in advance, for taking the
time.
-- 
Matthew Hopson
News Staff
Neowin.net

----- End forwarded message -----

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug

[Rahul Sundaram]

Paul W. Frields wrote:
>  Hello Marketing team,
>  
>  We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
>  opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
>  questions here?
>  
>  To frame the answers I would suggest some of the following key points:
>  
>  * We don't "compete" with other Linux distributions; we advance free
>    software in cooperation with upstream in a way that benefits
>    everyone 
I am not sure that's the whole story. It is clear that we want to remain 
competitive among Linux distributions. We need to grow, get more 
contributors and users and sometimes there is healthy competition 
between Linux distributions (which benefits users). It might not be our 
key focus however.

One could still make the argument that Fedora benefits other Linux 
distributions as well by being a major contributor to upstream projects 
and our general policy of contributing our improvements upstream and our 
competitive value lies in our objectives of moving Free software forward.

>  * Windows 7 is (presumably) aimed at an extremely large audience,
> much
>    of which falls outside our target audience of free software
>    enthusiasts, developers, and remixers.  Nevertheless, the stability
>    and features in Fedora are loved by millions. 
One of the points is that we have been making it easy for users to 
migrate from Windows. Fedora liveusb-creator was first available for 
Windows users, Anaconda now supports partition resizing and there is a 
Seneca college effort to port Wubi (as suggested by me).

>  * Features are found on the wiki Feature List.
>  
>  * We have lots of desktop features for ease of use that do not get in
>    users' way and help people get things done quickly, securely, and
>    with respect for users' freedom.
>  
>  OK, with that I open the floor! :-)
>  
>  Paul 
---

Some quick answers below:

---


>  Can you tell me what new features users could see in the next
> release,
>  Fedora 11? 
It's a bit early for that.

Fedora is developed within the community and anyone interested can 
propose a new feature and participate in the process. Since we are only 
beginning to wrap up Fedora 10, we will being reviewing Fedora 11 
feature proposals starting in the next Fedora Engineering Steering 
Committee meeting

https://www.redhat.com/archives/fedora-devel-list/2008-November/msg00677....


>  Microsoft is currently aiming for a 2009 Holiday release for Windows
> 7 and
>  it has been said their main rival now is Linux. Are there any concerns about
>  how Fedora can compete with Windows 7 in the future and can you give any
>  hints as to what features you hope to include to rival Windows? 
Windows 7 appears to a incremental release to fix the many widely know 
flaws in Vista and the customer push back realized via more return rates 
for the OEM copies.

Fedora has a time based release schedule with a new release every six 
months. With the pace of innovation driven in part by Fedora in free and 
open source software and rapid iterations from our release model, we 
hope to bring foss to a large audience. Our value is in the freedom and 
nature of development itself, rather than any particular feature.

>  One of the reasons behind the popularity of Ubuntu, Fedora and
> openSuse is
>  their improved ease-of-use, howeverLinux as a whole is still criticized for
>  being too "techie/geeky". What else is being done to further improve the
>  usability and ease-of-use of Fedora in the future? 
The Fedora desktop team has published a whiteboard with a large amount 
of ideas that they want to look at beyond the release of Fedora 10. A 
key focus area is improving usability and ease of use.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Desktop/Whiteboards

Rahul

[Nicu Buculei]

Paul W. Frields wrote:
>  Hello Marketing team,
>  
>  We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
>  opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
>  questions here?
>   
[...]
>  OK, with that I open the floor! :-) 
They plan to compare the various Linux distros with the next version of 
Windows "Microsoft is currently aiming for a 2009 Holiday release for 
Windows 7" - Fedora will be at F12, by then F11 will be history.


-- 
nicu :: http://nicubunu.ro :: http://nicubunu.blogspot.com
Cool Fedora wallpapers: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro/wallpapers/
Open Clip Art Library: http://www.openclipart.org
my Fedora stuff: http://fedora.nicubunu.ro

[Jonathan Roberts]

>  Can you tell me what new features users could see in the next
> release,
>  Fedora 11? 
As Paul said, new features appear at
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/#/FeatureList.

Probably worth noting that features for F11 won't start appearing
until post Fedora 10. Might also be worth noting, as was said on FAB
earlier today, that F10 and F11 are planned to form the base of RHEL 6
and as a result will be getting a lot of attention, particularly for
bug fixes. Of course, like always, this work will be done as much as
possible with upstream so all will benefit!

>  Microsoft is currently aiming for a 2009 Holiday release for Windows
> 7 and
>  it has been said their main rival now is Linux. Are there any concerns about
>  how Fedora can compete with Windows 7 in the future and can you give any
>  hints as to what features you hope to include to rival Windows? 
Again, as Paul said, important to consider that Fedora and Microsoft
have two very different audiences. Perhaps should be specific about
some of the cool features that we have that appeal to desktop users,
such as connection sharing in network manager(?).

The other point I would raise is that the true killer feature of free
software is freedom. People who use a distribution like Fedora that
respects and pushes forward the development of free software are
helping to guarantee that all people have access to important
technologies, as well as guaranteeing their rights to privacy and
control over their own property.

>  One of the reasons behind the popularity of Ubuntu, Fedora and
> openSuse is
>  their improved ease-of-use, howeverLinux as a whole is still criticized for
>  being too "techie/geeky". What else is being done to further improve the
>  usability and ease-of-use of Fedora in the future? 
Good question. I suppose we could make comments on the work that's
going on upstream with Gnome 3.0, as well as the effort being made to
integrate KDE 4 closely. But seriously, it seems this is one area that
we're paying very little coordinated attention to.

If I was really trying to spin it, I might say something like:
"Fedora's extremely close relationship with upstream projects is
setting an example for many other distributions, and we're glad to see
that some, with more expertise in this area than others, are trying to
follow our lead and deliver usability improvements through upstream
vendors."

Thanks Paul for giving this a try, and I hope you get some useful feedback.

Jon

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, Nov 12, 2008 at 01:09:14PM +0000, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
>  > Can you tell me what new features users could see in the next
> release,
>  > Fedora 11?
>  
>  As Paul said, new features appear at
>  http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/#/FeatureList.
>  
>  Probably worth noting that features for F11 won't start appearing
>  until post Fedora 10. Might also be worth noting, as was said on FAB
>  earlier today, that F10 and F11 are planned to form the base of RHEL 6
>  and as a result will be getting a lot of attention, particularly for
>  bug fixes. Of course, like always, this work will be done as much as
>  possible with upstream so all will benefit! 
I believe the Fedora 11 Feature List already has some content and
FESCo is set to start discussing them this week.
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/11/FeatureList

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://redhat.com/   -  -  -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug

Neowin timeline

[Paul W. Frields]

On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>  Hello Marketing team,
>  
>  We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
>  opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
>  questions here? 
I thought it would be useful to have a subthread (or at least an
interjectino) about the timeline.  What I was thinking is that, since
the deadline for the Neowin article isn't really clear but does suggest
"a couple weeks," that we try for the following actions and dates:

Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday 17 November
Collaborative wiki document - deadline Friday 21 November
Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday 23 November

Stage 1 has already started.

Does someone want to take control for stage 2?

I'll take the stage 3 roundup unless someone else speaks up for it.

-- 
Paul W. Frields
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://paul.frields.org/   -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug

Neowin timeline

[Jonathan Roberts]

2008/11/12 Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W. Frields wrote:
> > Hello Marketing team,
> >
> > We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
> > opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
> > there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
> > questions here?
>
>  I thought it would be useful to have a subthread (or at least an
>  interjectino) about the timeline.  What I was thinking is that, since
>  the deadline for the Neowin article isn't really clear but does suggest
>  "a couple weeks," that we try for the following actions and dates:
>
>  Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday 17 November
>  Collaborative wiki document - deadline Friday 21 November
>  Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday 23 November
>
>  Stage 1 has already started.
>
>  Does someone want to take control for stage 2? 
I'll happily kick off something on the wiki sometime Monday/Tuesday

Jon

Neowin timeline

[Paul W. Frields]

On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 15:53 +0000, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
>  2008/11/12 Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  > On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W. Frields wrote:
>  >> Hello Marketing team,
>  >>
>  >> We received the following inquiry, and I thought this was a good
>  >> opportunity to practice some of the "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  >> there any folks on the list who would like to formulate answers to the
>  >> questions here?
>  >
>  > I thought it would be useful to have a subthread (or at least an
>  > interjectino) about the timeline.  What I was thinking is that, since
>  > the deadline for the Neowin article isn't really clear but does suggest
>  > "a couple weeks," that we try for the following actions and dates:
>  >
>  > Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday 17 November
>  > Collaborative wiki document - deadline Friday 21 November
>  > Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday 23 November
>  >
>  > Stage 1 has already started.
>  >
>  > Does someone want to take control for stage 2?
>  
>  I'll happily kick off something on the wiki sometime Monday/Tuesday 
Just a tickle to keep this thread bubbled up.  Looks like we're at the
point to start the wiki document in question.

Paul

Neowin timeline

[Leo Jackson]

Paul,

I would like to take control of stage 2 if allowed 

Leo Albert Jackson Jr
Owner Head Programmer
LJ's Electronics and Software


--- On Mon, 11/17/08, Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

>  From: Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;
>  Subject: Re: Neowin timeline
>  To: fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 8:12 AM
>  On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 15:53 +0000, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
>  > 2008/11/12 Paul W. Frields
>  <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  > > On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W.
>  Frields wrote:
>  > >> Hello Marketing team,
>  > >>
>  > >> We received the following inquiry, and I
>  thought this was a good
>  > >> opportunity to practice some of the
>  "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  > >> there any folks on the list who would like to
>  formulate answers to the
>  > >> questions here?
>  > >
>  > > I thought it would be useful to have a subthread
>  (or at least an
>  > > interjectino) about the timeline.  What I was
>  thinking is that, since
>  > > the deadline for the Neowin article isn't
>  really clear but does suggest
>  > > "a couple weeks," that we try for the
>  following actions and dates:
>  > >
>  > > Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday 17
>  November
>  > > Collaborative wiki document - deadline Friday 21
>  November
>  > > Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday 23
>  November
>  > >
>  > > Stage 1 has already started.
>  > >
>  > > Does someone want to take control for stage 2?
>  > 
>  > I'll happily kick off something on the wiki
>  sometime Monday/Tuesday
>  
>  Just a tickle to keep this thread bubbled up.  Looks like
>  we're at the
>  point to start the wiki document in question.
>  
>  Paul
>  
>  -- 
>  Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list

lajjr introduction

[Leo Jackson]

My name is Leo Albert Jackson Jr (aka lajjr)

I live in Scranton Pa EST

I am Owner of a software firm, and write code, and third party animator.
LJs Electronics and Software my company.
I want to be part of the fedora project and spread it every where I roam.
Get everyone in my area and around the world contributing to the project.
I like to talk about everything software or art, and changes to groups and contributing
basically anything. I want to be part of everything fedora.

Thank You,

Leo Albert Jackson Jr
Owner Head Programmer
LJ's Electronics and Software


--- On Mon, 11/17/08, Leo Jackson <lajjr(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote:

>  From: Leo Jackson <lajjr(a)yahoo.com&gt;
>  Subject: Re: Neowin timeline
>  To: "For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base"
> <fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 9:40 AM
>  Paul,
>  
>  I would like to take control of stage 2 if allowed 
>  
>  Leo Albert Jackson Jr
>  Owner Head Programmer
>  LJ's Electronics and Software
>  
>  
>  --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Paul W. Frields
>  <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  
>  > From: Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;
>  > Subject: Re: Neowin timeline
>  > To: fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  > Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 8:12 AM
>  > On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 15:53 +0000, Jonathan Roberts
>  wrote:
>  > > 2008/11/12 Paul W. Frields
>  > <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  > > > On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W.
>  > Frields wrote:
>  > > >> Hello Marketing team,
>  > > >>
>  > > >> We received the following inquiry, and I
>  > thought this was a good
>  > > >> opportunity to practice some of the
>  > "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  > > >> there any folks on the list who would
>  like to
>  > formulate answers to the
>  > > >> questions here?
>  > > >
>  > > > I thought it would be useful to have a
>  subthread
>  > (or at least an
>  > > > interjectino) about the timeline.  What I
>  was
>  > thinking is that, since
>  > > > the deadline for the Neowin article
>  isn't
>  > really clear but does suggest
>  > > > "a couple weeks," that we try for
>  the
>  > following actions and dates:
>  > > >
>  > > > Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday
>  17
>  > November
>  > > > Collaborative wiki document - deadline
>  Friday 21
>  > November
>  > > > Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday
>  23
>  > November
>  > > >
>  > > > Stage 1 has already started.
>  > > >
>  > > > Does someone want to take control for stage
>  2?
>  > > 
>  > > I'll happily kick off something on the wiki
>  > sometime Monday/Tuesday
>  > 
>  > Just a tickle to keep this thread bubbled up.  Looks
>  like
>  > we're at the
>  > point to start the wiki document in question.
>  > 
>  > Paul
>  > 
>  > -- 
>  > Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  > Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  >
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>  
>  -- 
>  Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list

lajjr introduction

[Tushar Neupaney]

On 17/11/2008, Leo Jackson <lajjr(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote:
>  My name is Leo Albert Jackson Jr (aka lajjr)
>
>  I live in Scranton Pa EST
>
>  I am Owner of a software firm, and write code, and third party animator.
>  LJs Electronics and Software my company.
>  I want to be part of the fedora project and spread it every where I roam. 

Good work.

Get everyone in my area and around the world contributing to the project.
>  I like to talk about everything software or art, and changes to
> groups and
>  contributing basically anything. I want to be part of everything fedora. 

When u are an ambassador you are part of a greater fedora. Do what you can
do best.

Thank You,
>  Leo Albert Jackson Jr
>  Owner Head Programmer
>  LJ's Electronics and Software
>
>
>  --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Leo Jackson <lajjr(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote:
>
>  > From: Leo Jackson <lajjr(a)yahoo.com&gt;
>  > Subject: Re: Neowin timeline
>  > To: "For discussions about marketing and expanding the Fedora user base"
>  <fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 9:40 AM
>  > Paul,
>  >
>  > I would like to take control of stage 2 if allowed
>  >
>  > Leo Albert Jackson Jr
>  > Owner Head Programmer
>  > LJ's Electronics and Software
>  >
>  >
>  > --- On Mon, 11/17/08, Paul W. Frields
>  > <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:
>  >
>  > > From: Paul W. Frields <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;
>  > > Subject: Re: Neowin timeline
>  > > To: fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  > > Date: Monday, November 17, 2008, 8:12 AM
>  > > On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 15:53 +0000, Jonathan Roberts
>  > wrote:
>  > > > 2008/11/12 Paul W. Frields
>  > > <stickster(a)gmail.com&gt;:
>  > > > > On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 22:47 -0500, Paul W.
>  > > Frields wrote:
>  > > > >> Hello Marketing team,
>  > > > >>
>  > > > >> We received the following inquiry, and I
>  > > thought this was a good
>  > > > >> opportunity to practice some of the
>  > > "open marketing" concepts.  Are
>  > > > >> there any folks on the list who would
>  > like to
>  > > formulate answers to the
>  > > > >> questions here?
>  > > > >
>  > > > > I thought it would be useful to have a
>  > subthread
>  > > (or at least an
>  > > > > interjectino) about the timeline.  What I
>  > was
>  > > thinking is that, since
>  > > > > the deadline for the Neowin article
>  > isn't
>  > > really clear but does suggest
>  > > > > "a couple weeks," that we try for
>  > the
>  > > following actions and dates:
>  > > > >
>  > > > > Brainstorming on answers - deadline Monday
>  > 17
>  > > November
>  > > > > Collaborative wiki document - deadline
>  > Friday 21
>  > > November
>  > > > > Final edits, send answers - deadline Sunday
>  > 23
>  > > November
>  > > > >
>  > > > > Stage 1 has already started.
>  > > > >
>  > > > > Does someone want to take control for stage
>  > 2?
>  > > >
>  > > > I'll happily kick off something on the wiki
>  > > sometime Monday/Tuesday
>  > >
>  > > Just a tickle to keep this thread bubbled up.  Looks
>  > like
>  > > we're at the
>  > > point to start the wiki document in question.
>  > >
>  > > Paul
>  > >
>  > > --
>  > > Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  > > Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  > >
>  > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>  >
>  > --
>  > Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  > Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>
>
>  --
>  Fedora-marketing-list mailing list
>  Fedora-marketing-list(a)redhat.com
>  https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-marketing-list
>

Neowin timeline

[Paul W. Frields]

On Mon, 2008-11-17 at 06:40 -0800, Leo Jackson wrote:
>  Paul,
>  
>  I would like to take control of stage 2 if allowed  
Hello Leo,

Jonathan Roberts has already agreed to take care of stage 2 of this
request, but thank you very much for your kind offer.  It is probably
good for an experienced Fedora ambassador to take care of this
particular request since it is a press inquiry.  Thanks again!

Also, in the future if you start a new topic, such as an introduction,
you should write a brand-new email as opposed to a reply.  That way your
message will be seen by people who aren't interested in the existing
topic, but do want to see new topics.

-- 
Paul W. Frields
  gpg fingerprint: 3DA6 A0AC 6D58 FEC4 0233  5906 ACDB C937 BD11 3717
  http://paul.frields.org/   -  -   http://pfrields.fedorapeople.org/
  irc.freenode.net: stickster @ #fedora-docs, #fedora-devel, #fredlug