OpenSuse vs Fedora Legacy versions

[Jeff Spaleta]

On 4/21/06, Patrick W. Barnes <nman64 at n-man.com> wrote:
> Please contact the author and ask them to update their materials or remove the
> reference to Fedora altogether.  You can suggest that they reference the
> Fedora Legacy project if they wish to provide the most accurate information
> possible.

Good luck with getting Suse to agree refraining from making direct
comparisons to Fedora.  I think the fact that they felt a need to draw
a direct comparison in their high level documentation speaks volumes
as to the intrinsic worth of Fedora as a project. Obviously the people
who wrote that document feel that opensuse can only be justified in
terms of Fedora specifically.

I personally view that document as a shining example of how not to
advertise your open project and why all Fedora project communication
should be strictly focused on communcating Fedora without making a
comparison to any other unrelated project choice. We must accept the
fact that we can not make an authoriative statement as to the relative
worth of Fedora compared to any other similiar projects which are not
closely aligned to the fedora development process because we are not
experts in the structuring or the development roadmap for those other
projects.  Anytime a comparative statement is made which is meant to
show Fedora is relatively more valuable than what another project is
currently doing.. you run the risk of that comparative statement
becoming out of date as the development process for Fedora and other
projects evolve.   Fact checking to make sure we are communicating the
state-of-the-art of Fedora development is a big enough job. Trying to
keep up with Suse's or Ubuntu's or Gentoo's or whatever else
development specifics as well so we can make factually correct and
unbiased comparative statements is impossible to do.

-jef"Sadly I think someone invovled with opensuse communication was
suckered into believing that typical 'technical journalism' styled
'reviews' is the best way to inform people about their project"spaleta