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SUSE Requests openSUSE to Rebrand

cross-posted from: lemm.ee/post/37281970

Believe it or not, an unexpected conflict has arisen in the openSUSE community with its long-time supporter and namesake, the SUSE company.

At the heart of this tension lies a quiet request that has stirred not-so-quiet ripples across the open source landscape: SUSE has formally asked openSUSE to discontinue using its brand name.

Richard Brown, a key figure within the openSUSE project, shared insights into the discussions that have unfolded behind closed doors.

Despite SUSE’s request’s calm and respectful tone, the implications of not meeting it could be far-reaching, threatening the symbiotic relationship that has benefited both entities over the years.

fireshell ,
@fireshell@lemmy.ml avatar

openSUSE is already a brand, now the main thing is not to get lost.

pmk ,

When I hear openSUSE, I think of german engineering and resources from SUSE, with a history of innovating great infrastructure.
With a new name, distanced from the SUSE part, I’ll probably feel more like if this is yet another random derivative created by a small group who might soon lose interest.

frankgrimeszz ,

LibreSUSE 😎

GolfNovemberUniform ,
@GolfNovemberUniform@lemmy.ml avatar

I’d love them to replace SUSE with SUS. Distrowatch click rate +500%

Blaster_M ,

I would that too

Rozauhtuno ,
@Rozauhtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

amongSUSE

pastermil ,

SamongUSE

thehatfox ,
@thehatfox@lemmy.world avatar

Seems a pointless endeavour. The open and enterprise sides are so deeply linked, it makes sense that they share a brand.

Separating them only weakens the broader SUSE ecosystem.

llionesista ,
@llionesista@fosstodon.org avatar

@thehatfox @banazir
Suse and Oracle already have an enterprise-level community project, OpenELA. This image explains very well in my opinion why SUSE is asking the openSUSE community to remove the SUSE name.

pastermil ,

I’m curious as to where they’re actually going with this. They got news, they got repo, but still nothing to run even after almost a year?

narc0tic_bird ,

Doesn’t SUSE actively benefit from openSUSE development? I thought Tumbleweed and SLES had a similar relationship as Fedora and RHEL.

mogoh ,

Notice that “Fedora” does not have “Redhat” its name. Maybe the request is reasonable. I don’t know how many people think that thy don’t need SLES, because there is openSUSE.

narc0tic_bird ,

My comment was more about how SUSE benefits from openSUSE development (and vice-versa) and that Tumbleweed has a similar relationship to SLES as Fedora has to RHEL, as they are both upstream of their respective enterprise distributions.

Besides, people don’t need SLES. Enterprises do because of the support they get. And I’d assume employees responsible for that kind of thing at such enterprises would know the difference.

And the Red Hat logo is literally a fedora hat.

If it’s just a name change done well, I couldn’t care less (although openSUSE is a very recognizable name and brand recognition would have to be reestablished). I just hope that this isn’t the beginning of something worse.

pmk ,

Fedora/Redhat is a good example. It could be argued that the Linux distro scene was different 23 years ago, making it harder to be seen today.

The thing I’m pondering is what the openSUSE community actually is. Does it exist as a group, or is it separate projects, each doing their own thing… for who? What is the overlap between people in the various distros, overlap in technology used in packaging and QA etc? Is it meaningful to talk about openSUSE as a distinct community separate from SUSE?

MyNameIsRichard ,
@MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml avatar

SUSE provide a lot of the infrastructure for openSUSE and base their enterprise Linux from factory.

connaisseur ,

Since I had to deal with some representatives of SUSE corp, I can say that the whole experience was just plain horrible. Don‘t like that company at all and thus am not surprised that the name change topic is even discussed at all.

Strit , (edited )
@Strit@lemmy.linuxuserspace.show avatar

If they were to rename/rebrand, what would be the new name, do you think?

I’ve heard mention of GeekLinux/GeekOS.

Kusimulkku ,

Dear Lord I hope they don’t go with that one.

sugartits ,

CringeOS!

Dirk ,
@Dirk@lemmy.ml avatar

It would be non-professional as frick.

drunkosaurus ,

Is openSusie different enough to be considered?

kurcatovium ,

That is terrible idea, it’s even worse than my fun proposal of openSAUCE…

Hexarei ,
@Hexarei@programming.dev avatar

I can imagine that getting confused with Guix (pronounced geeks)

moontorchy ,

Oh wow. SUSE family of distribution is relatively small footprint. Whole story sounds like “splitting the hair”. The only reasonable explanation is that SUSE hired some self-glorified marketer from big corp. omg…

fr0g ,

No, there are good reasons for it. A lot of people get confused between SUSE and openSUSE offerings. Often SUSE customers show up in openSUSE places, because they believe that it's a place they can get official support. And I'm sure a lot of potential customers might get confused in the same way too.
On the flip side there are also a lot of openSUSE (adjacent) users who think SUSE is (secretly or not) making openSUSE development decisions or think they can dand SUSE to do that and that.

So there are some good reasons to consider a rebranding, but also some speaking against it, like the less of recognition it might entail.

agressivelyPassive ,

And you really think, people who are willing and able to buy enterprise support for their Linux distro get confused by the naming? Sure, there’s that one confused dude, but you also have people asking Facebook where they left their keys.

OpenSuse is essentially free marketing for SUSE, nobody would know them otherwise. Why would you give that away?

Suse is not a huge company, it has neither a large enterprise backer nor any killer features, and its market share is relatively small compared to Red Hat or Canonical. Throwing away free marketing while alienating a relatively passionate community is a kind of brainrot only MBA can come up with.

fr0g ,

And you really think, people who are willing and able to buy enterprise support for their Linux distro get confused by the naming?

No, I don't think that. I know that because I'm active in the community.

OpenSuse is essentially free marketing for SUSE, nobody would know them otherwise.

That is absolute nonsense. SUSE mostly serves large enterprise customers. That's an entirely different demographic from people who care about Desktop Linux or setting up a home server.

Edit:

its market share is relatively small compared to Red Hat or Canonical.

I'm pretty sure SUSE is bigger than Canonical.

Editedit: According to wikipedia SUSE's revenue is about twice as high as Canonical's

agressivelyPassive ,

That is absolute nonsense. SUSE mostly serves large enterprise customers.

And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information? Mind share is important.

I’m pretty sure SUSE is bigger than Canonical.

That’s actually surprising to me, but I’d argue that Suse offers more products, it seems like Rancher, Longhorn, etc. have no canonical equivalent.

Laser ,

And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information?

Advertisements at large airports

LeFantome ,

OMG. This is so hilariously true.

fr0g ,

And where do you think the people deciding what to buy get their information? Mind share is important.

Modt certainly not in Linux distro community spaces, because those are completely irrelevant for them and their needs.

skullgiver ,
@skullgiver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl avatar

deleted_by_author

    •
    anothermember ,

    as did CentOS before it

    Fedora is older than CentOS?

    LeFantome ,

    Almost everybody that chooses SUSE ( SLE ) does so because of SAP.

    panicnow ,

    I’m surprised and happy that SUSE is still doing well. I have fond memories of using SUSE in the enterprise especially around their “perfect guest” campaign for using it in virtualized environments. I thought they had very well-baked integration with large Windows networks—things just worked out of the box that didn’t with RHEL. I’m sure a lot has changed in the last decade but I appreciated their cooperative stance in the enterprise.

    ulu_mulu ,

    OpenSuse is essentially free marketing for SUSE, nobody would know them otherwise

    I’ve been working for big enterprises for many years, SUSE is used in enterprise environment to run SAP systems because it’s recommended by SAP, OpenSuse has nothing to do with that.

    monobot ,

    And relying on marketing by someone you don’t control is not good decision even if losing some mind share.

    monobot ,

    I am in the linux world 20+ years. Used SUSE for short amout of time back than and never really cared much about it, just glad it still exist.

    This is the first time I am hearing openSUSE is not part od SUSE.

    Having different name should be good for all. I think openSUSE people should have done it long time ago. But sounds like name is not the only problem.

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