Troubling times for OpenSUSE

By Sam Varghese
Saturday, 21 February 2009 04:06

Opinion and Analysis

The OpenSUSE project, a group that develops a Linux distribution that then feeds into Novell's SUSE Linux, has been hit recently by the layoffs at Novell.
Some Novell developers, who were also contributors to the OpenSUSE project, were laid off by the company. This has caused some other contriburors to apparently ask the OpenSUSE board about the future of the project.

In response to these queries, board members Pascal Bleser and Bryen Yunashko have made a joint statement and posted it to the opensuse-project mailing list.

Unfortunately, it is a truism that when people in any organisation or project feel the necessity to make statements of this nature, then the actual situation is much worse than is made out. But whether this holds good for OpenSUSE will be revealed only in the fullness of time.

Bleser and Yunashko have sought to emphasise the community nature of the project; they also state that they are convinced that Novell is still committed to OpenSUSE.

With the departure of some developers, it is but logical to assume that their workload would devolve upon those left behind. Hence, it remains to be seen whether the remaining people at Novell who are involved in OpenSUSE will now have the time and energy to contribute as they were doing before the layoffs.

Another thing that Bleser and Yunashko have stated is that they look forward to having those who were laid off continue working with the project. It strikes one as a tad insensitive to expect people who are thrown out on the dustheap by a company to still retain interest in a project run by the same company, but maybe there is a greater spirit of altruism among these unfortunate souls than among the masses.