A Request

Hello,

During the past two weeks we have seen ann influx of data, projects and ideas going around through the community. We have engaged in discussing some greater changes for our distribution and community in the search for higher acceptance and performance of our distribution of choice.

The comments on our mailing lists about the possible changes on the horizon make me think that there is a lot being asked of us. While many that participate in openSUSE might think that it is ok to the let the times roll with us as mere spectators, this request for change has become a wake up call for many of us. We may need to gather our strength, voice our opinion, change the status quo of our contributions. If anything, this proposals have stirred many of our minds and revived the passion that makes openSUSE a personal favorite.

Not only the request about changes and realignment have made this happen, but also events and people that participate of the openSUSE community are currently working on making a very successful event for our conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia next April.

The openSUSE Conference is a long-standing event for our members and enthusiasts to meet and gather around common goals and to promote our distribution. It is also an opportunity to showcase much of what we do on our own for the project.
I have involved my self in this organization, providing a few ideas for design and promotion. I hope that the results of this team's efforts are looked upon with gratitude, for while this is not coding, we still do a lot of our work spending countless hours to make this event a success.

Another important event happening at the moment are the openSUSE Board Elections. This time we have a few aspirants for the position running with what they can offer for the rest of the community. It surely shows a higher level of commitment to want to help the project as a whole to move forward for the future.
I humbly ask that if you have not yet cast your vote for this election, that you do so. Your favorite candidates are still waiting for your support and if you feel that this is elections process does not care for what you have to express, think again.

I say this because of the times that we are facing. Think of this because now the industry is exploring more ways that Linux can be present in a massive way for many more people than ever before. This is what has prompted our discussion about the future of openSUSE. SteamOS, for example has just launched with a promising future based on Linux. Many other distributions are now exploring going mobile or be embedded in smaller everyday devices that we will end up using.

Because of the changes in the industry is that I ask that you vote. Help the board at openSUSE hear your particular voice through votes. Let us know what you would like to see happen with openSUSE. Our candidates will thank you deeply.

Thank you!
Andy (anditosan)

For more information click here!

openSUSE Summit Conclusion

Over the past three days, i had the chance to attend the openSUSE summit once again in Florida. Attendance to the event was great and thanks to the wonderful talks that were offered, the event was a success.

Getting to meet people in the community that you only talk to over the internet is a special feeling. You get to understand the many wonderful things our contributors do in order to keep the openSUSE fir alive and hot that benefits the community.

It also with great pleasure that it is time to get our downloads ready for the coming of 13.1 which is the result of extensive work on the part oft he community to bring out a quality work for our users and new users looking to make the Linux jump.

Now or focus shifts to Croatia, where in April, we will host the openSUSE Conference. I personally am not a learned person in the many ways that Croatia is known for, and i need help on making some good artwork for the event. This time I think it is a good idea to start with a good logo and then branch into the many other elements needed to make up the conference. Such as website, promotional materials, CDs, iweb banners, counters, etc. Anything that you can imagine needs to be created and be ready for the conference.

Because of this I would ask you, my friends, to sugget important i inigraphy belonging to Croatia that I can turn into meaningful artwork in preparation for the conference in April. Anything goess here, all that I am looking for is inspiration. If you are familiar with Croati! Please share your thoughts here under the comments section.

Thank you for the great help!

PS: This post was written while on a plane back home to Utah

Running for the Board

Hello,

Recent events in the openSUSE community have left the board needing to fill a few seats. Although I have never been one to show deep interest in the board, I believe it is now the right time to step up my participation in the project. With this in mind I presented my candidacy for the openSUSE Board this year.

It is not news that our project is always looking to improve and put our culture closer to the hands of many people looking to make the "Linux switch." Under this premise, I have participated of the openSUSE Artwork team for the past few years and as an openSUSE Linux novice since 2000. New needs and ventures have also taken me to participate in the openSUSE News team as an editor.

Seeing that my participation in the project has become more evident and thereby making openSUSE more evident to users that follow us, the candidacy for the board comes at a time when we need to strengthen our marketing strategies and our overall communication structure not only to the community, but also those looking to use our distribution and are not quite decided yet.

You may be acquainted with the work I have done in the past. Much of our recent promotional artwork for CDs, Posters, Stickers, Website artwork for the openSUSE Summit and openSUSE Conference, and other visual projects has been conceptualized by me based on the ideals that openSUSE has a visual importance that needs expansion.

Editing news articles has also given incredible insight into what openSUSE is able to communicate and inspire about Linux in many people looking to make the jump.

I have also been a speaker in a couple of openSUSE-related events and have tried communicating our ideals and goals.

I believe in openSUSE as a means of visual communication. I believe there are many things that our project can shine about and many more things to discover as a team.

If you are a believer in the future of openSUSE I humbly as for your vote and support.

Latest Images

Hello everyone!

I have not been very active with my blog lately. Things are always changing and having time to gather some visuals is harder at times.
Over the past few weeks I have been involved in making some artwork for the openSUSE Summit coming up in November in Florida. It has been a great opportunity to put out some simple designs for our newest conference format. This conference will follo SUSECon set to be right before the Summit. If you are in the Florida area, head on over to summit.opensuse.org and find out the latest about this conference.
In the mean time I took a trip around Utah (my backyard) to see some good landscape and take some pictures. I believe Utah has a lot to offer to those who love the cooler seasons. Its landscape is made up of beautiful mountains and wonderful shrubbery. When fall (Autumn) comes around, many people from all over come to Utah to travel the national parks looking for the perfect changes in leaf color and a mix between patches of snow and amazing sunsets.
Taking this to heart, I dedicated an afternoon to take some shots and test my luck with light. Here are the results. Maybe, even some of these could do for an awesome fall wallpaper.

Enjoy!

Sunflowers

This summer, our family planted a few vegetables and fruit. It also accidentally let some sunflower seeds fall on the ground and they germinated. Now that the summer is full on and the skies are blue, I decided to play with the beautiful yellows coming from the sunflowers. I think these could do for an excellent and poppy screen background.

Enjoy!

These images are CC-BY-SA. You could download the high resolution ones from my Flickr page.

Chameleon Brand Image

All of you who read my blog and communicates with me through the openSUSE channels knows that I am passionate about the chameleon image that comes along with openSUSE. It is one of its distinctive images and it is also part of its logo.

In former releases and under former design teams the image of this chameleon was also present. Graphically, this set the striking difference, in my mind, between openSUSE and other distributions. Most distributions rely on simply made logos from SVG. While these other logos and brands are generally well-designed and get across with their point, they tend to lack a reality. By that I mean a real, natural counterpart that can also be included in their marketing image.

Take for example Apple design. When they decided to brand their OS releases, they chose the names of wild felines such as cheetah, puma, jaguar, panther, tiger, lion, and so on. If you take their marketing strategy over the course of these releases, I believe, they realized that there was much more visual power in using real life images rather than keeping computer generated graphics as their face.

That was up to the release of Leopard. Then there came a change.

Although openSUSE is not Apple and our design team is not quite as sizable, it is important to remember that we too have an image based on a very striking reptile. The chameleon has many variants in its family and it's natural image "rawness" has always made an impact on me. My suggestion is no that we name our releases after different chameleon species, that would make our names run out in just a couple of years given the many releases that we produce. However, if something is to be learned from Apple's and other companies' logo examples such as CORNING's Gorilla Glass

is that natural-based images make a strong impression and makes people endear themselves with a very positive and intuitive way of recognizing a brand. openSUSE has this potential right at home through its chameleon logo. Although for general purposes the chameleon is a vector-based graphic embedded into the official project's logo, there are many other creative ways that you can use this and make an impression.

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a request in the mailing list asking to prepare a graphic that would be included in a magazine showcasing the openSUSE conference. I decided to take on the challenge and produce something striking, eye-drawing and relevant. With much thought I decided to find a simple, yet beautiful graphic to promote openSUSE as a brand. This is what came out.

I really enjoyed that design. It brings back that natural beauty of our logo, it promotes our brand, it shows versatility, and it draws attention. I created a few other iterations in case there are more opportunities to bring and integrate our chameleon into the rest of our brand design.