Ubuntu's Quest for OpenSUSE Developers

Mark, I don’t think it’s a good strategy to go on a hunt for OpenSUSE developers that way. Saying that Novell did wrong is one thing, but this kind of PR leaves a bad taste.

I switched from OpenSUSE to Kubuntu about half a year ago (for purely technical reasons, I should add). If you want to win the hearts and minds of OpenSUSE developers and users, better look at whats important to them.

I had a friend (longtime SUSE user) calling me recently asking why it was so hard to configure (K)Ubuntu to dial up via modem or ISDN (very popular in germany). There isn’t even a (decent!) graphical frontend for PPPoE (DSL) in (K)Ubuntu by default. No troubles with OpenSUSE and YaST there. So this is really a step backwards for people who want to use Ubuntu.

Thus I will forwards my friends question here: What is so Ubuntu, so human about keeping migration-willing people from basic things like the Internet? If Canonical and the (K)Ubuntu community can solve tho problems behind this and other questions that OpenSUSE users pose, I think it’s much simpler to draw users (and a lot of them are also developers!) to (K)Ubuntu. Actively joining into the “Novell-is-evil” choir doesn’t help anyone. I hope we can see more ubuntuness towards non-router users in Feisty Fawn.