Fedora Board Recap 2007-JUL-31

[John Poelstra]

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Board/Meetings/2007-07-31

== Roll Call ==

  * Attendees: Max Spevack, Seth Vidal, John Poelstra, Matt Domsch, Jef 
Spaleta, Karsten Wade, Jesse Keating, Dennis Gilmore Bill Nottingham, 
and Chris Aillon

  * Regrets: Steve Dickson, Chris Blizzard

== Fedora 8 Test 1 ==
  * Special report from Fedora Release Engineering--Jesse Keating
  * Going to slip
    * mostly due to ongoing kernel issue with booting
    * fix has been found
    * Pulling updated kernel code along with fix for booting
  * PPC
    * IDE support is not in good shape
    * must run with SELinux disabled
  * Lost a few days of rawhide due to changes in anaconda at last minute
    * Be a little stricter with freeze next time--trying to be lenient 
to accommodate people returning from Guadec.
  * If all goes well by Friday, will release to mirrors and go live with 
test release on Tuesday

== Virtual FUDCon ==
  * Have nine sessions listed so far--hope to have as many as twelve
  * Waiting for Red Hat IT to open ports to allow Asterisk so that audio 
can be provided

== fedoraproject.org email ==
  * Report from Max's meeting with Legal
  * fedoraproject.org email aliases are okay from a legal standpoint
  * Because only used as an alias and mail is forwarded to another 
address, Fedora is not required to archive mail.

ACTION: Max to summarize the current multimedia issue from recent mail 
thread and take to Legal for review.

== Target Market ==
  * More discussion on fedora-advisory-board thread "Who is our target 
market?"
  * Our current documented strategy is to "Be the most innovative, open, 
and freely available Linux distribution".
  * Are there any professional marketing people that would be interested 
in helping that we know?
    * Could some internal Red Hat resources help with Open Marketing?
  * How can Fedora do better marketing and bring good attention to the 
projects?
  * Is fedora-marketing-list a good first place to send people?
  * Where do people go to find out current or upcoming Fedora events?
    * For example, Fedora events coming up at Linux World next week.
  * Is Fedora a Desktop or a Server?
    * Fedora is often classified as a desktop by default because it is 
not typically used as a server (support life-cycle is too short).
    * We are a "working environment" distro--you can slice it into many 
different purposes.
    * Would we want to enable something during firstboot to determine if 
you are installing a "server" or "desktop"?
    * To have a cutting edge desktop you have to carry your patches for 
a while sometimes that are not already upstream.
    * Could a future release be planned well in advance and targeted 
with a particular purpose in mind: "Fedora X will be targeted at being 
the best desktop possible" while focusing much less on server features.
  * Where in Fedora are we possibly favoring or protecting the server 
versus the desktop?  Where are we doing work on the server where we 
could instead devote those resources to the desktop?
   * Network manager is not enabled by default
  * Why are people choosing Fedora?
    * Past familiarity with Red Hat and/or Fedora
    * For whatever reason they favor a Red Hat versus Debian based 
distribution
    * If we are banking on "past familiarity" then how we can we really 
reach new people?
  * We need to do a better job of explaining the relationship between 
Red Hat and Fedora?
    * Both need each other
    * Fedora tends to try and distance itself from Red Hat and stand on 
its own.
  * For Fedora 7 we built tools for people to spin their own distro--why 
hasn't this caught on more?
    * It isn't '''fun'''
    * It is difficult because of artwork and logo trademark issues
    * Maybe the tools are not as easy to use as we thought
  * If we want people to spin distros that are based on Fedora, but 
don't run into trademark issues, we need to:
    1. Make a package providing non-{fedora,Red Hat} system logos
    1. Include a set a pictures that do not include Red Hat or Fedora in 
them
    1. Put package in a repo
    1. Fix everything that relies on existing logos

ACTION: For Fedora 8, is it possible to modify fedora logos and the 
packages that depend on to excluded the words "Fedora" or "Red Hat" 
everywhere (in the graphics and file names themselves).  Who will do it?
  * Delegate to FESCo or Art Team?
  * Bill and Seth volunteered to take an initial look