[Fedora-marketing-list] Re: Fedora 6 to strengthen virtualisation features with Xen 3.0.3

[Rahul]

chasd at silveroaks.com wrote:

> 
> My bad, in a message speaking to the accuracy of terminology, I 
> incorrectly referred to "Fedora Core" as "Fedora" - confusing the issue.
> Sorry.
> 
> Not to belabor the point, but would the Fedora Community "release" 
> Fedora Extras, or would that effort be better considered under the 
> Fedora Project umbrella ?

The latter. The community consists of both users and contributors. Only 
the contributors are involved in the release. Hence a release is from 
the "Fedora Project".


> 
>> So realistically that's just Red Hat doing
>> all the release management work.
> 
> So the article was correct stating Red Hat releases Fedora Core ?

It's not grossly inaccurate at this point. We would prefer that they say 
that Fedora Project did the release however.

> To me, it is more correct to say Red Hat engineers as part of the Fedora 
> Community play a staggeringly large role in the release of Fedora Core.
> I suppose for simplicity's sake, just saying Red Hat isn't far off.
> However I think that simple statement re-enforces a general perception 
> that the Fedora Project seems to keep fighting.

We have to point out that there is a difference. Our official 
announcements and press releases always use and emphasize consistent 
terms for this reason.


> 
> I think that outside of the Fedora Community, the following statements 
> might be viewed as true:
> 
> Red Hat = Fedora Core
> Red Hat = Fedora Project
> 
> The first is false in my mind ( and comparing different types ) while 
> the second would be more accurate with a tilde above the equal sign; it 
> is not _completely_ true.
> Or maybe my glasses need cleaning, and I'm not seeing things straight ;)

It goes both ways. There are also people surprised at the news that Red 
Hat is involved in the project at all. See ambassadors list for some 
event reports which match my own experiences speaking at events or 
discussing with people there.

I still remember the big ruffle when Alan Cox wearing a big Red Fedora 
booted up Fedora Core to do a keynote presentation about contributing to 
Free software in the foss.in event last year with everyone around me 
wondering loudly what has Red Hat doing with Fedora.

It kind of swings from one end to another time to time depending on what 
  people want. Some end users worry that without the commercial backing 
Fedora wouldnt be moving ahead as fast or feature rich as it does while 
others worry that it isnt a community project when one organization is 
involved to this extend.


> 
> Using consistent terms when discussing the distribution and the entities 
> involved is important to outside perception.
> Getting reviewers and other individuals in the media to use the 
> consistent terms is part of guiding that perception in the desired 
> direction.
> 
> Getting random posters on Slashdot to use the consistent terms is a pipe 
> dream ;)
> 

Sure. Feel free to send a note to reporters when they use incorrect 
terminology.

Rahul