Project

General

Profile

Actions

action #456

closed

action #453: Create a Press Kit and send it to the press

Write 'reviewers guide', the mail for the press

Added by Anonymous over 11 years ago. Updated about 11 years ago.

Status:
Closed
Priority:
Normal
Assignee:
-
Category:
Marketing
Target version:
Start date:
2013-11-06
Due date:
2013-11-07
% Done:

100%

Estimated time:
6.00 h

Description

We send the press a 'personalized' email. It contains some personal notes from whoever sends it (usually Jos/the CM).

Be sure to have it reviewed.

Example text below from the 12.3 release:
Hi XXX,

As the openSUSE community manager, I am pleased to provide to you the final version of openSUSE 12.3 for your evaluation in advance of its worldwide release on March 13. openSUSE 12.3 comes only six months after our previous release, which means we are back to our usual eight month cycle (12.2 was delayed by two months). Below is a link to the openSUSE 12.3 GoldMaster (final) for your testing pleasure. Also included is a feature overview and press release. The announcement is embargoed until Wednesday, March 13, 2013 at 14:00 UTC.

Notable in openSUSE 12.3 is the addition of OpenStack (Folsom) packages as well as the move to MariaDB as default database. MySQL is still a part of our distribution, so not much will change for the average user as both databases have been part of openSUSE for a long time already.

And there is of course the ARM and ARM 64bit work our ARM team has been doing. We're currently at over 4000 build packages, putting us well ahead of any other Linux distribution supporting ARM's AArch64 architecture. Preview images for installation and testing will be made available when 12.3 is released. The ARM 32bit efforts are progressing too. We plan to release a stable openSUSE 12.3 for ARMv7 shortly after the x86 and x86_64 versions to be released on Wednesday the 13th.

In case you wonder and have followed the controversy, we support UEFI in this release and there's Secure Boot. But, in proper openSUSE fashion, we're not 200% confident about Secure Boot, in part due to the issues with Sony laptops (we will carry the patches making the issue less likely to hit our users). A wiki page is being built on https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:UEFI to keep our users informed of our ongoing efforts to solve Secure Boot.

There will be new SUSE Studio images for 12.3 available on release day. Upgrading existing images/appliances will also be possible on Wednesday, March 13.

http://software.opensuse.org has been building openSUSE 12.3 packages for a while and much software is already available. For example, the just released plasmate 1.0 is already built for 12.3!

I'm quite proud of what our desktop teams have done for this release. See http://news.opensuse.org/?p=15318 if you are interested in a preview. There's an awesome video introducing our default desktop, KDE, made by a volunteer (you won't believe he did that in his free time if you see it).

If you have any questions or would like an interview with someone from the openSUSE team, the wider community, the board or me, just let me know.

Kind regards,
Jos Poortvliet
openSUSE Community Manager

Materials we have for you

The goldmaster link:
http://download.opensuse.org/xxx
username 'xxx' pw 'xxx'

PLEASE do NOT share this, except perhaps with colleagues who will also observe the EMBARGO!

The official press announcement which we will send on March 13, 14:00
https://github.com/openSUSE/Press-Kit/raw/master/English/openSUSE%20123%20announcement.pdf

The feature guide, detailing many of the features coming in the 12.3 release.
https://github.com/openSUSE/Press-Kit/raw/master/English/Feature%20Guide.pdf

Here's a link to a zip on github containing the above as well as over 40 screen shots you can use any way you like. Note that I included some shots of ARM 64bit, cloud and server stuff (those are text screens mostly).
https://github.com/openSUSE/Press-Kit/archive/master.zip

preview of the announcement article on news.opensuse.org:
https://news.opensuse.org/?p=15299&preview=true


Related issues 1 (0 open1 closed)

Copied to openSUSE 13.2 Release - report #4078: Write 'reviewers guide', the mail for the pressResolvedddemaio2014-10-132014-10-22

Actions
Actions #1

Updated by Anonymous over 11 years ago

  • Estimated time set to 6.00 h
Actions #2

Updated by Anonymous over 11 years ago

  • Due date changed from 2013-11-07 to 2013-11-11
  • Start date changed from 2013-11-01 to 2013-11-06
Actions #3

Updated by lnussel about 11 years ago

  • Due date changed from 2013-11-11 to 2013-11-07
Actions #4

Updated by Anonymous about 11 years ago

I've been told that shorter is always better, so try to make this one a bit shorter :D

Actions #5

Updated by Anonymous about 11 years ago

  • % Done changed from 0 to 100

Done, send out. Mail has become this:

Dear XXX

We are pleased to present you the final version of openSUSE 13.1 and the press kit. The word-wide availability of openSUSE 13.1 (codename “bottle”) is planned for November 19, 12:00 UTC. This is 8 months after our previous release, exactly as planned.

Please hold off on publishing anything from this press kit or the DVD until the release.

In this press kit you can find the following:
• The final, official press announcement
• A (near-final) draft of the community announcement
• An extensive feature guide
• A list of quotes about the release from prominent community members
• Screenshots and other images related to openSUSE, CC licensed
• About openSUSE and about SUSE documents

At the download location below you can find build 0091 which was declared GoldMaster, the official version of openSUSE 13.1. You will also find the press kit as a zip file there.

download.opensuse.org/press
(SECRET)

Please do not share this information!

We hope these resources will help you communicate to your readers, listeners, viewers and followers what is new and exciting in this release. If you would like to talk to any of the people quoted in the documents or anybody else from the community, please contact me.

We believe this release is very relevant in the Free Software ecosystem. With recent statistics showing openSUSE having at least 440.000 regularly updated installations (for comparison, that is about twice the Fedora userbase), many people will be using this product. And with this release benefitting from a strong stability push by the community and the Evergreen team having committed to extending the life cycle of this release to three years, these users will be able to confidently install it on servers or heavy duty systems alike. The long term support status upstream of our default desktop, KDE's Plasma Desktop should add to this confidence. Meanwhile, the openSUSE community will be able to focus on finishing discussions about the future which were started at the openSUSE conference and put on hold due to the release preparations.

Further information:
• There will be new SUSE Studio images for 13.1 available on release day.
Upgrading existing images/appliances will be possible soon after.
http://software.opensuse.org has been building openSUSE 13.1 packages for a while and thousands of packages are already available, complementing the over 6000 packages part of the official release.

If you have any questions please let me know.

Kind regards,
Jos Poortvliet
openSUSE Community Manager

Actions #6

Updated by Anonymous about 11 years ago

  • Status changed from New to Closed

After a conversation with a journalist, we were urged to send out a single strong message. This has become:

Dear Journalist,

You received our press kit a few days ago. We would like to bring some clarity to our key message.

This release brings openSUSE even closer to what it has always been: the most solid community-driven distribution, offering a wide choice from the best upstream has to offer.

13.1 delivers, more than ever, a reliable workhorse to get things done.

We look forward to your coverage.

Greetings,
Jos Poortvliet
openSUSE Community Manager

Actions #7

Updated by lnussel about 10 years ago

  • Copied to report #4078: Write 'reviewers guide', the mail for the press added
Actions

Also available in: Atom PDF