11.4 - almost there

Warning: huge blog ahead. To butcher Mark Twain:

I didn't have time to write a short blog, so I wrote a long one instead.

Excitement. Lack of sleep. More excitement. Many things not finished. Yep, a major release. Despite a crashing laptop (every 30 min it hangs, I'm afraid it is the heath) I'm having fun preparing for the biggest event since I joined the openSUSE community: the release of openSUSE 11.4!

The marketing team had a meeting 2 weeks ago to prepare for 11.4. But we weren't the only ones working hard. And this week, our release dude, Coolo, got sick and AJ had to replace him. Well, the GoldMaster was in time, so AJ, great work. And Coolo: if a doctor tells you to stop working it probably makes sense to listen.

New features

11.4 will be exciting. I mean really, really exciting! There is a huge number of new features and improvements. I just finished an 11.4 feature overview presentation. It's not perfectly complete (how could it be with so much new stuff?) but a good start if you want to have a launch party. Speaking of, if you're Dutch, there will be a Launch Party in NL!

Anyone who wants to visit or organize a launch party, there is still time. Go to the Launch Party Wiki Page and see if there is something close by. If not, organize it! Seriously, it's not hard: just put a page up there, point to a cafe where you can get beer & coke and you're already pretty far. Sure, you can do fancy presentations in a conference room, but isn't beer what brings people together? And isn't a party nothing without a well-equipped bar?

Posters - but where is the source?

By the way, there is a bunch of awesome-looking Launch Party Posters on the Launch Party Wiki Page, where are the sources? I bet you can ask in the #opensuse-marketing channel on Freenode for them but having them up there is easier, ladies and gents!

I want the sources because I'd love to have a release party here, in Porto Alegre, Brazil. Anyone else close by? Any suggestions for a decent pub? Please mail me at my first name on opensuse.org! KDE and GNOME, XFCE & LXDE fans - you're all welcome, we're YOUR best distribution after all!

Shout out

As I said, I'm pretty tired, so I surely will skip people in this list but I just HAVE to thank some people for what they did:
First of all the whole marketing team for their work on the amazing Product Highlights (I keep calling it feature guide, hehe). I shout out to Bruno, Tony and James for their technical knowledge, Izabel for her TIRELESS work in adding all the relevant information and Helen for helping to clean things up and write proper text. Sascha, Holger, Christian, Carlos, Frank, Greg, Chuck, Andres, Andreas, Bryen, Kostas, Dominique, Guido and all others - thank you too, every line of text helped tremendously!!! If you helped out and weren't credited, add your name to the list at the bottom of the Product Highlights. You deserve it, don't be shy! Those not on the marketing team, you'll see the end results when the announcement is live ;-)
Chuck, I have to mention you especially. Your mail on social media made my day. I was worried nothing was being organized - and I didn't have time. You took it on yourself and made a difference. Love you.
rtyler, you're another hero. Your writing for OMGSUSE.com in the last 10 days has been awesome. I know it was exhausting - yet you still helped out reviewing and writing. AWESOME! Oh, and add your name to the list on the Product Highlights!
Manu, manu, manu. You've been all over again. Despite busy with school and other obligations, you worked until deep in the night. Feature guide, website, social media, everywhere. You deserve a thousand hugs!
The work our Tiger Bruno has been doing, working with Chuck, Carlos and Javier - invaluable. Thanks to you guys we'll have an amazing openSUSE 11.4 poster shipped with the next Linux Magazine!!! And Bruno, give a hug to your girlfriend for organizing our Virtual Launch Party on Second Life!!!
And just now Rajko and Sebiastian: when I asked an hour ago (almost desperate) for people to help fill the screenshot section on the wiki, you jumped up and started to work. IRC lit up like a lightbulb: "I'm editing, wait a sec..." "where are those GNOME shots?" and in mere minutes - AWESOMENESS! Thanks a lot, you made my night :D

A full round of hugs and Doritos (sorry sshaw)!