Star Senryu and the 'Be Man' in Disguise
Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sat 19th Apr 2008 23:39 UTC, submitted by TheNerd
BeOS & Derivatives Every now and then, the Haiku mailing lists explode with emails about something called the distribution guidelines. The Haiku guys set up a set of guidelines with regards to use of the Haiku trademarks and logos; the "Haiku" name may not be used in the distribution's name, official trademarks and logos must be excluded, but the Haiku icons and artwork may be used. In addition to these cosmetic and trademark issues, the guidelines explain what is needed in order to receive the official "Haiku compatible" logo.
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koki
Member since:
2005-10-17

Having the guidelines posted on the Haiku site, to me at least, gives the impression that Haiku, Inc is willing to help the distro creators to implement them. I know now that this is not the case and the only reason for the guidelines is to discourage distribution creation right from the get-go.


I think you guys have the wrong impression of what Haiku Inc. is. It is not an evil corporation designed to take over or dominate the world (far from it, actually). It is simply a non-profit to support the Haiku project and its goals, that is run, just like most other aspects of the project, by the very same volunteers that do the coding.

The objective of the guidelines is not to encourage third party distros, but rather build and protect the Haiku brand, something that we think is important to the project and the future Haiku users. IOW, the Haiku guidelines were thought out and spelled ourt to further the goals of Haiku, and not to accommodate the desire of third parties.

I get this exact same feeling when I read Koki's posts. It seems like the Haiku Project (represented mostly by Koki) does not want anyone from "outside" to help with anything or try and provide a place for non-developers to gather and test software (i.e. Haikuware). I bet there have been a quite few bugs reported (and probably already fixed) by Senryu users and no one even knows the difference.


FYI, I did not write the distro guidelines. I am trying to enforce them to protect the Haiku brand from the use and abuse of its trademarks and logo, and its image from potentially damaging stuff like the legally questionable inclusion of proprietary software in the superpacks. The only reason that I am the most vocal is probably because I am the marketing guy, and the developers prefer to stay focused on the code (good thing, btw).

There is nothing wrong with devs/hobbyists getting together and testing Haiku software. But you really don't need to create a distro for that. Of course, we can't tell people what to do, but if somebody wants to have their own little distro anyway, that's fine. But then, a different set of rules applies. This is not unique to Haiku either; many projects have rules that regulate the creation of distros, remixes, etc..

I don't want to shutdown the superpacks as some people have been saying here. I am just trying to make you and Karl understand that the moment you choose to work outside of the boundaries of the project with your own goals and agenda like you have done so far, then a certain set of rules apply. Not that we can't be friends or have common goals; but there is also going to be situations where conflict of interest exist. ;)

I'm not saying it is, but I do get the feeling that some people have the mentality that the Haiku code is proprietary or at least want to treat it as such.


You are mixing up apples with oranges. Open source code is one thing, and branding, trademarks etc. are another. Haiku is made of open source code that has a liberal license. But Haiku also has a brand and trademarks that need to be protected from misuse and abuse. Most open source projects have trademark policies that dictate and restrict the use of their trademarks and logos. This is not unique to Haiku as you seem to imply.

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