In this interview we talk with Joe. In specific, we talk about:

* Where openSUSE fits into the desktop Linux landscape
* Relationships between openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and upstream projects
* The effect of commercial agreements on open source projects
* The future roadmap for openSUSE
* Bringing together technical and non-technical users in open source projects
* Coordinating testing and bug fixes among distros and upstream projects
* Design coherence among distributed developers

Sean Campbell: Joe, to get us started, could you give us a little bit of your background?

Joe Brockmeier: OK. About 1999, I started writing about Linux as a freelancer. That eventually morphed into a career writing about Linux and open source as a technology journalist, more or less full time, much of that time as a freelancer. Around 2005, I joined Linux.com as editorial director, and then last year, I was with “Linux Magazine” as editor in chief. My educational background is in journalism, and that’s when I discovered Linux–when I was in university.

But last fall, Novell came and asked if I’d be interested in applying for the community manager job, which at that time was called the chief Linux evangelist.

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