wiki:Topics-2013-ProductNamespaces

Discussion on product namespaces.

In order to clear up evident confusion in the userbase about the GPL code and the code under copyright/EULA status by OpenVPN Technologies Inc, there are some issues of namespace, identity, and copyright to determine.

This list aims to identify potential issues for future discussion on the best way to resolve them. Please feel free to add further ideas or concerns not listed here.

  • Webpage cross-linking
    • Community landing page has multiple 'Download' links that do/show different things:
      • Download link from left index links to GPL software
      • First download link in "Download" hover-menu is for "Access Server Downloads" without further clarification (NB: this come from Joomla)
      • Second download link in the "Download" hover-menu is "Community Downloads" -- to a user, what is the difference? Where is it explained?
      • Under the "Community" hover-menu, "downloads" links to GPL downloads
    • Community landing page contains "VPN Service" and "VPN Solution" hover-menus (again, from Joomla)
      • Multiple links to Licensing/Pricing? are shown here. Coming from the community landing page it looks like this Service/Solution? is a part of the community offering
      • Moving from the highlighted "Community" hover-menu-tab to one of these is not a strong visual cue that this is no longer the Community page, especially given the transition from the openvpn.net main page buttons
  • Fixing the website (Ideas/Solutions?)
    • Initial discussion has led to the idea of creating a decent landing page as part of Trac's wiki
      • Avoid Joomla's limitations on content layout
      • Cross-linking to AS/Connect URLs can be explained where it appears
      • Community-editable; possible to restrict to wiki admins if need be
  • Product confusion
    • Some users have shown confusion distinguishing GPL OpenVPN from OpenVPN Connect or OpenVPN Access Server
    • Community landing page layout doesn't help this much today: (see issues/solutions in above sections)
    • New users have a hard time distinguishing the varied products out there:
      • (GPL) OpenVPN
      • OpenVPN Access Server
      • OpenVPN Connect
      • OpenVPN Client (old/deprecated name for a prior Connect product -- less relevant once removed from downloads?)
    • GPL OpenVPN can be either a server/client: this may need to be highlighted better on community pages
  • Forum confusion
    • The image banner on the forums states "OpenVPN" "Community Support Forum"
    • However, the non-free forums and their sub-forums are shown here, still with the same banner
    • This confuses namespaces, products, and ownership in a few ways:
      • It makes the closed and EULA-bound software look like a community product that the community supports
      • Users actually wanting commercial products/support will find that the "OpenVPN.net" link (correctly) takes them to the "Community" index page
      • The distinction and understanding moving between FOSS and commercial support forums is nearly unnoticable if a user isn't already familiar with the product names
  • Fixing the forum confusion (Ideas/Solutions?)
    • Split the corp (AS/Connect/PrivateTunnel/etc) forums off from the FOSS ones
Last modified 10 years ago Last modified on 11/09/13 00:44:14