The election period is divided into phases. Anyone who has supported or contributed to openSuse Linux software, translation, or bugreports has until 24. September to secure active and passive electoral rights. Candidates then have from 25. September to 6. October to run election campaigns. Communication channels will be blog entries, interviews with the openSuse news team and a moderated IRC Q+A. OpenSuse members will vote from 9. to 23. October 2008.

The openSuse board is a year old. Its members were appointed by Novell itself. Now the community are to elect four of the five board members, two from Novell and two independents. Novell reserves the right to select chairman of the board.

According to the new community manager, the role of the board is not to direct or control the software development, but to offer guidance and support. For its first board election, the project will follow the example of the Fedora and Debian elections, to which a link can be found on the openSuse page, together with a list of latest candidates.

OpenSuse membership can be applied for at Users.opensuse.org. Once logged in, account holders will find a web form to fill in. So first step is to get an account. Then have arguments ready to convince the community of the value of how and what has been contributed. Applications will first have to be accepted by the current board, so it’s important to apply soon. Membership at openSuse comes with a free openSuse mail address which can also be terminated by mail. Members will appear on a public list.