[CLUE-Talk] Open Source Advocacy and big bucks. Was Re: [CLUE-Tech] Suse 7.3 Again

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2002, Kevin Cullis wrote:

> Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier wrote:
> > Anyway, that's my two-cents. Maybe I'm alone in feeling this way
> > because I've seen a lot of good people lose their jobs in the Linux
> > industry -- not all of them would have kept them if a larger number
> > of people had actually bought the software, but some of them would
> > have. I'm also sick of the image of Linux users being cheapskates
> > who just don't want to pay for anything.
>
> No, you're not alone. I've always purchased distros to support Linux
> because it's the "good thing" to do. The nice thing about Open Source is
> that if SuSe or Redhat, God forbid, go under, we can still get the
> product somewhere. If it was proprietary, it would not be available for
> use, but under someones complete control. Most Linux users via
> email/newsgroups always use the "it's free!" to sell Linux rather than
> "it's Open Source" and that they can contribute to it's success with
> purchases of the software and services.  Most see that as "too
> expensive."

Yes, if Red Hat, SuSE, et al go under we will still be able to get the
source code -- but how many of us are prepared to compile everything
from source? I know most people on this list are capable of DITY, but
prefer to have someone else make packages and just install and go. I know
I didn't want to have to compile the entire KDE 2.2.2 myself, so I'm
quite happy to support SuSE and Slackware rather than having to do it
myself. (Oh, if there are any Slack'ers out there, XFree86 4.2.0 is
now in current...)

*snip*

> Why doesn't Redhat or SuSe talk with these large corporations to ask for
> the money and invest in Open Source software like Open Office
> development?  What could be done with this type of money for developer's
> AND the the level of quality of this software?  If ALl CIO's were to do
> this, just think what could be accomplished.

Actually, I think Red Hat and SuSE are trying to find ways to work with
larger customers on contractual basis rather than selling boxed sets
to them -- I think that's why SuSE has put out the 7.3 SPARC version as
ISOs only -- they probably have a customer who wanted SuSE to continue
on SPARC badly enough to pay for it and SuSE simply made the ISOs available
to the rest of us because they had already done the work, but didn't
want to waste money on producing packaging and so forth for the distro
when they wouldn't sell many retail copies.

OH, and kudos to RH for the cheap $60 a year subscription to their
network -- I think that this will be a wave of the future for many
distros -- an inexpensive priority network that allows you quick
and easy access to the latest and greatest. I'm not a RH user, but
I think this is a very good move on their part.

Take care,

Zonker
--
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier -=- jbrockmeier at earthlink.net
http://www.DissociatedPress.net/
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