Re: Ubuntu with AMD64 Support

[Daniel James <daniel@mondodesigno.com>]

Hi Bernd,

> You can't predict the future - neither for $COMMERCIAL_DISTRIBUTION
> (God knows what will be in 1 or 2 years with e.g. SuSE) nor for
> $FREE_DISTRIBUTION (yes there were several which are pretty
> out-of-business right now).

Quite.

> > I really bought the idea that Red Hat was a
> > community-oriented company, and at that stage I simply didn't
> > forsee
>
> It was at that time.

I think you're right, but it just goes to show how things can change - 
and why the community structure has to be solid.

> Or to pose the question more provoking the other way around: What
> happens if some company is selling support contracts to a Debian
> fork/clone/copy/... with a completely different brand (but using
> more or less the standard .debs with s/Debian/$BRAND/)?

I agree that's a potential challenge to Debian's democratic structure 
if the community process is bypassed whenver it suits the company 
concerned. The rebranding of Debian you describe has been going on 
for some time, since the launch of Lindows at least, I'd say. Back in 
the late 90's I remember several thinly-disguised Red Hat rip-offs - 
all gone now.

Cheers

Daniel