Re: Dangerous precedent being set - possible serious violation o
On Sun, 28 Nov 1999, Sean 'Shaleh' Perry wrote:
> >
> > So let's see what happens if we create a Corel Linux workalike by:
> >
> > A: Downloading Corel Linux
> > B: Ripping out all the non-free software parts and
> > C: Replacing them.
> >
> > then...
> >
> > D: Publicizing this heavily.
> >
> >
>
> See stormix.com and several others. Stormix has stated they are interested in
> paying debian developers or people familiar with debian (preference on the
> former) for work. They are releasing code (L)GPL'ed.
>
> Also in the near future, other people will have products like this.
>
> What bothers me with Corel is not them using Debian, but rather they fact that
> they gave nothing back to us or the community. Not code, time, or money.
>
...and, IMHO, as long as companies continue to use GNU/Linux (and I do
mean "use", as in "he USED me.. all he did was USE me") for their benefit,
that constitutes the vast majority of what we will see. Someone needs to
remain pure. Debian has remained (relatively) pure, but no one outside of
the hardcore Linux community has heard of Debian! This is unfortunate, as
the world is being flooded with things like Red Hat (made by a company
that claims to be all about "open source" while selling proprietary,
closed-source stuff) and Corel (well, you already know what nasty crap
Corel has pulled). Red Hat claims to be martyrs when they're not, and
Corel doesn't claim anything, but also doesn't give anything back. I feel
wary about throwing support behind -any- "dot-com" that does things with
Linux. I feel a lot safer pointing people to "dot-org" (or "dot-net")
addresses within the Linux world. The commercialization of Linux is having
some very ugly-- and very predictable-- side effects that just don't sit
well with me...namely, various companies are raping it for all they can
get out of it, while either <A> lying about their purposes and intentions,
and creating cruddy-quality software, a la Red Hat, or <B>
take-take-taking and never giving back, a la Corel.
In the wake of all of this, I say-- viva la Debian!
What the world needs now is a slick, idiot-friendly Linux distribution
that's 100% built on free software, has good commercial -and-
non-commercial support available, but gives tons back to the Linux
community-- and truly cares. Like the best elements of Debian mixed with
the best elements of Red Hat...
Anyhow...apparently, since the reaction to the story I submitted to /.
(the original post about Corel banning "minors" from downloading their
dist) is so huge, I'm not the only person who this particular rash of side
effects (that is, those emanating from Corel) doesn't sit well with...
--Caspian
--
= Jon "Caspian" Blank, right-brained computer programmer at large =
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