* Andrew Suffield (asuffield@debian.org) wrote: > On Tue, Dec 14, 2004 at 03:31:47PM +0100, Martin Schulze wrote: > > Stephen Frost wrote: > > > Do you have any suggestion as to something that'd be a consistent > > > revenue source for Debian that you *wouldn't* be opposed to? Maybe a > > > Debian Magazine (with/without ads?)? Or a subscriber-only Debian > > > website (run by those willing to provide the content for it, obviously)? > > > What about Debian selling CDs directly (though, well, it'd help if we > > > released on a more regular basis for that, but then, that'd be a good > > > thing for us to do *anyway*)? > > > > SPI could start a sponsorship program for Debian and the other > > associated programs like the FSF Europe did[1]. That could mean that > > there would be 200 s upporters with EUR 10/month, ..., and 2 with 500 > > EUR/month or something. > > Does anybody actually have any uses for such a revenue source that > would not be better served by creating an independent organisation? Not *entirely* sure what you mean here. As mentioned elsewhere before, SPI might have some use for an accounting service at the very least. Additionally, Debian has funded developers to debconf before, as I understand it, as well as retained some amount for emergency spending for hardware or whatnot. Other potential uses for revenue could be buying obscure hardware off eBay or from wherever that we don't have enough of, and possibly helping to cover the costs of hosting that equipment. > That's the part where all these things usually fall down. Debian does > not currently need it. I can't imagine any scenario in which Debian > could need it, which is not a case of somebody trying to load extra > irrelevant tasks onto Debian. I tend to disagree. I think that in general people don't think of Debian as having any money (or needing any) and therefore don't consider the possibility of Debian doing anything with it. > We are not a clearing house for random things vaguely releated to free > software. Perhaps this would be a more appropriate discussion to have w/ SPI, since they probably fit this category at least slightly closer than Debian does, though, honestly, Debian seems pretty well lined up in that category too. Stephen
Attachment:
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature