Re: Retailing

["Joe Smith" <unknown_kev_cat@hotmail.com>]

Kieran Lloyd" wrote:
> I am considering selling some home made PC's on Ebay, the thing is I want 
> to sell these pre-installed with Debian Linux.
> Would Debian have any argument with this? I will obviously be advertising 
> that the Pc's have Debian installed however I
> will not be charging for it I would only be charging a mark up on my 
> hardware. Please advise if this would be acceptable.

Hello. While the other people to respond have covered your question fairly 
well, I would like to summarize and add a few additional pieces of 
information.

(Disclaimer: I'm am in no way affiliated with Debian besides being just a 
user. However, I have been lurking on the mailing lists for long enough to 
start to understand how Debian developers feel. So while the following may 
not reflect the offica feelings of Debian, I suspect it at least comes 
close.)

First of all, Thank you for for choosing Debian GNU/Linux. We certainly 
appreicate that you chose to distibute your computers with a free (as in 
speech) operating system.

Debian does not object, and even encourages sale of computers with Debian 
GNU/Linux pre-installed. The fact that you intend to include it at no 
additional cost is even better, as it will increase the exposure of Free 
Software. You could even charge for the pre-installation of Debian, but 
personally I would prefer if you did not.

You noted that you would be advertising the fat that debian GNU/Linux was 
pre-installed. You may wish to use our spiral logo which can be found on 
this page: http://www.debian.org/logos/

Chris mentioned that you needed to distribute source code. He noted that the 
easiest way was to include the cd forms burned onto recordable discs. Please 
consider also including a copy of the 'binary' cds. This will help your 
customers install parts of the OS that they are interested in, that you did 
not pre-install.

Thnaks again, and if you have any further questions please email me 
off-list.