Re: Serious mis-perception of reality going on here.
Bruce Perens wrote:
>
> On Jan 20, 12:34pm, Michael Stutz wrote:
> > Finally, a voice of reason. What made me try Debian in the first place was
> > its supposed commitment to free software and the free software community,
> > and now the talk has turned into something more like marketing the next
> > Microsoft product. Complete with brainstorming on how to destroy the
> > competition (Red Hat and Slackware). Can't Debian exist with its brothers
> > and sisters, or is this a fight to "win"?
>
> This is absolutely nuts. Completely and totally insane. 100% divorced from
> reality. People, you are reading a whole lot more into this than you should.
>
> Nobody ever said we're launching the next Microsoft product, or destroying the
> competition, or anything like that. What we did say was that we would come
> out with a CD, for which we would charge manufacturers $2, so that we could
> have something that looked like a product so that commercial users would have
> a chance of selling it to their own management for use in their own
> institutions. Institutions like schools and small businesses. And why are we
> doing this? Because users asked for a way to get Debian as something else than
> a part of a 6-CD set so that they could show a package with the word Debian
> on the cover to their management.
>
Correct me if I'm wrong(like that wouldn't happen here). But the $2
charge gives us control over the use of the term "Official Debian."
This control is needed. Witness the historical reason for a lack of 1.0
version.
This control then can give the assuance needed to the management types.
Management doesn't want to dive into the "Bleeding Edge" of Linux and
this would ensure a 'tested' version with the Debian organization's
blessing. Everything else appears as a work in progress. As long as
its also available free on the net. The $2 plus fluff is only the suit.
The full brains & brawn of Debian are still available to the public
without distribution charges.
I'm not currently on a consulting assignment where this is necessary but
some sites have gone with a commercial distribution and then wondered if
they should have used Linux at all. Obviously, they were even more
skeptical about 'giving Debian a try.'
-- Greg.
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