Anarchy! Yes, Anarchy!
Long live anarchy! Long live the Revolution and the Counter-Revolution!
Long live the Dedicated Diehard Debianist!
I will be running a special on 1.3.whatever_it_really_is binary CD's
starting this weekend and continuing for at least one month. Longer if
that's what it takes to clean this up. I will make it cheaper to get a
1.3.really_current binary CD than the 1.3.1 Official set. Details will be
up at http://www.greenbush.com/ by noon tomorrow.
On Thu, 21 Aug 1997, Paul Serice wrote:
> Now for your anarchist side, when governments become overbearing they
> tend to nationalize -- meaning they take property away from
> corporations (and other private organizations or individuals) for the
> supposed general welfare. So, it is not difficult to see that
> freedom from intrusive government does not necessarily imply fewer
> corporations. As a matter of fact, strong and health corporations
> arguably contribute as much to your personal autonomy as any other
^^^^^^^^
> single factor.
Does Microsoft contribute to my personal autonomy? If so, I prefer
anarchy. Linux is revolutionary in nature. What if Linus had decided
instead to develop something that required Windows or SCO Unix? I notice
that the people behind Debian like to avoid dependencies on commercial
products. It is a reality that many users could not create their first
rescue floppy without MS-DOS, but we have to live with it because we don't
want to be such 'purists' that we have to ship floppies to get people
started.
Imitating the large software company is anethema to the philosophies of
dedicated Linux enthusiasts. The honest thing to do is let the consumer
know exactly what he is getting. The 1.3.1 Official CD files are
timestamped July 7. Since then, the stable ftp archive has had at least 2
changes which warrant a DEFINITE DISTINCTION from those CD sets. Those 2
changes were the replacement of disks/current. Since these are the images
that install the base, the change is not trivial. Otherwise they would be
in a testing or incoming directory. They were installed into stable to fix
bugs or add features, I assume.
Therefore, the ftp archive should CLEARLY differentiate itself from the
1.3.1 that was pressed onto so many discs that the foolish vendors now
need to unload. So call it 1.3.3 or 1.3.1R3 or whatever, but make it
obvious. If you don't do that you will need a corporation to protect the
developers from personal liability. Why? Because Debian is going to great
lengths to protect a few vendors who made a bad decision and need to get
rid of the 'dead horse' inventory. When that is done it will it be okay to
move things from bo-updates to bo and change the symlink to 1.3.2?
Maybe the people who bought those CD sets will start thinking they've been
fooled a bit and will hate Debian more than Microsoft.
Dave used some strong language because he is rightfully pissed off.
Now let me say this as a vendor of freshly recorded (1.3.?) Debian CD-R
products:
F___ the CD vendors. All of them including myself. If I wanted to just
duplicate a CD image, I would copy a Slackware or Redhat CD and actually
make a profit. Those of us who actually organize CD images would be better
off if Debian would go back to the good old numbering scheme and
concentrate on the concept of painless upgrading. That way people who
found an old 1.1.x CD could pop in one of our 1.3.999 discs and upgrade
their system without a lot of hassles.
I say increment the release numbers. I doubt that the vendors who are
still stuck with 1.3.1 inventory will decide to press the next release
whenever it comes out.
If there is a need (and a market) for cheap Debian CD's let me be honest
enough to tell everyone the costs:
1000 CD-ROM's $750
Paper sleeves 5 cents
Sturdy mailer 20 cents
So it costs about $1.80 for a binary/source set with 2 colors printed on
the discs. It costs another 78 cents to mail them to US customers. Grand
total of $2.58. These vendors are charging $8.99 with shipping and
handling and they need protection? I suppose the rationale is that they
are paying good wages to the people who put the discs in the sleeves and
seal the mailer.
I preferred it before when it went from 1.2 to 1.2.18 in about 7 months. I
mean the upgrades were free, right? Look at it this way: if you had to pay
$50.00 per upgrade to a commercial OS that would be a $900.00 value!
When I was asked if the 'Official CD' would hurt my business, I said it
wouldn't because of the revision frequency of Debian. I didn't expect this
new fuzzy numbering system to go along with it! Well, it has hurt my
business. But don't expect me to give up and go away.
Oh, I almost forgot. F___ Microsoft, too!
Paul Wade
Greenbush Technologies Corporation
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