Debian goes big business? [Re: Suggestion for RedHat (was: RH vs Debian)]
mark@ist.flinders.edu.au (Mark Phillips) writes:
> > This is BTW one of the weakest points of Debian. It is not very
> > visible as a product and it is comparatively hard to purchase a Debian
> > CD set on the normal market. Third party vendors unfortunately have
> > probably a hard time to plan ahead with Debian given the uncertain
> > release frequency. I think it's mostly due to this fact that Debian
> > is not really catching on at the free market. No product no gain.
> > I'd wish someone would stand up and start a Debian centered company
> > for a living just for the sake of making it a more viable option on
> > the CD market.
>
> How would this company value add?
>
By providing a purchasable product in book stores and mail order,
making Debian not only an option for insiders but as well a visible
product in places where other well known distributions are sold. By
giving paid jobs to Debian developers. By generating enough income to
finance Debian regarding hardware, bandwidth and whatnot.
The main distribution method for Linux still is CD-ROM and the largest
share of users of any distribution are to be found for those distribs,
that are provided as a commercial product on the market. That's
Redhat in the USA and here in Germany it's undisputedly SuSE. This is
not a matter of any distribution's superiority or inferiority but of
advertisement and easy purchasability. Debian is largely unknown to
the wider public because of a lacking product on the common market.
It is actually pretty hard to purchase any current Debian version
through the usual market channels and if you don't know where to order
a freshly burned CD set and if you don't care about informing yourself
you will rather reach out for the shrink wrapped Redhat oder SuSE
package in the book store at the next corner. Debian is well hidden
away on any FTP server and pretty much unaccessable without any
CD-ROM. Companies like Redhat in the USA and SuSE here in Germany are
making it big time by concentrating mainly on selling a shrink wrapped
product. This is IMHO a real pity and i would really love to see
someone knowledgeable do something about it benefitting Debian. Just
remember how Cygnus does benefit GNU and how the improve the compilers
we all use. Hey, this would mean getting a job working full time for
your favored distribution! ;-)
Thanks, P. *8^)
--
--------- Paul Seelig <pseelig@goofy.zdv.uni-mainz.de> -----------
African Music Archive - Institute for Ethnology and Africa Studies
Johannes Gutenberg-University - Forum 6 - 55099 Mainz/Germany
------------------- http://ntama.uni-mainz.de --------------------
Reply to: