[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Debian goes big business? [was: Re: Suggestion for RedHat (was: RH vs Debian)]



> > My point is that this company would one day tries ot improve it's
> > revenues and influence the Debian distribution to fits its needs. Look
> > at the recent discussions about whether to ship Slink as i386 only, or
> > to wait until m68k and others are ready. If Debian had been
> > commercially distributed by a company, the choice wouldn't be taken on
> > a 'How can this help the Debian dists and end-users' basis, but on a
> > 'How can we get the most bucks' basis.
> >

> You're thinking in traditional terms. Someone decides these issues 
now,
> right? Those exact same people would be in charge of this corporation.
> They would not be interested in the bottom line, but in what's best 
for
> Debian. The word "corporation" scares a lot of people because of what 
it's
> come to represent. But how a corporation is run is decided internally.
> Just because there aren't any democratic corporations doesn't mean we
> can't start one.

I starting to think this whole mess started on a word understanding 
problem. I wouldn't name such an organization a 'corporation', =P

> This new democratic Debian corporation could sell shrink-wrapped 
Debian
> CDs right next to Red Hat CDs, hopefully cheaper. Combined with 
Debian's
> advantages over Red Hat and word-of-mouth, Debian could possibly 
eclipse
> Red Hat. Even if it doesn't become the best-selling distro, it could 
still
> sell enough to give the developer's jobs. I'm not sure if this would 
be
> considered a for-profit corporation or not. No one's really raking in 
any
> profit, most of the money is going back into Debian and paying for the
> packaging and such, but some people are getting paid, so I'm not sure.

> I can see only two changes in Debian due to this corporation. 
Development
> would (presumably) go faster because the developers are getting paid, 
and
> Debian would become more well-known.

> I also liked the idea that someone suggested earlier, that people 
could
> pay dues into this corporation and get a vote. A democratic 
corporation
> indeed.

> This may sound radical, but we'll never know if it will work unless we
> try, will we?

Nope. But it does indeed sounds real good. How can we do so?

> /----------------------------------------------------------\
> | pretzelgod                 | epgilles@olemiss.edu        |
> | (Eric Gillespie, Jr.)      | epg@pretzelnet.cx           |
> |---------------------------<*>----------------------------|
> | "That's the problem with going from a soldier to a       |
> |  politician: you actually have to sit down and listen to |
> |  people who six months ago you would've just shot."      |
> |  --President John Sheridan, Babylon 5                    |
> \----------------------------------------------------------/


> --
> Unsubscribe?  mail -s unsubscribe debian-user-request@lists.debian.org 
< /dev/null




Reply to: