Re: a modest proposal - Debian needs more $
On Mon, Jan 21, 2002 at 11:56:19AM -0800, briand@zipcon.net wrote:
| >>>>> "Colin" == Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org> writes:
|
| Colin> /usr/share/doc/debian/debian-manifesto is a pretty good
| Colin> start. Debian is a distribution free in terms of both speech
| Colin> and beer. If we start charging our users for downloading it,
| Colin> we will be making the lives of many of our users much more
| Colin> difficult, which I completely oppose.
|
| OK. But some people downloading it are not users - they are
| re-sellers.
They allow us to tell people "just buy a cd, it's only 3 bucks" if
they have trouble making their own.
| Here is a somewhat off-topic question :
|
| You know all those nice CD vendors that have a donation checkbox for
| Debian. How do I know they are really donating the money ?
Trust. How do you know you're getting the real Debian and not some
trojaned look-alike?
| And if they sell Debian CD's why aren't they _required_ to have a
| donation checkbox ?
Dunno, but they should have one :-).
| Well don't forget that I'm bringing this all up as a potential way to
| make life better for users in the long run.
When I first saw your subject in my log (before I looked at the
mailbox itself) I was expecting a really funny and outrageous story
containing a real suggestion buried in it. The subject reminds me of
the essay "A Modest Proposal" (may not be the whole title) by Jonathon
Swift.
| More packages, more complexity - without bringing in additional
| resources will Debian start to falter ? Is there some equitable way
| of charging to help with that ? Practically speaking it doesn't look
| like there is.
The only practical way is to convince people that they really ought to
help. You can't require people to give the additional resources, but
you can ask people to willingly give them (donations, of one form or
another).
-D
--
He who spares the rod hates his son,
but he who loves him is careful to discipline him.
Proverbs 13:24
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