Re: intro/about
On Sat, Sep 01, 2001 at 10:27:23AM -0500, James A. Treacy wrote:
> > > You say free, but the CDs cost money!
> > > vs
> > > You say free, but the CDs/bandwidth cost money!
> > > Personally, I find the original less confusing. Saying 'bandwidth
> > > costs money' makes me think someone is going to send a bill (above
> > > what is normally paid for connectivity) to download software.
> > > Of course you need to pay for connectivity, so what was the point of
> > > this change?
> >
> > Well it's simple -- you can't tell people that Debian is completely free of
> > charge if they have to download it over the Internet, analogously when they
> > have to record it to a CD. All of this "raw material" stuff costs money.
>
> The incremental cost for an additional download (above what users
> already download) is negligible. I think your change just confuses the
> issue. As an analogy, people tend to think of riding a bicycle as free
> even though bicycles don't last forever and also need maintenance.
You seem not to have noticed the herds of people who want to download the
whole damn thing over the Internet...
> > > I suggest changing the word costless to 'without cost' on line 101.
> >
> > Uh, okay, I wonder why...
>
> While costless is a perfectly valid word, I have never heard anyone
> actually use it.
<shrug> :)
> > > Debian does not make any money from the sale of CDs, but we do have
> > > expenses.
> >
> > Well, we don't make any money from anything we do, except from Shaleh
> > selling T-shirts on trade fairs :)
>
> But we do get donations. Non-profit does not imply cashless. In fact
> non-profits can even sell things. I still sugges the third version
> over the other two.
Okay.
> > > Section
> > > How do I get support?<
> > > was changed to
> > > I can't set it up all by myself. Where do I get support for Debian?
> > > That doesn't sound to bad except what follows tells them to try and
> > > install it themselves. I suggest changing it back (s/How/Where/ if you
> > > want).
> >
> > The next paragraph tells them that they _can_ do it all by themselves... on
> > the other hand, that's a silly thing to promote, lart me :)
> >
> > It should be changed so it tells people that they can do it on their own,
> > briefly, and then mention consultants.
>
> So what are you suggesting this section look like?
Perhaps this:
<H2><a name="support">I can't set it up all by myself.
Where do I get support for Debian?</a></H2>
<p>You can get paid support from many <a href="$(HOME)/consultants/">Debian
consultants</a>. These businesses will install and/or maintain your machine
for you.
But then I'd make a new section above that one for people that just want
help, and don't want to pay consultants. This one would include the
remaining information from the old #supp answer.
I'm going to reread this thread and start committing now...
--
2. That which causes joy or happiness.
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