On Thursday 05 December 2002 09:12, Michael A Nachbaur wrote: > AxKittens, I'm sorry for spamming the AxKit community for something > like this, but it's honestly not because I'm a money grubbing > capitalist that wants to prey off his community. :)
Hehe.... I'll even take the chance of responding to the list... > I would like to ask you guys if you think it would be a good idea for > me to host AxKit sites as well. I don't need hosting, because I have my own box that I try run to the best of my abilities, but I would nevertheless respond "Yeah!" to that question. Not only that, I think the availability of such solutions are in fact important, to Axkit, to the quality of software, and to promote Free Software in general. For one thing, the availability of well managed hosting and good consulting services is extremely important to the adoption of Free Software in the enterprise. I think this was illustrated well by an "Ask Slashdot" recently (hmpf, the /. searchtool needs rewriting, can't find it now). Usually, waiting for someone to implement a feature you need is not an option, and if you can't hire someone to get things done, then you'll just go elsewhere. Furthermore, the more people working full time on free software, the greater boost this software will get, and the better this software will become for all of us. Making money on free software is not Evil[tm], on the contrary, it is good for everyone. Finally, the long-term success of free software does to a great extent depend on the ability of hackers to depend their living on it. Myself, all the code I've contributed (not much, yet) has been as a student or hired to do, at least as a full-time activity (I've GPLed a program I wrote as a kid too, but I don't think anybody's using it). If the dream of seeing a majority of software becoming free as in speech, a dream I share ultimately but realize we're not there yet, then it must be built on sustainable economics. I think that you providing AxKit hosting is a good step in the right direction. > I don't want to waste my time > (of which there is very little available) supporting a service that > won't be used, Well... I don't think there is much demand for something that doesn't exist yet, so I think you would have to offer it for it to be used. It's a chicken-and-egg-problem. You lay the egg, perhaps you'll get the chicken... :-) Also, I don't think it is the newbies here that are your potential customers. It's the companies looking for well-managed hosting of an XML Application Server. You need some buzzwords there... :-) Best, Kjetil -- Kjetil Kjernsmo Astrophysicist/IT Consultant/Skeptic/Ski-orienteer/Orienteer/Mountaineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Homepage: http://www.kjetil.kjernsmo.net/ --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
