On Fri, 22 Aug 1997, Bruce Perens wrote: > Paul Wade: > > Hey, users who are listening - Debian 1.3.3 is out but > > it's still called 1.3.1 so nobody who buys those CD sets will feel > > inferior? > > Why am I taking so much guff from you when I work for free as a volunteer > and you take my work and make money off of it? Or are you only annoying me > as a hobby, Mr. President of Greenbush Corporation?
Sorry, Bruce, but this is baloney! I have private email from you on both occasions when the archive changed without a release number change. The first time you said it was bad release engineering and would look into it. The second time you finally admitted that other CD vendors objected to changing the release number. What it boils down to is that you let the vendors tell you how to run the project! You could have had the decency to warn me in advance to get out of the CD business because Debian was more interested in catering to vendors who simply sell it along with other Linux distributions. I take your work (and all the other volunteers work) and lose money off of it. What is really happening is that SPI is 'covering the ass' of certain vendors. The credibility of Debian is already damaged by your actions and will only get worse if you continue in this direction. The users are smart enough to know figure out which product meets their needs. If those vendors can't sell older 1.3.1 sets to people who know the difference, they need to go back to school. > few months behind when it gets to the user. You and your small CD-R > business help a little, and you serve a useful niche market, but you > are not first in my priorities and you are far from essential to > Debian's survival. You are way out of line. I only sell Debian and I only use Debian in my 'small' business. I'm beginning to think your resignation is what will be essential to Debian's survival, but maybe a public apology to *all* the Debian users is enough. You owe it to them because you have compromised the integrity of the Debian project. What you are saying is that Debian prefers relationships with larger businesses. That makes no sense for a free software organization. > Here is a list of what is updated (so far) in bo-updates. This is what > you would lose if you bought a mass-market CD rather than the Paul Wade > version. Please feel free to use this change-log (and its successors) in > your advertising. Please let the mass market business take care of itself, > and please don't get in its way. Absolutely ridiculous! You are the one that is tampering with the market. I can't believe that your actions are appropriate for something that is called GNU/Linux. I think the Free Software Foundation is lots more careful in its dealings with commercial entities. If Debian is truly a non-profit organization, then why not put the articles of incorporation on the website immediately. It just isn't ethical to ask for donations without showing the public how the organization is controlled, how officers and directors are elected and exactly what the outlook is for changing the leadership should problems arise. It's time to face the music. Your Official CD program will not work. After all, if I press 2000 sets tomorrow will you hold the release numbers for another month? Do you have to check in with multiple vendors and get their 'blessing' before 1.3.next is released? If you keep this up, another Debian group will emerge and it will all become very counter-productive. I think your marketing ideas are a bit grandoise at this time. Debian is not yet an easy replacement for the average Windows user. There is a lot of work to be done before it will sell in big numbers. In the meantime, every revision is important to help get it there. Sincerely, Paul Wade -- TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Trouble? e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] .
