T. Ribbrock schrieb am Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:58:59 +0200: > the projects that wouldn't have been possible: Correct me, if I'm > wrong, but I think many of those included stuff, where proprietary > things were involved - stuff, that had to be done from business to > business. That's another aspect of what I mean with necessary evil.
I did not mean such that involved proprietary stuff. I meant projects which involve a lot of time and engagement. If there were only people doing it in their spare time while going to a 9 to 5 job every day these projects wouldn't even have started because of lack of time. > On the other hand, seeing that other projects (e.g. OpenBSD) can > thrive without all those companies involved, there seem to be other > ways as well. Are you sure that none of the developers are sponsored by a company? Now there is Debian, a fully non-commercial thing. And all Debian developers are doing full time jobs to earn their living and do the Debian stuff in their spare time, right? It's the same thing as it is with arts. Some things can only be produced and maintained with the help of somebody. Nothing wrong with that. The only important question is: How much influence has the money? > I was using Caldera/SCO as an example for the extreme this *can* lead > to. It was not my intention to suggest that Mandrake (or even Red Hat > or SuSE) are in that league, and I sure hope they will never be. But > seeing those extremes does make me wary. Of course that is a shame. But it's not a reason to be worried concerning Mandrake. There are people who see a tree being cut. What do they think about? What wonderful furniture a skilled man can produce out of this piece of wood? Or how many fires can be started with the matches made from this piece of wood? > <g> I always wondered why of all words "free" is one that's defined so > poorly in the English language, while that language can be so subtle > otherwise. Amazing. :-) True. > If there wasn't a download version, I'd simply not > use Mandrake in this case, simple as that. But the download version > exists and the product is good enough, so I use it. This is just my > way of telling Mandrake that they *can* have more money from me, just > not this way. Aha. How about this: If a product is good, I don't care whether I have to pay for it or not, I'll get it. If the product is not good, I don't care about free versions, I just don't want it. You decide that as Mandrake is getting money from elsewhere you can take the free version. All I see from you is: If I have to pay, I won't take it, because Mandrake gets enough money from elsewhere. OK, everybody has his right to decide, but don't try to construct reasons where there are none. I'd be perfectly happy with you saying: "I don't want to pay for a distribution, I want it gratis!" Why not, it's not illegal. But I complain about the reasons you give for not buying any more. They are just not right. wobo
Want to buy your Pack or Services from MandrakeSoft? Go to http://www.mandrakestore.com
