On Tue, Jun 28, 2011 at 8:01 AM, Mark Holmquist <marktrac...@gmail.com> wrote:
> First, Linux is not a business. It is a community project, and it *works* > that way. Canonical, >RH, Novell, and the like are businesses, but this > mailing list is a bunch of loosely-organized >volunteers. Did I say that SocalLinux was a business? If I said that , then that was a misstatement. I thought that what I said was that LInux was a business, and I think it's safe to stand by that statement. Whether you look at it from the standpoint of kernel development, the individual distros or GNU or even the user, Linux is conducted as a serious business. Even though it is presented as a community centered project, if I'm not mistaken, because I could be wrong, but I had the impression that there are many, if not the majority of significant development contributors who get paid at least a reasonable if not competitive tech salary, or contract. Nevertheless, regardless of that they, for the most part, have a chain of command, goals, and business procedures to say the least. They treat their business like a job, because they want to make sure that their salary, or at least their clientèle continues through to the next year and the year after that. I don't think I would be putting my head out on the chopping block if I were to say that there is a strong possibility that the majority of Linux users use Linux primarily for business. Regardless of having a large number of people who would probably fit in the category of hobbyist, it is still a business. Radio Control cars is a business even though basically all RC car drivers are hobbyists. There are members in this group who qualify, if they do not at least have a remote potential to contribute to those goals and prerogatives. I think Ragi and others are bringing out some really good viewpoints on the discussion of some Linux goals and direction. I know that Linux is a big community, and it's kind of like far away in a distant land, but they are having a discussion that at least parts of it would probably be worthy of at least a once over by the Linux Execs. _______________________________________________ LinuxUsers mailing list LinuxUsers@socallinux.org http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers
