On Tue, 19 Mar 2002 18:01:30 +0200, Robin Turner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Tuesday 19 March 2002 17:26, sda wrote:
> [snippet]
>
> > Why are they asking for $ and not emphasizing what the benefits are? Why
> > are they giving away the ISO's for free rather than following SuSE's
> > successful implementation of a preview non-installable iso? If they did
> > this alone, it would cut down on the freeloaders burning the distro and
> > not contributing.
>
> Again, there seems to be some unclearness about the nature of free software.
> Someone who copies, uses or redistributes software is not a freeloader,
> he/she is a user. If he/she contributes something, such as time, money or
> code, he/she is a contributor (said Robin, rather tautologically). Even
> someone who downloads the system, uses it and recommends it to friends is
> contributing, albeit minimally. There may be people out there who
> give financial support, write code, document it, and answer questions on
> mailing lists, but they can probably be counted on your fingers.
>
> How many people here actually started their Linux experience by paying for an
> official distribution (I don't count redistributed CDs from Cheapbytes etc.)?
> And how many who _did_ earn under $15,000 p.a. (a good wage by world
> standards, BTW)?
>
> Robin
Excellent point, Robin. I must admit that I am one of these people. Being a
full-time university student, I cannot afford to pay for a Mandrake Club
membership (particularly with the crummy $A-$US exchange rate). Instead, I spend
my free time helping others to use Mandrake. I would like to think that I have
helped people enough to stay with Mandrake, and perhaps even to join the
Mandrake Club. In this way, I am hopefully (indirectly) contributing more than
$US5 a month to Mandrakesoft.
The idea of contributing money towards free software development is a relatively
new one. Traditionally, it was customary to devote one's time towards the
community as 'payback' for 'services rendered' (i.e. the time the community
spends on creating free software), creating a situation where everyone helps
each other in some way or other. If you've ever read Eric S. Raymond's "The
Cathedral and the Bazaar", this corresponds to the 'bazaar' idea. Paying money
is fine for inexperienced people, or for people who can afford it, but it does
little to help the community as a whole.
--
Sridhar Dhanapalan
It's not a bug, it's tradition!
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