[sclug] Using open source to make money on generic PCs (article)

[Alex Butcher]

On Mon, 12 Jun 2006, Bob Dunlop wrote:

> Also I'm not sure how many -volunteers- would be comfortable with such a
> setup.

Pertinent point.

As far as I'm concerned, as a 'volunteer', if you sell FOSS, you support it
(or offer something of equivalent or better value). RH and SuSE/Novell both
'sell' FOSS, but they also put plenty of development effort into the
community, so I'm quite happy for them to coexist. A box-shifter simply
loading Linux on their machines, selling them at 5% above cost and expecting
the community to pick up the slack is Not Playing The Game, in my book.
They get extra crappiness points if they start including proprietary
misfeatures and not documenting them clearly to their customers.

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher, Bristol UK.                           PGP/GnuPG ID:0x5010dbff

"[T]he whole point about the reason why I think it is important we go for
identity cards and an identity database today is that identity fraud and
abuse is a major, major problem. Now the civil liberties aspect of it, look
it is a view, I don't personally think it matters very much."
  - Tony Blair, 6 June 2006 <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9566.asp>