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

[Roland Turner SCLUG]

On Mon, 2006-06-12 at 10:04 +0100, Alex Butcher wrote:

> 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.

Erm...

Do you object to a bookstore selling boxed copies of SuSE? Do you object
to parts suppliers providing all of the parts for a machine, sans
Microsoft tax (perhaps assembled, perhaps not)? Or do you only object
when the same vendor does both and additionally (a) sources parts that
are readily supported by Linux (no dependence upon closed drivers) and
(b) saves you the effort of installing and configuring the OS by
pre-loading and configuring it? What if they saved you even more money
and more time by installing and configuring Debian instead - a more
challenging task than installing and configuring SuSE, in anyone's
language? Would you be more relaxed about it if they offered an option
(as do most of the Debian CD sellers) to collect a donation from you on
SPI's behalf?

- Raz