[Sussex] Smoothwall

[Stuart Jeffrey]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sussex-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk 
> [mailto:sussex-admin at mailman.lug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Mark Harrison
> Sent: 28 March 2003 18:35
> To: sussex at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [Sussex] Smoothwall
> 
> 
> Stuart,
> 
> You went to someone, and asked them to include an extra 
> feature you wanted in their product. They said that they 
> would only do work if you paid for it. So you
> wrote:
> 
> > All I can say is what a bunch of c*nts..
> 
> Remind me never to be a supplier to you!
> 
> I thought the whole point of open-source was that if you 
> wanted a feature, then YOU could add it. I'm not aware of any 
> OpenSource principle which says if YOU want a feature then 
> SOMEONE ELSE is OBLIGED to add it for free.

Maybe that was a little harsh but the reason I don’t like them is
because they told me to pay for the corporate version which also didn’t
support what I wanted to do. I have no proble paying for the software
when it does what I expect or am told.  

I didn’t want them to "add it for free" but I thought the product I had
brought was capable of doing this feature and when I wasn’t I assumed
they would give me the support to add another interface and sort out the
routing (which in normal linux I believe that is all that is require....
Don’t know enough myself.. Hence I was expecting some support... Which I
had paid for in buying the corporate).

> 
> Asking VARs to pay to join a reseller scheme is normal, if 
> not ubiquitous business practice. It's up to Smoothwall to 
> determine whether they want to charge their resellers or not. 
> If they do, then they get a smaller number of more committed 
> resellers. If they don't, they get a larger number of less 
> committed resellers.

Fair point....

> I am incredibly pro-Open Source - I run an OpenSource project 
> in the Home Automation space myself.
> 
> I am deeply disturbed when OpenSource proponents attack 
> anyone who tries to make money out of software development as 
> if they were fundamentally evil. This kind of attitude is, in 
> my experience of large corporates, doing more to put managers 
> off the concept of OpenSource than it is persuading them that 
> OpenSource is a good thing.

I do not have a problem with this at all... And I do support open
source.  I have paid for many open source products including
(smoothwall... Red hat ans susie).  I would not say I have attacked
anyone that has tried to make money through open source.

Stu

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