[Sussex] Brief introduction and Ubuntu question...

[Angelo Servini]

<snip: Geoff Teale wrote>
> Following on from that thought:
> 
> A lot of people are very vocal and moan like hell to hardware
> manufacturers when they don't support kit (or at least give out the
> necessary information to allow developers to make F/OSS drivers), but
> I think it's about time we started letting companies know that we've
> chosen to buy their kit _because_ it's supported.  
> 
> Because of the nature of the F/OSS market its hard for companies to
> get a real picture of how large the market is.  Right now a lot of
> hardware companies see our community as a minority group of techies.
> They see that the number of units of Mandrake and SuSE sold by PC
> World is quite low and their only contact with the community is the
> occasional e-mail moaning about their lack of support.   Now, if the
> got e-mails from people saying:
> 
> "Hi, I bought a <piece of kit> because there is an excellent F/OSS
> driver for it here <insert URL>.   If this driver had not been
> available I would have bought <alternative piece of kit>."
> 
> ... then they may start to take a more active interest. 
> 
</snip>

I couldn't agree more, and is a practice I will take up in future.  But, I will still moan to other manufacturers maybe even the press, because the more profile we give it the more attention it draws to our cause.  Then, maybe pigs'll fly, but we will someday get an event free installation - regardless of the kit a PC is made up of.  I mean, b*** 'ell, getting a Speedtouch USB modem to connect (entering the required strings into bash) is rather like a crash course in ancient sanskerit.  Not that I would recognise sanskerit in the first place!  :-|

Never mind onward and etc. etc.

:-)


<humour>
What they say:                        What they mean:

New                                Different colors from previous version.
All New                                Not compatible with previous version.
Exclusive                        Nobody else has documentation.
Unmatched                        Almost as good as the competition.
Design Simplicity                The company wouldn't give us any money.
Fool-proof Operation                All parameters are hard-coded.
Advanced Design                        Nobody really understands it.
Here At Last                        Didn't get it done on time.
Field Tested                        We don't have any simulators.
Years of Development                Finally got one to work.
Unprecedented Performance        Nothing ever ran this slow before.
Revolutionary                        Disk drives go 'round and 'round.
Futuristic                        Only runs on a next generation supercomputer.
No Maintenance                        Impossible to fix.
Performance Proven                Worked through Beta test.
Meets Tough Quality Standards        It compiles without errors.
Satisfaction Guaranteed                We'll send you another pack if it fails.
Stock Item                        We shipped it before and can do it again.
</humour>

--
Angelo Servini
Programmer/Analyst
Claybrook Computing Ltd
Sutherland House
Russell Way
Crawley
West Sussex.  RH10 1UH
* 01293 604955
* 01293 604099 (Fax)
* angelo.servini at claybrook.co.uk








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