hi ya george/et.al i think that debian might or might not suffer the same fate as all the other linux's.... - being absorbed into a commercial company or not ... ( at least the major players will be...
- linux could also become the "shareware/freeware" compared to old world of dos/windows that eventually became microsoft... ( why ?? ) - can the same models/principles be applied to linux's future worth ?? - granted that linux came out of the "open environment" ( shareware/freeware/gpl )... can it grow from here ???? I think it can.. - i contend that "Debian Inc" ( aka all linux distro Inc ) is ( can be ) a bigger company than Microsoft.....and definitely bigger than the nwo public redhat... - "linux inc" is based on the authors and their passions...NOT the $$$ size of the company... though $$$ does have a major influence on peoples decision making power.. - i think most of you know of some web-baed IPOs and other "open IPO" and i think it will be the direction of next growth... - why settle for 100 or 1000 shares that they give you ??? when the authors created linux and the VCs walk away with billions of $$$... i think "linux community" is lacking a "professional quality management team" backed by (not-greedy) VCs.... and than "linux community" is already(?) a bigger progamming/qa/r-n-d staff compared to microsoft's programming team... anybody else that feels strongly about other people capitalizing on linux... lets all ban together and get some of that "linux ipo $$$" floating around for the next few years ?? - - sorry if this was off topic... just want to make sure linux survives "as is" - and have the necessary muscle to fight back when needed... - ducking for cover as needed.... :-) have fun linuxing... alvin > George Bonser wrote: > > > Embracing commercial software at first is the path to eventually winning. > > Let the commercial vendors in ... let them penetrate deep into linux. Then > > surround and destory them with free alternatives once you have them > > committed to your platform or convince them of the benefit of opening up > > the development of their applications through example. > > > Am I alone in believing the battle is between empowerment and > profit? Between an interactive computer operating system, and a > basically non-interactive proprietary one? > GNU/Linux to me and a few others is unique because of this > empowerment. > > > > You can win every single battle and cost yourself the war if the opponent > > declares victory and leaves the field. Commercial applications attract > > more people to Linux. More bright people with a lot of experiance. This > > gives the movement the chance to benefit from the expertise of these > > people in that they will contribute to the improvement of the software > > that IS open sourced. > > > > Again - the point is not Linux vs. the other guys, but > empowerment vs. restrictive profit driven software. > Why is GNU/Linux so good? Because it is faster etc. etc.? No - > because it gives us choice; the ability to understand it and > alter it. And also distribute it without restrictions. > > > Bottom line is that there are a lot of good people out there in industry > > and Linux (and Debian) need them a lot more than they need Linux at this > > point in time. If that can be changed so that they DEPEND on Linux, > > getting their input to improving it is a lot easier. I say go ahead, let > > them in. We will change them a lot more than they will change us. > > The bottom line is that free software is both better in computing > terms and better in social terms. The battle is to win people > over to the principles of free software - not forsake those > principles in order to have *Linux* beat Windoze at its own game. > I repeat, it is not *Linux* (as many people mistakenly call it) > which is important - it's free software. > Debian is important because it is free software - it just happens > to be the best GNU/Linux distro around, perhaps because the > developers care more about getting it right than they do about > profit or even *beating windoze*. That is, because they are > motivated by something other than market forces. > > > -- > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] < /dev/null >