>>>>> "dman" == dman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
dman> | I find it annoying that I can buy a Debian CD for $3.00 + shipping. dman> | It should be more. dman> This is an easy problem to solve! Mail me a (valid) check for $1,000 dman> US and I'll mail you back a CD. :-) LOL. yeah that would work. I was kind of hoping that others would pitch in too. dman> | And remember nothing is stopping anyone from taking my CD that I buy dman> | and making copies of it. dman> This is cool. It means I can give my friends a copy of Debian so they dman> can enjoy it too. That's right - and that's good. dman> | I thought to myself - "it's just not fair that I can do this for dman> | free". Debian needs to pay for equipment, T1's, etc... dman> No it doesn't. Some people give it for free too. "free" is about dman> more than just taking. Nice in theory. Practically speaking it's more about taking. Human nature I suppose. dman> | So I pay - then we immediately get into the tar-pit of why should I dman> | pay and no one else does. dman> 'cause you have extra dough to throw around and you want to pay :-) That argument doesn't work for very long. Pretty soon I'm the only one paying and nothing gets done. Then I don't pay anymore. dman> | There is a similar situation in P2P. .01% of the people upload, dman> | everyone else downloads. dman> Maybe only .01% of the people have anything worthwhile to contribute? Being cynical, I am assuming that 99.99% of the people are leaches. Truly Debian is the force of anti-cynicism since it has worked so well for so many years on a minimum of resources. dman> Only if you hire people who actually enjoy the project. Volunteer True, but they won't get paid much so they'll stil have to enjoy it :-) You know - lot of volunteer organizations pay people to have actual jobs to support the organization. It's not clear to me that Debian is that much different. I would like to think that the goal of getting Debian more help is one that can be universally agreed on. The tough part is how to fund such a goal. dman> | Why not generate that money from CD/ISO/connection sales ? dman> Go ahead! Charge for connections to your server. (don't worry, I dman> won't connect to it) Precisely the problem. And what if I said I was donating ALL my profits to Debian. Would you still avoid it ? Most people would. I have many times considered starting to sell Debian CD's for exactly this purpose, i.e. funnel money back to Debian. Instead of doubting my fellow Debian enthusiast - I guess I should start and then we'll see who is talk and who is action. dman> Debian is an example of how things should be. People who have give dman> freely, and those who don't have receive. It all goes 'round because dman> those who have aren't hording it. The outcome is that everyone "has" dman> in the end. I agree - that's the goal and a worthy one it is. I guess I'll just write more checks. Sorry, you won't be getting one :-) Brian
