I know I'm not on the list much these days. Believe it or not, I'm spending most of my time USING my SuSE Linux installations, rather than configuring them. There are still a lot of issues with Linux and with the SuSE distribution which make using it less convenient than it should be. It still needs work - and will always need improvement. Such work takes time on the part of skilled developers. I believe major corporations should sponsor Open Source Software in the same way they sponsor other arts and sciences. There is a small amount of such support from some IT companies, but I don't believe the Ford Motor Companies of the world are doing what they should. I use SuSE Linux all day long, every day. I feel the least I can do to ensure the continued development of the product is to buy one box each time it's released. I believe everybody who has the available resources, and who uses the product should do the same. One day, when I grow up (born in 1960), perhaps I too will be able to hack code and contribute to the ongoing growth of OSS, but for now the most I can do is report problems, make suggestions, and pay for what I use. I own licenses for several software products from the proprietary company, and the only reason I use them is because I _have to_ in order to participated in the economy. Over the last couple of years there was a big OSS craze which seems to have settled down a bit. People became very enthusiastic about the available products. This was good for the OSS community. Many people were probably disappointed that it wasn't as plug'n'play as they wanted or needed. They became discouraged and returned to software produced by *the* company. OSS surly picked up a lot of new devotees in that period. It also caused a lot of companies to hire new people to handle the demand. I suspect the demand for distributions may not continue to grow as it had been, and may even fall off in the short-term. For a company such as SuSE to continue to produce their fine product, they must have a reliable market demand through thick and thin. That means people need to pay for the product. It's easy not to pay for something when you can get it for free. But the product is not produced without expense to companies such as SuSE. -- Open Source Software depends on your support. If you use it, be sure to give something back. http://www.suse.com | http://www.kde.org http://www.mozilla.org | http://www.xemacs.org