Hi Anders, I guess I really should stop replying to these replies before I dig myself a hole any deeper than the one I am already in. :-) I just managed to climb out of the one I dug for myself in February...
But where is the money made? Is it that Redhat makes enough money from its support deals and consultancy, that they can afford free downloads as a means of increasing customer base and get publicity?
You have a point, although this was a common practice of every major distro out there until SuSE decided not to release ISO's when 7.2 came out. Not just RedHat, not just Mandrake. Let me name the ones I can think of off the top of my head: RedHat, Caldera, Mandrake, Corel (soon to be Xandros), Stormix (defunct), Progeny, BearOps (formerly MaxOS), Connectiva. (My mistake, one other major distro does not provide iso's - TurboLinux) I might also add, if SuSE is hoping to sustain their company using box sales and not support, I just can't see that happening. The only Linux company that is becoming fiscally strong is RedHat, and as you point out they make a lot of money through support and consultancy. Also, since it's perfectly legal to distribute SuSE iso's, as SuSE's userbase grows, I think you will see the iso's available all over the place, just not at ftp.suse.com. It seems to me it would be preferable to keep the iso's under their control by offering them directly...
One in thirty??? Most observers would say the ratio would be inverse. For every thirty people who downloaded, one would shell up the dough.
I do believe it would be less than 1 in 10, most likely less than 1 in 20 that would download it. Why? Because most people either (1) want support, or (2) don't have a broadband connection. -Tim -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Timothy R. Butler Universal Networks tbutler@uninetsolutions.com ICQ #12495932 AIM: Uninettm Free/Open Source Web Tools: http://www.uninetsolutions.com Christian Portal and Search Tool: http://www.faithtree.com ============== "Christian Web Services Since 1996" ==============