I agree in part. I think the whole "CD building" topic is a dead end. I mean just plug in your old useless 8 gig (even 4 gig will do if you don't rsync the zq1) harddrive rsync the ftp mirror and take the drive with you. Seems a lot easier than messing with CDs and and how to properly make them work like the ones SuSE sells. I disagree with buying Linux. If it means Linux will only get big if we buy it how come it got to where we are in the first place? And I don't see that Linus created this thing to get big. I think it was created to be a solution for people who had no solution for their computing needs. There was no monetary intend in the creation of Linux. I am sick of this commercialism. I don't need and want CDs and books and phone support. I want source and binaries, good download access, and maybe a mailing list and a newsgroup and online documentation and an online database to search for package information. I'd pay for that but SuSE doesn't charge for the items I'd pay for hence it ain't getting money from me. I wait for the day distributions stop serving full free ftp trees to force/urge people to pay for their distribution. SuSE already got rid of their non-live evaluation and I am fine with that. I wouldn't even care if they stopped letting us download it. They are trying to survive. I just think the whole business model is not being scrutinized enough. I wonder how people will react. Some may not care, some may move to distros like Debian. I certainely would like SuSE a lot better if it was non-profit organization. I mean it's not like KDE is a company (yes some KDE people are paid by SuSE. It would fit in a lot better with the Linux ideology (depending on how one interprets that one). I just don't see private customers being the target of a commercial Linux distribution. I realize SuSE is doing great work and their distro works. It's just very difficult for a person to decide what the market forces should be if sides argue what is best for one; commercial software, proprietory software, free software, GNU software, share software, billed free software, GPL software, open software, closed software, free to private customers software. I mean its insane for the customer to decide what has value and what that value is. For me personally I am confused about software these days and it makes me not want to buy anything. I am waiting to see a clear cut picture arise of what the economies of scale are, who is gonna make it and who is not, and what the right product/price combi is for me. Until this all shakes out I sit back and watch. I mean SuSE employees on here have made comments about yast1 going to vanish one day. Yast2 will evolve and be more powerful and useful. But nobody addressed the issue if they will open source yast1 then. Not that I would ever develop on yast1 but it is an important issue to me. I wanna know what type of company SuSE is and I have no clue I got to tell you. I see all these distros develop their own little utility. Why? Why is it okay to use open source software except on the distribution utility side??? Is there a fear SuSE's yast2 will be stolen by Debian or RedHat? And even if it was so what would be so bad about it. I thought open source improved things and maybe RedHat could turn yast2 into an even better yast2 and it could be used cross-distro. This is really puzzling me. It makes the community seem hypocritical. All software must be GNU/free but not your utility because.......ahm.........because........ahm......because we think so. I think they keep yast2 closed because they fear nobody would buy the distro anymore then. I think this is a totally wrong logic. Just because you open yast2 general Joe won't become a code junkie and crack out his own yast2 modules. And even if they would. Maybe its useful code nobody at SuSE AG would have come up with. I would welcome an ideology change or at least an explanation. Open yast1 and yast2. Create a webpage on suse.com asking for donations from ftp suse users like me. It's not a shame to ask for donations you know. Use it to come clean with what SuSE stands for. It stands for giving away its ftp version but appreciating a donation if the user enjoys the good. I don't have a problem with this. I am a SuSE user from the start (mine) more than 2 years ago since 5.3 and I got no problems with their product. It works. Everything I wonder about is ideology and business structure. I believe if SuSE does become more restrictive it will lose customers not gain them and it helps to play nice. mk

From: "Bryan S. Tyson" Reply-To: bryantyson@earthlink.net To: suse-linux-e@suse.com Subject: RE: [SLE] If you have full Boxed version of Suse 7.1 Professional... Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2001 07:37:02 -0400

On Mon, 16 Apr 2001, Kirk wrote:

...

I would say that you need to purchase a copy of 7.1. Then you would not have to go through all the troubles. You are also supporting a great company.

If people want to see Linux grow, the least they can do is buy the boxed distro. It's dirt cheap in view of all you're getting.

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