(OT?) Canon et al

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Mike Roy

26 Sep 2005 26 Sep '05

13:28

Hello everyone: Recently there's been a number of posts complaining about the lack of open source / Linux support by different manufacturers, such as Canon and Lexmark. Some of you suggested a boycott of those companies that are reluctant to support Linux. I agree that the boycott can, and is, a powerful tool especially when the numbers grow to such as extent that they can't be ignored by the offending company. However, boycotting a company or product but never alerting the company of the boycott is fruitless - they can hardly change their position if they don't know of the boycott. Perhaps you might consider writing to the company saying you liked their product but, because of a pronounced lack of Linux support / drivers, etc., you've purchased the same type of product from that company's competitors because they do offer Linux support / drivers, etc. For example: Dear [insert company name]: While shopping for a new printer (or whatever product), I came across your model [insert make and model] and was very impressed with the features and performance it offered. Your product also featured a competitive price and I would have purchased it except for one thing. Now I may be wrong but in exploring your web page [optional - insert web page link], I could not find any mention of Linux support nor Linux-based drivers for this product. Consequently, I purchased a new printer (or whaterver) from [optional - insert company name] because they do offer Linux support and drivers. As you may know, Linux is one of the fastest growing segments of the computer industry. I am rather surprised that [insert company name] has not explored this large and growing market. This is a pity as support for Linux can and does have a positive influence on a company's bottom line. Yours truly, Hope this helps. cheers, Mike

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Kevanf1

26 Sep 26 Sep

13:33

New subject: [SLE] (OT?) Canon et al

On 26/09/05, Mike Roy wrote:

...

Hello everyone: Recently there's been a number of posts complaining about the lack of open source / Linux support by different manufacturers, such as Canon and Lexmark. Some of you suggested a boycott of those companies that are reluctant to support Linux. I agree that the boycott can, and is, a powerful tool especially when the numbers grow to such as extent that they can't be ignored by the offending company. However, boycotting a company or product but never alerting the company of the boycott is fruitless - they can hardly change their position if they don't know of the boycott. Perhaps you might consider writing to the company saying you liked their product but, because of a pronounced lack of Linux support / drivers, etc., you've purchased the same type of product from that company's competitors because they do offer Linux support / drivers, etc. For example:

Dear [insert company name]: While shopping for a new printer (or whatever product), I came across your model [insert make and model] and was very impressed with the features and performance it offered. Your product also featured a competitive price and I would have purchased it except for one thing. Now I may be wrong but in exploring your web page [optional - insert web page link], I could not find any mention of Linux support nor Linux-based drivers for this product. Consequently, I purchased a new printer (or whaterver) from [optional - insert company name] because they do offer Linux support and drivers. As you may know, Linux is one of the fastest growing segments of the computer industry. I am rather surprised that [insert company name] has not explored this large and growing market. This is a pity as support for Linux can and does have a positive influence on a company's bottom line. Yours truly,

Hope this helps. cheers, Mike

Excellent idea Roy. I have already done something along these lines. Now, I tend to e-mail Canon and ask them whether they are supporting Linux nowadays as I'm looking for (insert piece of hardware as appropriate). At least it lets them know that I am still considering Canon. -- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Take care. Kevan Farmer 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR

Johannes Meixner

13:45

New subject: [SLE] (OT?) Canon et al

Hello, On Sep 26 09:28 Mike Roy wrote (shortened):

...

Perhaps you might consider writing to the company saying you liked their product but, because of a pronounced lack of Linux support / drivers, etc., you've purchased the same type of product from that company's competitors because they do offer Linux support / drivers, etc.

Exactly. See http://portal.suse.com/sdb/en/2000/08/jsmeix_print-kompatibel.html -------------------------------------------------------------------- If no Linux driver is available for your printer, inform the manufacturer and draw his attention to the article "Information for Printer Manufacturers Regarding Linux Support" http://portal.suse.com /sdb/en/2003/11/jsmeix_print-info-for-manufacturers.html Being a Linux distributor, our notification of missing Linux support may not have the desired effect on printer manufacturers. However, a sufficient number of customer reports will help the manufacturer to realize that the demand for Linux drivers for his devices is indeed large enough to justify the expenses for developing a Linux driver. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Kind Regards Johannes Meixner -- SUSE LINUX Products GmbH, Maxfeldstrasse 5 Mail: jsmeix@suse.de 90409 Nuernberg, Germany WWW: http://www.suse.de/

Super Code Monkey

13:47

New subject: about Apache and AD

Can anyone recommend a good resource for configuring Apache to authenticate up against Active Directory. I'm currently running SuSE 9.1. Much Appreciated. ------- Code Monkey (recently demoted from Super Code Monkey) Whoa whoa WHOA whoa whoa Whoa whoa whoa WHOA whoa whoa... this is not my Batman cup __________________________________ Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005 http://mail.yahoo.com

Fred A. Miller

23:45

New subject: [SLE] (OT?) Canon et al

On Monday 26 September 2005 9:28 am, Mike Roy wrote:

...

Hello everyone: Recently there's been a number of posts complaining about the lack of open source / Linux support by different manufacturers, such as Canon and Lexmark. Some of you suggested a boycott of those companies that are reluctant to support Linux. I agree that the boycott can, and is, a powerful tool especially when the numbers grow to such as extent that they can't be ignored by the offending company. However, boycotting a company or product but never alerting the company of the boycott is fruitless - they can hardly change their position if they don't know of the boycott.

True........I've complained before, and often they don't even reply. An "official" type complaint that lets them KNOW that there is a large boycott in place WOULD have much more meaning. Fred -- Planet Earth - a subsidiary of Microsoft. We have no bugs in our software, Never! We do have undocumented added features, that you will find amusing, at no added cost to you, at this time.

Kevanf1

27 Sep 27 Sep

09:22

New subject: [SLE] (OT?) Canon et al

On 27/09/05, Fred A. Miller wrote:

...

On Monday 26 September 2005 9:28 am, Mike Roy wrote:

...
Hello everyone: Recently there's been a number of posts complaining about the lack of open source / Linux support by different manufacturers, such as Canon and Lexmark. Some of you suggested a boycott of those companies that are reluctant to support Linux. I agree that the boycott can, and is, a powerful tool especially when the numbers grow to such as extent that they can't be ignored by the offending company. However, boycotting a company or product but never alerting the company of the boycott is fruitless - they can hardly change their position if they don't know of the boycott.

True........I've complained before, and often they don't even reply. An "official" type complaint that lets them KNOW that there is a large boycott in place WOULD have much more meaning.

Fred

Agreed! Perhaps something from Novell SuSE, Red Hat, Mandriva or one of the many support companies out there. In fact, the support co's may have a bigger impact than the software manufacturers. After all, support companies also do major installations. If one of these were to approach the likes of Canon and tell them that they had a contract to install Linux (of what ever distro) on X thousand workstations for a given business and they would like to use Canon hardware but.... etc. Surely that must have some sort of impact? -- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Take care. Kevan Farmer 34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR

Sid Boyce

12:54

New subject: [SLE] (OT?) Canon et al

Kevanf1 wrote:

...

On 27/09/05, Fred A. Miller wrote:

...
On Monday 26 September 2005 9:28 am, Mike Roy wrote:

...
Hello everyone: Recently there's been a number of posts complaining about the lack of open source / Linux support by different manufacturers, such as Canon and Lexmark. Some of you suggested a boycott of those companies that are reluctant to support Linux. I agree that the boycott can, and is, a powerful tool especially when the numbers grow to such as extent that they can't be ignored by the offending company. However, boycotting a company or product but never alerting the company of the boycott is fruitless - they can hardly change their position if they don't know of the boycott.

True........I've complained before, and often they don't even reply. An "official" type complaint that lets them KNOW that there is a large boycott in place WOULD have much more meaning.

Fred

Agreed! Perhaps something from Novell SuSE, Red Hat, Mandriva or one of the many support companies out there. In fact, the support co's may have a bigger impact than the software manufacturers. After all, support companies also do major installations. If one of these were to approach the likes of Canon and tell them that they had a contract to install Linux (of what ever distro) on X thousand workstations for a given business and they would like to use Canon hardware but.... etc. Surely that must have some sort of impact?

-- ============================================== I am only human, please forgive me if I make a mistake it is not deliberate. ============================================== Take care. Kevan Farmer

34 Hill Street Cheslyn Hay Staffordshire WS6 7HR

They probably have never heard of most of those companies and some "knowleadgeable" person would perhaps say they thought Novell had gone out of business years ago. The irony is that like many other companies from which you can only get a Windows CD, probably they use Linux heavily internally to design, test and manufacture their gear. some such gear like Tomtom GPS's run Linux. I've tackled companies such as Kodak and Tomtom and have had replies, with no responses that Linux support was on their radar scope, but if they get a stream of email, it'll be raised as a topic at planning meetings. The initial reaction is not the end game. Palm, Wyse, Fujitsu, Sun, even IBM ("Linux? that free OS, never in a million years" - the first Linux chief at IBM) and perhaps farmer Giles have all initially dismissed Linux, but they get it one day. Countless struggles have had a positive outcome - Adaptec refusing to divulge their secrets to Linux developers until the reversed engineered driver was so close that they gave in, the developers had only made 4 wrong assumptions, none of which caused a problem. At times you have to put them down in short order as I did with one company I asked what chip was used in their new webcam. Having seen the word Linux in my email, they homed in on it saying they didn't support Linux. In reply, I said that I was not asking them to support Linux as I was capable of doing that myself, that they saw the word Linux and burst a blood vessel and that a simple query to their technical people would get them the one-word answer I was looking for, back came the answer I was looking for. More windmills will topple!, we need to use the dynamite and fuses we have rather than lances. Regards Sid. -- Sid Boyce ... Hamradio License G3VBV, licensed Private Pilot Retired IBM/Amdahl Mainframes and Sun/Fujitsu Servers Tech Support Specialist Microsoft Windows Free Zone - Linux used for all Computing Tasks

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Fred A. Miller
Johannes Meixner
Kevanf1
Mike Roy
Sid Boyce
Super Code Monkey

(OT?) Canon et al

Mike Roy

Kevanf1

Johannes Meixner

Super Code Monkey

Fred A. Miller

Kevanf1

Sid Boyce

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