and it does bring up another point.
back in the day when all linux distros were made up emtirly of volentiers and relied solely off of contributions from its end users. You could get cds from places like like walnut creek (i belive that what their name was) and Linux Systems Labs for the price of the cd + shipping and handling. It came out to be about $10 - $12 (little to no profit involved). And in the readme's and documents of each and every distro it told us to make copy after copy and give them away and not to sell them. The linux community has changed a lot seice then, and i feel is has been for worse then better. But it is aparent that the old support of the end users to their favoirt distro no longer exists. And this vital life line of support needs to be reestablished.
One thing you fail to mention about Walnut Creek is that you could buy more than just distributions like Slackware, you could buy all sorts of freeware CD's for relatively low cost. Still remember that a lot of that was not downloadable, you had to buy the CD (and how infuriating when you're just after that one app). Still remember putting into Altavista the words "free+software". As for the support, more now than ever before. Being a member of a Linux group, who have there own cheap Linux emergency team that only costs $15 tells me a lot that the support is there, just look for it. Indeed with the professional version you get 90 days installation support and of thats not enough then this might help: http://www.suse.com/en/services/support/private/advanced.html Apple provides 90 days support when you buy a computer for over $1000 and 1 year hardware support in case of fault (non-abusive). If you want your favourite distributions to survive then you will have to put your money down once in awhile. Not to mention you're actually on one of the mailing lists, which I might add tends to help people as best they can. Buying the box for $70 is so cheap its ludicrous, manuals, CD's and a DVD full of software. Plus Really though, if you get an ISO what makes you think you're entitled to any more? Right now to stay alive in a capitalist society one has to actually make money.
I remember I bought my versy first distro for about $5 and didnt have a clue about how to install it, and some guy was kind enough to come over to my house, sit in my computer chair and install SuSE linux on my computer while explaining everything to me in detail, what to do's and what not to do's. Damn where have those days gone?
Have you been around someones house with a burned copy? Have you given your manuals that you didn't need away with that burned copy?
I dont know, but maby i'm just stuck in the old linux way of doing things.
Its more mature for sure, but the fun is still among the commercial aspect. From what I remember about the old Linux days is trying to figure out how to install it without these new fangled installations that are really professional. Matt
-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/support/faq and the archives at http://lists.suse.com