Re: which distro for a linux-newbie ?

From: Ruel Smith (NoWay_at_NoWhere.com)
Date: 04/05/04 

Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 11:37:54 -0400

On Monday April 05, 2004 10:24 am, Jubei vomitted:

> You make a fair point.
>
> However, I believe that software should be free to whoever wishes to use
> it. You should pay for the after care of software. Software in itself
> is not tangible. It has been proven time and again that the free
> software you can obtain through Linux is more stable than its overpriced
> commercial counterparts (Sendmail/Exim/Postfix vs Exchange, OpenOffice
> vs MS Office, Linux vs Windows, Mozilla vs Explorer/Opera, etc etc).
>
> I didn't say that the GPL did say that software is or should be free.
> Linux however is free and always has been. A -lot- of the software SuSe
> distribute, is free. This is my complaint about SuSe not offering
> downloadable iso images of their distribution. Of course I do not
> expect them to include the commercial software in the free download, no
> more than I expect Mandrake or Red Hat to do so.

Well, yes and no. The people developing open source software aren't all
doing it for free on the side. Many contributors are on staff at major
distro publishers like SuSE, Mandrake, Red Hat, etc. and much of the
artwork provided by the distros for their GDM/KDM backgrounds, wallpapers,
window decorations, icons, etc. that are unique to them are paid for either
by in-house artists or 3rd parties paid for the work. These distros need to
get some money paid to them so that they can, in turn, pay for the
advancement of Linux as a whole. Most major distros also contribute money
toward GNU, KDE, and other open source projects as well. When you buy a
distro, you're not just lining the pockets of the distro publisher. Your
money gets shared.

SuSE used to offer ISO's. Supposedly, they're not willing to pay for
bandwidth that downloadable ISO's needed to give it away. Instead, they
make you work a little harder at installation, which serves as an incentive
to just purchase the CD's. $60 is money well spent on Linux...
 
> Even now Red Hat have discontinued Red Hat on the desktop to push
> further into the commercial arena, they have still provided a free
> downloadable alternative (Fedora). I am unaware of any other major
> distribution forcing people to pay for their distribution by not giving
> them an option to download it.

Xandros. They don't offer a free downloadable version. It's highly rated,
too. Oh, and Fedora isn't Red Hat. Red Hat was highly rated and used.
Fedora has gotten quite a bit of critism and is rough around the edges,
somewhat.

> We've seen what happens when corporations head down the profit route
> with little consideration for the small person who doesn't have much
> money. Sure, SuSe is cheaper than Windows. So? Its Linux and Linux is
> free.

SuSE does offer a free version, once again. However, it depends on what you
mean as free. There are plenty of free versions of Linux out there.
However, again, you get what you pay for. SuSE makes, by far, the majority
of their money on the enterprise side. The lousy $60 I spent on them for
the 9.1 upgrade is change to them and isn't their primary motive in
providing Linux retail users with a version of their Linux. However, I
firmly believe in supporting your distro. That means either buying a retail
product (as in SuSE), joining a distro's club (as in Mandrake), or donating
money (as in Debian). They may provide a free distro to the public, but the
people that work for them aren't working for free, and if you want the
distro to carry on in the future, you need to support it. 

-- 
Big Daddy Ruel Smith
SuSE Linux 9

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