Re: Free Software How?

General Schvantzkoph <schvantzkoph@xxxxxxxxx> typed

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 19:43:21 +0100, Sebastian 'lunar' Wiesner wrote:

ChrisC <chrispche@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> typed

One thing thats niggling me. How can Ubuntu send out free shipit
CD's and keep up the cost. You can download for free, you can obtain
applications for free, you get free updates. They have several
domains and websites dedicated to Ubuntu. Who or what is funding all
this? How long can Ubuntu keep this up? Curious thats all.

Canonical Ltd. (the company behind the Ubuntu Foundation) gains money
by providing professional support for its distribution. You can use
the distribution for free, but if you want support, you have to pay.
To many companies professional support is almost more important than
the software itself. They often sign long term support contracts with
the vendor of a piece of software and pay a a great amount of money
for it in addition to the license fees.
Novell and Redhat also gain much of their profit through such support
contracts.
The Ubuntu Foundation itself is a non-commercial institution...


Canonical is owned by Marc Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth is a billionaire
so he can afford to fund Canonical for a long time before it becomes
profitable. In Citizen Kane there is a scene when Kane's banker tells
him that the Inquirer is losing a million dollars a year, Kane replies
that at that rate he'll probably have to close the paper in 60 years.
I'm sure that Shuttleworth feels the same way about Ubuntu, he's
having fun with it so if it loses $10M/year he doesn't care, in 60
years he'll have to shut it down.

Well, in 60 years I'd be around 80 years old and probably not alive
anymore, so what the hell do I care about what comes then... Right now,
Ubuntu works and its fun.
Anyway, a business plan based on support contract seems not too far
fetched today...

--
Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters.
(Rosa Luxemburg)
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Free Software How?
    ... and websites dedicated to Ubuntu. ... distribution for free, but if you want support, you have to pay. ... Canonical is owned by Marc Shuttleworth. ... In Citizen Kane there is a scene when Kane's banker tells him ...
    (comp.os.linux.misc)
  • Re: Very slow network - Ubuntu
    ... that I can still get support from Debian users. ... he is trying to get support for an older version of Ubuntu. ... install Edgy, until then don't come back" pretty soone if he waits long ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: Very slow network - Ubuntu
    ... that I can still get support from Debian users. ... done only after seeking support from uses of the spinoff distro, as the OP in this thread did. ... I have searched ubuntu forums to no avail. ... install Edgy, until then don't come back" pretty soone if he waits long ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: Only 16 More Days to Go
    ... work with Ubuntu either so if you're into games, ... Support= web only, unless you pay for support or have a freetard friend ... There is NO free phone support for any linux OS ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.vista.general)
  • Re: Boot screen: Quiet or not?
    ... and friends just like anyone else. ... There is no reason to turn Ubuntu into Slackware. ... Several years in tech support, ... Both the progress bar and the lack of scroll tells ...
    (Ubuntu)