Date: Mon, 20 Apr 1998 14:19:04 -0700 (PDT) From: "Jason C. Wells" <jcwells@u.washington.edu> To: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Should we approach Redhat, Debian et al. Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980420140851.833C-100000@s8-37-26.student.washington.edu>
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Let me say that I am against the "FreeBSD Inc" organization going commercial. Much discussion has been made about what I feel is a semi-commercializing process with respect to FreeBSD. This I do not like. In the interest of advocacy, the point has been raised that business won't use free software because "Free=not there when you need it." To attract more businesses to FreeBSD someone needs to be "there when you need it." Which brings me to my point. The FreeBSD Inc organization might consider soliciting Caldera, SuSE, Redhat, et al to produce a commercically supported version of FreeBSD. Advantages: Wider distribution. Commercial support to entice businesses. A spot next to Linux on university store bookshelves. The first commercial adopter can increase its offerings to customers and get an advantage on other Linux resellers. Commercial adopters already have UNIX expertise. Disadvantages: Funds being diverted to competitors from loss of Walnut Creek sales. Maybe some loss of control over releases I think there may be a net gain to be had by this proposal. Have fun, | Stop warning me about the latest virus. Learn more... Jason Wells | http://ciac.llnl.gov/ciac/CIACHoaxes.html To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message
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