The Skolelinux folks are working on a Debian based distribution for schools. The project started in Norway, but people in other countries got interested and have become involved in the project as well. Everything Skolelinux does is being integrated into Debian, they are working especially hard on making debian-installer a functional installer. Skolelinux is very successful in Norway and they have recently received a fair amount of money, which they can use to fund development for the next two years. During this time, they will try to find other sources of income in order to become self-sustained. They are currently in the process of setting up a non-profit foundation and have approached me and some SPI members to discuss the name of this foundation. Given their close relationship to Debian, they wanted permission to call the foundation "Debian Foundation Norway". This would increase the visibility of the Debian name, and make it more visible that Skolelinux is based on Debian.
I like what Skolelinux does and, knowing the people involved in the project, I'd have no problem per se of them using the Debian name. However, I hold the belief that "Debian" should not pay developers. Don't misunderstand this statement, I think it's great if people are paid to work on Debian, and I am actually working with organizations which are trying to apply for funding to do exactly this. HP pays some people to do Debian work, as does Progeny, the German company credativ and many others. I think this is a great contribution to Debian. However, I believe that "Debian" should not pay developers. By "Debian" I mean the project as a whole or any of its organizations (such as SPI). "Debian" paying developers might lead to many problems. The project paying some developers while others work on it in their spare time is not fair, and there is the big problem of selecting who to hire. This can cause great animosity and have bad effects on the motivation of developers. These are only some of the points that I have included in a lengthy mail which I sent to the SPI board and the Skolelinux folks a while back. I have now forwarded this message to spi-private [1] and debian-email [2]. If you are interested in reading my concerns about "Debian" paying developers, please refer to this message [3]. It's quite unfortunate that they cannot use the Debian name because of this reason since the Skolelinux project does an excellent job and could generate good publicity for Debian when they emphasize their relationship to Debian through their name. There are many good Debian based projects out there and many users are not aware that what they use is actually based on Debian (KNOPPIX is a good example for this). So I tried very hard to come up with a compromise and in the end had an idea which I think offers a good balance. What I suggest is that certain organizations should be allowed to use the name "Debian Labs" in their name. Hence, Skolelinux could create its foundation with the name "Skolelinux Debian Labs" [4]. This would clearly show that a) they are doing Debian related work and b) they are not Debian itself. We could create a "Debian Labs" brand and publicize what it means for an organization to carry that name. Since we own the Debian trademark, we can control who is allowed to use the "Debian Labs" brand. We have to develop a set of guidelines for this. So in some sense Debian has some control over what those organizations do. On the other hand, they are largely autonomous of Debian and can do with their money whatever they want -- that way, "Debian" wouldn't need to decide who to hire, etc, and could avoid the problems described in the mail mentioned above. I would like to ask for comments on this idea. Are people comfortable with organizations calling themselves "<foo> Debian Labs" assuming that they are doing Debian related work and generally conform to a set of guidelines (which are yet to be developed). Also, is there anyone interested in helping develop these guidelines? Your comments are much appreciated. [1] http://lists.spi-inc.org/cgi-bin/private/spi-private/ Anyone who has made a contribution to the Free Software community can become a Contributing member of SPI and will get subscribed to spi-private (see http://members.spi-inc.org/). (If you don't want to go through this, send me a mail and I'll forward you a copy.) [2] master.debian.org:~debian/archive/debian-email/debian-email-200309 [3] Note that I'm talking about "Debian" hiring developers. There seems to be general consensus among many Free Software projects that paying other people, such as accountants (a skill which is not abundant in the Free Software community) is okay. [4] For various reasons, they don't want the "Skolelinux" name in their name, but that's not relevant to this discussion now. -- Martin Michlmayr [EMAIL PROTECTED]