Gee, calm down a bit please, Dave.
Where has the money gone? So far, it's mostly been into the bootstrap
expenses of a non-profit. This was something like $400 for incorporation,
and $2000 for the IRS 501(c)3. Once the 501(c)3 is completed, U.S. citizens
who donate to Debian can write off their donation (that means if you have
a 33% tax bracket you get 33 cents back on the dollar). People who travel
for Debian can write off their mileage and travel expenses. Once the 501(c)3
is over, the money will go to supporting free software, sending people to
trade shows to talk about Debian and Linux, etc. Tim Sailer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
is the treasurer.
Why a non-profit corporation? I have a house and some Pixar stock.
Suppose I get sued over Debian: Before the corporation, I could have
lost the house and the Pixar stock. Putting Valerie and any kids we
might have on the street for Debian is more than I'd like to do. With
the corporation, it's the corporation that gets sued and its assets that
are at stake, not mine. This applies to all of the Debian developers, many
of whom have a lot to lose. I could not in good faith leave them exposed
to that liability.
Note that FSF is the same kind of corporation, a non-profit with a 501(c)3.
Who paid for stuff before we started collecting donations? Me. I don't have
any more money for that, sorry.
Why is there an Official CD? To get Debian into more users hands. It's
working _very_ well so far. It did cut down on the business of a few CD-R
people, but CD-R is for small distribution runs and we were trying to make
some big distribution runs. Note also that we are not forcing anyone to
use the Official CD. You can make any kind of CD you want as long as you
comply with the software licenses.
Why change the version numbering scheme? It is a small change, it makes
sense for marketing reasons, it is easy to do, and there was no reason not
to do it. We're not holding up releases because of it.
Should our having a corporation drive people away from Debian? I don't see
why. FSF and Linux International have corporations. It's not like
we're trying to be microsoft or something. We are trying to operate like
any large non-profit organization.
Do you want to do something differently? That's fine with us. You are
welcome to derive from Debian and make an FTP-only distribution, etc.
Thanks
Bruce
--
Can you get your operating system fixed when you need it?
Linux - the supportable operating system. http://www.debian.org/support.html
Bruce Perens K6BP [EMAIL PROTECTED] 510-215-3502
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