Hi Greg,. Well, I agree with you on most points. We have a great product, a really great development community and Darrell has done a lot of work. And I think we're a pretty great group. :)
> I will say in response to your previous email that I don't think Darrel is > doing anything different than Mitel in terms for running a business in the > GNU community. Well I confess I was worried that he wouldn't open soruce Twiggi which would have been an issue. He isn't hosting these dev communities and no one yells at him for not giving enough away for free, though, so I guess that's one difference. :) But he is in many ways doing exactly the things we did in our early days. > GNU community. If it weren't for the endless hours of many others and the > GNU software agreement, Mitel wouldn't't have a product to sell. The Linux > Kernel and the RedHat OS structure are at the core of your product, neither > of which where developed by Mitel. So, technically, Mitel was handed a free > code base to build their OS on. Completely true. That's why we didn't do what NetMax, Cobalt and all those other proprietary companies did. We open sourced all of our work as well. > Doesn't matter if they make a living in the process, it isn't > costing Mitel anything. Actually, we *really* are happy and encourage folks to make a living on this platform. The statement that it isn't "costing" us anything isn't grounded in fact though. As I've said before, it costs a lot to be this cheap. :) > A prime example is the release of SME 5.0. There is > absolutely no reason why a beta of this shouldn't have hit this group before > hitting the streets. Ya, ultimately my call and I might have screwed up there. We had too few management cycles to be able to manage opening up the beta to the whole community. It was a little more complicated because it was the first release of ServiceLink. Anyways, that might have been a mistake. Next time I expect we'll open it up. > > In any event, I think you folks are doing a great job!!! Keep it up. > Thanks! - Kim ----- Original Message ----- From: "Greg Zartman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Kim Morrison" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "Greg Zartman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; "e-smith-devinfo" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2001 7:25 PM Subject: RE: [e-smith-devinfo] Blades - a brief 'Blades' introduction > > > I kinda figure Darrell does okay in all of this. :) Truly, he's > > done tons > > of great work with the community. On the other hand, he got software for > > free that reflects thousands of hours of development effort and he's > > building a business for himself off of that. *He* hasn't needed to sink a > > few million into building the developer community, developing the nascent > > offerings, etc. He participates in a community that is hosted, seeded and > > moderated by another company. So he does lots in return. I like > > that - Fair > > trade. In fact, he solicits business for himself on our forums for a > > competitive offering (Are we schmucks, er what?!?). > > First and foremost, I want to say that I think Mitel has an outstanding > product. I couldn't be more pleased with my decision to implement it in my > office. > > I'm fairly new to the open source world, having installed linux for the > first time about a year ago. I quickly found that the best way to lean this > stuff was to get involved in the communities and read what the pros where > saying. I've bounced between 10 or so communities similar to this one over > the past year and have learned a great deal. The thing that struck me about > this community, and what prompted me to make the comment that I did, was the > fact that a majority of the HOWTOs, utilities/apps, and related > documentation come from one guy. My comment certainly wasn't meant to > insult anyone, I apologize if this is the case, but to point out an > observation. I certainly wasn't trying to imply that the open source > movement should die or is dead here. I enjoy and will continue to enjoy > helping others where I can. I think that the majority of open source users > feel this way. > > I will say in response to your previous email that I don't think Darrel is > doing anything different than Mitel in terms for running a business in the > GNU community. If it weren't for the endless hours of many others and the > GNU software agreement, Mitel wouldn't't have a product to sell. The Linux > Kernel and the RedHat OS structure are at the core of your product, neither > of which where developed by Mitel. So, technically, Mitel was handed a free > code base to build their OS on. > > Being a business owner, I understand that there has to be a balance for you > folks. You have to try to show a positive bottom line at the end of the > year otherwise you are wasting you time, right? It only makes sense that > you would focus the bulk of your effort to those tasks that produce a > return. I don't really think that's the point here. I think the main point > is how Mitel utilizes the wonderful resource they have in this development > forum. You have many people here willing to do free development and testing > for you. Doesn't matter if they make a living in the process, it isn't > costing Mitel anything. How many other businesses get a huge team of > volunteers at their front door's willing to help where they can? > > I think the best thing Mitel could do is to use the resource to the fullest > extent possible. A prime example is the release of SME 5.0. There is > absolutely no reason why a beta of this shouldn't have hit this group before > hitting the streets. I think your support team would be fielding a deal > less email than they are now. > > In any event, I think you folks are doing a great job!!! Keep it up. > > Best regards, > > Greg J. Zartman > > > -- Please report bugs to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] (only) to discuss security issues Support for registered customers and partners to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives by mail and http://www.mail-archive.com/devinfo%40lists.e-smith.org
