At 03:43 PM 7/6/99 -0500, you wrote:
>I think you misunderstood my post. If Mandrake makes no $, fine, it's
>legal, but if we don't support the developers of our Distro of choice then
>they may disappear. If you buy the book and no support goes to Mandrake or
>RH or whoever, at the least it grows the group of users of a great distro.
>If you are _able_ then buy the boxed set of your _favorite_ distro as a way
>to support them. Just as important, contribute to discussions on Usenet,
>maillists like this one, web-based help sites and documentation projects.
Let me second this as an *IMPORTANT* concept. I personally own two boxed
Mandrakes, and both were purchased *AFTER* I had working copies of the ISO
in my office. And I'll readily burn a copy for people around town who only
want to try it or can't afford the price. But, given some of the ridiculous
license fees I pay Microsoft/Oracle/Sun and some others just to stay in
business, paying the minor cost of a boxed Linux distribution is morally
obligatory to me. (Particularly considering the main servers in our office
are Mandrake boxes.)
Like he says, if you're *able* to purchase a boxed set, show your support.
And if you're not, then that's OK. Take what you need and help out the next
guy when you can. But please contribute *something*.
MB
--
Michael R. Batchelor
Industrial Informatics & Instrumentation, Inc.
