[CS-FSLUG] Sydney Morning Herald: Cuba to Dump Windows for Linux

[Fred A. Miller]

On Friday 20 May 2005 3:58 pm, David Aikema wrote:
> On 5/20/05, Don Parris <evangelinux at thefreelyproject.org> wrote:
> > A lot of the guys on the SUSE lists buy the boxed edition *just* to
> > support the programmers.  And when people start asking about the gratis
> > download sites, the guys usually suggest buying the boxed set.  Many
> > people recognize the value of libre software, and are willing to help
> > support the programmers.
>
> Why buy a boxed set?  Basically you get to wait longer, pay more
> (packaging/shipping), have more waste generated (environmental
> stewardship), and often the only extra you get over the download
> version is perhaps a few printed booklets which, if you're like me,
> you'll probably never end up looking at.

SUSE's manuals are actually pretty good. I buy the "Upgrade" release which is 
cheaper and has the "main" manual.

[snip]

> > Novell's stock apparently soared fairly high, and has dropped off a bit
> > over the last year. However, it is climbing slowly.  Not sure what kind
> > of indicator that is.  SUSE's pricing is very reasonable.  I've passed
> > along a copy to someone locally.  He and his roommate have decided to get
> > their own boxed set in the future.  Of course, that's if they don't move
> > over to Mepis. ;)  If they stick with SUSE, they'll buy the boxed set. 
> > While Novell didn't make any money off them, they could.  And precisely
> > because they allowed the redistribution.
>
> Well, if they downloaded a whole pile of security updates for the
> product off SuSE-operated servers, it could be that SuSE in fact lost
> money as a result of them.

'Last I looked, the figures don't show that.

Fred

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