From owner-freebsd-hackers Sat Jul 7 15:52: 0 2001 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mail.matriplex.com (ns1.matriplex.com [208.131.42.8]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C8D5337B407 for ; Sat, 7 Jul 2001 15:51:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rh@matriplex.com) Received: from mail.matriplex.com (mail.matriplex.com [208.131.42.9]) by mail.matriplex.com (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id PAA13399; Sat, 7 Jul 2001 15:51:51 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from rh@matriplex.com) Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 15:51:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Richard Hodges To: Brian Somers Cc: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, wes@softweyr.com Subject: Re: FreeBSD Mall now BSDCentral In-Reply-To: <200107072212.f67MCEn37752@hak.lan.Awfulhak.org> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Sat, 7 Jul 2001, Brian Somers wrote: > Richard Hodges wrote: > > And as far as distribution goes, if my vote counts, I would suggest > > that anyone should have the right to sell (or give away) copies for > > whatever price they want. The more copies, the better! I fail to > > see why FreeBSD distribution should be "guided" to certain entities > > based on their political contributions. > FSL have thought quite a bit about this -- what's acceptable as a > FreeBSD release. We need some sort of balance. On one hand, we (the > FreeBSD project) want to encourage distributors to produce copies of > FreeBSD with added-value. On the other hand, we don't want to end up > with the linux-effect. Really? I was hoping to see a new disto with the FreeBSD userland wrapped around a Linux kernel :-) Or was it the other way around... But as far as "added-value" goes, why wouldn't minimum cost be an added value to a potential customer? I think that the companies like Cheapbytes serve a social purpose in this regard. > So I think the idea of an ``official'' distribution is good, but only > insofar as that implies that the distribution contains a specific > base system. Anyone who mucks about with that official base system > in a way that's not controlled by the user should not be allowed to > call their distribution ``official''. Sure, no argument there. Taking Wes' suggestion, maybe there is an opportunity in the "official" distribution distinction. How about a "certificate of authenticity" which costs the vendors $1 or $2 (or whatever), and shows the customer that their choice of vendors helped FreeBSD financially. Incidentally, this certificate might also be a selling point for those twisted individuals that just don't understand free software :-) Thanks for the info, -Richard ------------------------------------------- Richard Hodges | Matriplex, inc. Product Manager | 769 Basque Way rh@matriplex.com | Carson City, NV 89706 775-886-6477 | www.matriplex.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message