On Monday 24 July 2006 08:23, John Pugh wrote:
> > All other mayor distro's will make security updates and patches available
> > for free. Novell charge for that service. This a big part of how they
> > make money.
> Not true. Some do and some have a business model identical to Novell's.
> The difference with Novell is that we will do everything in our power to
> fix all problems in house while the community is trying to do the same
> instead of relying on the community to make the fixes so it can be "sent
> along" to fix a customer problem.
> > The flaw is really in not letting the user know that updates are available
> > unless you subscribe to their service. You can get the 60 day license, but
> > once it expires you will not know that there are fixes available.
> Not true, again. You can subscribe to all of the updates and you can
> download them individually without paying a dime. Go here
> http://support.novell.com/suseNotifications/index.jsp (you must
> have a Novell login - no cost other than some information)
This is good. But we were told by you "You will receive no updates past the
eval period, but that's it."
Plus, even though I'm running RC3 and Gold shipped, it still claims no changes
has been done. My updater says no updates available. So it's easy see how the
two aligns and paints that picture. (And yes, it is registered with a key
from Novell.)
> There are many ways to get detail and Novell does not lock anyone out.
> You can get and update your system as you wish, however you pay for the
> update mechanism not necessarily the update itself and are free to
> download and apply the updates individually as you see fit. As mentioned
> above you can also subscribe to alerts for any or all of our Linux or
> other product offering at the URL listed above.
Excellent.! Glad to hear it.
> > Besides from not fitting entirely in how the Linux community is used
> > to be able to have a free ride, Novell insist that you pay for updates. In
> > all $50 is not very much money for the service. More surprising really is
> > that nobody is charging for that. True, in the long run they make their
> > investment back as others continue to contribute in different ways.
>
> You are using free completely out of context with the open source
> community and there are several that work in the same manner as
> mentioned earlier.
Sorry but I'm using it exactly the way I intended. The word free is not banned
from normal English use last time I checked. It sounds like you have the idea
that if the subject touches on OSS, 'free' can only be used one way.
We have always had a free, as in no charge, access to GPL'd software. This is
_one_ of the reasons so many people got involved. No cost to check it out and
use it for as long and much as you want. Corporate America tends to think
that something you don't pay for must be substandard, because they don't get
the concept of how the model of OSS works. They are to stuck in thinking that
unless they receive money upfront there will be no other or later exchange.
I came from corporate America and was blown away back in -95 when I saw what
Linux offered. Slackware gave me a big thick manual and a CD with several
complete development and programming languages for $35. Then for another $30
I could get four more CD's shipped to me. I had struck gold as far as I was
concerned.
My point is that we are used to be able to just go out and get any distro and
all the s/w for free, as in not paying anyone for accessing it on their
servers. (I of course continue this notion of Novell charging for updates
based on what you had said earlier.)
--Steve Szmidt
"To enjoy the right of political self-government, men must be capable of personal self-government - the virtue of self-control. A people without decency cannot be secure in its liberty. From the Declaration Principles ----------------------------------------------------------------------- This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 15:00:16 EDT