[ILUG] email sent to politicians about Mary Hannafin'sdecisionnotto use open source

[Gavin McCullagh]

On Mon, 03 May 2004, Conor Wynne wrote:

> You _pay_ for _services_, not for "linux"
> 
> You _choose_ to buy from redhat/suse/hardware vendors etc, and you pay
> them for support. But linux itself is completely free, as in beer.

[ I take it you're not just talking about the linux kernel here ]

So, by that rationale, I should be able to go and get a copy of RHEL,
politely decline the support and get a copy for free (yes, "as in beer").
This is not the case.  The GPL doesn't stipulate free-of-charge either.
Linux costs whatever the guy you bought it from charged, regardless of what
else was included.

You PAY FOR LINUX and they include services and support as part of the
price.  Saying that RHEL is free-of-charge is like saying that Internet
Explorer is free-of-charge, or for that matter the cup o' tea on an Aer
Lingus flight is free.  They are both part of the price.  So are Alan Cox's
wages as a developer (I mean no disrespect to the man, it's simply a fact)
a part of the price of RHEL.

Gavin

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
Url : http://mail.linux.ie/pipermail/ilug/attachments/20040503/b12128dd/attachment.pgp